Summer in song: SNSD, AOA, Sistar feel the heat; rookies slay cool
The summer single is a big deal in K-pop. It's really just branding in a saturated environment: how does the market stop the audience from getting fatigue? How does a group stand out in a crowd?
The hype reached its peak with the release of Girls' Generation's Party last week. A fairly bland upbeat song that reminded me of one of Shinee's lacklustre Japanese singles. But it had been preceded by a bunch of unimaginative releases from the big groups: generic house throwbacks from the usually reliable AOA* and Nine Muses; and Sistar's Shake It with its dinky Stock Aitken Waterman synths.
The only big girl group that has bucked the trend is Girl's Day, with their barmy banger Ring My Bell. The choreography - which includes ride-em-cowgirl moves and that knee-knocking thing that only the terminally insouciant EXID can pull off - is horrendous. But it's a joyous 1000-miles-a-minute every-genre-in-a-blender track. There's even a harmonica in there somewhere, but listen to it anyway.
Apart from them, it's left to the rookies to provide the juicy summer jams. The stupidly named Poten; previously called 4Ten, have the glorious Go Easy, which means they now have two of the best songs of the year to their (two) name(s). Why, which they released earlier in the year, was a classic girl group pop song in modern guise; it started small and built to a crescendo. Go Easy has the same hallmarks; it's more uptempo, but it milks the highs and lows more; creating what is a essentially an old-school disco song (a la Gloria Gaynor or Inner Life's stupendous take on Ain't No Mountain High Enough) with an updated treatment. The rapping is still shit but the song is killer.
LoveUs are a four-piece that has risen from the ashes of the short-lived Bob Girls. This song is a gazillion times better than their forgettable single: it's a slow groove with a stealth earworm that will have you singing di-bap-bap-bap di-bap-bap-bap all day and driving your co-workers totally nuts. The photo for their single has them in wood dressed in virginal white while one sits serenely with a guitar. If you search youtube for them you will hit upon a bunch of depressing performances in dreary clubs and auditoriums, among the musical instruments and amps of bands who are presumably taking a break while the girls strut their stuff in ill-fitting shorts. Two sides of K-pop (di-bap-bap-bap!).
D.Holic bring us back to the cray-pop with Chewy - booming synths provide a bottom end while a middle eastern pipe snakes through the bridge to a sugar-sweet chorus. The MV has slabs of eye-popping colour and splashes of paint. Welcome home.
* I was pretty underwhelmed by AOA's Heart Attack at first. It just seemed like bog-standard generic early 90s dance music - in particular, the kind that came in and killed house or garage, which is what I was particularly into. Two decades later, this kind of sound doesn't annoy me like it used to and I like what producer Brave Sound has done vocally - this is one of his strong points - with the phrasing of the melody making its own rhythm. It's just really a whole lot of fun.
The hype reached its peak with the release of Girls' Generation's Party last week. A fairly bland upbeat song that reminded me of one of Shinee's lacklustre Japanese singles. But it had been preceded by a bunch of unimaginative releases from the big groups: generic house throwbacks from the usually reliable AOA* and Nine Muses; and Sistar's Shake It with its dinky Stock Aitken Waterman synths.
The only big girl group that has bucked the trend is Girl's Day, with their barmy banger Ring My Bell. The choreography - which includes ride-em-cowgirl moves and that knee-knocking thing that only the terminally insouciant EXID can pull off - is horrendous. But it's a joyous 1000-miles-a-minute every-genre-in-a-blender track. There's even a harmonica in there somewhere, but listen to it anyway.
Apart from them, it's left to the rookies to provide the juicy summer jams. The stupidly named Poten; previously called 4Ten, have the glorious Go Easy, which means they now have two of the best songs of the year to their (two) name(s). Why, which they released earlier in the year, was a classic girl group pop song in modern guise; it started small and built to a crescendo. Go Easy has the same hallmarks; it's more uptempo, but it milks the highs and lows more; creating what is a essentially an old-school disco song (a la Gloria Gaynor or Inner Life's stupendous take on Ain't No Mountain High Enough) with an updated treatment. The rapping is still shit but the song is killer.
LoveUs are a four-piece that has risen from the ashes of the short-lived Bob Girls. This song is a gazillion times better than their forgettable single: it's a slow groove with a stealth earworm that will have you singing di-bap-bap-bap di-bap-bap-bap all day and driving your co-workers totally nuts. The photo for their single has them in wood dressed in virginal white while one sits serenely with a guitar. If you search youtube for them you will hit upon a bunch of depressing performances in dreary clubs and auditoriums, among the musical instruments and amps of bands who are presumably taking a break while the girls strut their stuff in ill-fitting shorts. Two sides of K-pop (di-bap-bap-bap!).
D.Holic bring us back to the cray-pop with Chewy - booming synths provide a bottom end while a middle eastern pipe snakes through the bridge to a sugar-sweet chorus. The MV has slabs of eye-popping colour and splashes of paint. Welcome home.
* I was pretty underwhelmed by AOA's Heart Attack at first. It just seemed like bog-standard generic early 90s dance music - in particular, the kind that came in and killed house or garage, which is what I was particularly into. Two decades later, this kind of sound doesn't annoy me like it used to and I like what producer Brave Sound has done vocally - this is one of his strong points - with the phrasing of the melody making its own rhythm. It's just really a whole lot of fun.
Comments
Post a Comment