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Korea Grand Music Awards 2025: Day 2

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As with Day 1, I'm just going to let you get right into the performances, and then the winners, without too much input from me at the start. You can get all of that at the end after you watch all the things as we both know that my thoughts are not what you're here for originally. They're just a bonus. Hence why they're at the end. performances AHOF (We Ready (AHOF Ver.) + Pinocchio ) BTOB (Wind and Wish + Only one for me + Missing You + LOVE TODAY ) Close Your Eyes ( X + SOB (KGMA Ver.)) Dayoung (WJSN) ( body ) fromis_9 ( Supersonic + LIKE YOU BETTER (KGMA 2025 Ver.) Hearts2Hearts ( FOCUS ) IDID ( CHAN-RAN ) IVE ( XOXZ + GOTCHA (Baddest Eros) + REBEL HEART ) Jang Minho (Lonely Love + Play the music) KickFlip ( Band-Aid + My First Love Song ) Kiss of Life (k bye + Lucky (Korean Ver.)) Lucy (Where's Your Love + Flowering) NEXZ ( I'm Him + Beat-Boxer ) P1Harmony ( DUH!) Stray Kids (S-Class + In My Head + CEREMONY ) Suho (EXO) (Light The Fire + Who Are You) UN...
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MAMA Awards 2025: Day 2

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 Okie dokie, everyone! My thoughts on things will be down at the bottom, instead of giving a long and verbose introduction, because we all know that what you're here for is actually the performances and the winners. Anything I have to say is a bonus, you know? The artists are the focus here. performances aespa ( Dirty Work + Rich Man ) ALLDAY PROJECT ( FAMOUS ) CORTIS ( GO! + FaSHioN ) G-Dragon (DRAMA + Heartbreaker + Untitled, 2025) IDID X KickFlip (PUSH BACK + My First Love Song + Boy In Luv) izna ( Mamma Mia ) JO1 (BE CLASSIC + Handz In My Pocket) Kim Hye Soo X Felix X Kyoka X Sung Hangbin X ALLDAY PROJECT (HEAR MY ROAR + BAD BOY + FAMOUS) RIIZE (Bag Bad Back + Fame ) Stray Kids (CREED + Chk Chk Boom + DIVINE + CEREMONY ) TOMORROW X TOGETHER (Upside Down Kiss + Beautiful Strangers ) ZEROBASEONE ( Doctor! Doctor! + ICONIK ) covers Ahn Hyo Seop BABYMONSTER (What It Sounds Like + Golden) KickFlip X IDID (Boy In Luv) winners Visa Artist of the Year (Daesang) : G-Dragon Visa Albu...
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Song Review:: ALLDAY PROJECT: ALLDAY PROJECT- ONE MORE TIME {Pre-Release}

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Release date: 2025 November 17 Album tracklist: ONE MORE TIME Album runtime: 3 minutes  We've got about a month before the mini album drops, but in the meantime, we've got this pre-release and  it's over three minutes long. Unfortunately, because of certain, hmm, choices that have been made, I'm putting this on Underage Protocol. Although I wanted to check the music video briefly, and there seems to be a different choice being made with regards to certain things. I'm not going to pull them off U.P. yet, but I hope that this trajectory continues so that I can. This is a very Teddy song full of synthy goodness and a skittering beat that isn't overpowering through the entire song. The variation is good. The flow of the song as a whole is good. There's also a song that this reminds me of, but I don't have enough pieces of it to figure out even what group it, but if I figure it out, I will let you know. But otherwise, I really enjoy this song. It feels famili...
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Song Review:: Chanyeol (EXO): Upside Down - Happy Accident {Pre-Release}

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Release date: 2025 August 25 Album tracklist: Upside Down , Back & Forth, Ocean Drive, High & Dry, Happy Accident (feat. Sole) , 123 Dance  Album runtime: 18 minutes  Yes, the album is already out, but I wanted to get to this one first because if he gets a win for the album, a win on this one will likely come first. Also, I thought the present he got from Kai, I think, was so sweet. I love that. Wholesome support from the members. Ooh, that's some smooth and swanky R&B. That's actually really nice. It's slow and mellow, but it's not flimsy. The beat is really pronounced, though unhurried. This is an early Sunday morning kind of song, or perhaps a Tuesday night kind of song. Slow dancing in the kitchen to a song only the two of you can hear. Domestic and comfortable, but at the same time the amount of sheer, undiluted love wafting off this moment could probably power the room.  Chanyeol has such a good voice. I mean, the entire group is incredibly skilled and...
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Korea Grand Music Awards 2025: Day 1

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 Given my disposition, I'm sure you're already expecting me to ramble a bit here at the beginning to introduce everything and then get out of the way so you can get to what you and I both know is what you're interested in. I'm not going to. Instead, my thoughts will go down at the bottom, which you can read at your leisure after watching all the performances and then seeing the winners. See you then! performances ALLDAY PROJECT ATEEZ (HALA HALA (Hearts Awakened, Live Alive + Wonderland + The Real + BOUNCY (K-HOT CHILLI PEPPERS) + Phantom + In Your Fantasy ) BOYNEXTDOOR ( IF I SAY, I LOVE YOU + I FEEL GOOD + Hollywood Action ) THE BOYZ ( Stylish + You and I) CRAVITY (SWISH + Lemonade Fever ) FIFTY FIFTY (Pookie + Eeny Meeny Miny Moe ) INI (DOMINANCE (Korean Ver.)) KiiiKiii ( I DO ME (KGMA Ver.) Lee Chanwon (I Told You + Maybe Today ) MEOVV (BODY + BURNING UP + HANDS UP ) Park Seo Jin (Clown) Woodz ( Drowning + I'll Never Love Again ) Xdinary Heroes (ICU) xikers...
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November 2025 Wrap-Up: Happy Burstday To You

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 By the time you read this, there will be less than a month left in 2025, which is crazy because it feels like January was simultaneously two months ago and also eighteen years ago.  First up, we have the debuts. Technically one of these that I covered was in fact posted in December, but I am counting it because it was a November debut, though not for a group. The group I covered was AM8IC , a boy group made up entirely of Chinese members that is based in South Korea and debuting in South Korea in K-Pop. I wanted to be very specific about this. The only other group I can think of that's this interesting in terms of demographics, starting location, and target audience is 1verse, which also doesn't have a South Korean in the group. Anyway, they debuted this month. And for the solo debut that I covered, that would be Jungwoo of NCT , right before his impending military enlistment. This means that all three members of the NCT subunit DoJaeJung will be in the military within the we...
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Song Review:: Rocky (ASTRO): Forever and Ever- Forever and Ever

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Release date: 2025 November 22 Album tracklist:  Forever and Ever , Forever and Ever - Instrumental Album runtime: 8 minutes  I don't know about you, but I'm delighted to be able to post reviews for both Eunwoo and Rocky side by side, as I very pointedly gesture to the title of this review. And we get almost four minutes of song with  the instrumental as a separate track. I'm so happy about this. That being said, I did miss a release Rocky did at the end of August. Will I get to it? I intend to, but there are no guarantees. This sounds like a happy song, and I'm all about that. I like the way that the twinkling and the guitar work together, because it gives the song a nuanced sound. But you know what I'm happiest about in this song? There's an entire section that is solely dedicated to audience participation clapping! We've got another one, folks! That has been sorely lacking of late unless I simply just missed any, which is always possible, but the presence...
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Song Review:: Yesung (Super Junior): It's Complicated- It's Complicated

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  Release date: 2024 November 05 Album tracklist: It's Complicated , There She Goes Again, Easy, Beautiful Paradox, Curtain Album runtime: 16 minutes  So, I find it kind of cute, actually, that Yesung had a comeback on their 19th anniversary. Happy 19th! Happy 6th Mini Album! And the average song length is more than three minutes. This is the second ballad-esque release from a soloist in a group today, but the two are not the same. There's a sense of showy drama to this one that also takes advantage of my exhaustion and lulls me into wanting to sleep to it, despite the fierce energy that is pulsing even from the start of the song. How does that work? Not a clue. But it's weirdly soothing.  Not a huge fan of his tone at the beginning of the song, even though he reminds me of a lower version of Taemin (and also a little bit of JYP the dude), but when he lets his voice loose, it clarifies into something amazing. I don't care how many voices I hear for these. I'm still ...
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Song Review:: Solar (MAMAMOO): Solar Gamsung Part 8.- First Love

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Release date: 2024 October 29 Album tracklist: First Love , Love Letter Album runtime: 7 minutes  Solar, the queen you are. The word 감성 in Korean apparently translates to "sensitivity", and I'd be willing to bet that because she has eight of these now, she uses them to release songs she wants to do, instead of ones that match the concept or whatever of the albums. And if the two songs on this one are any indication, she may use them to do her ballads that require no choreography. It doesn't go quite as hard as a Phil Collins song, but this is a full 80s soft rock ballad. This is a slow dance at prom song. This is also an ending credits song for a Disney movie. If this was a Western song, this would be a waving lighter song. You could use the phone flashlight, but realistically, this song vibes with a lighter being used instead. It's the flickering vibe.  Her voice is so unbelievably gorgeous. Even though she keeps the tone of her voice so soft, she doesn't kee...
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Song Review:: Stray Kids: DO IT- Do It

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Release date: 2025 November 21 Album tracklist: Do It , DIVINE, Holiday, Photobook, Do It (Festival Version) Album runtime: 14 minutes  Okay, everyone. I managed to dodge some spoilers when I did my morning check on Threads. While the Stays were freaking out a little bit, the Atinys were kind of like landed fish over San's music video, and the Armys were just happy about the live that happened. Carats are still having a field day over Jeonghan's surprise appearance. It's a good time to enjoy so many groups because I also get to enjoy having so many different fandoms having a really good time for completely separate reasons all at the same time. The Monbebes also made a surprise appearance on my feed recently, which I thought was cute. But I think the cutest posts were the baby Stays going "Wait. Didn't Ceremony just come out? Are they always like this???" Stray Kids don't seem to have comebacks. They just...stay. Heh. Heheheh. Anyway. Oh, I like this one....
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