Tuesday, December 31, 2013

K-pop Girl groups ~ My Top 20 Songs for 2013 (No. 6 - No. 1)

This is the final part for my 2013 favourite K-pop songs from female groups in which you will finally find out the Top 6 songs in the chart. If you missed the first part where I listed number 20 until number 14, you can click here. For part 2 (number 13 until number 7), please click here. Ready to find out which song hold the top spot?

6) Nine Muses ~ Wild


To be honest, I'm not really interested in this group before. The group which currently consists of 9 members; Hyuna, Minha, Lee Sem, Sera, Kyungri, Hyemi, Sungah, Eunji and Euaerin; finally caught my attention with the release of Wild, a fast-paced and energetic song about love and sexual desires. I love Wild, I think the vocal performance was good and overall I really like the song especially the rap parts. The group is very active with several other songs released in 2013. I'm a new fan of the group and I hope they will gain more recognition in the future as I feel they are a very talented bunch.

Wild MV


5) Jewelry ~ Hot & Cold


Despite currently being the longest running Korean girl group with more than two members ever, I'm still unfamiliar with the group's past songs. I think I did heard some of them before but I'm totally clueless or didn't noticed the rest of them. However, Hot & Cold managed to surprise me with its great tune and great vocal performance by the current members; Eunjung, Baby J, Semi and Yewon. I like its funny music video too which featured label mate Hyung Sik, one of the member from ZE:A. I think I should pay more attention to Jewelry after this.

Hot & Cold MV


4) Sistar19 ~ Gone Not Around Any Longer


Sistar19 is a sub-unit of Sistar with members Hyolyn and Bora headlining the group. Gone Not Around Any Longer was released early in 2013 but I must say, the song is still fresh in my mind. It is a well-written song with strong melody and powerful vocal performance and just absolutely a great song. The voice of Hyolyn in the song blew my mind away. How come I didn't noticed her powerful voice before? But I bet a lot of people already know this since I always read comments praising her voice before. I have to admit though that this song sounded more like a Hyolyn song rather than a Sistar19 song. I feel Bora should be more involed in the song as well since this is a sub-group of two and not a solo project.

Gone Not Around Any Longer MV

Sunday, December 29, 2013

K-pop Girl groups ~ My Top 20 Songs for 2013 (No. 13 - No. 7)

Welcome to part two of my K-pop chart featuring my 2013 top 20 songs from K-pop girl groups. In part one, I've already listed out songs from number 20 until 14. If you missed it, you can find it by clicking here. For this second part, I have listed the songs from number 13 until number 7. What songs would they be? Scroll down to find out. Hope you enjoy it!

13) AOA Black ~ Moya


As I mentioned in my first part for the chart, AOA has an idol division and a band division. At number 13 is the song Moya from the band division, AOA Black. Comprised of Choa, Jimin, Yuna, Mina and Youkyoung, the group performed the song while playing musical instruments. Although Moya doesn't have catchy lyrics or addictive beat that usually associated with K-pop music, I still like it very much as I found it simple and unique, and I'm also impressed with the vocal performance from the group, especially from the member Choa. It's very rare for K-pop female groups to have their members playing musical instuments and performed as a band rather than a normal dance group, that is why I'm impressed with the concept that the company is doing for this group. Vey impressive indeed.

Moya MV


12) 4Minute ~ What's Your Name?


4Minute, which consists of Jihyun, Gayoon, Jiyoon, Hyuna and Sohyun, has lots of great, ear-pleasing hits under their belt. "Muzik", "HuH", "I My Me Mine" and "Volume Up" are all great songs from the group. And for 2013, What's Your Name? would definitely be added to the list as one of the group's best effort. Topping various music charts when it was released, the hip hop influenced song became one of the most well-received song for the group. The music would definitely makes you want to dance to the tune, and I also love the fact that the song suited the fun and funky image of the group as well. Bravo 4Minute!

What's Your Name? MV


11) T-ara N4 ~ Jeon Won Diary


T-ara N4 is a sub-unit for T-ara with Eunjung, Hyomin, Jiyeon and Areum as the members (Areum had officially left the group and a new member, Dani, will replaced her but only in the sub-unit T-ara N4 and not for T-ara). Jeon Won Diary is such an energetic and fun song but judging from the lyrics, it seems that the song was the group's response to haters regarding the controversies that had been clouded T-ara since 2012. Although I think there is no statement to back that up and it might all be just a coincidence, when you study the lyrics it does seems possible that the song is their response to all that had happened to them. Controversy aside, I still think Jeon Won Diary is a great song and no one can argue that T-ara continuously delivers when it comes to great music.

Jeon Won Diary MV

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

K-pop Girl groups ~ My Top 20 Songs for 2013 (No. 20 - No. 14)

This end of the year would be all about K-pop music (or Korean pop music for those who are unfamiliar with the term) as I would count down my favourite K-pop songs from female group for 2013. I started this K-pop chart last year when I listed down my favourite K-pop female group for 2012 based on the songs they had released.  But for this year, I would do the chart a little bit different as I would list down my top 20 favourite K-pop songs from female groups instead of counting down the groups themselves. Originally I only want to do Top 13 (as I thought Top 13 of 2013 sounds cool) but there are so many songs that I like that I feel I need to do Top 20 instead. The chart would be separated in 3 parts and for this first part, let's start with number 20 until number 14. Let's begin!

20) AOA ~ Confused


This group which debuted in 2012 is kind of unique because 7 of the members (Choa, Jimin, Yuna, Mina, Hyejeong, Seolhyun and Chanmi) are in the idol group while at the same time 4 of them (Choa, Jimin, Yuna and Mina) including one additional member (Youkyoung) also formed the band division (there are all 8 members altogether). The song Confused are performed by the idol division and was released back in October 2013. I like the song's tune especially the chorus which was quite catchy. The music video has a sexy concept and seductive feel to it and eventhough I don't have any problem with the music video, I feel that it might not be too good for the younger viewers.

Confused MV


19) Tahiti ~ Love Sick


Another group who debuted in 2012 is the six-member group Tahiti, which consists of members Jungbin, Minjae, Miso, Jisoo, Ari and Jin. For the song Love Sick though, Jin was taken out from promotioning the song as the concept for this album was deemed unfit for her age. Love Sick is a good song, however it sounds too similar to Potential Breakup Song from Aly and AJ which makes me guessing that their company purchased the copyright for the song and made a cover version of it. I'm not sure about it since I didn't find anything that state this but considering they hadn't had any trouble like so many Korean artists in the past who were accused of plagiarism before, so I guess they did made the copyright purchased after all. Anyway, it's still a great song and I'm looking forward for more music from the group.

Love Sick MV


18) BESTie ~ Love Options


Eventhough the four-member group BESTie debuted in 2013, three of its members were originally from the group EXID, so it's safe to say that the group are not entirely new to the industry. Consists of UJi, Hyeyeon, Haeryung and Dahye, Love Options was only their second single. It's an energetic song with upbeat tempo and great vocals which hooked me immediately after my first time hearing the song. Although Love Options is a pop commercial song, it does showcased the group's strong vocals and presence (in the music video) which I feel will help them garnered more fans.

Love Options MV


17) Tiny-G ~ Minimanimo


I had post about this group before which you can find it here. I'm such in love with this song that it got stuck in my head for weeks. Released in the beginning of the year, Minimanimo is a cute and catchy song which I think would catch people's attention even without seeing the cheerful and coulourful music video that comes with it. Members J.Min, Mint, Do Hee and Myeong Ji definitely have strong stage presence even being physically small. I feel Tiny-G is one of the new group which has such a huge potential to be big and hopefully that's where they are heading.

Minimanimo MV