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Monday, August 17, 2015

A Pink 에이핑크 @ Han Love cut (Japanese show)

I've watched this last year and looked for this again because I love A Pink!



Han Love is a Japanese show featuring Korean artists. As part of Japanese "NoNoNo" promotions, A Pink got on this show to tell us a different side of the members away from the stage! I particularly enjoyed the segment when the rest of the members had to say something about a member in question. As human beings they are, I superbly adore the quirks of each member! In the end, no matter the shortcomings of each member, it ended with a shoutout of "we love you!". That was so heartwarming to see.

So I learnt that Na Eun is an indecisive Damsel, gets upset easily and can be... weird. Eun Ji has bad habits of singing habitually (even in the night!) and reluctance to get up in the morning, a known fact that's just repeated in the show.

So far, I could only find Chinese subs for the show. Apology for that.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

A tribute to MoA's K-pop covers



I'm reading my old posts to look at the memories I've shared. I've previously written about reuploading of MoA's K-pop and J-pop covers by her loyal fans, and one comment mentioned about her exceptional cover of 2NE1's "Lonely".

In my previous post, I mentioned about MoA's Lonely cover contest controversy that ended her English covers of Asian pop songs. In fact, the video above was MoA's entry for the cover contest that brought an end to her K-pop covers. Many thought that it was unfair for MoA to enter the contest given that she has been singing professionally as a member of First Aid Kit.

There is no replacement for her passionate voice. I can only say, RIP to her awesome covers of my favourite songs.



Sunday, August 9, 2015

Minx's Love Shake reminds me of Girl's Day, here's why

I had been following K-pop for 5 years now. Wow, five years! The first time I heard of Girls' Generation's Gee and Wonder Girls's Nobody, Korean was an alien language to me. I didn't understand a single word. All I knew was the catchy and repetitive Gee gee gee gee baby baby and Nobody nobody but 'chu. The rest of the song were jumbled up and random syllables.

Down the road, I made an effort to learn the basics of the language and trust me, it really paid off. I'm now able to distinguish syllables in a song, as well as getting the main idea of the song though common words found in lyrics. I'm now able to speak a few isolated words in Korean (Yay!)

At first I was into Girls' Generation. With the help of English K-pop news sites, I got to know Secret, then Girl's Day, and more idol groups.

I was in love with Girl's Day since their Hug Me Once era. The catchy tune and cute vibe drawn me and I love them more each day.



Watching live performances of Hug Me Once on music shows was even more incredible. The girls always look cute on stage!

Hug Me Once M/V


I am so in love with the Girl's Day that I started digging their previous songs. Oh, please ignore their awful debut song.

Twinkle Twinkle M/V


And releases after Hug Me Once

Don't Flirt or Don't Let Your Eyes Wander


Don't Forget Me


Starting from Expectation and Female President, Girl's Day started to get sexy which I'm not really into. Nevertheless, the songs are still good and suits them well.

Since then I did not see cute comebacks from Girl's Day. I really miss the time when Girl's Day was cute!



A few years later, I saw rookie group MINX performing Love Shake. Not only was Love Shake catchy but I was struck by its resemblance to previous work of Girl's Day. Some viewers share my sentiment that MINX reminds of Girl's Day doing cute concepts.



I looked for song credits and found out that Love Shake is composed by Nam Ki Sang - that led to my very own eureka moment! Turned out Nam Ki Sang also composed the big hits of Girl's Day Twinkle Twinkle, Hug Me Once and Don't Let Your Eyes Wander. Female President and Expectation included, all of these songs contain DNA from Nam Ki Sang. The cute songs from Mr. Nam have these in common: an overly cutesy tone and high notes suitable for decent vocalists.

Nam Ki Sang is one of my favourite composer who got me more interested in K-pop with his sugary tracks. I must thank Girl's Day for doing a good job but I mustn't forget Mr. Nam for coming up with good songs!

One last note, a composer must find the right singer for a song to be a hit. I did listen to Dal Shabet's version - strikingly, the lyrics and background vocal are identical, but I feel that Love Shake is made for Minx because they pulled it off in a much better fashion.