K$Ellie Posted December 21, 2019 Posted December 21, 2019 Navillera is cute and all but I don't really stan too hard I don't use The Red Shoes much either Love Cherry Motion is so iconic, that drop one of their best songs for sure and new # teaser coming in a few min I think Rum Pum Pum Pum grew on me, I used to hate it I Am The Best is another CLASSIC I gotta get more into them next year Loonatic might be a Grimes ripoff but it takes talent to outdo the original I'm not big on Miss A but Hush is decent I heard Windy Day years ago and when I starting getting into kpoop, I assumed it was like... really big I only know Something from Girl's Day but I'll Be Yours is really nice hoping Girl Front is top 20
Red Light Posted December 21, 2019 Author Posted December 21, 2019 7 hours ago, K$Ellie said: Sunrise is very cute Damaged Lady is SUCH a bop, I was shocked that ATRL mostly ignores it, THAT CHORUS I'm surprised that so many Orange Caramel songs are above Catallena, I suppose they're worth getting into Why So Lonely is obvi a classic, I love Sweet & Easy as well sad that they disbanded when they were peaking quality-wise nnn 2 Russian Roulettes back to back RV's one was one of the first k-pop songs I loved, it's been bumped down by Red Flavor for me tho I had a lot to say giving our indie girls exposure, love that for her Well it wouldn't be one of my faves from them but when I get back around to their discography, it'll deff be one I'm gonna say Yas taste people seem to stan Candle and One Black Night but they're wrong I remember when they did the girl group rate in 2015 Damaged Lady was hella low and I was so pissed. idk why people sleep on it Catallena is great but the "Oye hoi hoi" is just so annoying. I was obsessed with Red Flavor for a lot of 2017 and then it was literally like as soon as the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve and it was 2018 I stopped caring about it. Candle and One Black Night are both solid album tracks but idk why they're looked at as highlights. I even like John Doe better than them. 7 hours ago, K$Ellie said: Navillera is cute and all but I don't really stan too hard I don't use The Red Shoes much either Love Cherry Motion is so iconic, that drop one of their best songs for sure and new # teaser coming in a few min I think Rum Pum Pum Pum grew on me, I used to hate it I Am The Best is another CLASSIC I gotta get more into them next year Loonatic might be a Grimes ripoff but it takes talent to outdo the original I'm not big on Miss A but Hush is decent I heard Windy Day years ago and when I starting getting into kpoop, I assumed it was like... really big I only know Something from Girl's Day but I'll Be Yours is really nice hoping Girl Front is top 20 Yeah 2ne1 has a really solid discography. The Crush album is a klassic. You know more about second gen K-pop than I thought you would.
Red Light Posted December 21, 2019 Author Posted December 21, 2019 Don't know if I'm starting at the regular time tonight since my brother should be getting home soon and things will be hectic. Not that it really matters at this point cuz it's just me talking during these reveals anyway.
Red Light Posted December 22, 2019 Author Posted December 22, 2019 Okay, things calmed down quickly and I'm ready. LET'S GET THIS **** OVER WITH!
Red Light Posted December 22, 2019 Author Posted December 22, 2019 Spoiler To head this review off, we wind back to the very beginning of the countdown, with my review for f(x)’s Electric Shock: Quote In the K-pop world, charting #1’s and selling millions is impressive, but not quite enough to indicate that a group has truly made any sort of impact. What every group dreams of is that one signature hit that’s instantly recognizable to nearly everybody in the nation--Girls’ Generation had it with Gee, 2ne1 had it with I Am the Best, T-ara had it with Roly-Poly, etc. I left one out on purpose. If you ask me (and I’m undoubtedly biased), the Brown Eyed Girls’ signature smash is among the most vital in forming K-pop as we know it today--one of the founding fathers, if you will. If Girls’ Generation kicked the Hallyu Wave into high gear with their sweet and innocent image, and 2ne1 balanced it out with their edgy and aggressive one, the Brown Eyed Girls brought another, much riskier, key ingredient to the forefront: sex. From a purely musical standpoint, Abracadabra is tamer. Most people you ask will rightfully tell you that SNSD’s Gee is the quintessential K-pop girl group song--the foundation of all modern K-pop; the homebase; what all other songs hope to be. But to me, if you were to chip away at K-pop until you reached its very core and life force, you would find Abracadabra: Wonderfully simple, disgustingly catchy, and supernaturally addictive, whilst being boosted by iconic choreography and a wealth of peripheral controversy. As I said, in the big wave of girl groups in 2009, Girls’ Generation were on one end of the spectrum with Gee and 2ne1 were on the opposite end with the edgy, rebellious Fire. Sonically right in the middle, however, lies Abracadabra: Upbeat without being cute, edgy without being dark, and universally appealing. Abracadabra, to me, is such an important figurehead in the history of K-pop that I made 2009 releases eligible for inclusion just so I could pay my respects. What makes Abracadabra so spectacular is that there’s really nothing all that spectacular about it--it has a very standard, simplistic bassline hook; a classic four-on-the-floor rhythm; an obligatory rap verse; and maybe a few mild eccentricities like a borrowed minor in the choruses and some trippy tremolo synths in the pre-choruses. Yet, Abracadabra has the most extraordinary durability and staying power of any other song on the list. It’s been 10 whole years since its release, but it still has that special magic that made it such a phenomenon in 2009. That booming bass kick is so crisp and well-mixed that it has to be partially responsible. There’s something about a clean, hard kick like that that makes dance tracks more addictive than they’d normally be (as was mentioned in the Apple Pie review at #58). There’s also a delectable contrast between the more urgent, sly verses and bubbly, euphoric ♭VI-IV/IV-IV-I choruses. Then of course there’s the genius bridge that brings the whole thing together, lullabying a hypnotically catchy lalala tune in order to simulate the casting of an actual spell. The first, percussion-free bars of the last chorus are such a simple twist, but so unbelievably effective. In the end, Abracadabra is so unusually addictive that it should be scientifically studied. I could still have it on repeat all day and not be tired of it in the slightest. During the 2015 K-pop rate, which had over 100 songs and over 70 participants, it won by a total landslide, with a phenomenal average rating of 9/10. That sort of consensus is how you know you’ve got a truly special pop song. Abracadabra may not feature anything particularly interesting to write home about, but the effect that it has on people is pure witchcraft.
Red Light Posted December 22, 2019 Author Posted December 22, 2019 Spoiler From the SISTAR intro text at the start of the countdown: Quote Unfortunately, these summer singles were always pretty bland and forgettable for me, but thankfully, there was one glorious exception--and anyone familiar with SISTAR’s music and with me probably knows exactly which song I’m talking about. Well, here it is. SISTAR, the McDonald’s of K-pop, managed to sneak into my top 20. I’ve always called them the McDonald’s of K-pop because of how inoffensive they were--always just good enough. McDonald’s is the go-to fast food place you resort to when you aren’t in the mood for anything better or you aren’t near anything better. Nothing you eat there will blow you away, but it will be decent and it will fill you up. Would you rather go in a restaurant and have a nice, full meal? Sure. But McDonald’s is cheap and there’s one on every corner. SISTAR, during their seven-year run, functioned much in the same way. They rarely released anything all that revolutionary or, well, interesting--but they released decent pop tunes at a very reliable rate. You had the comfort of knowing that, every summer, SISTAR would be coming back with a cute song that would tide you over until something came along to really knock your socks off. In short: SISTAR was always good, but SISTAR was rarely great. And I know I’m not alone in thinking this, as during the 2015 girl group rate, I distinctly remember like half of their songs getting slaughtered immediately and one poster finally coming in and saying “I TOLD y’all not to include SISTAR!” Don’t get me wrong, I never disliked SISTAR--they found themselves a terrific niche and left a great legacy behind--but I was certainly never bouncing up and down when I heard they were coming back. But I should have been bouncing up and down for their next-to-last comeback. I Like That is a completely different story, because it’s a completely different kind of song and a completely different direction. SISTAR took everything you had come to expect from them over the years and turned it on its head. The end result was a dark, moody dance track located at some bizarre intersection between drum ‘n’ bass, nu metal, funk, and hip hop. It’s composed of a heavily syncopated 155 BPM beat; murky sub-bass; gritty electric guitars; oppressive, metallic synth leads that trade-off with the beat like cogs in a factory; deep, funky pick bass; cloudy saxophone riffs; and most importantly--urgent, feisty, oppressive melodies. The VI⁷-V⁷/i progression leading into the chorus sounds particularly dire, and sounds much more like something out of Dreamcatcher’s discography than light, bubbly SISTAR. The simpler, poppier chorus with the thick bassline is a nice, catchy i-iv-VII-III reprieve from the sinister edge that defines the rest of the song, and the choruses always end with a nice, climactic VII-V/i to reincorporate the track’s overall ominous tension. Then comes the high point of the whole song and the reason it edged into the top 20: That total powerhouse of a bridge. While it’s actually rather monotonous, operating solely under the i (G minor) chord, it somehow manages to be the most exciting and dynamic part of the whole song. It’s mind-numbingly catchy, badass, heavy, intense, hardcore, and I could really go on and on about it. It just rocks. And that applies both to the bridge and to the entire stormy three-minutes and forty seconds of the song. With a second generation girl group as prominent as SISTAR was, it would have been very unfortunate were they totally absent from the list, so thank you, SISTAR, for releasing this absolute banger before hanging your hats up.
Red Light Posted December 22, 2019 Author Posted December 22, 2019 Spoiler Dreamcatcher is by far one of the most unusual girl groups to sprout up in the K-pop industry within the last few years, practically balking at the idea of being successful on the charts and shooting for a concept akin to KARA on meth. The K-pop female universe has gotten even more aegyo-oriented with the rise of the new generation, so Dreamcatcher’s presence almost feels like a rebellious reaction to it, like K-pop’s own weird version of a punk rock band. With edgy, mature concepts falling by the wayside in 2016 in favor of a boom in aegyo bubblegum pop, Dreamcatcher’s birth was nothing short of an unmitigated blessing. Good Night, released at the beginning of 2017, is their quintessential work--tense, angsty chord progressions; fast-paced, syncopated metal rhythms; dark, dense production containing every electric guitar sample in the book; and wrapped together under an overarching horror-themed concept. Good Night plays around with the horror concept in the actual music as well, kicking off with an eerie music box hook melodically foreshadowing the fervent choruses. The verses are among the most unapologetically dark and urgent music passages in all of K-pop, employing almost the exact same guitar riff as in KARA’s Damaged Lady, except with even cleaner, heavier production, and an extra sharp note that adds the perfect final touch to the verses’ badass ferocity. The first half of the verse has a slightly weaker, murkier guitar sample to add some extra tension, and then mutates into the fuller, grittier power chord that makes the song such a pleasure to the ears. Not too pleasurable, though--Good Night’s verses manage to make the listener feel slightly uncomfortable by clashing the simple guitar riff against the more fluid vocal melodies (i°♭⁵ˢᵘˢ²), creating a harsh dissonance that takes the song to an even more foreboding level. Additionally, the verses of Good Night cyclically reprise the cadence of the choruses at the end of each measure; one of my favorite elements I’ve noted in rock-influenced tracks that I wish was present more often in pop. Top that off with the slow, headbang-ready beat, and Good Night is a very strong candidate for my favorite verses of the decade. The pre-choruses, where a song is expected to calm down, are just as intense as the rest of the track, cranking out an emotional VI-VII-vii°/i-i climb, and then shooting down VI-ivˢᵘˢ⁴-V/i-V7/i alongside an absolutely demonic chromatic descent in the vocals. It’s basically just checking off every sonic feature that I’m guaranteed to fall in love with, one after the other. And the last thing to check off? Explosive choruses. Good Night’s choruses are a detonation of shred guitars and insolent chord progressions in some of the cleanest production that’s sonically possible in metal music. To keep it spiced up until the end, the bridge is absolutely gorgeous, with a much lighter, poppier shift to twinkly piano chords and soft, R&B-ish vocal harmonies. There’s one last delirious build to the final chorus, which ends in the vocals being altered and drowned out in the power chord, and with one final curveball in the last chorus--a brief but surprising and effective inversion from F minor to F major in the first bar of the second measure--Good Night draws to a thrilling, arduous close. In the end, Dreamcatcher’s dire magnum opus is objectively the most hardcore song in the countdown, and in my opinion, the best rock song a K-pop girl group has ever put out.
Red Light Posted December 22, 2019 Author Posted December 22, 2019 Spoiler @The Destiny Hope all the f(x) songs you mentioned in the first post made it in! This is probably a weird choice for such a high spot. I mean, people love this song, but my love for it has always been a little bit extreme. I can’t help it. It’s one of those songs that just clicks with the wiring in my brain and does weird things to me. It’s so good that it’s like I have an actual physical reaction to it--that group A#-C#-F#-A# vocal ascent in the second verse is like a muscle relaxer in sonic form. f(x)’s 2014 record, which would come to be one of my favorite albums ever released, was full of intense contrasts, from releasing the album in “Wild Cats” and “Sleepy Cats” versions, to the music itself. One of the biggest contrasts present is the transition between Red Light’s title track, and the silky smooth easy-listening of the track immediately following it--the quirky, eargasmic Milk. In short: Red Light is the Wild Cat, and Milk is the Sleepy Cat. The theme of Milk is one of f(x)’s most bizarre metaphors ever (which is saying a lot for a group who compared themselves to wisdom teeth), referring to what is apparently a common home remedy--pouring milk on a burn. In this case, the “Burn” is a broken heart, and the “Milk” is… well, I don’t think they actually thought the metaphor through that thoroughly. But I’m amused by the thought that it’s a euphemism for alcohol dependence. Sonically, the advent of Milk immediately after the energetic, demonic electro-house of Red Light is a lot like pouring milk on a burn--it’s the perfect cooldown song. It’s as smooth and refreshing as a cool glass of milk, and it’s by far one of the most relaxing and therapeutic K-pop girl group songs to ever be recorded. It’s sort of like a slower, softer descendant of their 2013 single Rum Pum Pum Pum (the aforementioned wisdom tooth song and #37 in the countdown), with a similarly monotonous guitar strum; stunning, dexterous vocal harmonies; and heavy undertones of world music--Rum Pum Pum Pum taking influence from Samba and Milk taking influence from Bhangra. Milk’s biggest deviation from its predecessor is in how light it is, in every sense of the word. The percussion is notably minimalized, and the instrumental isn’t all that busy either. Milk takes the bare necessities and, pardon the pun, milks them for all they’re worth, basically constructing its entire three-and-a-half minutes through only a soothing acoustic droning; exotic strings; soft, angelic vocal harmonies; and a very prominent vocal echo that adds a perfect, final, dreamy touch. Beyond the echo effect and a hilariously quirky intro--which consists of dogs barking, cats meowing, glass breaking, and the cocking of a shotgun--Milk is short on bells and whistles (or bells, at least… there actually are whistles in the chorus). The subsequent crispness of the few sound stems it does utilize makes it one of the smoothest, breeziest, most enjoyable K-pop songs ever. And needless to say, the reason those understated sounds are so enjoyable is because of what they channel. Like I wrote about with 9Muses’ Love City, Milk is a song with a minor scale home that spends almost all of its time in majors--and, ironically enough, they both have the same key, F#m. ****. Maybe that means I’m just doing something wrong with the F#m scale. Oh well, too late now. In any case, the V/iv-III-IV/VI-V/iv progression composing most of the track is audio bliss. The fact that the V/iv chord repeats three more times before finally moving to III makes Milk unusually easy to sink into and unwind. Too much of that would just be boring, though, so the chorus sees a much needed dynamic change where the rate of chords doubles (the chords being V/iv-VII-#vi-III and eventually concluding with V⁷/VII-III). To make a long review semi-short, Milk is, quite simply, one of the most beautifully produced songs on the list. The slinky R&B gem is pure ear candy; the listening experience being akin to rich, creamy caramel coating your eardrums. I consider it, without hyperbole, pretty much a perfect K-pop song--maddeningly catchy, with A+ production value, intricate vocal harmony, and weird as all hell. My 17th favorite K-pop song of all time. In the last chorus, the song pretty much speaks for itself: So fresh, so fine.
Red Light Posted December 22, 2019 Author Posted December 22, 2019 Spoiler Well, Orange Caramel has been one of the most vital features of the top 100, and it’s finally time to bid them farewell. And what better way to do that than to reiterate a point that I already beat dead into the ground after their first elimination?! I am kicking myself to this day for not giving Orange Caramel a chance sooner. Granted, it wasn’t without any reason--the aegyo, baby-voiced vocal styles were extremely off-putting, and painted a surprisingly inaccurate picture of Orange Caramel’s music. Beyond the vocals, at least a good 75% of Orange Caramel’s discography is melodically darker than virtually every other second generation girl group. Most of their music is positively littered with dramatic secondary chords and instrumentals with such cinematic undertones that they’d be better suited for a night at the opera. No, I never actually grew any affection for Orange Caramel’s cutesy vocal affectations, but I thankfully managed to learn how to look past them and appreciate the music. And the song of theirs that I appreciate most of all is Shanghai Romance, an outrageously campy european dance track that’s only matched in its sheer dramaturgy by other songs in Orange Caramel’s catalog like Aing (#26) and Catallena (#77). But in the end, Shanghai Romance won out and served as Orange Caramel’s representative track in my top 20--partially because of a relative lack of childish voice inflections, partially because of the particular melodies the song employs, and partially because of a lot of little touches that go a long way. Shanghai Romance instantly kicks off with one of those little touches: An intro consisting of harps and an exotic erhu (Chinese violin) sample. From there the track shifts into Orange Caramel’s usual mastery of all things high: A high-pitched primary synth lead reminiscent of Italo disco, high-energy pulsating analog bass, a high BPM of 150, and a high-drama iv-i-vii⁷-III-VI-V/iv main chord progression in E minor, accented by a grand set of majestic, soaring strings. Underlying the primary synth lead are a multitude of background synths, all tinged with that distinct 80’s european flavor that winsomely complements the bouncy, duple-metered beat. The vocals are peppy and childish as always, but not as nauseatingly twee as in so many of their other songs (except in the pre-bridge verse, which I frankly forgot about at first because I edited it out of the version I normally listen to). However, they’re still just twee enough to sell one of the other contributing factors to Orange Caramel’s top 20 triumph--the rabidly infectious “Shy! Shy! Shy!” hook. Shanghai Romance is dramatic and quirky but also has a timeless simplicity to it that even their biggest hit, Catallena, sort of lacks. And then the final reason Shanghai Romance is so high up in the countdown, which at this point you can probably guess: The vigorously climactic last quarter. The cooldown with the bridge is pop music firing on all cylinders: A gentle, solemn IV/VI-VI-III-V/III melody, totally free of percussion. Next, the beat kicks back in under the same mode--only this time, the chord progression climaxes in a pivotal V⁷/iv chord, which ushers in the delicious key change (F minor) of the final chorus. Shanghai Romance’s last act is, to say the least, one of the best moments in the countdown, and that’s just the cherry on top of an already near-flawless classic that I consider Orange Caramel’s masterpiece.
Red Light Posted December 22, 2019 Author Posted December 22, 2019 Spoiler While GFriend has many entries on the list, with Navillera at #40, Sunrise at #50, and Me Gustas Tu at #79, they also managed to have that one special knockout banger that managed to slip them into the top 20. That knockout banger was the rock-tinged disco track, Fingertip. Fingertip was the original winner of my 2017 countdown, back when I was still under the criminal misimpression that 2017 was a bad year for K-pop music, and thus the competition was way less stiff. Yet, in spite of my discovering a frankly annoying number of incredible 2017 songs that I originally missed while the year was going on, Fingertip still maintains a tight grip on its crown. Let’s put it this way: #15 in my top 100 of the decade is a much bigger achievement than #1 of my preliminary 2017 rate. Among its long list of accomplishments, Fingertip is the prime example, in my opinion, of a K-pop group artistically evolving. As terrific as GFriend’s music was before 2017, it was undeniably formulaic and interchangeable. As is the case with EXID (who are currently still in the running)--when the formula is that good, sticking to it is far from the worst sin a K-pop artist can commit--but it does take away a certain degree of novelty and opens itself up to a valid criticism. Practically their entire discography prior to 2017 was one big collection of anime themes; some of them structurally identical to one another (i.e Rough and Navillera). Regardless of that--and likely even because of that--they were enjoying tremendous success, and had a great supply of momentum going into 2017. If there was any time to try branching out of their girly, nostalgic J-rock influenced mold, now was the time. So on March 6th, they released a beaconing example of balance between old and new. Fingertip has all the makings of an essential GFriend song--catchy synthpop with melancholy chord progressions and guitar-heavy pop rock stylings, just like, well, basically everything else they’ve ever released. Yet, just the opposite is true: Fingertip is harder, fiercer, and more mature than any other uptempo they’ve ever done. The verses--to put it as simply as possible--go hard as ****, with raw, thundering bass kicks and loose, clamoring snare bashes that leave such a trebley reverb that they sound more like cymbal crashes. The choruses are torturous in that they aren’t big or climactic, but they’re the only sections containing that irresistible hook, thus blessing the track with an uncanny addictiveness that has kept the song fresh and enjoyable from March of 2017 all the way to the end of the decade. With squeaky synth leads, lush disco strings, a quirky wah-wah pedaled funk bassline that sounds like Donald Duck undergoing post-orgasm torture, electric guitar licks, and a beat that makes up for its teasingly slow simplicity with merciless heaviness--Fingertip is like a darker, more acoustic-driven cousin to KARA’s K-pop classic, STEP (eliminated at #34). It’s one of those songs where I just can’t fathom how anybody could possibly hate it. While I adore GFriend and love almost every song in their entire catalog (like I said in their intro text, they’re probably my favorite third gen girl group overall, with the least amount of songs that I’ve disliked), Fingertip is on a completely different plane than the rest of their work. It’s, in my opinion, pop perfection, and among the greatest disco-driven K-pop songs that I can recommend (particularly impressive, since it isn’t produced by Sweetune or MonoTree). GFriend is one of the best new additions to the K-pop world, and Fingertip is their magnum opus.
Red Light Posted December 22, 2019 Author Posted December 22, 2019 Spoiler We all know the story. It’s K-pop legend at this point. Nobody needs to hear it again. But **** you, I’m trying to fill space in the review, so I’m gonna tell it again. In 2014, EXID were on the verge of disbandment. They showed modest promise with their debut in 2012, peaking at #36, but the two followup singles did not fare as well, and 2013 saw basically no projects from them at all. They attempted to recover by signing with a new agency in 2014, Yedang Entertainment, but this cost them even more money and made it even more crucial that their comeback at least continue their trend of lukewarm popularity. So, on August 27th, 2014, they released their last chance: Up & Down. And it performed abysmally. While their three songs from the 2012 era never peaked below a top 60 position, Up & Down failed to even chart. It was a complete and utter failure. Nonetheless, they were still out there performing with an enthusiastic smile on their face as late as October, trying to enjoy and savor their last few performances together as a group. On October 8th, they performed in Paju, where a fan with the YouTube ID of Pharkil was in attendance. Originally planning to record Junghwa, at the last second he decided to focus on Hani throughout the performance, which he then unceremoniously uploaded the next day. Then, something weird happened. The video of Hani turned guys on. A lot. Millions of them, in fact. Suddenly, later on in the year, EXID were a social media sensation. Up & Down, months after its release, finally began to chart, from nothing more than online buzz. Because of this, the South Korean music shows invited EXID back to their stages and programming for a second round of Up & Down promotions. The success gradually snowballed. The simple, repetitive choreography became a national dance craze. Up & Down was everywhere, as was the bizarre story in how it came to find success. Finally, in the very first week of 2015, more than four months after its initial release, EXID and Up & Down had scored themselves a #1. From the iconic saxophone riff to the legendary tale behind its success, Up & Down is objectively, without a doubt, a modern classic. And it has every right to be. It’s versatile, spotlessly produced, hopelessly catchy, and falls into that rare holy grail of pop perfection that makes it hard for anyone not to truly hate. One of the biggest accomplishments Up & Down has under its belt is that it has a ton of sonic and emotional variety without ever actually sounding the least bit incohesive. As a matter of fact, a lot of Up & Down is downright monotonous: Over 50% of the song is just one variation or another of a B Major chord. And the song doesn’t suffer for it at all. In fact, it’s one of the merits that makes Up & Down’s structure so irresistible: One of the more ingenious tricks the song pulls is the fact that it quarantines its only bonafide pop chord progression to the choruses. That’s not to say the verses are boring. The second verse isn’t even long enough to be boring, and LE has more than enough charisma to sell the long rap in the first. Even if she didn’t, the production is so clean and glossy, and so light and bubbly compared to the choruses, that your ears graciously welcome them in all their funky, sub-bass drenched glory. The pre-choruses house such hilariously catchy and happy vocal harmonies that they’re practically flirtatious nursery rhymes. The sexy nursery rhyme quality applies to the second verse as well, and I guess it’s to be expected, considering, again, it’s almost entirely one B major chord. And, in this instance, it totally works. It’s pure pop sunshine and it couldn’t be any more lovable if it tried--and it serves as an even better contrast to the main entree of the song. The formula for most of EXID’s discography has always reminded me, in a way, of Lady Gaga’s biggest hits: Hook-heavy dance-pop in the verses and explosive, powerful, emotional choruses. In Up & Down’s case, that means a substantial filling of the soundscape, and a frantically sorrowful I-V-V⁷/iii-iii chord progression. EXID couldn’t have found two better vocalists to take on those nostalgic melodies than Solji and Hyerin--their pipes were made for these kinds of songs and they are a huge factor in EXID’s success. To conclude the EXID history lesson, there are a few lesser-known things I’d like to share. Everyone knows about the fancam that saved their careers, but few know about the fancam that SHOULD have gone viral. There is a very sweet “Sequel” to the infamous fancam where Hani spots Pharkil in the audience and thanks him. As thanks for changing their lives, Pharkil was invited to have dinner with Hani and the producer of Up & Down, Shinsadong Tiger. He hilariously declined.
Red Light Posted December 22, 2019 Author Posted December 22, 2019 Spoiler Ah, Ice Cream Cake. I can still remember pressing play on your iTunes preview for the first time, back in the days when, if you looked up “Red Velvet Ice Cream Cake” on YouTube, the first results were showing you how to make actual red velvet ice cream cake. You’ve come so far. The iTunes snippet starts with the post-chorus, made up of that awesome, heavily syncopated beat, and--what I will proclaim, without question--the single catchiest hook I’ve ever heard in my entire life. I tried not to fall in love with you, but it was no use. And once that quirky, subtly creepy ice cream truck music box kicked in, there was no question. I bought you instantly, and unwittingly became a Red Velvet fan in the process. The wonderful dichotomy of Ice Cream Cake is how simple and complex it is at the same time. The tempo runs at a rare 172 BPM, and it’s so broken up and syncopated that the song has been mistakenly categorized as Drum ‘n’ Bass; it somehow manages to seamlessly blend a simple, childish music box hook with grimey EDM wobbles; and the key actually drops down from Amaj to Bmin for the chorus. In spite of that, Ice Cream Cake isn’t one of SM’s disjointed messes, like labelmate songs such as I Got a Boy and Red Light. The key change in the chorus is unusual, but it fits perfectly in the grand scheme of the song and doesn’t sound jarring in the slightest. Overall, Ice Cream Cake is a surprisingly cohesive track, and that’s where the biggest paradox of all comes in: It sounds fresh and different while still being a very cookie cutter pop song. With all that said, it’s cookie cutter in the best possible way. “Emotionally versatile” seems to be one of the catchphrases in this countdown, and Ice Cream Cake is yet another shining example of that. The V/iv-III-VI-Vᵃᵈᵈ⁹/VII chorus is equal parts happy, nostalgic, sweet, and adventurous. The contrast between the bareness of the production in the verses and the deep, full, lush flourishing of the instrumental and melody of the choruses is super intense, and immeasurably satisfying. The vocal harmonies are exquisite, the production is immaculate, and it’s just so damn lovable. But songs that are as instantly catchy as Ice Cream Cake so often age very poorly. I remember the first day that I had the song on repeat, assuming that it would have no longevity at all; convinced that on the next listen, I would suddenly hate it and never want to hear it again. But that wasn’t so with Ice Cream Cake. There’s something very special about it. It’s successfully been a part of my life since that first listen in the spring of 2015. I can only guess that the slightly out-of-place chorus is at least partially responsible in preventing it from growing stale. In the end, it’s what all the best, most timeless pop songs are: Infectious and addictive right off the bat, with that extra special magic that keeps it from getting old. Unlike their “Big sisters” f(x), who took years to hit their stride, Red Velvet found their footing almost immediately. After Ice Cream Cake came their first full-length album and the massive success of Dumb Dumb that September, fan-favorite Russian Roulette (#43), 2017’s song of the summer Red Flavor, and fellow fan-favorite Bad Boy, which they made history with by performing in North Korea. For me, however, as much as I love Red Velvet and as much fun as it’s been to follow them these past five years, I’m not sure they’ll ever surpass Ice Cream Cake for me personally. Not that their excellent, diverse discography is anything to be downplayed, but there’s something incomparable about their original recipe.
Red Light Posted December 22, 2019 Author Posted December 22, 2019 Spoiler Before their roaring return in 2015, I was never all that big on Wonder Girls. I liked the chord progression in their 2007 song This Fool, and The DJ Is Mine was a guilty pleasure of mine, but in general I found them to be exceedingly forgettable. When they stepped back into the limelight in 2015 with what would come to be widely considered one of the greatest K-pop girl group albums of all time, I was naturally a bit blown away. Reboot is, without a doubt, one of the most cohesive K-pop albums ever released, going far beyond a mere collection of good songs and instead a fully fleshed out, thematically-focused work of art that flaunts the group’s artistic evolution. Wonder Girls had always had a comfort zone in 80’s synthpop (Be My Baby, Two Different Tears, etc.), but the masterful production work on Reboot is on a completely different level. And no song better exemplifies that, in my opinion, than the deliciously lush and hypnotic Rewind. I can honestly say without question that the warm, serene, glassy synth pad that the song opens with is my single favorite sound stem of the entire decade. It is perfect, unadulterated audio bliss of the highest order--the kind of sound quality that really has to be heard to be believed. Add on the rest of the ambient synth samples, like the icy, twinkly riff that accompanies the opening pads; the unapologetically fake, monotonously screechy Yamaha DX7-esque synth strings; and the dark, squiggly analog Moog bassline; and the song is already a slam dunk contender for one of the greatest songs of the decade. In addition to all that, the breathy, moan-y vocals solidify the instrumental’s foggy sensuality, and the brash, distant 80’s snare sample is one of the most convincingly acoustic-sounding percussion samples I’ve ever heard in K-pop. All that’s needed now is the perfect finishing touch to truly send it above and beyond the caliber of excellence, and Rewind checks off that final box with its gloomy, haunting chord progression... Okay, so here’s the thing about Rewind’s chord progression. The harmonies are so layered and so odd that I, a professional clown who cannot find song keys in the first place, have no idea what the progression is. I currently have it set at G#m, and as such, the progression is v⁷ᵃᵈᵈ¹¹-V+⁷/iv-iv¹¹-VIᵃᵈᵈ⁹. I’m gonna take a swing and say that isn’t right due to the total absence of, y’know, the root chord. Oh well. Rewind is supposed to be mysterious, I guess. Whatever it is, the doleful and stacked melodic formula in tandem with the glacial soundscape is a match made in K-pop heaven, launching Rewind to being what I consider, objectively, the greatest ambient synthpop song of the decade. (Oh My Girl’s Closer is still in due to my personal affinity for its even more haunting chord progression, but as far as production value goes, there is absolutely no contest whatsoever.) Really all you need to know about Rewind is in those opening bars. It is so simple, but so effective, and so timeless. Reboot was packed to the brim with outstanding moments, but Rewind shines the brightest of all. It’s almost disturbingly dreamy, impossibly well produced, and so narcotically euphoric that it hinges on being sonic anesthesia. It is nothing short of an audio miracle, and has unquestionably earned a spot in my top 15.
The Destiny Hope Posted December 22, 2019 Posted December 22, 2019 57 minutes ago, Red Light said: Reveal hidden contents @The Destiny Hope all the f(x) songs you mentioned in the first post made it in! This is probably a weird choice for such a high spot. I mean, people love this song, but my love for it has always been a little bit extreme. I can’t help it. It’s one of those songs that just clicks with the wiring in my brain and does weird things to me. It’s so good that it’s like I have an actual physical reaction to it--that group A#-C#-F#-A# vocal ascent in the second verse is like a muscle relaxer in sonic form. f(x)’s 2014 record, which would come to be one of my favorite albums ever released, was full of intense contrasts, from releasing the album in “Wild Cats” and “Sleepy Cats” versions, to the music itself. One of the biggest contrasts present is the transition between Red Light’s title track, and the silky smooth easy-listening of the track immediately following it--the quirky, eargasmic Milk. In short: Red Light is the Wild Cat, and Milk is the Sleepy Cat. The theme of Milk is one of f(x)’s most bizarre metaphors ever (which is saying a lot for a group who compared themselves to wisdom teeth), referring to what is apparently a common home remedy--pouring milk on a burn. In this case, the “Burn” is a broken heart, and the “Milk” is… well, I don’t think they actually thought the metaphor through that thoroughly. But I’m amused by the thought that it’s a euphemism for alcohol dependence. Sonically, the advent of Milk immediately after the energetic, demonic electro-house of Red Light is a lot like pouring milk on a burn--it’s the perfect cooldown song. It’s as smooth and refreshing as a cool glass of milk, and it’s by far one of the most relaxing and therapeutic K-pop girl group songs to ever be recorded. It’s sort of like a slower, softer descendant of their 2013 single Rum Pum Pum Pum (the aforementioned wisdom tooth song and #37 in the countdown), with a similarly monotonous guitar strum; stunning, dexterous vocal harmonies; and heavy undertones of world music--Rum Pum Pum Pum taking influence from Samba and Milk taking influence from Bhangra. Milk’s biggest deviation from its predecessor is in how light it is, in every sense of the word. The percussion is notably minimalized, and the instrumental isn’t all that busy either. Milk takes the bare necessities and, pardon the pun, milks them for all they’re worth, basically constructing its entire three-and-a-half minutes through only a soothing acoustic droning; exotic strings; soft, angelic vocal harmonies; and a very prominent vocal echo that adds a perfect, final, dreamy touch. Beyond the echo effect and a hilariously quirky intro--which consists of dogs barking, cats meowing, glass breaking, and the cocking of a shotgun--Milk is short on bells and whistles (or bells, at least… there actually are whistles in the chorus). The subsequent crispness of the few sound stems it does utilize makes it one of the smoothest, breeziest, most enjoyable K-pop songs ever. And needless to say, the reason those understated sounds are so enjoyable is because of what they channel. Like I wrote about with 9Muses’ Love City, Milk is a song with a minor scale home that spends almost all of its time in majors--and, ironically enough, they both have the same key, F#m. ****. Maybe that means I’m just doing something wrong with the F#m scale. Oh well, too late now. In any case, the V/iv-III-IV/VI-V/iv progression composing most of the track is audio bliss. The fact that the V/iv chord repeats three more times before finally moving to III makes Milk unusually easy to sink into and unwind. Too much of that would just be boring, though, so the chorus sees a much needed dynamic change where the rate of chords doubles (the chords being V/iv-VII-#vi-III and eventually concluding with V⁷/VII-III). To make a long review semi-short, Milk is, quite simply, one of the most beautifully produced songs on the list. The slinky R&B gem is pure ear candy; the listening experience being akin to rich, creamy caramel coating your eardrums. I consider it, without hyperbole, pretty much a perfect K-pop song--maddeningly catchy, with A+ production value, intricate vocal harmony, and weird as all hell. My 17th favorite K-pop song of all time. In the last chorus, the song pretty much speaks for itself: So fresh, so fine. Omg YESSS WAIT. I'm so sorry nnnnn I've been disassociating from this site because of all the drama that's been going on with one of my faves. Lemme go through all I missed!
Red Light Posted December 22, 2019 Author Posted December 22, 2019 And just barely falling outside of my top 10 IS... Spoiler 4Minute was always a pretty hit-or-miss group, releasing gems like the frenzied I My Me Mine (#99) and hard-hitting Volume Up (#66), or drivel like What’s Your Name?, which is just embarrassing to listen to. No matter what they released, 4Minute’s popularity only grew over the years, with What’s Your Name? Finally becoming the group’s first #1 single after four years on the scene, and an even bigger triumph the following year with What’cha Doin’ Today?, which not only debuted at #1, but garnered a music show win over the two arguably biggest girl groups in the game at the time, Girls’ Generation and 2ne1. In spite of their success, 4Minute were always the underdogs, facing an uphill battle during every comeback, as they didn’t have the privilege of hailing from the “Big 3” entertainment companies (SM, YG, and JYP) that pretty much dominated the K-pop industry; instead belonging to outsider label Cube. So, one would infer that, A.) they’d continue their apparent string of luck with song titles that ended in question marks, and B.) they’d play it safe and continue with the funky Bravesound tracks that had finally brought them their deserved recognition. Instead, they did something much braver and much riskier, ditching Bravesound and causing the biggest stir of their career as they opted for their edgiest, most aggressive comeback ever--harsh, unadulterated trap music. The best thing about Crazy is that it’s still in a different league from most trap; a hip hop-based genre defined by heavy sub-bass; crisp, tight snares; dark melodies; and cinematic strings or brass instrumentals. There’s one major discrepancy between Crazy and practically every other trap song I’ve encountered: The snare sample is always pretty underwhelming. Generally, they have a lighter snap or click sound that pales in comparison to the rest of the song; getting drowned out in trumpets and 808’s. The snare used in Crazy, however, is borrowed much more from the electronic corner of music--more at home in the dubstep category, where the snare has a very hard, impactful kick to it, so as not to get lost in the multitude of detail usually put into heavier electronic music. But even most dubstep I’ve listened to has nothing on the snare in Crazy. It’s the kind of snare that has such an impact that you can almost feel it breaking into your skull and traveling through your whole body. In spite of that, the clean crispness of it is the kind that you would hear in a small, tight hip hop snare, where there’s no congestion or reverb. There is absolutely no buzz or crunchiness at all, and yet it’s more brutal than any other snare I’ve ever heard in any genre of music, ever. I can honestly say with no reservation that, to me, Crazy holds the purest, most audibly-satisfying, most refined percussion sample I’ve ever heard in any song, in my entire life. And that’s just scratching the surface of what makes Crazy so good. In addition to the slow, hardcore, head-banging beat, you have one of the most gorgeous pre-choruses in all of K-pop--somehow smoothly cutting out any trace of hardness and replacing it with a sweet, soft, melancholy i-III-iv-VI-VII build that could drive any pop fan wild. The transitions from the verse, to the build, to the chorus, is the opposite of jarring, ony hitting you with any sort of crude impact at the point that it counts most: the destructive arrival of the chorus. And when I say destructive, it’s almost literal, as it opens with an intense glass-breaking sound effect. The chorus is when it goes all out with the genre it’s tackling, with the heavy beat making a roaring return; this time in tandem with a dirty, erratic, double harmonic trumpet riff; deep, foreboding, trombone-like brass; eerie, high-pitched string stabs; and confident, charismatic chanting from the ladies as they spell out the song’s title. And did I mention the snares? Unfortunately, in spite of its blockbuster success, Crazy was the beginning of the end for 4Minute, as contract renewal issues started soon after. The death of 4Minute did, thankfully, bring about the birth of CLC, who inherited the hard-edged trap sound in 2017 with Hobgoblin (#64 in the countdown), but to this day, Crazy is in a totally different league from almost every other K-pop banger out there, and through it, 4Minute managed to leave a pretty sizable dent in the second generation K-pop industry.
Red Light Posted December 22, 2019 Author Posted December 22, 2019 (edited) THAT'S IT! Time for the final recap before the finale tomorrow night! Spoiler Spoiler Girls' Generation are now the only artist remaining that have 2 songs (Afterschool and Girl's Day only had 2 to start out with, which is why it looks like they have more health than they actually do). Statistically speaking, that means they have more chance of winning tomorrow night, although that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Any predictions about the winner? Edited December 22, 2019 by Red Light
Red Light Posted December 23, 2019 Author Posted December 23, 2019 Postponing the finale to tomorrow night on account of the fact that I don't feel like it.
The Destiny Hope Posted December 23, 2019 Posted December 23, 2019 2 hours ago, Red Light said: Postponing the finale to tomorrow night on account of the fact that I don't feel like it. Good because I need to finish going through 30-current while gaming right now and I am SAD because I got stood up today Please mention me when the finale starts!!!
Red Light Posted December 24, 2019 Author Posted December 24, 2019 Getting started in 20 minutes. Just gonna shamelessly tag some people tonight. @K$Ellie @Hug @Harranger @minho @Me & My Hits @The Destiny Hope And some people I remember commenting in my rates before: @Vilppu @Antunes @Beyonnaise Again, the survivors are: Spoiler This is it!
K$Ellie Posted December 24, 2019 Posted December 24, 2019 Crazy is a bop but I'm fine with it missing the top 10 Abracadabra and I Like It, the two back to back classics Good Night isn't necessarily one of my faves from Dreamcatcher tbh Up & Down and Ice Cream Cake are legendary the f(x) and GFriend sings are cute too x Perched to see which LooN/A song made the top 10
Red Light Posted December 24, 2019 Author Posted December 24, 2019 The fact that I can't edit the OP and it looks like I stopped at round 4 is really starting to **** with me.
Red Light Posted December 24, 2019 Author Posted December 24, 2019 #10. Spoiler ^Epilepsy warning if you watch the video. Wow. After all these years, it’s finally time to write my tribute to Sugar Free. It’s silly, but it’s kind of surreal that I finally have the opportunity to do this. As we enter the top 10, these songs start to feel so important and so essential that, over the years, they’ve morphed from merely being my favorite songs to feeling more like simple aspects of my personality and life in general, transfused into my DNA. Is it obvious yet that I take stupid, manufactured, uninspired pop music way too seriously? Yet another example of why I consider 2014 my favorite year in K-pop, Sugar Free is, in my opinion, Shinsadong Tiger’s master creation. With songs like Roly-Poly and Sexy Love being Shinsadong’s signature sound, the tweaking of the same formula in this brutal dance smash makes Sugar Free, in essence, the evil twin. With songs like the demented I Go Crazy Because of You (#22), the neurotic Number 9, and the mournful Do You Know Me, T-ara had long been the queens of moody electropop. But, in 2014, they completely eclipsed all of their past work, making their preceding material feel like little more than foreshadowing. Indeed, Sugar Free practically feels like the absolute height of EDM in K-pop--the heaviest and most intense boundary the genre can draw towards without veering off into total industrial or screamo. With its massive, eardrum-rupturing bass kick; urgent electro-house tempo; and dark, distorted synth leads; Sugar Free is big in every sense of the word. For the big room dance break at the beginning, Shinsadong basically steals from his own work, copying the synth riff from the previous year’s Number 9 and giving it a bleak makeover. The verses might as well be nonexistent--quiet as a mouse, only existing to build additional tension for the monstrous choruses and offer brief reprieves between the delirious pre-choruses. The pre-choruses are truly a work of art, and might just take the crown for being my favorite of the decade. Whereas most K-EDM pre-choruses act as a calm before the storm to make the choruses more climactic, Sugar Free goes in the opposite direction: the choruses are going to sound monstrous no matter what, so the searingly tense i-iiø⁷-IIIᵃᵈᵈ⁶-v⁷ˢᵘˢ⁴-VI-V/i pre-choruses dutifully build the hype and energy to make the track flow as smoothly as possible. While the verses are melodically and sonically dull, and the pre-choruses are melodically urgent but still spacious in sound, the choruses are cathartic, emotional, and unbelievably dense, pulling out every single stop available in their artillery: gothic, pumping basslines; psychotic, trancey synth pads; wailing, emotional vocals; and, of course, the trademark sharp, heavy percussion. The beautiful i-VII-VI-III-VII-V/i chord progression is simultaneously euphoric and tragic, with the suspenseful half step from D to D# between the last two chords sounding positively dire. Such dramatic chords tied with the dark soundscapes make Sugar Free one of the most intense, hardcore K-pop songs ever released; rivaled only by a similarly aggressive electro-house song released a few months earlier, Red Light. Unfortunately, Sugar Free doesn’t really do anything to top itself in the last act. The bridge reprises a cool, vaguely middle eastern-sounding synth melody originally used as a build to the big room dance break at the beginning, but the reprisal never goes anywhere except a basic recycled third chorus with no additional bells or whistles. I personally would have recycled the big room break, maybe with some extra bass wobbles, and then changed key for the third chorus. Maybe I’ll actually get around to doing my own instrumental rendition on FL Studio one day. Why Shinsadong didn’t at least recycle the big room break before the last chorus is beyond me. For this lack of a crucial cherry on top, the song loses major points. And yet, even with major points lost, the melodic makeup and sound engineering is so outstanding that Sugar Free and the infamous T-ara still manage to find their way into my top 10. The good totally outweighs and overpowers the bad to the point of being pretty much irrelevant, in the grand scheme of things. Who knows? Maybe Shinsadong knew that Sugar Free with a proper climax would be just too powerful for humans to handle.
Red Light Posted December 24, 2019 Author Posted December 24, 2019 #9. Spoiler Before the mainstream had even heard of a music style called “Deep house,” Afterschool had already tried it, mastered it, released it, and created the best possible exemplar that would ever come out of the genre. Shh, in my opinion, is what all deep house should aspire to be: Lush, dreamy, atmospheric, loungey, and hypnotic. Along with tracks like LOONA’s venture in literal dream-pop with Loonatic (#28), Shh is undoubtedly among the dreamiest, and outright trippiest, pieces of music to have ever come courtesy of a K-pop girl group. In fact, my mom, who knows nothing about this music and has no interest in K-pop, remarked upon my playing it in the car for the first time that it sounded like it came from outer space. And that’s all thanks to the genius Shinichi Osawa (who also composed Shh’s equally excellent sister track on the Dress to Kill album, Heaven), who made Shh one of the most immaculately produced K-pop songs of all time. It’s minimalistic in the most extravagant way possible: The 808 drum kick is tiny, but loaded with low-end bass; the handclaps are light, but never get drowned out in the rest of the instrumental; the vocals are soft, breathy, and understated, which lend in giving the track a dissociated, robotic tone; and to top it off, the hooks aren’t terribly catchy or instantly memorable for a pop song. Altogether, it comes out as nothing short of a miracle that Shh was ever released in the first place. But, the producer knew where the track’s strengths would lie, and the overall downplaying of all the typical pop fundamentals make it possible for Shh to emphasize its assets: The rest of the soundscape is positively inundated with a candyland of different bass plucks and synth squelches. Thus, Shh isn’t an addictive pop song because of the hooks or the beat, but because of the superb sound quality. Every sound stem is engineered with the utmost love and care; every last morsel of sonic minutia is polished, arranged, and mixed to total perfection. The end result is one of the most luxurious listening experiences you can find in all of pop music, with enough shimmering production detail to make even the snobbiest of audiophiles purr. Apart from the sound quality, Shh has an impeccable structure, never stagnating in one spot for too long and progressively building and fleshing itself out until the very end. The simple repetitive bassline prevalent for most of the instrumental never gets boring or overdone, which is an even more incredible feat, considering Shh has a running time of almost five minutes. And the reason it never gets old is all thanks to the production structure--the song progresses in a way that it’s almost like a tutorial, starting off with the bare bones of the main bassline, and continually stacking more and more synths, harmonies, hi-hats, claps, and accompanying basslines until finally, a whole song is presented. Every bar is a deliberation in teasing the listener and roping them in, like it’s strategically pressing you deeper and deeper into sonic quicksand. The subdued, monotonous first verse sounds uncannily similar to the stock house music you’d hear playing in the background of a professional ****, and oddly enough, it fits the vibe that Shh is going for quite well. The faint, repetitive thumping emulates the feeling of chilling out in a dark lounge, just enough to add a certain ambience to the room but not sounding fully present. The minimalism in the production gives the instrumental a strange “Bubbling under the surface” quality that I’ve never heard in any other pop song. Then, once you get to the actual “Shh shh shh shh shh shh shh” pre-chorus, the song totally mutates. The crescending synth tones are programmed in an unusual offbeat way that creates a sort of polyrhythmic effect, which suddenly makes the song extremely disorienting. Everything from here on out defines off-kilter, and this is when Shh really starts to blossom. A breathy falsetto that sounds like a couple of angels from hell leads into the first chorus, whereupon Shh finally starts to somewhat resemble a (albeit very weird) pop song: The choruses burst into lush, hazy fever dreams of catchy synth lines and slightly more conventional chord progressions, surging with a much higher energy than the rest of the track and thus providing a satisfying contrast. Without the gushing, melodic delirium of the choruses, Shh would pretty much be a terrible song. The choruses are like three strategically placed oases, designed to revitalize the mood and refresh the listener’s perspective of the song, making it possible to truly appreciate the sleepy mystique of the verses. It’s as though the instrumental is continuously being injected with equal doses of fire and ice, balancing itself out in order to maintain the perfect temperature. And then in the aftermath of the first and last choruses comes my favorite part--a brief, squelchy, post-chorus synth riff in the fashion of Shinsadong Tiger-penned tracks, retriggering the trippy polyrhythmic feeling on a much grander scale than before. Of all the brief “Detours” that K-pop instrumentals frequently make, Shh by far owns my favorite--and this factor on top of every other fine-tuned inner working going on in the loopy five minutes in heaven known as Shh was more than enough to push it to the immensely respectable position of #9 in my favorite K-pop songs of the decade.
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