#kpop music shows

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

I think that an album/song made specifically for a Western audience (as it was made clear by the singer and the company), that has most of its promotions taking place in the U.S., should not qualify for Korean music shows and their subsequent awards. It isn't Kpop, right?

Because it's just a little fucked up to see how it still wins, despite the singer not even attending, but it all happens because of the fandom's power. Fortunately, today was different, but I know it was an exception.

[zzzzzestforlife]

life lately // enjoying myself so hard it's getting dangerous 🤭

in this issue 🔍: brain-rot target language input 🇯🇵🇨🇳🇰🇷 & if icarus was a workaholic 👩‍💻✍️🍝

"language learning" but it's just brain-rot 🧠

🇯🇵 Shogun (9/10) — objectively a really good show, but a lot of death and triggering topics for me personally 🥺

🇯🇵 Spy x Family (5/10) — i can only watch one episode at a time now because the plot is getting increasingly ridiculous, please don't be mad at me if you're a fan 😅

🇨🇳 When I Fly Towards You (6/10) — it's silly, but it's also just what you expect from kids of the characters' ages and at times it does tickle that part of my brain that likes candy (i still like Exclusive Fairytale better though, 对不起 张陆让)

🇯🇵 Petrichor 花鋏 キョウ (10/10) — my new favorite album!! ☺️ even @pianistbynight likes this one and she usually prefers classical music!

🇰🇷 Seventeen on Shuffle (10/10) — my usual suspects never miss 😌

too close to the sun but finally looking in the mirror ☀️🪞

i gave myself a headache from working too much in poor physical conditions again 😭 i didn't notice until the end of the day because i was on a roll at work and it's rare when that happens, so in a messed up way, i feel it was worth it?? i bought a new chair and rearranged my desk setup a little to be more ergonomic, but that only does so much when i have one good night of sleep a week 🙃

my poor sleep is low-key my own fault though since i write and binge cinema therapy videos late into the night because i love doing those things so much that my brain won't shut up until i do them 😛

in other news, i made my favorite pasta recipe!! 😋 but i burned myself and didn't notice until i started washing the dishes in hot water ♨️ wow, me enjoying myself so much i don't notice i'm hurting myself is a real theme here... 🙈 something to work out in detail in my diary some time 🤔

💌: how's life been treating you lately? 💐

bonus: @pianistbynight tagged me in this fun picrew game (how you look now vs when you were younger) and it made me miss my good eyesight 🥲 everyone, take good care of your eyes by taking lots of outdoor breaks (with UV protection!!) 👀

💞: @shoosiopao @tea-tuesday @tokidokitokyo @ink-stained-clouds @ilonar0 @cravingstudyvalidation @getbreaded @nelyastudies @roxysbbg @cinammon-buns and anyone else who made it to the bottom of this post 😉

[lindonwald]

zurück nach Westerland?

[huntingrays]

headcanon: whenever annabeth and leo work together on a project, they like to have on a documentary in the background. since leo hates the quiet and they can’t ever agree on what songs they should listen to, so they settle for documentaries instead of music. early on, they ran into some snags with this plan, since annabeth preferred ocean related documentaries while leo preferred space ones. in the end, they reached a middle ground and settled for animal documentaries. now, whenever the two of them see frank, they always rattle of animal fun facts to him because “he may need them someday” (and they’re very shocked when the shape shifter doesn’t know the random fun fact they have)

[aurorasandsad-prose]

K-Dramas leaving the last two episodes for the biggest, most heart-wrenching plot twists will forever be my Achilles heel.

I'm not your strongest soldier 😭 Let's not go for irreparable heartbreak please? 😭

[themoongirls12]

Loossemble Ending Fairies 🚀

[212-bbvox]

───────⋆.*♡ SNSD 'Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)' Remix MBC Gayo Festival .·:*¨☆

[mooninagust]

all in all I'm glad I'm the kind of person who obsesses over things they love and not things they hate

[sugaggukkie]

Back from the dead for more kpop opinions no one asked for but I have to share: Le Sserafim at Coachella edition:

You would think the way people online were talking about this set, the girlies went on stage and BOMBED. I was prepared to watch the worst live set I’ve ever seen. INSTEAD. It was so fun?????? Like incredibly undeniably extremely super fucking FUN!!!!!!!!!! I literally can’t believe the shit yall say on dolly parton’s internet about this group.

Firstly. Since the SECOND I got into kpop all I have seen is endless debate on the overuse of lip syncing and vocal smoothing and loud backtracks etc etc etc and I have always always always been on the side, as someone who has seen quite literally hundreds of live sets, of LIVE. VOCALS. I want to hear breathing I want to hear cracks I want to hear imperfections I want to hear actual singing from a real live person standing on stage. Were their vocals perfect? Obviously not. Were they still giving it their all, dancing at full energy, and putting on an insanely fun show???? YEAH GIRL. Not one person on planet earth bar beyonce can dance at that level and give absolutely flawless vocals and for the energy they were expending the vocals still sounded fine and most importantly, conveyed the emotion of the set they were going for. It was high energy! It was hot and fun! It was a party! Of course they’re going to yell and scream and hype up the crowd and run around, THANK GOD THEY DID.

Secondly, if I had watched it and the crowd hated it and the energy was bad and everything was awkward and weird that’d be one thing. But the ENTIRE time everyone in the crowd was losing their minds, screaming the girls’ names, and SINGING ALONG!!!!!!!! The energy was so good and fun and you could tell everyone there was having a blast which in my opinion is the absolute 100% nonnegotiable most important part of a live set.

Thirdly, I’ve watched all of their encores, other live stages by them, and I feel like I know what they sound like live in general and this was actually truly leagues better than they’ve been in the past and that wasn’t because their vocals were worlds better, they were definitely improved but not by like A TON. what actually made this their best performance I’ve ever seen was how fucking fun the entire set was and how you could tell what they practiced was their actual stage presence and the show they put on and it PAID OFF!!!!!!!!!! The entire thing was just so enjoyable to watch and I truly didn’t want it to end because you could tell they were having so much fun and really working the crowd.

My favorite parts were eve psyche in English, the bit about going out for a drink but then realizing eunchae and kazhua are underage, the live band, THE NEW SONG!!!!!! WHERE THE HECK IS SAKI!!!!!! and of course “Coachella shake some fucking ass”

In conclusion, you guys don’t go to enough live shows, don’t know anything about what makes a performance good, love to be miserable, and hate having fun. I on the other hand, who love to have fun, love talented young ladies putting on a great show, and love live music for all its flaws and imperfections, had an absolute blast watching this set.

[gaybearwedding]

hi hi hello i have been gone forever due to various reasons such as “work” and “mental illness” and “having developed a kpop hyperfixation that has been occupying most of my attention recently” but i need everyone to know that i saw off book live twice last week (in philly with a friend and then in nyc with my girlfriend) and it was truly so everything. i didn’t get many pictures but i did get a few and none of them are very good but one of them is of jess’ amazing stool balancing act and that’s all i need really

[moontaeddybear]

The Show Simon Says

[faunandfloraas]

i do find the difference between jpop/kpop showcasing people who didn't necessarily have the most raw talent to begin with openly working hard to become better singers or dancers vs the western, and specifically US obsession with acting like the only real talents are the ones who were "born" with it from day dot interesting.

[beautifulpersonpeach]

Hi BPP,

I'm convinced Billboard has a spilt personality for real because how do you write an article about it being difficult to produce big stars right now, turm around a do a hit job on K-pop and Jimin specifically in order to quash his chances for any American noms and awards

***

Hi @ejassy

Lol Billboard doesn't have a split personality, you're just not really listening to all they're saying.

(Brian is something of a twat sometimes but even he has his moments)

Billboard's problem is not that it's difficult to produce big stars right now, it's that (1) the big stars that are being produced are doing so outside the legacy framework and direct influence of the American rainmakers - the American labels and middlemen who would demand their cut, and instead it's fans of various artists who can influence which artists rise to the top; and (2) that the big artists that are being produced (by fan engagement) are increasingly non-white, non-American, and non-English-speaking.

That's their conundrum.

It's a problem they've had since 2018 when BTS out of nowhere showed up in the top 10 on the Hot 100 with Fake Love after it not just went viral, but was sustained on the charts driven by demand from American pop listeners (this was the time many members of the Bey hive joined the ARMY fandom and BTS caught on with the pop-listener 'gp' in huge numbers). Since then, every award-season article Billboard has published (since 2019) has had the same tone as the one published yesterday, with each year Billboard getting more overt in their disdain, and the quiet part of what they actually mean to say, getting louder.

I've been writing on this blog for over a year about BTS, k-pop, fandoms, and the music industry, and if there's one thing I suggest people take from it, it's this: it's important to understand that everything about BTS represents a world in which the industry gatekeepers as they're currently structured, are rendered obsolete.

It's why the Korean music establishment had a similar reaction to BTS from 2013 - 2017. BTS should not have been as successful as they became, they didn't come from a Big 3 company with all their industry connections as most successful groups did, they didn't have the backing of an American conglomerate as more recent breakout groups like Fifty Fifty did, they didn't have the typical visuals, sound, vocals, styling, etc that the most popular and successful groups did.

All they had was their hunger, their talent, their hopes, and their pride, with Bang PD using every bit of streetsmarts he had to navigate the cutthroat competitive environment in the industry. And the fandom quickly realized, as early as 2014, that they could not possibly operate like every other k-pop fandom if they wanted BTS to ever have a fair chance.

It wasn't until BTS became too big to ignore both inside and outside Korea, that the Korean music establishment start giving them their dues. Personally, I expect the same pattern for Western recognition. BTS was well on pace to deliver on that promise in 2020 with their MOTS tour - it was planned to be bigger than Taylor Swift's tour is today, back then. It was rumoured to be bigger than anything anyone, even Beyonce, had done till that point.

...but we all know what happened. Dynamite was a huge hit but in comparison to what could've been, it was a pitiable substitute.

Cue the English trilogy and Grammy attempts, snubs, and hiatus. Now there's a vacuum left by BTS, that most k-pop groups are trying to use to establish themselves with the same toolbox ARMYs and Western stans are using, while leveraging BTS's reputation, and the American middlemen are watching to see which groups are most compatible for them to partner with so they too can get in on the action and not get left behind.

Because the reality is that the landscape has changed. Fan engagement is not going away and will have to become a key consideration for creating 'big stars'. Everybody recognizes this. Not everybody likes it, not everybody accepts it, but everyone understands that this is now how the cookie crumbles, and that BTS and ARMY are a big reason this is now the status quo.

And the fact is this has earned the group and fandom, more enemies than friends.

Jimin, by virtue of being a BTS member, is not exempt.

Like I said before, there are many types of people in fandom spaces and everyone has their own reasons for being here. Some trivial, some not. But anybody who actually considers themselves an ARMY should take the time to understand what it means to be a fan of BTS. In my opinion.

[lee-sanghyeok]

i think we know what taesan's favourite song on the ep is (source)

[thesquirrelqueer]

when a musical has a cohesive sound without every song sounding the same

[aurorasandsad-prose]

My favourite trope of a time travel plot in a drama has got to be finding out the other person is also a time traveller through BTS (listening to music that should be unreleased yet)

The number of times I have watched a kdrama just because BTS was mentioned in a scene without bothering to read about the plot is actually crazy lol