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Showing posts with the label 2015

Greatest Hits:: SHINee: Married To The Music

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 The turnaround on this one is quick because I am not going to be behind for October. I have not planned my October posts, technically, but I do have a shortlist of twenty songs that I've been refining for about three months. We are starting with fun because I like fun and I think we need fun. It's the most wonderful time of the year! With the kids trick or treating and everyone meeting to scream from a spook! It's the most wonderful time of the year! I did almost do Nightmare instead because I love that song, but we need the fun more. Not that I don't love this song, but I was recently reminded of how much I love that song. SHINee debuted in 2008 under SM Entertainment as a five-member group. They're the reason for the Halloween costume contest at SM, which has resulted in some fantastic costumes over the years, although Key's are definitely consistently at the top or almost the top. Married To The Music is the title track of SHINee's fourth repackaged al...

Greatest Hits:: BIGBANG: Sober

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 Happy anniversary, BIGBANG!! I am so late with this, but I was not going to skip this because it's the big 2-0 and I would have to make an entire other post to talk about why BIGBANG requires acknowledgement as one of the biggest playmakers in shaping what K-Pop became. I find it amusingly fitting that their company was founded by a member of the boy group generally acknowledged to be the first K-Pop group: SeoTaiji and Boys. Also, fun fact, I went to a cupsleeve event yesterday (as of writing this paragraph) for their anniversary and I really liked that they included TOP in the design, even if he was on one side and the three current members were on the other. Some related bookkeeping first though. There is a prison-striped elephant in the room with this group. If you are OT5 for this group, you may want to skip this post. If I acknowledge him, it will be with begrudging frustration and a curled lip, and only if I have no choice. I'd be lying if I said his immoral choices and...

Battle of the B-Sides:: Monsta X: Hero

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 We just had a whole lot of b-sides for July, but a bunch of those were buried tracks. This one, this one is iconic, so iconic, in fact, that when I was thinking about what songs to do for August, that was when I found out that this and another one that I'm planning are both b-sides. I genuinely thought it was a title track. These two songs are also songs that you regularly see pop up in the K-Pop compilation videos that get posted on YouTube, so if you're like me and watch those regularly but also haven't actually heard this song yet, here's your chance to find out why it's in all of those videos delivered to you on a silver platter. I've done all the groundwork for you here. The other kind of funny thing is that both songs I was considering started off life as a b-side and then became a Japanese debut for the group. What's the other song I'm talking about? You'll find out. You can blame the order of these posts on my EXO-L friend (and now Baby Stay...

Battle of the B-Sides:: Ailee: Love Recipe

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 Two big powerhouse vocalists back to back. Nice. We're continuing with July's "I'm doing b-sides by artists that I haven't covered yet" theme, I suppose you could call it. I've had a few months of writing a lot of Greatest Hits posts for the Expanded Offerings, so I thought I'd forcibly balance that out a bit to compensate for that a little and for what will be happening in the short term that I know about. Which isn't a lot because I keep changing my mind about exactly what songs I'm going to do although the topic has been fairly stable once I decide it. Next month is "Events". For the record. With a tiny three post arc in the middle that's slightly unrelated. That mini arc is the only one that's one hundred percent locked though.  Ailee debuted in 2012 as a soloist, which makes her one of my beloved 2012 debuts, and congrats to her because she got married in 2024! I wish her a long and happy life with her husband. And you w...

Battle of the B-Sides:: Seventeen: Shining Diamond

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 I hope some of you figured out the group based on that last little hint that has now been fixed on Angel 's post, and I hope at least one of you was able to figure out which song I decided to do. This song sits in a little bit of an interesting spot because while it does technically match the May theme, it's actually fulfilling a much bigger role. If you've been around here for a while, you may know that I've got a massive soft spot for Seventeen that started out because they're NU'EST's brothers (and was resisted for several months even though I'd already attached to SCoups because the jerk decided to shred his knee in a potentially career-ending injury right when I got into K-Pop so that injury was the second thing I learned about Seventeen and resulted in my worry being activated before I ever actually knew anything). So my attachment was inevitable. It has since grown into respect independent of NU'EST, but that's why it's surprising tha...