doombox

Ladies ruled 2018, and it sounds like they're gonna keep slaying in 2019 too. 

I'd kill for at least one more f(x) comeback, but Luna and Amber are getting me through.

20 hours ago, Ito said:

Oh boy do I ever have opinions on this. I think this is just starting the surface of this topic, there's a lot of meat in these bones. Not to say Kpop is the soul reason for the VK but crash abroad, but it certainly was ready to fill it's spot. Perhaps this deserves it's own topic.

I am very interested to see what you and others would have to say on this topic. 

Oooooooh, they have my attention (but who are we kidding they always do).

On 1/5/2019 at 11:37 AM, Zeus said:

I won't even try to analyze the reasons why interest died off since I'm not certified in it, but what I can say is that at some point interest in Japanese music fell off completely. I have friends who will admit to watching anime, playing JRPGs, going to anime conventions and cosplaying, but not one of them talks about listening to the music.  If I were pressed to give a reason for this, I would point to K-Pop. I know many a fan who jumped ship to K-Pop once the craze died down, and to be honest it feels more socially acceptable to like K-Pop than visual kei these days because one is more commercialized than the other. To J- and K-music outsiders, I can see how the distinction between "J-Rock" and "K-Pop" is irrelevant when they don't understand the words anyway, so I'd say that for many people K-Pop fills that musical niche for their interest in ~exotic Asian musics~ where J-Music should be.

 

A lot of my fondness for this era is because this was the music I listened to in my formative years and I will always have a soft spot for it, but I'd be lying if I said 2008 wasn't the best time ever to be a visual kei fan. It was.

I'm just gonna also point out for many of my friends that fit the narrative of jumping from J-rock to K-pop, and not just J-pop itself... I can tell you the number 1 reason was accessibility. Japan labels started closing many inroads to the west, region blocking their channels, having all the fan videos deleted, and making it very hard to buy stateside unless you went to a type of convention. Where when the "boom" of interest happened that wasn't the case. And also.. the price. K-pop is DRASTICALLY cheaper to collect. So in a way, yes it fills their need for ~exotic Asian musics~ because it's still fun and brightly colored without being so time consuming and wallet draining. I won't even go into the difference in fandom cultures here. But I don't think a lot of J-music fans see it from the other side and how much Japan intentionally shut out a lot of the more casual western fans. 

I wonder how many younger fans this would win over. I love a good throwback, but idk if this feels a little dated in an uninteresting way. I like the line up so I hope something more exciting comes down the line... but this was kinda underwhelming.

I wasn't sure about the change in music direction, but I just missed Jay's voice too much to care at this point I'll take whatever I can get. 

This list is basically made up of 3 or 4 playlists I throw on a lot while I'm working so it's really skewed and doesn't represent what I really enjoyed the most this year. 

OOR are one of those bands that could sing me the phonebook and I'll still enjoy it. Is it their deepest most exciting work? Nah. Still something that will fit my work playlist nicely tho.

This is the first album in the last ten years that I've enjoyed mostly the entire album. I agree with pretty much everything you said, except I also enjoy Devote My Life. I feel like the guitar tone adds to the mayhem of the track, somehow reminds me of their very early albums. But maybe that's just the rawness in general. 

3 episodes into the new season of Daredevil and I already feel like the writing this season took a turn for the worse. I'm hoping it picks up in the next couple of episodes or I'll probably drop it.

This is the best news, I'm so happy for them!!

That could have been it? I didn't hear any backlash (not saying that to be representational, my circle is just pretty small lol), I just saw a lot of people moved on. Easy come, easy go, I guess.

I'm kinda picky about ballads, this ones not for me. But it's pretty. 

A few of the youtubers I follow are doing their mid-year top 10 lists. 

What are everyone's top 10 songs/releases in K-pop this year so far?

Here's mine:

10. DREAMCATCHER - YOU AND I
9. CLC - Black Dress
8. Super Junior x Leslie Grace - Lo Siento
7. Momoland - BBOOM BBOOM
6. Hyolyn - Dally
5. (G)I-DLE - LATATA
4. SHINee - Good Evening
3. BLACKPINK - DDU-DU DDU-DU
2. NCT U - BOSS
1. MONSTA X - JEALOUSY

The clip is cute, I'm not mad at it. 

11 hours ago, colorfuljinsei said:

I find myself less attached to Wanna One than I.O.I. IMO I don't think the members mesh as well, and I guess I'm biased toward Minhyun being in NU'EST.

Same.  I've been much more into the secondary, fan requested groups that came out of s2 like JBJ and RAINZ. W1 is missing some kind of chemistry between the members to me (most of whom weren't my favs on the show either besides maybe Ong for his humor), and I feel I.O.I had better songwriters with JYP and Jinyoung, etc. And it's funny because I didn't even watch s1, I just heard I.O.I after and ended up liking them, where as I watched all of s2 and didn't feel as connected to the boys. And I tend to bias boy groups. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Wow! Yeah, it is such a shame they were being slept on by that point. Even I was finding out about releases late because there was no buzz. Which I don't understand. They had a huge debut and --I feel-- their music only got better as they went on but idk, people just abandoned them. 😕 Ren with long hair was a LEWK. 

Jinyoung is a great songwriter. I'm curious how their sound will change too. And if Jinyoung will continue songwriting since it seems like the consensus is they left to pursue more acting opportunities. 

LMAO Beautiful Target is the gift that never stops giving.

How much longer does Wanna One have anyway? I want Nu'est back together... I like their music so much better. I'm glad they found a larger audience though, they deserve it. The video for Deja Vu is gorgeous too. Everything they put out is quality.

Looks like the 7 year curse strikes again. B1A4's Jinyoung and Baro will be leaving WM Entertainment. 

From the Soompi report:

Quote

In regards to the group’s future, WM Entertainment explained, “We will focus our energy on restructuring B1A4. We will thoroughly discuss the direction of future activities with the members and make a decision. Moving forward, we will wholeheartedly give all of our support and do our best for CNU’s, Sandeul’s, and Gongchan’s advancement. We will do even better for all the fans who love and support B1A4 unconditionally as well.”

Seeing the word "restructure" makes me worrisome there will be no intent for joint venture between WM and Jinyoung and Baro's new companies  to continue with B1A4's original line up. 

This is really sad. B1A4 had some great songs and I always thought they had a solid fanbase. I enjoyed quite a lot of their music.

In case people aren't familiar, this is one of my favorites.

11 hours ago, Yutaproid1 said:

All three other songs on the mini are better than the above imo. Its okay, but i cant really dig it yea.

Even though I like the title track, I agree, I liked the rest of the mini more. 

6 hours ago, Triangle said:

Tunes so many good tunes ❤️

 

This video is so retro omg xD Be still my 80s baby heart hehe.