Spotlight:
(Check the carousel for my personal favorite reviews; check below for my most recent posts. Enjoy!!)
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Kpop Classics: Generation #3
K-pop: A Starter Pack (Generation 1) A breakthrough to the West, with a separation into “cutesy”, or more poppy and childish, and “mature”, or more electronic-based and dark, groups. Most people’s introduction to k-pop: BTS, BLACKPINK, TWICE, and Red Velvet, with songs like DNA, Boombayah, What Is Love, and Russian Roulette. 2013-2017. All Generations <–…
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Kpop Classics: Generation #2
K-pop: A Starter Pack (Generation 2) More organized, more smooth, more colorful; inspiration from disco and synth, and still with a bit of a fun edge. Really the start of the infamous trainee system. The birth of royalty: SHINee, SNSD, 2NE1, and Wonder Girls, with songs like Lucifer, Gee, Go Away, and Nobody. 2006-2012. See…
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Kpop Classics: Generation #1
K-pop: A Starter Pack (Generation 1) The beginning of it all, taking from American hip-hop, rock, R & B, and J-pop, with some definite social messaging and very little filter (for better or for worse). The legends–SHINHWA, Seo Taiji, S.E.S., and BoA–all got their start here, with songs like Perfect Man, Come Back Home, Be…
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Oh My Girl Deep Dive #1/2: Proving Nature Has A Place In Pop
Oh My Girl is one of the pillars of 3rd generation “cutesy” k-pop, at odds with the more “mature” side that many other popular bands of the time showed. They debuted in 2015 under WM Entertainment (which also formed ONF, B1A4, and Uspeer), with eight members: Hyojung, YooA, Seunghee, Arin, Yubin, Mimi, JinE, and Jiho,…
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WayV Deep Dive #1/2: What Counts As K-pop?
WayV is one of four fixed subunits of NCT (which also includes NCT Dream, NCT 127, NCT Wish). They’re technically both a Mandopop band and a K-pop band, but for our purposes here, they’re k-pop. They debuted in 2019, with seven members: Kun, YangYang, WinWin, Ten, Hendery, Xiaojun, and Lucas, the last of which left…
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SHINee Deep Dive #3/3: How The ‘Princes Of K-pop’ Turned Into Kings
Here are my credentials (again, again): Put simply, I’m a ShaWol, absolutely, and have been since 2020. But more deeply, finding SHINee was really the final step that made me the k-pop fan (and blogger) that I am today. I was a casual fan already, through first Blackpink and then Red Velvet, but SHINee was…
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