#so im kinda terrible with recommendations unless youre looking for something specific

[sanstropfremir]

same anon (guess i’ll call myself kingdom anon) — and to be fair im also the same as u and can’t really watch competition shows. that’s why i only watched their youtube clips at the beginning. only watching it now because i need something to pass time. (though if u have any recs pls do share :)) but like i’m not paying extreme attention to it lol

i skip skz’s performances just because i am really not a fan. its v cringe for me…. whoever told them that they’re good rappers should maybe possibly be fired. but music is subjective so to each their own. i’m not going to subject myself to it. one thing that i am curious about is if skz genuinely believes that they did really well? it is a scripted show so i’m not too sure. but i really wished fan votes weren’t such a large percentage…. this was an opportunity for tbz/skz/atz to actually receive critical feedback and grow considering they’re younger groups (as opposed to btob/ikon who already established themselves). like for sf9, we saw their immediate growth from round 1 to round 2. but for skz, they’re stagnant.

on a more general topic, there’s something v unique w having large fan bases. recently i saw an article that skz’s new album reached 900,000+ preorder sales. but they didn’t actually rank on korean music charts. and in a way, the sales tell jyp that they’re successful because of the money they’re bringing in. and they’ll continue doing the same thing because it works. but also they’re relatively unknown by korea’s gp when u compare them to jyp’s other male groups (2pm, god, got7). i don’t know where i’m going w this lol sorry just finished a final. but this show was overall disappointing for me. and i d k if i’ll continue watching the episodes

you may be the only person left watching kingdom at this stage so i think the moniker is fitting!

obviously you've been around and reading my reviews so you know my thoughts on the show on the whole, but i don't think i ever really talked about what i thought skz themselves think about the outcome, which is.....i have to assume that they knew the results were gonna be skewed. i think maybe after that first ranking there could have been feasible deniability for them, but as the numbers kept coming in so drastically skewed, especially when mnet made the bizarre choice to show the individual rankings for expert/self/fan judging separately, there's no way they didn't clue in to what was going on. the general consensus from the skz fans i know is that even the fans knew this was not their best showing, and if i know anything about artists i know that we're never satisfied with anything deep down, even if its our best received work.

in terms of seeing if there was any payoff/growth post show, only three of the six groups have had comebacks so i cant really make any totally accurate judgements, but i can say that yea, overall there has been growth. we saw sf9's growth the most obviously during the show and then they cranked it up to 12 for teardrop and it paid off for them (they broke their own sales record, good job boys). we also know that even though the mv for teardrop was filmed pre-kingdom, they revamped the entire choreo after the show in order to capitalize on the feedback from move, and honestly it's the best direction for them to go in. not sure when their next comeback is gonna be because youngbin and inseong are going to have to enlist soon and because of the large age gap its probably gonna be a while before they're all together again. tbz i think has shown a pretty big improvement, at least with thrill ride (who's to say about other comebacks). they've ditched any kind of lore and although i don't like the song i think the majority of the styling is quite good and it's a good genre break for them.

as for skz, i do actually think there's been one or two lessons learned. thunderous isn't as good a song as god's menu or back door, but it's on par with their discography and consistency is key. i do however, think the choreography is excellent and the styling + general concept is interesting, even if a bit conservative. personally i think they should have leaned way more into the graphic elements of the mv, because the shapes and silhouettes of the clothing are good, but they're so monotone that it ends up being a little boring. if everything else was the same but there was more use of patterns and colour it'd pop a lot better. it's also possible that we may see that in the next stages they do, since they've only done three or four so far. i'm taking it as a win that the styling is at least related to the concept. as for the rest of them; the ateez comeback isn't for another two weeks and honestly i have NO clue what to expect, btob is tomorrow and it's gonna be fine obvs, and i dont think ikon is gonna have a comeback any time soon since bobby is apparently getting married next month (plus the baby), not that i was expecting kingdom to have any effect on them lol.

i think its reasonable that jyp front skz more as an international group, especially since they had that with got7 and then cocked it up so badly. i think we're definitely going to be seeing some interesting (if you like that kind of thing) numbers discrepancies in the next few years because of how different groups are being marketed and it's going to have some kind of effect on korean and international charts. personally i have exactly zero interest in charts and numbers and would prefer them to stay far away from me because it's just another way the music industry has been gamified by capitalism.

honestly if the show's not doing it for you than don't bother. it would have been a lot better if there were more group interactions; the sports/isac episode is cute and fun, but really the highlights of the rest of them are the stages.

[potter-inthe-tardis]

hey so this is kind of specific but do you have any recommendations for songs that have singing/lyrics but it's indistinct enough that you can't necessarily tell what they're saying unless you're actively trying to understand them?

Hi, so after several days I’m finally getting to this ask, but I have been thinking about it a lot tho!!!

I feel like Glass Animals like their whole vibe kinda fits what you’re asking. Dreamland is just one of their new songs that I’ve been obsessed with of recent. However Gooey or Black Mambo are probably their most popular songs, so you may already know those, but if not they are also some songs recs. Some other favorites from them are Season 2 Episode 3 and Youth!

Chvrches, their music I feel sometime the instrumental kinda blends well with the vocals so yeah, (idk what im trying to explain here, I should just list songs and move on cuz im terrible at explain things). Empty Threat, Recover, We Sink, and Get Out are probably some of their more popular songs. By The Throat, Science/Visions, You Caught the Light, and Under the Tide, are maybe less popular songs of theirs but might fit your ask a little more, then the others. And Graffiti, Bury It, and Clearest Blue are some of my personal favorites of theirs that I haven’t mentioned yet.

I feel like a lot of lesser known The 1975 songs can fit too, like Anobrain, Me, This Must Be My Dream, I Like America & America Likes Me, Lostmyhead, Head Cars Bending, How To Draw. Like actually not even gonna lie its a lot of The 1975 songs, like Matty is difficult to understand sometimes, (like your girl was literally confidently singing the wrong lyrics when I saw them).

Beach House, their music is very vibey, and the instrumental and vocals just blend beautifully, like an ocean (or something idk its just want came to mind and it felt right to say). Songs like 10:37, Beyond Love, Irene, Wildflower, Chariot, Lazuli. & like not to be a 2015 tumblr indie music girl but the Depression Cherry album was and always will be amazing and is worth checking out in it’s entirety!

And at this point I could no longer think of a new way to describe a bands sound cuz most of these groups have a similar vibe, and I thought maybe I should have just wrote the songs, like who care about all the other stuff (like literally probably only me) but I had already written so much (or maybe too much)

Japanese Breakfast The Woman That Loves You, This House, Road Head, Heft, Jane Cum, Everybody Wants to Love You, and Rugged Country. She only makes incredible songs tho so shes worth looking into more on your own!!  

Hopefully you like these songs and they fit you were asking for, l like to think they do for the most part but maybe I just have bad hearing! Please feel free to tell me what you think of the songs and if they are to your criteria!! Hopefully they are new songs/groups to you, on reflection I feel like they might all be groups and songs you could be familiar with but hopefully not!! And anybody feel free to add songs to this list to give Anon more song recommendations!!! I hope you enjoy!!! Also btw I linked all the songs just click on the song titles, they are bold and in italics!!!