[July 4, 2010] SBS Inkigayo Highlights + Commentary

Can you believe this is only the fourth time I've written a recap for Inki? Thank goodness the sound today wasn't as crap as usual. It was still bad, but we've all experienced worse so this is good enough. A lot of surprising observations today, even I was a little surprised that I think those. I'll stop blabbing now and get to the performances.


YT credit goes to CrazyCarrot350.

Miss A - Bad Girl Good Girl (review)
Could this be, am I starting to like Miss A? As performers, yes - the vocals, the stage presence and everything about how they perform is great - but in terms of the material, it's still a no. They're miles better than the other rookie girl group though, and I expect big things from them - better material, for a start.

Infinite - Come Back Again (review)
I believe I said a while back that there's probably only one guy who can sing (based on this single) and he's only good enough to be in 2PM (vocally). Well apparently he's not as consistent as I'd like him to be, and there's another guy who did quite well today - I'll pinpoint and tell you who it is once I learn their names for heaven's sake! Same observations - tight choreography, but crap vocals. If all they care about is dancing, then might as well be backup dancers, not singers.

Sistar - Push Push (review)
I now realize the luxury and value of training with a big three company. You look at how slick Miss A are with their nice costumes, tight choreography and practiced vocals, and then you look at SISTAR - what a big big difference. In some band's cases it doesn't matter where they're signed to and who they trained with, but in the case of these two bands, it matters. They look fun and all, but they don't have sophistication. Not necessarily in how they look, but more in how they move and take the stage - in Filipino they have too much of what you call "kuwela". That's not a good thing.

Orange Caramel - Magic Girl (review. kinda.)
The excessive cuteness of everything, the fanboy screams and the orange (fruit)-print boots really annoyed me today - I've had enough of Orange Caramel. Bring on the next After School sub-unit please - I beg you, Pledis. I'll go down on both knees if I have to.

MBLAQ - Y
Holy crap they actually sounded a tiny, mili-whatever bit better today. Not anywhere near good yet, but let's just say that a certain second favorite girl group of mine were at this stage once, and look at what they've become. Sometimes I think I give off the impression that I don't want these bands to be good singers and I hate them with a passion and all, but in reality I don't - I really, really wanna like majority of them, it's just that they're really not good enough for me. We'll see what kind of band MBLAQ turn into.

4Minute - I My Me Mine
4Minute are starting to get less and less annoying in terms of vocals, and because of that their vocals actually sound like vocals now, not some confused cross between rapping and singing. Hurrah. I like Cube Entertainment, at least their acts are good performers and they're trying to be good singers. Give me a single better than Huh, and I might just like you girls.

Taeyang - I Need A Girl with GD + You're My(review)
Taeyang's boring me more and more as the days go by, I'm really sorry. The chorus is the band kind of anti-climatic, and the fact that the song doesn't really go anywhere makes it worse. I do like the nice piano loop - it's very sophisticated - but that's it. I'll stick with the recording, thank you very much.

Super Junior - No Other
Yay Leetuek isn't flashing his creepy smile for 90% of the song anymore. Or did the cameraman watch the other 2 performances and deliberately not zoom in on Teuk when he was all creepy? Sorry, I couldn't resist. I'll keep my mouth shut now. Out of the three performances this weekend, I like this one the best. Maybe it's coz I like their outfits, the backdrop looks really sophisticated and surprisingly, there were hardly any slip-ups in terms of vocals. I think I'm getting used to the whole idea of this single. As long as Leeteuk doesn't look like a creep, they dress nicely, and they have good vocals - it might just grow on me.

CN Blue - Love(WINNER)
The drummer isn't that far from the band today compared to yesterday's blasphemy, but HE'S STILL TOO FAR. Don't give me the "he's too loud" excuse because I won't buy it. The rest of the band not only has to hear the drummer but feel the rhythm - WHAT ELSE DO YOU THINK A FRIGGIN' DRUMMER IS FOR, HUH? DISPLAY? Ughhh. The drummer is the single most important part of a live performance because he dictates the speed and pace of the entire thing - without him they'll fall apart. But moving on, it's a catchy song, and other guy finally has a name - Jonghyun! Hahah. So I look Jonghyun's vocals better than Yonghwa's, I can now formally declare that. I'd say they're worthy of their win today - triple crown, perhaps?

[July 3, 2010] MBC Music Core Highlights + Commentary

I honestly really hope I live to see the light of an Inki recap tomorrow. But that's in the future - this is the present. MuCore today was surprisingly OK sound-wise. It wasn't spectacular, but it wasn't crap like before. Yayyy.

Taeyang made his "comeback" with a three-song suite, and Miss A debuted. But where in the world was D-NA today? The week I comeback is the week they don't perform on MuCore. *pouts* Oh well.


YT credit goes to CrazyCarrot250. I'll update once a video of the CN Blue performance comes out.

Miss A - Bad Girl
During certain parts of the song, especially the beginning, I found it hard to believe that they weren't miming, but as they started getting tired with all that dancing, they were clearly singing live. I really do commend them for one, actually having vocals and two, attempting to sing live with that kind of routine - it takes a lot of guts and backing from your agency to do that. Plus, they were actually pretty good vocally. That takes talent - either you have it or you don't, and they do. The song is kinda bleh, but at least they've got the skill.

Infinite - Come Back Again (review)
Infinite confuse me. I was watching their cover of this Chris Brown song the other day and they weren't half bad, so why were they OK there and crap here? It could be the song, or it could be the singing and dancing at the same time, but seriously, they sounded like an absolute train wreck today. Oh well. *sigh*

Sistar - Push Push (review)
SISTAR are no match for Miss A - I'm making them rivals right now. LOL. Seriously, these girls look so lazy compared to the new JYP group. Yeah, one of them can sing and one of them raps (how well, I have no idea), but the song sucks and the other two girls are like backup dancers, pretty faces or whatever.

Orange Caramel - Magic Girl (review. kinda.)
This song is starting to seriously get on my nerves now. Vocals are decent for the kind of song it is, and at least they don't look like Cabbage Patch Kids or anything like that anymore, but I'm just not in the mood right now to see three girls frolic around stage singing about sweets and stuff.

MBLAQ - Y
When you mute the performance you'd think MBLAQ are a pretty OK boyband - slick choreography and tight delivery, they really look like performers. But then the minute you turn the sound back on, it's like "what the crap is this horrific scene I'm watching?" I tried to like you guys, MBLAQ, I really did, but I'm afraid it's still a no.

4Minute - I My Me Mine
The slick-er outfits plus the better vocals helped make the performance a little more decent today and the song is bearable now, BUT I LIKED HUH BETTER. *sobs* Well I guess this is better than them doing a complete change.

Taeyang -Solar + I Need A Girl with GD + Just a Feeling
I'm not a big Taeyang fan, and I don't think I will be for a while. I want to like him, I really do, but nothing ever turns out right when it comes to the guy. I liked the intro (Solar), but I Need A Girl kinda just went on and on and on for me that I was begging for it to please end. The performance bored me, and probably the only part I actually liked was when GD came out and made everything lively again. Just A Feeling was better over-all, and I think the tempo helped, but his voice cracked towards the end. I always thought Taeyang was the performer in Big Bang along with GD, but I don't think he can do it on his own just yet.

Super Junior - No Other
SERIOUSLY. Leeteuk freaks me out enough on regular days, but now he just has to start smiling like a creep. Sorry, non-ELF here. (I'm NOT a hater! ugh.) My tentative theory is apparently true, No Other is more of fan service. But I'm not a fan. I mean the song itself is pretty decent, nothing to rave about, but bearable - it's the performance that makes me cringe. Kyuhyun seems to be enjoying himself though - his vocals had some soul today. Yay.

Best of 2009: August #6 - #3

August is the month with the least number of entries. Awww.

#6: Jade Ewen - My Man

Before she joined the Sugababes and caused chaos throughout British music, she was Britain's entry to the Eurovision song contest and later launched a solo career. To a certain extent My Man was good and had the potential to be big or bring Jade to greatness but there's still something missing from this song. I like the chorus though. LOL.

#5: Samantha Jade - Secret

Samantha Jade is right beside the Cassies and the Prima Js of the world - a few singles out here and there, leaks but no album and hardly any promotion. Sad, really, because Samantha Jade has leaked some brilliant songs over the years. Secret may be too close to Britney for comfort but at least Samantha has some semblance of a voice. Not outstanding, but good enough.

#4: G-Dragon - Breathe

Breathe was probably the only song off Heartbreaker that I didn't condemn to the deep recesses of my music library after the first listen - you could say that I liked it to a certain extent. So when it became a single I just had to say it - for the nth time I predicted a post-album release single and I seem to be doing it a lot for kpop albums. Don't kill me for what I'm about to say though. A while back I discovered exactly why G-Dragon is as popular as he is and why he appeals to so many people - it startled me.

So I was listening to Breathe one day in between classes and then obviously I put it away when my class (I believe it was Chemistry) started but I couldn't get it out of my head so I started humming it. Then it hit me - the melody of Breathe sounds like a song for an advertisement or a novelty song, the only difference is that it was processed and put on top of a techno-y loop, something people equate to 'chic' or something to that effect. But strip off the fancy computer-generated crap and you have the same cheap melody. Nothing special, nothing different, it's a hit and that's what hits are - glorified novelty songs.

#3: Mya - Paradise (Ryan Leslie Remix)

Gone are Mya's golden days when it comes to popularity but I honestly thought that Paradise was a pretty good single. It took this piano-centric remix to make me adore it though. It's got a nice groove and I LOVE the real drums on this song - gives the entire thing a new twist.

G-Dragon - Heartbreaker

Finally, a review of a recent K-pop song! Let's take a moment to celebrate. *jumps around*

OK, on to business.I will sum up this review before I give my in-depth review - I don't like this song.

Putting aside all prejudice including the fact that it's being speculated to be a direct copy of some American rapper's single, there are a few things that make this song not good in my books. G-Dragon may have written some of my favorite Big Bang songs and the simple fact that he writes songs for the effin' band may have made me deeply respect the guy's creativity but this song has all the wrong elements.

The whole song, backbeat in particular, sounds too much like something Britney or some washed-up popstar turned drug addict would never get enough of. If this was done the right way by someone who knows what he's doing I wouldn't have a problem with the song - it's just that this sounds like a really desperate attempt to imitate American pop.

The verses are repetitive to the point of bang-in-your-head until you start bleeding which can be a good thing if you're Super Junior and you know the difference between a good melody and one or two notes badly repeated over the course of three minutes put on top of an overused loop.

The songs I want from Korea aren't the American copycats because I'd rather listen to the real stuff, I want the songs that I can identify as Korean the minute I hear the music even without lyrics.

The one good thing about this song is that throughout most of the song he's singing. One good point - I commend the guy. hahah.

It all boils down to the fact that if you don't know what the crap you're doing - it will sound cheap, generic and people will find nothing special in it. At least I won't and I'm a moderately tough critic to please - I know if a song was made by someone musical or an amateur.

I'm not saying G-Dragon's an amateur musician because in his defense, my favorite Big Bang songs have mostly been written by the guy - he has talent. I think the case here is that he isn't in his element but seeing the progress he's made with Big Bang, I'd give him a few more months of doing this and he'd have aced the art of repetitive but not annoying songs.

I've heard the so-called 'K-pop sound' and I know what songs from Korea generally sound like - this does not fit into the category. Yes, it may be in Korean but that's not my only basis because I judge on a purely musical level.

However, I do sort of like the song at the end of the video - haven't heard it in full yet but that's what I'm looking for from the guy.

2/5 - He can do better, I know he can and he SHOULD.