5 ~ Stellar: Marionette
Group: Stellar
Track: Marionette
Members: Gayoung, Minhee, Hyoeun, Junyool
Watch Marionette MV here!
When the music video for this song was released back in February 2014, it caused quite a controversy with it's sexy, 19+ concept. Yes, the music video is age-restricted in YouTube. While there are many other groups that use sexy concept for their music video as well, maybe Stellar went a bit too far with their clothing (or lack of it), scenes and choreography. I have to admit, there are few scenes in the music video that I feel were unnecessary, while the choreography was a bit awkward with its "scratching" and "grabbing" moves. It's a shame that the music video took all the attention away from the song because the song itself is great. It's catchy and has a good beat to it, and the lyrics are quite good too, talking about being used and dragged around by someone like a "marionette". It's not fair to blame it all on the girls, since the concept idea might not even come from them. I hope that in 2015, they will release more good songs like Marionette but tune down a bit on the sexiness. They are already beautiful, so I don't think we need them to flaunt more than they need to.
4 ~ AOA: Miniskirt
Group: AOA
Track: Miniskirt
Members: Choa, Jimin, Yuna, Mina, Chanmi, Hyejeong, Seolhyun
Watch Miniskirt MV here!
I've mentioned that there are other groups that use sexy concept for their music videos too, right? Well, AOA is one of them. But they are quite popular, so I guess their level of sexiness is acceptable to the mainstream audience. As for me, I'm all about the songs. No matter how flattering or sexy they are, if the song is not good, then it's a no for me. Luckily Miniskirt is a great song, hence it landed on number four in my list. Miniskirt is a song about how a girl dress to impress a guy but the guy didn't even notice her. I've looked up the lyrics translation and one of the line is somewhat translated like this, "I'm so sexy, even if I don't show skin". It's a bit ironic if you asked me since the girls show quite a lot of skin in the music video. Nevertheless, I love AOA (my favourite member is Choa by the way) and I love Miniskirt too. I wish they continue to gain success with their careers and become one of the most fearsome girl groups in the K-pop music industry, because with the momentum that they are having now, I can totally see that happen.
3 ~ EXID: Up & Down
Group: EXID
Track: Up & Down
Members: LE, Solji, Hani, Junghwa, Hyerin
Watch Up & Down MV here!
I love this song so much! If it wasn't for the late addition of the number two song, then Up & Down would have been the runner-up in this chart instead. I do have a bit of a problem with the music video though. It has colourful settings and the overall video looks very nice, but it has too many sex allusions in it that manage to somehow made me uncomfortable while watching it. I'm not sure if it's intentional, or am I the one with the dirty mind??? Usually for K-pop videos, I only watched the music video itself, but I love the choreography for this song too, and since the music video didn't show the full choreography, I did a little search for their dance practice video. I sure glad I did that because the dance video was great too. The girls were amazing! You can click here if you want to watch it too (the dance moves might not be suitable for minors though, so you might want to skip it if you are viewing this with minors). Side note: I think I have a crush on Solji somehow. XD
2 ~ Purfles: 1, 2, 3
Group: Purfles
Track: 1, 2, 3
Members: Gun Hee, Eun Yong, Woo Young
Watch 1, 2, 3 MV here!
Runner-up for this chart goes to a new group, for their debut song no less! These girls truly impressed me a lot with their debut. The song is upbeat and catchy, while the vocal performances are amazing. I had watched few of their live performances on music shows as well and I must say they are great on stage too, very entertaining and full of energy. Who would have thought a newly-debut group to be this great? Furthermore, I kind of like the lyrics to the song. It is basically about these girls scolding their girlfriend to forget about her guy after being treated badly by him. It's fun to learn what the lyrics are about, I appreciate that it's something different than your straight-forward song about love. Based on the view count for this music video in YouTube, I bet there are a lot more K-pop or music fans in general that haven't been introduced to them yet, which is a shame since they sound really great. I almost missed them too if not for some of the commentators in other K-pop videos mentioning about them. If you are one of those people that haven't heard of them, then do watch their music video, I'm sure you would be impressed too (well, hopefully you will). Do you know what else I noticed? It's that people that watched their videos are interested in the back-up dancers as well. I don't think it's common for people to notice the back-up dancers for these K-pop groups, but people did pay attention for this one. It's a good thing though because it shows people appreciates their contribution too.
1 ~ T-ara: Sugar Free
Group: T-ara
Track: Sugar Free
Members: Qri, Eunjung, Soyeon, Boram, Hyomin, Jiyeon
Watch Sugar Free MV here!
The number one song goes to Sugar Free from T-ara! This is a song that you can shake your body to because the beat is really, really fun and cool. To be honest, quite a few of their songs do make me want to stand up and dance like Bo Peep Bo Peep, Yayaya, Roly-Poly and Sexy Love. Sugar Free is a dance song (or should I say "Big Room" electro-house type of song, because that was what it was influenced by if I'm not mistaken) with hard beats and awesome choreography, not to mention it is a very addictive song as well. I don't really like the music video that much apart from the dance choreography, too many quick-cuts and flash of lights that made me kind of dizzy while watching it. I also don't understand why the song has so many music videos. I think altogether it has three versions? Nevertheless, it is still a great song. T-ara might not be as popular as they used to, but one thing that is constant is the continuous string of good songs that they keep on releasing. I may not agree with their management company's way of handling the controversies that surrounding them, but I do applaud the company for continuing to work hard in promoting them, and giving them great songs and great concept to work with. Keep up the good work and I might have T-ara on top of my chart for 2015 too.
We have finally come to the end of this chart. What do you think of my choices of songs? Did I leave out any of your favourites? If you are new to K-pop songs, are you much more interested in them now? Thank you if you have stick with me from number 20 to the number one song. If you haven't though and had missed the earlier posts for this top 20 chart, you can click to any parts/posts that you wish to view which I had listed at the top of this post.
Thank you for reading!
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