#bro and i gotta reblog this in a sec to tag it properly

[hanarchy]

ooooh i promised @wantbytaemin a post about hanji covers (not that you asked, i just want to talk about it more) and i just came back from listening to your suggestions several times and i have sooooooo much to say ok, so little numbered list again for ease bc i cant shut up to save my LIFE.

Here’s some wishes I would have for jisung if he listened to me

1. Straightforward/Live/Acoustic Instrumental music with some VOCALS!!

This is why i have my country girl agenda, like why i picked kacey musgraves. I love the tinyy snippets we have gotten of him just singing over guitar. The softness, and yes as you mentioned!! The emotionality he can put in his voice!! I would love to hear more of that. Just quiet, no electronic beats, not the usual slightly overproduced instrumentals he gravitates to, I want to HEAR his voice even when its quiet. acoustic, stripped. like fast car, absolutely.

I would just love more rock, more guitars, more real drums (FREE ME FROM THE KPOP DRUM MACHINE). This is why like. arctic monkeys are appealing to me. they have three instruments and alex turner pretending to be cool and the tension in a song like ‘do me favour’ is so thick. Would do Jisung amazing BUT. you’re SO right that he could also build that emotional tension that carrie underwood does on this with his voice (btw hearing this again after years made me listen to shania again, which, fun fact: first album i ever bought with my own money was shania twain ‘up!’) if he just WANTED. I hope he practices more, i hope he collabs with day6 or xdinary heroes. he has the bands IN HOUSE!!

2. More production experiments but specifically more stripped back beats and funkier basslines (and real drums but whatever).

Now this one he is on the way to himself I think.

His production sensibilities are just very pop-focused and i respect it and understand why and I also don’t have the terminology or knowledge to explain what makes both the brent faiyaz song you suggested and the internet different but like. He demonstrated on 1,2,3,4,5 and on Run what that could sound like for him. Those are maybe my favorite hanpop songs so far and i desperately want him to explore this direction more. The vocals on run are so good, relaxed, laid back, the change between lower register and high parts. Now the next thing he should do is make a song with a rap part that offers a nice contrast. Rhythmic, strong, kinda takes you out of it and then plunges ur head back under water. Or if it’s something more melodic, make it airier, more ethereal, more surreal. Like fka twigs yess exactly. nebula by cifika is different vibe but also so atmospheric and a bit otherworldly.

I also think this niche of rnb has become the sound of situationships and messy breakups and i loooove that for him because he occupies that in-between of love and hate so well. resentment, anxiety, uncertainty and yes. pettiness. Which brings me to my next and biggest point.

3. Explore more uncomfortable and ugly feelings.

Listen. This may be the parasocial relationship speaking but I know that kid has some powerful perfectionism and jealousy going on. There’s a self-hatred and a desperation there that, if he were to explore it, would make him unstoppable imo. Now I absolutely understand why his position and his genre make this impossible and I am absolutely open to having a discussion about whether artists are really obliged to share everything or not.

Like this is gonna sound negative to the average kpop stan but i KNOW he is a judgmental little dick. I know he has an ego that is barelyyyy being kept in check (by his own limitations and working in a group) but is also just kind of explosive and i KNOW he knows exactly how good he is but being anything other than humble and only boasting in the context of largely meaningless skz title tracks (im sorry but they havent made a title with an emotion other than ‘look at us being so great at doing our own thing’ since like… idk. levanter. many of them are bangers regardless but explorations of real emotions they are not.) is just not acceptable. This is why i bring up that pettiness so much (lol) bc its the hint of like. an unpleasant emotion that (record execs think) doesn’t sell to teenage girls.

Don’t get me wrong, the anxiety and the romanticism and the fear and the love are all real emotions too - many of them uncomfortable - and he has built and recorded great songs around them. I’m not calling him emotionally dishonest. But they’re emotions that are acceptable for a boygroup member to have publicly. Stuff like Paramore (i dont actually know their discography very well so your input was MUCH appreciated and i agree wholeheartedly) or the way alex turner or julian casablancas write unfavorably about women while it’s extremely clear that the only reason it’s unfavorable is because of their own shortcomings and smallmindedness and self-obsession is something that would simply not be allowed of a man that is being marketed by a kpop company. And yes i do believe it’s uncomfortable for him to explore publicly and there may very well be many other reaons and cultural barriers that i do not understand but this is my wishlist so it has to work with my limitations.

And well anyway I know I’ll never get it but i would just enjoy him leaning into that. Doing some introspection and some scary shit. I think it would be transcendent.

little tangent: (I love bands like hole and sleater kinney and bikini kill because theyre unapolgetic angry women but ironically i used to love kanye west for the same (not exactly but very similar because he was extremely unapologetic in his own confidence and ability and his personality in an industry that didnt want it at first) reason kfkfkdk. hes not ok to listen to anymore and frankly i dont like talking about him and the women in these bands would crucify me for putting him in the same sentence probably. But what they have in common is that they publicly explored and explore emotions that society thinks unacceptable. (If you ever want to hear an EXTREMELY intelligent analysis of kanye and his career, FD Signifier has two incredible videos on youtube that go so deep into like… pop culture, hip hop culture, black masculinity, mental health… just music history. cant recommend them enough))

4. storytelling

listen. what i look for in a songwriter i become obsessed with is so simple: emotionally honest to the point of personal detriment, tells a good story, self-obsessed in a self-hating way, driven by love and the belief in beauty and magic underneath it all and a good hook every now and again. jisung checks most of these boxes and i think tbh he could just learn a lot from country musicians or people like tracy chapman or bruce springsteen or leonard cohen etc etc etc

like do NOT get me wrong i dont think hes bad at it and i also think its likely there are many korean songwriters better suited but due to my personal mental illness this is just sth i think about a lot. what jisungs version of like… Johnny 99 would sound like…