Just A Little Fangirl Love

  It's not a whole lot of variation this week, which is a little unfortunate. I'd prefer to have more, you know? On the other hand, I am pretty amused that all the wins this week came from groups at the very start of the alphabet. It's cute, and a little funny. aespa is also the only one of the bunch that isn't a rookie anymore, which is always good to see. The rookie groups need the love, attention, and wins to survive. The other interesting thing is that both of those rookie groups are project groups from survival shows. (Love you, Woongki, I hope this group does better for you...) After School Club is still on hiatus, so your re-run for this is ep 199 in 2016, featuring a still rookie group GFRIEND! Our MCs are Eric Nam, Jamie, and Kevin from U-Kiss (most recently known as the singing voice for Mystery Saja!). GFRIEND are absolutely precious. Show Champion: AHOF "Rendezvous" MCountdown: aespa "Dirty Work" Music Bank: AHOF "Rendezvous" Sh...

Release date: 2025 June 27 Album tracklist: Dirty Work , Dirty Work (feat. Flo Milli), Dirty Work (English Version), Dirty Work (Instrumental) Album runtime: 12 minutes  You know, I regularly forget when aespa debuted because they seem like such a visibly driving force that feel a lot older than they are. The temporary forgetfulness is held in check by the fact that I know they're younger than Red Velvet and I know when Red Velvet debuted. I'm also laughing a tiny bit over the fact that this is literally the bare minimum of a runtime that I like. It's kind of funny. Ooh, I'm already pegging this song as an action dystopia movie OST vibing song within the first ten seconds or so. Something like a cross between Mad Max and Divergent, you know? There's a barely restrained feralness to the instrumental track. It growls and scrapes as the song moves with occasional sharp spurts of energy and power, which is especially effective because it gives the song a much needed ene...

  Welcome to the third quarter of 2025, everyone! I almost typed 2015, so if anyone wants to know how I'm doing, that's how I'm doing. Hilariously, this week also features a whole bunch of first wins for songs (and possibly two first wins for groups), as well as three of the four categories of K-Pop artists. We've got boy group covered. We've got girl group covered. But you know what I find the most delightful? A co-ed group is covered. They used to be a lot more common, so any new ones, I'm generally supportive of on principle, though restrictions may apply. With After School Club still on hiatus, and I'm still being patient because they went twelve years in a single season, here's your weekly rerun! Now, I know that the video says the group is called "Elris", but this was their last release under the name Elris. Following this one, they'd spend roughly the next two years or so on hiatus, before returning rebranded as Alice! This is why I ...

Aespa got the triple crown on Inkigayo this week! ATEEZ and WayV got their first wins with their new songs. There were no performances on either Show Champion, nor MCountdown, nor were there any wins for either program. Jay spent a lot of time singing on ASC, and there wasn't an MC Challenge, which I'd be upset about, but he sang so much that I can't be upset. Also, he did a quick cover of Mariah Carey's Christmas song, and his vocal runs and the quality of his tone just makes me melt a little inside.  Just as a reminder, the links in the chart go to my reviews, and the link down on ASC is for the full hour program. And I include the stage for the music shows, unless the winner didn't perform it on that day, in which case, I pull usually another live performance. Show Champion: N/A MCountdown: N/A Music Bank: ATEEZ "Ice on my Teeth"  (note: I don't think they're still promoting, so have the performance from 20241115) Show! Music Core: aespa "W...

Wow, NCT DREAM has been sweeping the music shows this week. Congrats to them, and well done, fans. You worked hard successfully. Aespa caught another post-promotion win, which is good. There wasn't a showing of MCountdown this week, likely because of MAMA, which I just realized yesterday while I was looking at some BIGBANG stuff needs to be MAMA and not MAMA Awards because that's redundant and would be MNet Asian Music Awards Awards and all I can hear is that one guy from the Doctor Who episode being all weird about ATMOS System for the exact same reason. I really don't like the character, but he does have a point there. Everyday, there's something new to learn. On ASC, we had the project group The CrewOne from Ace of Ace , and they're still not fully cohesive, but the survival show helped as a trial by fire, I can guarantee it. It was nice seeing them and Cravity get to hang out sort of without it being a stressful situation like a survival show and without compet...

Ros é's reign continues. It's genuinely fascinating to me considering she's not promoting it in Korea. I'm not sure that she's actually promoting at all, but since I haven't spent that much BLACKPINK stuff to begin with, let alone the members' solo careers, I am not the demographic to know what all is going on with her. Still, beginning their own power sweep is TxT. Aespa finally managed to knock Ros é out of her position as queen of Inkigayo at the moment, which is a natural passing of the crown. Let's see if they can keep it for next week or if someone else can get it. On ASC, during the MC Challenge, they had to do it extra times, and then water may have been requested after it. So ONE PACT's challenge is no joke. It entertained me. And Aron talked about his hangout with his members, which made me happy. Show Champion: Tomorrow x Together "Over The Moon" (note: I couldn't find a performance for this, so this is the Inkigayo performan...

Well, it's a girl group domination this week for the wins. The fact that Ros é isn't doing much promoting in Korea is deeply inconvenient for me when I'm trying to share performances of each win. This is a joke. If she and Bruno Mars keep winning, that's fine. Genuinely couldn't be happier for them. Show Champion: aespa "Whiplash" (note: I couldn't find the performance if they did one, so I'm going to use Inkigayo's performance) MCoun tdown: Ros é x Bruno Mars "APT." (note: I'm just going to include the music video here again) Music Bank: aespa "Whiplash" Show! Music Core: Ros é x Bruno Mars "APT." Inkigayo: Ros é x Bruno Mars "APT." ASC Performance: POW The Show: tripleS "Hit the Floor"

  Release date: 2024 October 21 Album tracklist: Whiplash ;  Kill It; Flights, Not Feelings; Pink Hoodie;  Flowers; Just Another Girl Album runtime: 18 minutes I've rewritten this first paragraph about four times trying to figure out how to put into words what I'm thinking without outright saying it. So, I'm just going to say it. SM is a problem. I know there are some people who are upset enough about what's going on with RIIZE that they're boycotting all SM groups because it's the only way to make SM listen. And that's fair. There are also people who don't think that the other SM groups deserve to be boycotted because it's not fair to those members and that whole RIIZE thing has nothing to do with the other groups. And that's also fair. Do I have my own (strong) opinion? Yes. But regardless of what I think, aespa has still released an album, and I am still going to review it, which is obvious since I've spent time writing this and you've...

This week is apparently dominated by the soloists, as we have both a member of BLACKPINK as well as a member of aespa taking home wins. Karina's required to me do a review on the song, which is fine. I'm happy to do it.  Show Champion, Inkigayo, and The Show  did not have shows and no winner was announced. Also, Billie was the guest on After School Club this week. The links in the table, by the way, are links to my reviews for each win. I don't know if I ever said that. Show Champion: N/A MCountdown: Jennie "Mantra" Music Bank: The Wind "Hello, My First Love" Show! Music Core: aespa (Karina solo) "Up" (note: I couldn't find a performance for it from this music show, but here is another performance of it.) Inkigayo: N/A ASC Performance: Billie The Show: N/A

Release date: 2024 October 09 Album tracklist: UP - KARINA Solo, DOPAMINE - GISELLE Solo, Bored! - NINGNING Solo, Spark - WINTER Solo Album runtime: 26 minutes  I wasn't going to do a review on this because it's a collection of solos without a title track. This is perfectly fine to do, and I'm actually really happy that they got to do this for the fans and for themselves. When I saw they'd released an album, I was going to do a review of the title track, until I realized there wasn't one, and I, quite frankly, felt like this would be an all-or-nothing situation, where if I reviewed one, I would have to review all of them to make it fair. However, with Karina's win on Show! MusicCore , I am required to do this review, as I did for DAY6 and their win with Happy . If the other members get wins with their solo songs, then I'll do those reviews as well at that time.  That drum at the beginning makes the entire song sound like a 1990s TLC song. I appreciate the fa...