Just A Little Fangirl Love

I'm sure that most people, when they think of first generation K-Pop, think of the likes of H.O.T, g.o.d, Sechskies, S.E.S, and BABY V.O.X, most of whom debuted in the latter half of the 1990s, but there were almost seventy groups that debuted between 1988 and 2002, which is fewer than the number of groups that debuted in 2022 alone. While we could have a discussion on oversaturation of a market, I'd instead rather talk about the group Country Kkokko, a duo that was introduced to each other by a member of the co-ed group, Roo'ra. The other thing is that it's very hard to get a lot of information on first generation K-Pop in general, especially for groups that didn't survive to later generations where information became a lot more accessible. This duo debuted two days after Seonghwa of ATEEZ was born, not that one has any bearing on the other, but in terms of the timeline and perspective, that's an important thing to know. Although apparently they are still perfo...

  Well, everyone, there's a single name on this week's win list. Congrats, EXOLs, and welcome back, EXO! First of several dominations of the year, I expect, but for now, Crown  has a full grand slam!  So, for the extra stages, we've got NOIR on After School Club , in ep. 420 from 2020. They're a boy group that debuted in 2018, and it looks like this was their final song, but that doesn't negate the five releases they had. I took a listen to the whole song before I watched this episode because I was curious about it since I'd never heard of the group before. It's a solid song (I also recommend Panic and Think About Chu from the same album because those are really good songs and do not be surprised if after this next batch of suggestions, you see something by the group show up in my GH or BBS posts). They showed off their vocals and I'm impressed. I cheated a little for The Show because I really wanted to show off Rocket Punch but it was a cover (which ...

 So this was a request I got that made me smile and I'm doing this one here because I think it'll pair well with the last Greatest Hits post I did. The person who submitted it said they were at Taemin's concert in Vegas and saw this performed for the first time. They found my blog a few days ago and when they found out that I take submissions for this, they wanted to know if I'd do this one. The answer is, of course! I'll send you a message with it as soon as I've got this posted! Taemin, maknae of the second gen boy group SHINee, debuted under SM Entertainment in 2008 with his group and 2014 as a soloist. He's generally regarded as one of the best dancers in K-Pop and also has the nickname "Idol of Idols" because of the number of younger idols who cite him as their inspiration and the reason they decided to go into K-Pop. Advice  (the song) is the title track for Taemin's third mini album, Advice (the album), which was released roughly two wee...

Release date: 2026 January 28 Album tracklist: My Heart, Like Ice, Hardened Album runtime: 3 minutes  This makes two of the first gen queens to drop singles this month, and not just any first gen queens. At the beginning of January, Bada, leader of S.E.S, dropped a single and now here at the end of the month, Lee Hyori, leader of Fin.K.L, drops hers. Like, I know I wasn't around for the legendary S.E.S/Fin.K.L rivalry (although I was alive for it, so there's that), but I cannot stress enough how momentous January 2026 was for opening with one and closing with the other. That's huge. It's also a little bit amusing for those of us who are me, because S.E.S debuted before Fin.K.L.  Do you hear that violin? Be still, my soul. This is an incredibly French sounding song, which I haven’t heard in a while, but the majority of the song is violin and piano and while I have feelings about these kinds of songs, the sheer melancholy of the song is incredible. Even if I didn’t know w...

Release date: 2026 January 29 Album tracklist: My Spring, My Light, My Breath Album runtime: 4 minutes  Okay, so this group is kind of hit and miss for me with their music, at least with their title tracks. I've found a few of their b-sides that I do actually really like, so I'm curious with this song, especially since apparently this is a pre-release for an upcoming mini album I didn't know about. Or maybe I did. I haven't checked my planner for the upcoming releases in February in a while and I was a little focused on surviving January. But this is also a gloriously lengthed song and I couldn't be happier. This instrumental is just so gorgeous from the start because it’s relatively simple while simultaneously being incredibly grounded. It’s a love song, plain and simple. No extra bells and whistles, a softness that opens its arms to let the vocals and the ears listening to rest, distract from the song. Even in the moments where it becomes more energetic, rather th...

Release date: 2026 January 15 Album track list: Intro : CRTK, PEACE , Victor, KALish, RIDE, Myself, All in on me, Shame, Iris, Masterpiece, Free! Album runtime: 37 mi nutes  Band debut! So this one is a little bit interesting. The band is at Dreamcatcher Company, home to the girl group Dreamcatcher, whom I love because they're kind of spooky witch girls with some big rock vocals. This bodes well for this band. Also, good news, they debuted with the maknae over twenty-one. It's important bringing up Dreamcatcher because Siyeon is the lead singer for the band as well as one of the producers. Whoo! And there are enough minutes to this album that you could have twelve songs over three minutes, or if you remove the intro track, which is only a minute long, that puts the rest of them averaging over three-and-a-half minutes. That's even more impressive because the title track is very close to three minutes, but it's still under. This is a very satisfying instrumental. The guit...