#we got a whole video teaser over a month before the song released

[solojihyo]

twice's comeback is literally next week and no concept photos have dropped yet..... div 3 what are you doing

[kiiyunz]

posted⠀by⠀junjiie⠀⠀⸻⠀⠀1Oth May,⠀2O24.

Alright, alright, I know it’s a little late. I got distracted! A human error. From a human. But anyway, I’m back with the promised rundown of KIHYUN’s NCT U eras—but I’m ditching the rankings this time around, as the majority (up until UNIVERSE in 2021) took place in and around KIHYUN’s BAD eras. Everything else is the same, though, so.. Have fun!

EMPATHY  2018  GLOWSTICKS & (FAKE) GUCCI

RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC just over a week after his seventeenth birthday, the first whole NCT album was both a somewhat-old (he’d been promoting for a good two years by then, after all) but still refreshing experience for Kihyun. Participating in��BLACK ON BLACK, GO, and BOSS, the vocalist threw every part of himself into it as usual—and maybe even a little more so, reinvigorated by the fact he was collaborating with members from the other unit (and ones from an upcoming one) that he’d only ever trained with in the past. He enjoyed the more mature feel of the teasers for GO, as well as the music video and the song itself—it was during this era (although it would only really become more apparent during WE GO UP promotions in September of that same year, and during EMPATHY he kept this thought mainly to himself) that he was starting to feel like the whole childish concept was something he wanted to be rid of, that he wanted to trade in for something different; and GO fit that vision perfectly. He had a notable amount of fun on the set of the music video, and slated filming it as the ‘best thing he’d get to do all year,’ despite the fact they were only three months into said year.

Due to the would-be unspoken rule of Kihyun only making an effort to have any sort of online presence when he wasn’t the biggest fan of an album’s concept or music, he was fairly offline during this era—the only actual content fans ended up getting was in the official music videos & the behind-the-scenes and dance practices for said videos. They made the most of what they were given, choosing firstly to poke fun at what they’d styled him in—one of his outfits included a horrendous rip-off Gucci jacket that was noticeable from a mile away—and secondly to enjoy the interactions he had with the members of 127 (the EMPATHY era showcased his bond with members like Johnny, Jaehyun, and Jungwoo to the public for the first time) and members like Ten and Kun, who hadn’t yet found their place in a permanent unit—although it wasn’t long in the making, as would be proved by WayV’s debut the next year. This was most prevalent with the behind-the-scenes of the BOSS music video in particular, a clip of Kihyun and Jaehyun chasing each other around dangerously close to the literal circle of fire featured in one of the later scenes while Mark watched on on the obvious verge of panic going quite viral online.

MY  FAVOURITE  MOMENT: ⠀GO  MV  BEHIND

Kihyun getting a little too ambitious while balancing on the metal of the train tracks and nearly falling flat on his face, much to the delight of Chenle and horror of Jeno—who ran over to see if he was alright, and then proceeded to nearly trip himself up also. The nearly-fall didn’t deter him in the slightest and he continued to walk down the line, Jeno stepping up behind to follow along (he noticeably wobbled more than a few times, but still stuck with it if only to give Kihyun some company). Chenle got bored of watching—or, as Haechan called it, “got FOMO,” and it didn’t take long of observing the other two before he was running over and trying it out for himself also. Him and Kihyun were walking on parallel sides, with Jeno in the middle after having given up on the whole balancing shtick; watching as the two in front of him reached out to hold on another’s hands and intercepting so they were both grabbing hold of one of his instead. Mark cooed, Haechan pretended to throw up in his mouth.

RESONANCE PT 1  2020  VOCAL FRY & BADLY DISGUISED VODKA

IN THE MIDDLE OF running around and getting up to many a scandal with someone that was, really, doing him more harm than good, NCT came back together as a full group to release RESONANCE PT 1. For the album he traded his newfound clubhopping hobby for what’s considered by some fans as one of his best (although criminally short, what with him only participating in VOLCANO and DÉJÀ VU—something that many suspect was a sort of punishment for the bad press he’d been bringing to both Dream and, by proxy, the group as a whole by that time) performances in the entirety of his career thus far. During VOLCANO he gave listeners a few seconds of rap lines, a skill of his that had previously been rarely utilised, Kihyun’s voice taking on a raspier edge that he later mentioned off-handedly as being his “Taeyong impression,” which was met with both positive and negative reactions—as is the same with most things any idol says or does while they mention another. DÉJÀ VU saw him back to his standard vocalist position, but many slated his lines as being their favourite, or his tone standing out amongst the rest in a certain moment. Altogether, despite his public image still not being anywhere close to being fully repaired, at least he wasn’t being accused of being talentless to add fuel to the fire.

What was adding fuel to it, however, were the leaked photos of him with a shiny silver flask halfway to his mouth on the way to a taxi. It was after hours, hardly being able to be accused of drinking on the job (but with a job like being an idol, it would be a little difficult to blame him for doing so), but it still sent a few people into an outrage—and Kihyun’s response didn’t help matters either, the simple ‘whoops’ he sent on Bubble enough to prompt some into showing their truce stance on Kihyun and his situation as of late (that being, of course, that they hated him). Most took it in good humour and laughed along with him, seeing as those photos and content put out by the company were all they got to see of him for the whole era. Even his moments in things such as behind-the-scenes videos were frighteningly scarce, only appearing for a scant second or two before he was being whisked off by another member or the camera had decided to abruptly cut away in the middle of his screentime where in the past it most likely would’ve lingered a little longer. It was sort of a tug of war between the good and the bad things throughout the whole promotion period.

MY  FAVOURITE  MOMENT:  KYUNDERY  INSTAGRAM  LIVE

It was almost like a miracle, the day Hendery logged into the NCT account and decided to start a live—and with Kihyun, no less. They were a little drunk, and didn’t care if the people watching realised that. In fact, them being tipsy probably played a part in the decision to go live, so maybe it was really something they should be thankful for. The majority of the time on live was spent by the pair taking turns scrolling through the filters and laughing themselves into hysterics, so much so they could barely get a word out between their fits. When they’d finished filter sampling they held an impromptu karaoke session, despite the fact their voices were cracking a minimum of twice for every line they belted out into the empty company room they’d holed themselves up in (and, when Hendery tilted the phone to show viewers their set up, it almost looked like they were camping for the night—there were a few pillows and a blanket they’d hoarded from somewhere, snacks galore, bags and a few empty bottles and one singular shoe). Beggars couldn’t be choosers in the Kihyun-content regard for this era, but it just so happened that the one thing they did get (or rather, most of them got, as some missed the notification and had to watch clips elsewhere) was something they could hold dear.

RESONANCE PT 2  2020  LUCKY NUMBERS & LEGO SETS

STILL RUNNING AROUND, still not the fan favourite he once was, most were expecting much of the same treatment during RESONANCE PT 2 as Kihyun got during PT 1. However, to the surprise of all of them, he actually received a little more screentime this promotion period around—most likely because of his involvement in the tracks 90’S LOVE and WORK IT, where there was far more extra content to go alongside just the music (as well as RAISE THE ROOF, although that didn’t receive a music video like the former two), but most fans decided to take it as the plus it undoubtedly was. He looked happier than he had in months skating around with Mark and Jeno, catching up with Ten, cracking easy jokes with both Shotaro and Sungchan in his attempts to get to know them better despite the slump he’d been in for most of the year thus far, and of course messing around to his heart’s content with Johnny and Hendery on the WORK IT set. His normal full-of-energy self was back—not that it had ever left, but he’d seemed far more tired, almost lifeless, in the months running up to the dual albums—and to see him so sunny again seemed to brighten the mood of a few of the members he was particularly close to in tandem. 

As was beginning to become the (unfortunate) norm, hardly any extra content atop what the company gave the fans came from Kihyun himself—no lives, no posts, barely any messages on Bubble, the list only went on. Some said he was simply following his own tradition of staying quiet if he liked the music making up the album he was in the middle of promoting, but most people were still under the impression that it was due to the scandals and articles and countless rumours that had completely taken over his public image with fans—decidedly for the worse, seeing as it ended up getting so bad once that people were left wondering if he was going to be kicked out of NCT on the whole. The mood was beginning to dip again, fans taking his complete lack of presence that wasn’t company-mandated to mean that they were going to be seeing even less of him in the future. Until—a post from Kihyun, a simple selca on their Twitter account of him in his 48 hockey jersey from the 90’S LOVE music video, the two simple words ‘lucky number’ as his only caption. You’d think he’d just dropped a movie-length vlog from the amount of people celebrating his (brief) return, the words ‘HE’S BACK’ trending for a few hours or so as most of his fanbase frantically changed their profile picture to the aforementioned selca.

MY  FAVOURITE  MOMENT:  WORK  IT  MV  BEHIND

No one was happier to see Kihyun than Johnny, and that fact was apparent from a mile away. They were attached at the hip the second the cameras stopped rolling, always visible in the background glued to each other’s sides even if they didn’t get much time talking to the camera for the BTS video. When it was finally their turn to give their small interview (or rather, when it was Johnny’s turn, and he dragged Kihyun along with him by the arm) Johnny was resting his head atop Kihyun’s and buttoning and unbuttoning the blazer he was wearing for that scene while he spoke. Kihyun even cracked a smile or two at the jokes that had obviously only been told for the sake of his reaction, and contributed a few words here and there. Another moment from the video widely loved was from the scene on the wide open field, where he was captured sprinting away from Jungwoo giving chase, Jaemin and Johnny close behind, wide grins on all of their faces and the faint sound of laughter being picked up. Jisung was standing and watching with a small smile, with the rest making bets on who was going to trip over their very-much-not-made-for-running shoes first.

UNIVERSE  2021  BASEBALL BATS & BETTER DAYS

WELL ON THE WAY to being fully back to his normal self again (despite it being a couple years in the making), UNIVERSE saw Kihyun far happier than the previous two promotion periods, almost reaching his mood during the EMPATHY era. Participating in songs UNIVERSE (LET’S PLAY BALL), OK!, BIRTHDAY PARTY, and of course BEAUTIFUL, it wasn’t as if he was at a loss for things to do. He admitted it was tiring, but also that it was fun—because with the more songs he got to work on, the more time he was given the chance to spend with members not in his unit (namely Hendery, Xiaojun, Johnny, and Jungwoo—although he did talk a little more with Shotaro and Sungchan also, stating proudly to the camera on one occasion that they’d been thinking about going out for dinner one night in the future). He also found it fun because he enjoyed every track on the album, even if he didn’t make an appearance on most of them. Despite the hate some of them got from the fanbase (BIRTHDAY PARTY in particular) he held firm and even sent a few Bubble messages defending them in earnest, complete with angry kaomojis and one (not really) accidental swear. Kihyun saw UNIVERSE as his chance to prove he was ready to be a proper representative of the neos after his nearly-two-year-long slump, and was truly giving it his all.

Like the mood maker he’d always been, this dramatic change for the better in his demeanour affected everyone’s around him also. A few member’s smiles always seemed a little wider now that Kihyun was nearly back to normal, after they felt far more confident in the hope he’d bounce back stronger than ever, and benefit all of them—Dream members in particular, of course—while doing so. UNIVERSE was also an era in which Kihyun put his extrovert nature to work and gave fans interactions with members they’d barely been allowed to see him share one word with—the main ones being Doyoung, Kun, and the most surprising to a fairly large amount of fans, Winwin. Despite only appearing with the latter on BEAUTIFUL (as it was a whole-group song), once things like the jacket BTS began to be released, they were made witness to the bond the two of them shared; far closer than apparently most had ever dreamed of them being. Kihyun was as affectionate with the WayV member as any other person in the group, but as he only did with a few of them, Winwin was reciprocating—a returned hug here, tolerating a little handholding there. He wasn’t exactly matching the boundless enthusiasm the acts of affection were performed with, but no one was really expecting that anyway. It just went to show that Kihyun could pull most people into his orbit, even if it was just for a moment or two.

MY  FAVOURITE  MOMENT:  ALBUM  UNBOXING

Placed into a group with Johnny, Hendery, and Shotaro, Kihyun was having the time of his life. He went to lengths to include the newer member in all of his conversations, light-heartedly prodding at him like he’d known him for years, and even making an effort to slow down his usual break-neck pace of speaking so that Shotaro would have a better chance of understanding him fully—the ribbing could’ve gone a lot worse if the latter thought Kihyun was actually poking fun at him, but thankfully Shotaro took it well and even gave it right back on a couple of occasions, which made all four of them burst into laughter. For his pulls, Kihyun received a Kun photocard (he couldn’t have ripped off his phone case fast enough, with enough force that he nearly sent both it and the HOT SAUCE era Jeno that was still inside flying across the room), a Johnny poster (which the 127 member was delighted about, and demanded to have a picture sent to him later of said poster tacked up on Kihyun’s wall), a Jaemin postcard, and a Mark sticker—which Kihyun immediately stuck on his phone case also.

GOLDEN AGE  2023  POLO SHIRTS & ..PURPOSE?

HAVING MOVED FAR PAST all that was weighing on his mind during previous whole-group slbums, Kihyun went above and beyond for GOLDEN AGE. Featuring in INTERLUDE: OASIS, THE BAT, ALLEY OOP, and obviously GOLDEN AGE, he made sure to throw more than he’d ever thrown before into recording. He was fully aware that the past years hadn’t been his best, and despite already making amends during UNIVERSE, he still wanted to prove his worth all over again. Everything was fully behind him, and it showed in the sparkle in his eyes and brightness of his laughter that came alongside every appearance of his in any piece of behind-the-scenes content. Always smiling, always energetic, always wanting to make whoever he was laugh, even if it was just for a second. Although he did stick to his usual (and very obviously favourite) members—Mark, Jeno, Chenle, Johnny, Hendery, Niko—he did make sure to wrap all of them in a too-tight hug and hang off of them while they talking to other members or giving mini interviews to cameras at some point or another. ‘Spreading the love,’ he called it, to which Chenle beside him, through poorly contained snickers, quipped that he was also probably ‘spreading diseases,’ which earned him a punch in the stomach.

Kihyun even made an effort to show up (often unannounced) to sets of the track videos he wasn’t involved in—namely PADO and KANGAROO. There he enjoyed himself thoroughly, poking at Jaehyun’s hair, dragging Donghyuck off to who-knows where, and making fun of Hendery’s outfit on one set, and latching onto Renjun’s back, avoiding small talk with Yangyang at all costs with red ears, and cooing obnoxiously loudly at Jisung on the other. He opened his copy of the album on a live with Jungwoo and Mark, and pulled a Xiaojun photocard which, as per, he immediately stuck over the face of ISTJ Renjun and patted with horribly contained smugness (he then remarked to the camera that he barely pulled Xiaojun in any of his WayV albums, and so it was practically a miracle). And apart from the live, he was very online in general—once again breaking his rule of staying quiet if he was happy with it all. He posted on his Instagram, he was sending messages on Bubble at least once every week instead of monthly at best, he was going live with just about every member of the group (there was a lot of karaoke, a lot of giggling of stupid filters, and a lot of radio hours mish-mashed with fit checks mish-mashed with impromptu fashion shows). Overall—a very happy time for Kihyun, and everyone around him.

MY  FAVOURITE  MOMENT:  #1  MARKF  ACTIVITIES  (SORT  OF)

He’d never made any attempt to hide his love for Mark (like most of the group, really) but during GOLDEN AGE it felt like he was turning it up to eleven. During the fit checks and fashion shows on live, sometimes Kihyun would be decked out in full Polo Ralph Lauren—laughing all the while he showed it off, but wearing it all the same; no doubt because of a certain someone’s connection to it. He even bought a flat cap, and had great delight in showing it off to anyone who wanted to see it. Mark’s music taste also looked like it was rubbing off on him. Suddenly he was sharing Justin Bieber songs (mid 2010’s era Justin in particular—the PURPOSE album if you want to be extra specific), doing dance covers, almost to the point where it felt like he was trying out a new era of being a mini-Mark—which, when brought up to him on a fancall, set Kihyun off into uncontrollable laughter for so long his and the fan’s time nearly ran out because of it. It was there, quickly trying to cram all of his explanation in before he was made to hung up, that he told them that it was his penalty that came out of a bet with Chenle that Kihyun had evidently lost. What the bet was had yet to be determined, but all inquiries after that were met with a secretive smile and a finger to his lips. Mark did appreciate the fanboying, though, despite it not being entirely genuine—he posted a selfie on Bubble of him and Kihyun in their matching caps and argyle sweaters with an abundance of hearts coming afterwards.

[loonarii]

wtf is going on with ITZY? (an essay)

Itzy has had an… interesting year. They’ve released five singles and two mini albums this year, including two japanese singles - and yet they have somehow made very little (good) impact on the industry at large. ‘Sneakers’ and the ‘Checkmate’ album  was arguably their most talked about comeback this year, but it was almost unanimously hated to the point of exhaustion. Itzy’s second Korean comeback, ‘Cheshire’ was met with marginally less hatred than its predecessor, but along with their two Japanese singles - ‘Voltage’ and ‘Blah Blah Blah’, they slipped under the waves within days of their release.

But how the hell did we get here? Three years ago it was itzy’s world - they were JYP Entertainment’s newest girl group after Twice, and marked the shift between 3rd generation kpop to 4th generation. Arguably, Itzy set the tone for what 4th gen girl groups would be, and their comebacks were events. Their debut, ‘Dalla Dalla’ was a smash hit, and was the perfect balance between controversial and addictive in its sound that it got people talking about them, and brought in an immediate fanbase. ‘Icy’ continued their legacy, but it was ‘Wannabe’ that broke the ceiling. ‘Wannabe’ ruled 2019, and it was Itzy at their best. The hip dance, the chorus, the love yourself theme, the aesthetics, RYUJIN, this was everything Itzy was amazing at, and it handed them the coveted ‘4th gen leaders’ title on a silver platter.

Some people argue Itzy fell off around the ‘Not Shy’ era, but I would have to disagree - while it did fail to top the legacy of ‘Wannabe’, it was still a very successful comeback. However, ‘Not Shy’ was the first Itzy single to stray from their self-love concept, and while some were excited for Itzy to explore new territory, others were frustrated that Itzy was ‘abandoning’ what made them stand out in the industry. With Itzy’s next comeback, ‘Mafia In the morning’, the frustration boiled over into anger. Gone were the rainbow concept of releases past, and here were Itzy, clad in black leather, performing to a song that could only be described as… girl crush. I loved this comeback, and its album is one of my favourites from them, but many midzys were pissed. Had Itzy completely forgotten themselves? It remained a successful comeback, but the unrest in the fandom was growing. JYP Entertainment decided to take a step back, regroup and come back again when everyone is good and ready.

And so, five months later,  we were given ‘Loco’ and Itzy’s 1st full length album, ‘Crazy In Love’. ‘Loco’ was a return to Itzy’s roots - the music video was colourful and chaotic and insane, the chorus dance heavily featured the groups iconic crown choreography, and the production was maximalistic and full of personality. But still, many fans remained frustrated. For some, the song just wasn’t sticking like ‘Dalla Dalla’ or ‘Wannabe’, and with SM’s latest girl group, aespa, dominating 2021 with their highly talked about comeback ‘Next Level’, it appeared Itzy’s crown was slipping.

But let's talk about another group that entered the scene shortly after - JYP’s next girl group, NMIXX. NMXX’s ‘O.O’ was one of the most controversial releases of the year - maybe of all time. It was criticised for its structure being a ‘worse knockoff’ of the aforementioned ‘Next Level’ by aespa, and for sounding like two songs rolled into won. But the talent in this group was undeniable. All seven members were insanely good dancers - something Itzy were noted for too - and INSANELY good singers - something Itzy has often been criticised for not being - and their whole concept was arguably an offshoot of Itzy’s at debut. But JYP debuting NMIXX couldn’t really affect Itzy right? Wrong. ‘Sneakers’ was Itzy’s next comeback, and, as I said before, was unanimously despised - but something else was wrong. The quality of the music video was significantly worse than Loco, and the teaser rollout was a mess. It appeared that JYP had almost forgotten Itzy in the haze of NMIXX’s debut - despite Itzy’s debut significantly outselling them. And with ‘Cheshire’, the quality downgrade was even more obvious. The choreographies had become more lazy and weren’t nearly as complicated as Itzy were once known for, and even the song’s quality had taken a hit. Why wasn’t JYP capitalising on the success of girl groups in 2022? Why was Itzy stumbling when most previous groups were soaring in their 4th active year? And why was Itzy, ITZY, fourth gen leaders Itzy, Twice’s juniors Itzy, taking a backseat to everyone else in the industry?

I don’t have the answers to these questions, other than pointing the finger at JYP’s consistent incompetence when it comes to managing groups. But what can Itzy do now? If I were their manager, I would say take a break. Itzy has been everywhere and nowhere this year, and with the insane domination and oversaturation of new girl groups like Le Sserafim, New Jeans and IVE, Itzy needs a time when fans are truly starved for something that only they can offer, with their experience and talents. And when that comeback happens, it will have to be a smash hit, up there with their greatest, or Itzy may succumb to irrelevancy. It should have a unique and catchy choreography that’s both difficult and addictive, it should embrace the modern kpop sound that Twice have been exploring, and it should show the industry at large that Itzy are a force to be reckoned with, not a group condemned to be ‘washed up’ on their fourth year in the industry. Can JYP do it? That remains to be seen.

[dailytomlinson]

2020 is finally coming to an end, and we can’t say we’re disappointed about it. It sure has been a long way for everyone, yet some artists had a lot on their plate. Take a look at Louis Tomlinson’s year. As complicated as 2020 has been for him, he still unlocked achievements and outdid himself in the best way. So let’s take a look at how Louis Tomlinson made 2020 his year, let’s go!

Louis Tomlinson Released His Debut Solo Album Walls

After four years of anticipation, and a good two years of teasing, Louis released his debut album, Walls, on January 31st. The record received positive critics and fantastic feedback from his loyal Louies. From the party anthem ‘Kill My Mind’ to the emotional ‘Two Of Us’, with a few sweet escapes such as ‘Too Young’, not to mention the punchy ‘Always You’, the album brought the fans everything they had hoped for. In addition to that, Louis stole our hearts with heartfelt and sincere lyrics that only he has the secret of. Magic.

Louis Started His Worldwide Tour And Gave His First Solo Show

Louis started his worldwide tour in March before it got interrupted. Touring was what he had always been looking forward to, ever since he’d decided to start a solo career. Louis had expressed the exciting feeling and positive stress that he feels right before going on stage. Luckily enough, he had the time to perform twice in Spain at the beginning of March. His first whole solo show took place at Razzmatazz, in Barcelona, and reunited around 2000 fans (sold out). An hour and a half of musical bliss, a performer who shares a lot with his fans, and an incredibly talented band. What else?

Walls Went Number #1 In 53 Countries And Worldwide Upon Release

Louis Tomlinson made 2020 his year in the charts too. He always had a dedicated fandom, and that’s no surprise. However, he seemingly wasn’t expecting the global success of his debut album Walls. Indeed, it went number #1 on iTunes in 53 countries upon its release on January 31st, including the United Kingdom and the major part of South America. Not only that, but the album also climbed the iTunes Worldwide Chart to reach #1 in a matter of hours. Legends only.

Louis Released The Music Video for ‘Walls’, And It’s A Masterpiece

January 16th revealed the final single off Walls, the album, which was none other than the title track itself. Louis described it then as his proudest song on the album, with strong influences of Oasis. A few days later, on the 21st, Louis blessed us with the music video, shot in Morocco by Charlie Ligthening. The camera follows Louis through the Sahara desert and traces his path through a ballroom and dancing crowds. Some other scenes show him surrounded by masked people, or behind four silhouettes that he identified as his four former bandmates. The Easter eggs, the quality of the video, and the suit (yes, the suit, don’t you lie) made it a fans’ favorite, for it now counts more than 12 Million views.

Louis Reached 1.4 Billion Streams on Spotify

It looks like the fans’ streaming parties paid off this year. With only one album, four other songs, and remixes or edits, Louis reached the milestone of 1.4 Billion streams on Spotify this year. Additionally, he also made it to 4 Million followers on the platform. The numbers speak for themselves, and the achievement is huge for an artist who only received little promotion for a debut album, stopped on its way due to the pandemic. Here’s to his first billion, and some more soon! Overall, Louis knows he can count on his devoted Louies to increase the number of streams significantly with new challenges, the way they did it in December with #12DaysOfWalls. (Original idea by @miss_always_you).

He Launched Only The Poets Internationally

If you’re a Louie, there are big chances that this name rings a bell. Only The Poets, a band coming from Reading in the UK, literally skyrocketed this year. After their first performance as Louis’ first act on stage at Scala in February 2020, their popularity started increasing. And Louis confirming them as his first European act only made it better for them. They continued their year with live-streams, private Zoom calls, and pre-listening sessions of their singles with fans. They ended it with a social distanced show in Banbury and a Zoom Tour in a few European countries and South America. And the mutual support Louis and these lads give each other is heartwarming.

Louis Decided To Part Ways With Syco

This one is for the fans. After ten years of collaboration with Sony’s label, Syco, Louis decided to part ways with them for a new adventure. He officially announced his decision with a tweet on July 11th that took no time to break the Internet. Soon enough, hashtags related to the news trended around Twitter, other artists, and radios congratulated him on his decision. Louies celebrated with funny memes and GIFs but made sure to surround Louis with love and support through it all. Now we wait (for the new label announcement).

Louis Didn’t Only Postpone His Tour, He Made It Bigger

Another proof that Louis Tomlinson made 2020 better. Not only did Louis pursue his dream and goal to tour, but he also grew it out. After postponing the tour three times, the newly announced European dates include a few more stops, including Reykjavik (Iceland), Warsaw (Poland), Prag (Czech Republic), Vienna (Austria), Zurich (Switzerland), and an additional date in Paris (France)! The shows sold out in less than 40 minutes, making it more than 15,000 tickets purchased. Due to the high demand in Zurich, the venue changed and 500 more tickets went on sale! In Argentina, a wild mobilization of fans on Twitter led him to open the whole Movistar Arena in Buenos Aires. Some additional tickets went on sale for the Chilean show as well. And guess what? They all sold out.

Louis Was Crowned Artist Of The Summer With 13 Million Votes

Still, doubting that Louis Tomlinson made 2020 his year? A radio station from Philadelphia, @965TDY, launched a Twitter award ceremony last summer to crown an artist ‘Artist Of The Summer’. Many polls, 13 Million votes, and 26 Billion points later, Louis was elected and was all over Twitter thanking his fans for their dedication. Louies had acquired the absolute record of 26 Billion points thanks to their votes on the radio station’s website, and thanks to their mass voting parties. Another proof that Louis and his fans are unstoppable altogether. The support is always undeniably strong, and so is the bond between the artist and the fans. Happy days.

Walls Magically Rises On The Itunes Charts In October

Indeed, nine months after its release, a new wave of fans bought the album on iTunes and made it rise in the charts. The magic truly happened after @UpdateHLD (a Twitter update account), reminded new fans to purchase the album if they had not already. Considering Louis gained a certain amount of fans during the global lockdown, the initiative went successful, and soon enough, Walls was climbing the charts just like it did on January 31st. As incredible as it seems, it even received its first #1 on the USA iTunes chart. Louis didn’t miss on thanking his fans for their continuous support, expressing how amazed he was by the chart climb.

Louis Offered An Online Live-Stream Show, #LTLivestream

Early December, Louis announced his first live-stream show from London for December 12th, entitled #LTLivestream. He promised a very special show, hosted by the platform Veeps, and didn’t lie. The general sale for the tickets (of course) crashed the website, making everyone panic. Louis then confirmed that the tickets were unlimited. The show was as incredible as originally announced, with an orchestra, fans participating through a digital wall, and a new haircut that conquered the fans. The numbers later revealed that Louis had sold over 160,000 tickets. #LTLivestream is the most sold live-stream for a male solo artist in 2020. Being the generous philanthropist that Louis is, he has given the $2.8 Million raised to many charities and his touring crew. The charities benefitting from the funds are FareShare UK, StageHand, Crew Nation, and Bluebell Wood. And they wonder why we love him.

Louis Surprised His Fans With A New Song Called ‘Copy Of A Copy Of A Copy’

Last but not least, after spending a year on a rollercoaster, Louis revealed a brand new song during #LTLivestream. He had been hinting at it through a teaser for the live-stream and via a cryptic tweet that made everyone think he was referring to ‘Copy Of A’ by Nine Inch Nails. However, he proved everyone wrong during the show with a brand new song. ‘Copy Of A Copy Of A Copy’ reminds us of the general sound of ‘Walls’ (the single), and stole everyone’s heart and soul once again. Immediately after the show, the fans asked Louis when the single would be out, to which he replied that he wasn’t sure about it being one. The disappointment faded away when he said it remained an option and would put it on the second album. We’ll take that.

And that, folks, is how Louis Tomlinson made 2020 his year for us! We have so many memories of Louis this year and can’t pick a favorite! What would be yours? And what do you think is yet to come from Louis next year? 

[dreamescapeswriting]

The Collaboration ~ OT7 [Request]

WORD COUNT: 2.1K

GENRE: Fluffy, platonic, established friendship,

PAIRING: Platonic ot7 x Fem!Reader

A/N: I hope this is okay for you sweetheart! It’s been a while since I’ve tried to write ot7 so I hope you enjoy this

The friendship that you had with the BTS boys was no secret, it had been public knowledge since the moment you meant them backstage at an award ceremony almost two years ago. One of your stylists had been recording you getting your hair and makeup done when there was a knock at the door and your manager walked in with them. It was hands down one of the best days of your life, even better than the day you signed your contract to become a singer and actress. The whole video consisted of you freaking out a little before finally coming down from the excitement and just talking with them. You'd been an ARMY for years so getting to meet them in person had been so surreal and then getting to call them all your friends was even more surreal to you. 

But the friendship was hugely publicised since you and BTS were both huge artists within the industry which meant a lot of articles were written about you and the boys together. Not all of the articles written about you both had been the nicest, some were and others were a lot worse. Some writing about how you were a nobody until it came to BTS. Some claiming you were dating one of the boys while others claimed that you were dating them all, which would be nearly impossible since you saw them as brothers and they saw you as a sister. Those ones happened to be your favourite to read but mostly because your fans and ARMY would be in the comments defending you or going along with it just to try and troll some people. There had been thousands of edits made to make it look as though you were dating which at first creeped you out and you made a statement about it which lead to less and less being made. It was nice to have that sort of vibe with your fans when they would actually listen to what was going on and what you did and did not like to see.

"The latest articles on us, have you read them?" You questioned Yoongi as you walked into his studio carrying two cups, one with your hot chocolate and another with coffee inside for Yoongi. You'd flown out to Korea for a break from your latest acting gig and decided to visit the boys while you had the chance to see them and actually spend some time together. Most of the boys were still working while you waited for them to go out to lunch with you, 

"What is it?" Yoongi chuckled taking the drink you were holding out for him as you brought up the article on your phone and sat down on the sofa behind you, the articles had begun the moment you touched down in Korea. It was going to take you a minute to be able to translate it all into Korean for him but you did your best, the Korean lessons with Namjoon and Jin were paying off really well.

"According to this one I'm using you guys for your fame, I'm only around you whenever I need to go up in fame points," You let out a small laugh at the thought of it. Were fame points even a thing? You continued to scroll through the website when went to the next one which instantly made you want to scream, Jimin walked into the room ready to tell you that he was ready for lunch when he saw the look on your face. It sent shivers up and down his back and made him feel like he was in trouble with you.

"You've got that murderous look on your face, Yoongi...What did you say?" Jimin questioned looking between you and Yoongi as he tried to figure out what could have been said to make you look this angry at something.

"Nothing...He didn't-" You mumbled as you scrolled through the article that was claiming that both of the fandoms were toxic together when it couldn't be further from the truth. Both fandoms were the sweetest you'd seen, ARMY had been so welcoming to you and your fans as well as vice versa. It honestly felt as though they were more like family members to one another than just random fans. You regularly found them defending one another whenever you went onto your personal Twitter account t update your fandom on things.

"A writer is claiming that our fandoms are the most toxic ones out there..." You mumbled as you brought up your keyboard and began getting ready to type out something on your page, you knew you were supposed to rise above things and if it had been about you you would have done. But since it was about people you scared about you had to take the matter into your own hands, 

@Y/NOfficial: Thank you to all of you that are always trying to be kind and treat everyone nicely. It's refreshing to see all of you act on behalf of me and other people on this app. You're always so kind and caring and I love to see it.

Along with it, you attached a photo of you with the boys from the night you arrived in Korea so that people would know what you were indirectly tweeting about and just like that people were coming to add smirking emojis or to start laughing about what it was you were actually talking about. 

"We should do something..." You muttered as you looked back at Yoongi and Jimin ideas filling your head within seconds. A collabortation between you and the boys had been in talk for a while but neither of your managers had come together to put the plan into action.

"What are you thinking?" Jimin quizzed as he sat himself down next to you looking over at your phone to see what you had just sent out.  

"We've spoken about it, Yoongi and I both have song ideas we've been working on..." Yoongi turned to look at you from his chair as he nodded along to what you were saying instantly knowing what you were talking about. There was a huge folder on his laptop dedicated to the work you'd both been doing together both long-distance and in person.

"I still have it all saved on my laptop if you want to take a look at it all." The statement was directed in Jimin's direction as you both waited for him to say something to it,

"Sure...What have you been working on?" He moved closer to Yoongi to take a look over everything and you smiled. The things you and Yoongi had been putting together were a backing track with some melodies and adlibs you'd both been doing overtime. It was far from being done but it was better than having nothing to go off, all you needed to do was get the okay from both of your managers and the rest of the boys. 

"I've been working on a rap part for Hoseok and Namjoon and Y/n has been writing her own lyrics for her parts," Yoongi mumbled as you grabbed a spare chair to sit down next to him with. Hitting play he let the melody and your rough lyrics fill the air of his small studio.

The collaboration had been amazing, the song was one of your best works in your opinion and the videos were shot and ready to be released at a moments notice. Teasers had been being released all month between your account and the BTS one but neither of the fandoms had put it together that this would be some kind of collaboration. The teasers for the songs had been dramatically different from one another, Yoongi changing the melodies on his and yours just so that nobody would be able to place that they were the same track. Your Twitter had been focussing on releasing your parts in the video with your words and then the boy's parts only being theirs. The fans had no idea but there were a select few that had pieced it together bit by bit and were starting to realise what was happening but no one else seemed to piece it together. 

"It's almost midnight," You said over the call to the boys, all of them were sitting on skype with you as they waited inside Hoseok's studio this time. They were all sitting on the sofa in his room watching the countdown on one of the monitors, the plan was to release the music videos at the same time and wait to see what would happen with the fandoms.

"We've worked so hard for this," Namjoon chuckled as he handed all of the boys a small drink each to celebrate with, you had your own glass of wine to drink while you waited as well. Jungkook cleared his throat as he got up to give a small speech about how much he'd enjoyed working with you.

"You guys worked so great, I don't know how I'll thank you enough." You whispered as you looked at each of them through the screen feeling an overwhelming urge to cry as you thought about how close you'd all grown as a friendship group. This time it was your turn to get a sappy speech but the countdowns began and you smirked looking at the titles, both the same song and video on each channel but the boys had their title while yours was left as. Y/n Y/L/N ???? For a little extra surprise to the fans. Taehyung began counting down from one minute and thirty seconds and the rest of you began to join in with him.

"5...4...3...2...1," The iconic BigHit entertainment logo and intro filled the speakers in your room and you let out a small squeal at the thought of it finally being live after the months of working on it. The boys cheered as the music started and Jin opened up the song for you all walking around their dorms on the screen.  

"I'm going to check Twitter!" You yelled out as you brought out your phone to see all of the different reactions that were coming out from the video. Mostly people freaking out thinking Youtube had crashed and placed both videos onto the channel until your line came up. In the music video, you walked onto the set and began singing through your part of the song as if it was casual. The video idea had been that it was just supposed to be a casual setting at the dorms and you randomly walked through the front door and sat with them while singing. The song was about friendship, which wasn't like a lot of songs any of you had written before but it felt like it needed to be said. That people could be friends or more like family members without having to hate one another or have everyone assume that they were dating. It was mostly a huge slap in the face to all the media outlets claiming that you couldn't be friends with the guys because they were...well guys.

"THE COLLAB OF A LIFETIME!" Someone had tweeted out with your retweet of the music video link, you smirked reading through everything that was on the screen, your whole dash refreshing itself every two seconds. Everyone seemed to be loving the fact that you had decided to finally collaborate with the boys, 

"They love it," You giggled as you sipped on your glass of wine in celebration of the song coming out, cheering along with the boys.

The night continued on as you waited for people to react to it until you decided to go live on Instagram. The boys were all gone now so you wanted to see what everyone was thinking of it now so you set your phone up on your desk and got ready to read through everything.

"I can't wait to see your reaction videos tomorrow, you guys know I watch all of them." You laughed softly as you stared into the small screen of your phone reading through the thousands of comments that were flying through. Play with your hair if this was because of the article about you using the boys for fame. #Y/nandBTSTakeOver You smirked to yourself before playing with the ends of your hair and winking into the camera, going back to answering more questions from your fans and ARMY wanting them to know how the collaboration had come to be and if there would be more work with them in the future.

Tagline: @lyoongx​ @mitzwinchester​ @fan-ati--c​ @kneel-begyourpardon​ @taestannie​ @rjsmochii​ @bisexualmess007​ @innersooya​ @sw33tnight​ @sweeneyblue1​ @jin-from-the-block​

[canyouhearthevoices]

ATEEZ Theory TidBits Ep 4 - What did TREASURE EP 2: Zero to One contribute to the storyline?

I’m making this whole process sound much more exciting than it is. Really, I’m just staring at the videos and albums a lot.

So, ATEEZ’s second album, the one released literally 3 months after the first one. ATEEZ were pumping out the albums in their first year.

In this post;

Materials included in the album

Additions to the storyline

Meaning of the album name

Track breakdown

Reactions from the fandom

Important motifs and storyline elements which were added

My perspective on the storytelling (from a screenwriting kid)

Quality of the album

Other important things to note

Conclusions

Zero to One was the album which introduced some of the hijinks of the ATEEZ storyline - the mutiple-universes-Jekyll-and-Hyde things, and also escalated the storyline, but was still nice and easy on the time-travel shennanagins. Kind of.

Full discussion below the line.

Materials included in the album

Only the particularly important things, not the random, daily content that groups put out as part of their... existence. Everything ATEEZ does have some references or relevance to their storyline, but that doesn’t mean that all ATEEZ storyline content is created equal. 

The album (physical - this one had two versions)

General MV teasers, album teasers etc

Dance tutorial for ‘Say My Name’

MVs - ‘Say My Name’ and ‘HALA HALA’ performance ver.

Brought back ‘From’

Other random performance videos and things

ATEEZ logbook roughly Ep 8-17

The regular behind videos and things - the ‘Say My Name’ reaction video was crucial here, as Hongjoong revealed that it was a prequel to ‘Pirate King’ - we’ll talk about this more later

Additions to the storyline

The album was the one that did most of the heavy lifting after the first album. While the first one introduced us to ATEEZ’s concept, the second introduced us to most of the mechanics of their storyline, including the Jekyll-and-Hyde HALAteez concept, possessions, and so on. HALAteez introduced themselves to the audience, which is probably the single most important development in the ATEEZ storyline, and we were introduced to some other motifs, like the name tags, the spyglass, Mingi’s radio and Hongjoong’s megaphone, the glass box, and the tree. Amongst others.

It also was a sneaky introduction to the concept of time-travel and non-linear storylines that ATEEZ use, through an offhand and possibly accidental comment by Joong.

Meaning of the album name

‘Zero to One’

They’ve now reached the start line together, and now take their first step towards their goal (the Treasure).

Track breakdown

HALA HALA - HALAteez introduce themselves, then possess Treasureteez and have an epic battle with them, before sending Treasureteez into a dream state.

Say My Name - Treasureteez begin their journey (literally waking up) and encounter HALAteez, who they initially see as enemies.

Desire - HALAteez, and especially Hongjoong, go more and more insane over time as they try to find the Treasure and their ATINYs.

Light - The chill song of the album, probably Treasureteez, about our dreams and all of that. Introduced the light motif in the storyline.

Promise - A sweet song about eternity, togetherness, the sunset, etc. But, of course, with a little storyline on the side.

From (hidden track) - The very beginning of the ATEEZ storyline, from the HALAteez perspective.

Reactions from the fandom

It was great. Everyone went crazy. There was the Joong mullet, the Halateez introduction, and San’s demon, etc etc. It was literally ‘the perfect comeback’ which defined ATEEZ’s style, according to PD from Form of Therapy, and I agree wholeheartedly. It got a lot more people more invested in the storyline and really helped ATEEZ in every way - fans, concept, longevity, unique style, storyline, etc.

Important motifs and storyline elements which were added

Time travel

The radio

The megaphone

The tree

Torn flags

The museum

Halateez

Suicide

Possession

Jekyll and Hyde

Gothic elements

Alternate universes (kind of)

Time travel (kind of)

The tree

The glass box

Individual items for the members (Joong with the spyglass, Mingi with the radio, etc)

Mirrors

Symmetrical representations of self

My semi-professional perspective of the storytelling, production and production values, etc

It was really well-done. Obviously, this carries on from the great storytelling choices of the first album, as it carried the storyline far more. It was also a wonderful balance between HALAteez and Treasureteez, which made for an interesting album, lyrically, thematically, stylistically, etc.

Where the first element of the storyline (concept) was introduced in Treasure Ep 1, the second element (multiple versions of ATEEZ) was introduced in this one. Meanwhile (spoiler alert) the third (dreams and time travel) was introduced in Treasure Ep 3, and the last (broken universe and universe travel) was introduced in FEVER Pt 1.

It was brilliant and Gothic, and, of course, had both callbacks to the previous album and foreshadowed later ones. It was also great and fun for someone like me who has studied Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Quality of the album

It was well-done. Higher production value than the previous one, especially with some of the complex ‘Say My Name’ sets. But it was also, in the same way as the previous album, good at saving money. They used a warehouse, with clever lighting and cinematography for the HALA HALA video, which is about as good as a super low-budget MV can get. FUCKING EPIC, that is.

We also got an upgrade to two album versions. Nice.

Other important things to note

HALA HALA, although certainly not the most interesting song lyrically, or the best musically, is probably the single most important song in ATEEZ’s discography/storyline.

Conclusions

I loved it. It’s the best album. I’ll take no arguments - this is an objective fact. I don’t care that I only listen to 4/6 tracks on a regular basis - the styling, the classical inspirations, the storyline, and everything else in it was perfect. And, let me tell you - when you get the black version of the album and hold that wonderful brick of an album in your hands and stare into the red and black depths of its eyes, you feel like a villainous god. Or goddess. Take your pick, the album gives you the ability to transcend gender and become a member of HALAteez’s epic entourage. Why else would the unofficial-but-mandatory ATEEZ concert dress code be ‘evil space pirate HALAteez ver.’? Yeah, this is why.

[omdaily10]

WRAPPED UP

Guest Artist: Travie McCoy

Writers: Olly Murs, Claude Kelly, Steve Robson, Travie McCoy

Producers: Steve Robson

Album: Never Been Better

Release Date: 16/11/2014

B-Side: ‘Wrapped Up (Cahill Radio Mix)’ (Credits as above)

Chart Positions: #3 (UK), #1 (Japan), #2 (Scotland), #3 (Belgium), #7 (Ireland), #9 (Czech Republic), #11 (Germany), #15 (Australia), #15 (Poland), #16 (Finland), #16 (Slovakia), #17 (Netherlands), #18 (Switzerland), #18 (Spain), #21 (Austria), #21 (Sweden), #40 (USA)

Sales: 600k (UK, Platinum), 35k (Australia, Gold), 40k (Sweden, Platinum)

A lot can happen inside a year, particularly in a world so fickle and trend dominated as pop music. Hence having been everywhere and anywhere for much of the previous year, 2014 was, by comparison, a very quiet time indeed for Olly. In fact, the only signs of him still being present in the public eye came in the form of a couple of one-off charity appearances, and also that June, at his now bi-annual venturing out onto the pitch at Old Trafford for Soccer Aid, a celebs and pros football match raising money for UNICEF (Olly has played five times in total for the England team now, and captained them to a win at the 2018 match).

For the first time since the start of his career, he was able to go take time out purely to focus on music (and in his words 'grow a beard and get fat'), hence the first nine months of 2014 were spent cooped up in the studio, writing and recording the songs that would go onto make his fourth album. Things certainly changed in a big way, for during the time Olly was away, there seemed to be a sudden explosion of solo male competition in the charts.

Ed Sheeran was now the biggest popstar on the planet, having just released his multi-platinum second album 'X' and huge hits like ‘Sing’ and ‘Thinking Out Loud’, and Sam Smith and George Ezra both released their debut efforts this year. It was clear that whatever Olly decided to come back with, it would have to make as big an impact as possible to remind people he was still at the top of his game despite being away for the best part of a year.

So already there was a lot riding on 'Wrapped Up' even before he unveiled it with a world exclusive first play on national radio at the beginning of that October. Coming off the back of the biggest selling album of his career to date, it made business sense on paper to repeat the formula of that album's trajectory again - launching the album with a killer floor filling pop stormer that just so happens to have an international guest star on it, even if some critics suggested it was a lazy move.

Owing sonic motifs to disco classics by Evelyn 'Champagne' King and - in a spooky forbearing of his future work, though he didn't know it then - Nile Rodgers and Chic, 'Wrapped Up' was a guitar driven dance pop funk workout with a stormer of a chorus and a cheekily placed double entendre involving locks and keys that screamed chart topper from the first play. The appearance of a guest rap from Travie McCoy, the lead rapper and founder of Gym Class Heroes, who had also scored big success with Bruno Mars on his worldwide hit 'Billionaire' in 2010, enhanced its credentials further.

One thing that Olly had also quietly achieved in the UK - without anyone realising it at the time - was the unique distinction of being the only British male solo artist to notch up a number one single with each lead release from a brand-new album. It surely stood to reason then, that 'Wrapped Up' would be joining that list and making it four in a row. However, several changes of circumstance meant this didn't go according to plan.

International promo was the focus from quite early on in the campaign, with the single being released and promoted in Australia first before we got it here in the UK. It meant that no thanks to an administrative error at Sony Music - who'd been slowly releasing select tracks off the new album as 'Instant Grat' teasers - that 'Wrapped Up' was mistakenly available for a couple of days to download off the UK store of iTunes two whole weeks before its official UK release date. One can only speculate what might have happened had they corrected the error sooner - but then this was compounded by another turn of events.

With just over a week to go until release, Olly then recieved a call from music legend Sir Bob Geldof, the man who'd put together the historic Band Aid single 'Do They Know It's Christmas' and subsequent Live Aid concerts to raise money for those living in developing countries. Olly was asked if he wanted to appear on the 30th anniversary recording alongside the likes of Bono, Chris Martin, One Direction, Rita Ora and Ed Sheeran, and he duly obliged.

As he returned to The X Factor live shows to launch 'Wrapped Up' proper with a homecoming performance on its release date of 16th November 2014, Sir Bob was there too to give the first play on terrestrial TV of the video for the Band Aid 30 recording of 'Do They Know It's Christmas'. He jokingly apologised to Olly on air after his interview with Dermot O’Leary, who now knew full well that 'Wrapped Up' was set to miss out on the top spot.

Seven days later, and this is exactly what happened. Even outsold by 'Real Love', the then new single from contemporary dance pop outfit Clean Bandit, who'd had a phenomenal year with their hit 'Rather Be' with Jess Glynne (and whose then violinist, Neil Amin Smith, was incredibly vicious about Olly on social media at the time, stating he was only fit for a low rent musical theatre career. He left the band over a year later and hasn’t been heard from since. Go figure), 'Wrapped Up' had to be content with a #3 debut and peak - still a great chart position, but by no means what was needed at this point.

It meant that Olly was on the UK's number one single that week, but just not the one he intended, with Band Aid 30 selling over a quarter of a million copies to top the chart, despite a heft of negative reviews and feedback from music critics, social commentators and soapbox preachers alike for the new version of 'Do They Know It's Christmas' on Twitter. Along with ‘Wrapped Up’, it was absent from the top 10 by the time Christmas came.

Despite the chart topping success of the parent album, and being a top 20 hit in thirteen other countries (including Japan, where it gave him his first chart topper), it was clear from the performance of ‘Wrapped Up’ that things had slipped a bit compared to the mammoth fanfare that had greeted ‘Troublemaker’ two years previously, and it wasn’t unfair to say that Olly suddenly had something to prove five years into his career. Fortunately, another huge single was waiting in the wings to quell those doubts...

OTHER THOUGHTS

A remix from top dance DJ and producer Cahill was the main B-side on both the digital bundle and the Europe only CD single. UK fans were also treated to the non-rap version of ‘Wrapped Up’ and a special acoustic rendition of the track recorded for the website of Fabulous, the free glossy magazine that comes inside the Sunday edition of British national newspaper The Sun. Olly has appeared on its cover more times than any other male star to date – since 2011 he’s made a total of seven appearances.

[dreammutual-remade]

idol!you and lucas

request: please do a bullet scenario about lucas and his gf both being sm idols - anon

word count: 2.6k 

a/n: first of all,,,, this gif hurts me badly, seCOND OF ALL im so sorry for the inactivity !!  I have finals this week and I graduate really soon n ive just been v busy !!! also I had hella writers block trying to finish this ish up but I hope u like it anon !!!!its a lil hard for me to write as an idol just because thats such a Wildt lifestyle but I did my best ily

warnings: cursing n also some crying because god knows all of our boys prolly have during their idol days :(((((((

what’s up butter cup

let’s dive tf in

as a pre-warning thingy i’m making you a singer so i’m very sorry if you can’t sing i can’t either bby

alright so this story begins when you’re not even 16 years old and you audition for a bunch of companies

tbh you didn’t think you were /that/ good at singing or dancing but ???

all the companies wanted you??? you got offers from JYP and SM and Pledis ????? go off queen

we stan

anyways

you decide to go with SM since they produced leGENDS SHINEE

FUCK I LOVE THOSE GUYS

(binch if u went to JYP u literally could have been in TWICE ?!?/&.&. ABSOLUTE LEGENDS UR LOSS THOT)

also because you just think that’ll be best for you ?? idk we don’t judge here (i already did though i’m So Sorry)

on your first day as a trainee you’re in search of the female dorms and you just can’t find them

eventually you run into this,,,, Gang Of Adolescent Boys

they’re wearing dorky ass muscle tees and keep saying shit about “foreign swaggers”

(.... y’all already know who it is sjdkdkd)

and you’re Meek and New and Small so you’re like um, hellowherearethegirlsdormsplease

okay there’s four of them and they’re all fckin huge except for one

the Biggest One with the american accent points you in the right direction and you try to scurry away but end up smacking into the Second Biggest One’s arm because he moved in your way on accident ouchie

“god lucas why don’t you just run the poor girl over”

“hYUNG PLEASE”

“hehehhehe i’m just kiddin”

and you just kind of mumble that it’s fine and go on your way

okay so you train for three yEARS before your debut

and you def come out of your shell alright like you’re Extroverted and whatnot

you still see those boys and even make friends with mark and donghyuck and the Foreign Members

but the entirety of the group you met has debuted except Lucas

you’re not close but you wave and say hi when you see each other

you turn pink everytime from Emotions and also Holding Your Breathe Due To Anxiety

and he was cute years ago but he’s only gotten prettier with age dude

they recently dyed his hair to give him some Blonde Stuff and he looks reaLLY GOOD

LIKE TO THE POINT WHERE U HAVE TROUBLE LOOKING HIM IN THE EYE

but eventually you’re like hey now i’m a grown woman i can handle this giant childish man !!! quit that @ emotions

alright so you debut like, days before him no lie

you’re a solo artist bc idk

red velvet was full 😔🤟

anyways you’ve been filming the video for the past couple weeks and the concept is sort of filmy and shimmery like old sparkly anime water u kno ?

and you’re wearing similar stuff to what ten was wearing in the new heroes mv (BIG OOF) except less warm toned ?

like swishy sort of see through white shirts and spandex underneath

you’re a Beautiful and Skilled dancer so they have u all over the place with this choreo

on the FLOOR on the WALL in the AIR

no joke they had you in a harness doing cool swirly shit in the air this is the stuff of legends my g

but like the inside of SM ? is very cold

if you’re not filming you’re bundled up in a blanket and trying to rub the goosebumps out of your arms and legs

because you have to look all smooth and flawless for filming and those are two things goosies are not

luckily the song wasn’t a huge ballad because it’s rather hard to belt out long ass notes when you’re upside down lmao

anyways, the song is a bop and the mv is beautiful and you are wearing minimal clothing and although these are all nice things but also

RECIPE FOR DISASTER

the filming is almost done thank GOD

you’re taking a break from filming and you go out in the hall in your costume to go get another water bottle because ain’t nobody around to give a pre debut thot a water bottle 🤧🤧

your arms are wrapped around yourself when lucas jogs up behind you and throws his jacket around you??

literally throws it like you made an oof noise

“um ,? thank you that was aggressive”

“i knOw i’m sorry it’s just you are practically naked and it’s Cold in here and also walking behind you i noticed you were Very Exposed sO”

you turn bright red because that means everyone has seen your ass prolly and you duck your head and pull the jacket tighter around yourself

“oh! i’m sorry i mean you look uhh? really good ?? yeah you look good nOT that i was looking super hard or anything or that i uH saw aNything BUt if i did it would look good i’m sure nOT THAT I thInK about that ?$/&/“

and now you’re both blushing very hard but you feel a little better when you see he’s just as flustered as you

you brush your fingers on his forearm to get him to stop staring at the floor and tell him thanks and ask about when he’s debuting

he tells you the mv filming is done since they had to go Real Far Away to do it and get it done ahead of time and that the teasers will be out in three weeks and then the mv release and then its Show Time Baby

you’re excited for him and he’s excited and you debut really soon as well and he’s excited for you and !!!!!

there’s excitement all over the place

he’s smiling so big and his eyes are cute and crinkly and :(((((

you still got a crush on him /sigh/

one of the staff literally yells your name down the hall and you’re like aw shit that’s my cue lol

you leave him with with a lil squeeze of his bicep and you’re BOTH shook

him because ?? was that fLIRTING

you because ?? THAT WAS FLIRTING

also because his biceps are thicc i’m gonna cry

big baby stands there for like 3 mins just shook and with uwus oozing from his pores

you skrt very quickly to avoid the consequences of your actions and get back to filming

okay TIME SKIP

your mv was released and did GOOD AS FUCK

you didn’t hear it from me but lucas + nct boys were seen on vlive jamming the fuck out to your song

you’re backstage like 10 mins from going on and having an absolute panic attack

what if you trip ??? or your voice breaks !!:&::

what if all the reviews say you’re Trash live and that the mv was better since they edited

what if you FLOP AND HAVE NO FANS

NO ONE DOES THE FANCHANTS

FUCK FUXKFUCKFUXKCUDJ

so you do call the king of debuts

mark lee

and you’re like mARK FUCK IM GOING TO CRASH AND BURN PLEAS LLSSE DHELPD ME

he tells you to Calm The Fuck Down and assures you it’ll be fine but it’s not working and mark is but a young boy he don’t know how to deal with FEMALES

you hear some deep ass voice on the other side ask who’s on the phone and mark says your name and then the voice is closer and deMANDING to be given the phone

u already kno it’s our boy yukhei

he can hear you gasping through the phone and having a mental breakdown and immediately makes his voice all low and soft

wow i’m , affected writing this shit

“hey, y/n, listen to me, you’re okay, you’re fine. i promise it’ll be okay.”

“bUT WHAT IF I-“

“you won’t. you’ve worked too hard and practiced too much. i know you i saw you do it. do NOT let all of that go down the drain. you can do this. now get your cute ass out there and take NO SHIT”

“i know but i am, scared”

“don’t be! this is what you love isnt it?”

“i mean,,,, yeah”

“and you want to do this more than anything don’t you?”

“well , yeah”

“then for gods sake don’t be a wimp and do it”

“hey i miss the part of this conversation where you were being nice to me”

“that part’s over babe you need some TOUGH LOVE now please for me and for yourSELF get out there”

“okay.. thanks lucas”

“anything for you, angel”

yOU HANG UP SO QUICK

how dare he

you were all Comforted but then he went on with that angel bullshit

okay long story short you ended the industry dude

all solo artists BOW BEFORE YOU

VOCAL QUEEN

DANCE QUEEN

lucas: shaking because His Angel did so well and you were wearing white and actually looked like an angel

but you don’t see him for the next like twO MONTHS because he’s promoting boss and you’re promoting your single and neither of you are home ever

when you do get a second to yourself you try to send him an encouraging text but

you seldom get a second to yourself :(((

he does the same thing and they’re so sweet :(

“good morning i hope u slept well !!”

“princess don’t forget 2 hydrate”

“i saw ur mnet performance u looked beautiful <333”

this man is practically begging you to wife him up i mean

he’s cute

he’s BIG and WARM

very sweet to you :(

talented and lovely

absolute dweeb

supportive of you even from great distances

BEST BOY UWU

you try to be just as encouraging back because he deserves it UGH

“bub don’t forget to eat i know ur hungry rn”

“!!!!!! you came foR MY LUNGS WITH THAT CENTER DANCE AT THE END BOI”

“why are u sending me messages u need to rest bby :((“

when things calm down though you,, see each other

he doesn’t formally ask you out and you don’t say anything but, youre dating sort of kind of

as idols you’re both still so so busy and you JUST debuted so neither of you are really allowed to date anyways

you settle for little bits of cuddling and secret touches as you pass each other in the hall

you both stand outside of your respective dorms at night to facetime without waking your dorm mates

he desperately wants to go on dates and do Normal Couple things but there’s no time :(

the most affectionate you’ve ever been is when the girl group who shares a dorm with you was out promoting and you had him over and you took a nap together :((((

he Insisted upon being the big spoon and basically wrapped your whole body up with his limbs

pressed a few lil kisses to the back of your neck and your shoulder when he thought you were asleep

you weren’t though and you turned around to kiss him on the cheek and then tuck your face into his neck and pass tf out

he has to leave though because mark texts him and is like YO I KNO UR WITH Y/N AND HER ROOMMATES ARE ON THE WAY HOME

ABORT MISSION DUDE

and that’s pretty much it :(

months pass without much between you even though you’re trying your best

and even though you live in dorms you’re still so lonely especially when you’re traveling because you don’t have any group members

you don’t want to annoy or worry lucas though so you don’t complain

he notices though and late at night he’ll call you while you’re in bed and talk about his day and how he misses you and wishes you were there

and when you get all emo he says he’ll be waiting for you at the airport

(he really does he goes and hides in the bathroom and texts you so you can go in there and TACKLE HIM)

he still calls you angel all the time :((((

god that’s another weakness of mine ??? IM SUCH A WUSS

but it has specifically changed to “my angel”

uwu

your first kiss and first Real Confession happens on the Worst Day Of Your Life

you’re about to go on stage (you’ve released an album since your debut so this is new stuff) when you get a call from your mom ??

she’s crying and tells you your grandma is sick and in the hospital and it’s really bad

immediately you’re barely holding yourself together because that woman half raised you and was the reason you stayed in dance and worked so hard to become who you are today

there are tears streaming down your face already and the makeup team is fluttering around you trying to fix what you’re messing up and it’s bad

you still have to go on though so you go and perform with tears in your eyes and your manager yells at you after for not pulling it together

you go home in tears and then you’re not looking where you’re going and ran straight into a staff who yells at you some more for being some entitled idol brat

originally you weren’t gonna say anything to lucas but, the staff pushed you over the edge and you call him in tears and are incoherent and can barely tell him where you are before you hang up

our boy BURSTS into your room and sees you sitting on the floor with your face buried in your knees and 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 !!

he gathers you in his arms and sits on the bed with you curled up on his lap

he holds you close and rubs a comforting hand up and down your back at the same time as he frantically tries to figure out what’s wrong

“y/n?? baby what’s wrong? angel, please you gotta tell me or i cant help”

“i jjJJUST Got a cALL and my grandMA IS SICK AND THEN I DI D BAD AND DISAPPOINTED EVERYONE AND My mManageR yeYELLED at me and theN I RAN iNtO a staffF meMbEr and he yELled at me too and I JSUT .$:&:&;& i’m sO SORRY u doNT need to deAL WIYH ME you have problems of YouR own and-“

“shhh listen to me i always care about you okay? angel, i want to help you no matter what you know that. also, if you weren’t so distraught i would go beat some SM ass you didn’t deserve to be yelled at :(((( how about we call your mom and check for updates with your grandma and i’ll stay here with you for the night?”

you nod and then reach for your phone while keeping as much physical contact with lucas as possible

he’s the only reason you haven’t reached the Depression Point Of No Return so

we stayin close

you put your mom on speaker and set your phone down before squishing yourself back into his chest and sniffling while the phone rings

your mom answers and you shakily ask for any updates and she tells you not much but your grandma has improved and they think that within a couple weeks she’ll be better

you cry some more and tell her you love them both and you’re so relieved and lucas kisses the crown of your head and is just There For Comforting

once you hang up and you’ve calmed down a little more you back up a little and turn to face him

“hey thank you so much, you didn’t have to come and help me so much but you’ve always been there to make me stop Freaking Out and laugh and i just, love you. yeah that’s what it is. I LOVE YOU I AM IN LOVE WITH YOU, WONG YUKHE-“

he cuts you off by snatching your face in his big warm hands and kissing you right on the lips

he then kisses your nose and your forehead and pulls you back into his lap to tuck you under his chin

“it’s all for you, angel ;)))) i love you more”

[magg0t-bible]

Top 20 Favourite Alt-J Songs

The title is pretty self explanatory so I’m just gonna jump right in

(Also I’ll be briefly explaining what I like about each one, so another long post. Feel free to skip through if you just want to know the songs)

20. Left Hand Free

Generally a really nice bop. It is arguably their most poppy song, and quite different from most of their other music, but it’s still recognisably them, which is what I love. Honestly all I have to hear is the guitar intro and I’m already dancing like an idiot

ALSO there’s a really cute interview/live performance that the band did on KEXP  (I’ll insert the link at the end if I can be bothered) where they’re playing this song and in the bit where it goes back to “ain’t shady baby I’m hot”, Gus starts clapping to the beat and makes Joe laugh so much that he can’t even sing it properly and it’s v cute

(Also the little “speakeasy” about halfway through is sexy ngl)

19. Interlude 3 ❦

Strange choice I know, but hear me out. I love the simplicity of this interlude, because it’s literally just 58 seconds of piano and quiet vocalising over the top, but it WORKS SO WELL. Plus it’s placed between a heavier song and a more gentle song on the album, so it’s an interesting way of transitioning.

18. Taro

I have such good memories of the first time I heard Taro. I associate it with getting up early in the morning and going for a walk, as cheesy as that sounds - it just generally fills me with so much happiness. I think it’s very well composed, and that INSTRUMENTAL!! I love it!!!

Not to mention the lyrics about the two war photographers (Robert Capa and Gerda Taro) are very interesting. In general I just really love the different topics that Alt-J write about in their songs.

17. Arrival In Nara

This is such a beautiful, peaceful and gentle song. The piano in the first half sets the song up so nicely, and it’s complemented well with the really light vocals. Especially when Joe and Gus harmonise for the “though I cannot see I can hear her smile as she sings”....I’m dead

16. Intro (This Is All Yours version)

 Even though this song does take some time to build up, I’d definitely say it’s worth the wait. The layers are built up so gradually and effectively, and by the time the drums come in, it’s just....it’s just amazing. Wow.

15. Ms

I actually used to skip this song when I first listened to An Awesome Wave, not because I didn’t like it, just because it didn’t really stand out to me that much. WELL. 

You know that meme that’s been recreated a million times that says “when you listen to that one song on the album you always skip and it’s actually fire”? Yeah, that’s Ms. The lyrics are beautiful, the a cappella on “the dark seeks dark” works so nicely, and the instrumental after “the nights of all my youth pressed into one glass of water/the shadow burns across like embers tide paper” is so incredibly relaxing.

14. 3WW

I remember one day early in 2017, I said to myself, “it’d be really nice to see Alt-J live, but they haven’t made any music in like, three years. Oh well.” 

THE. LITERAL. NEXT. DAY. My friend texted me saying that they’d released a teaser for a new song. So after running round my house hyperventilating and whisper-screaming (don’t worry, I was home alone), I went onto YouTube and listened to the 30-second teaser of 3WW. 

AND MY MIND WAS BLOWN. Even more so when I listened to the full song. Gus’ vocals in the beginning are AMAZING - so glad he finally got a solo. Ellie Rowsell’s vocals halfway through are so perfectly placed, and she was definitely the right woman for the job. The instrumentation is absolutely beautiful. Overall the song is just a masterpiece.

13. Hunger Of The Pine

The first song I ever heard from This Is All Yours. I love the way it begins, with Joe singing without any accompaniment apart from that repeating note. It’s another song that builds up nicely, especially by the time the drums come in, and that Miley Cyrus sample?! I had no idea it was her, it just blends in so well.

This is definitely the sort of song you should listen to with headphones on, preferably also with your eyes closed. It’s such an experience and it really takes me places.

(Also shoutout to Gus and his awesome French skills towards the end)

12. The Gospel Of John Hurt

This song is quite similar to HOTP, in the way that it focuses on layers and starts in a very simplistic way before building up. I really like the drums in the second verse and chorus, and the tempo change right after that. I also thought it was cool that the first time Joe sings “Jeremiah” it’s kind of gentle and airy, but then the second time it’s more like “JeremiAHHHHHH” idk it’s cool

And every chorus after the tempo change just makes me feel like my soul has been awoken because W O W

11. Dissolve Me

The first few months of 2017 were a bit difficult for me, and An Awesome Wave as a whole really helped me through them. However, Dissolve Me stood out because of the line “she makes the sound, the sound the sea makes, to calm me down”. My difficulties were to do with my anxiety, and listening to this song helped me to relax like you wouldn’t believe. So it holds a special place in my heart for that reason.

My favourite part has to be the ending when Joe and Gus are harmonising with the “ohhh” and then the chords from the intro come back, and they take it in turns to sing “she makes the sound the sea makes, knee deep in the north”. Absolutely spectacular, even more so live.

10. Something Good

This song definitely lives up to its title. As far is I’m concerned, if you tell me that you can listen to the drums in the intro and not want to dance, you’re a liar. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.

The vocals in the verses are honestly so groovy, and the choruses are somewhat gentle, but they still make me want to get up and dance. The drums throughout the whole song also give it a really nice vibe.

9. Interlude 1/The Ripe & Ruin ❦

I have a surprisingly strong connection with this song, and I’ll explain why. The lyrics are generally about finding balance in your life, but they more specifically describe a woman who constantly counts her steps while walking and makes sure to “abide by the law that she herself has set”. One of my idiosyncrasies has always been pretty much exactly this, and I’ve always thought I was weird for doing it, so this interlude makes me feel lot less alone. Plus the lack of music makes it feel much more intimate.

8. In Cold Blood

AN ACTUAL BANGER. That’s pretty much all I need to say.

The way it instantly begins. The fact that the numbers in the beginning are backwards binary code for ∆, meaning it’s the world’s most cryptic name drop. The line “all above crowd around so fucking loud”. The brass in the chorus. The way the music at the end of the chorus just instantly stops, Joe sings “in cold blood”, and then the music comes right back. I LOVE IT ALL.

7. Tessellate 

Tessellate was the song that led me to discover Alt-J, thanks to my extreme obsession with the Ellie Goulding cover that spent a long time being my favourite song ever. I will admit that my younger, unappreciative self wasn’t huge fan of the original song initially, partially because I saw some of the dodgy looking people in the music video lip syncing to the song and naturally thought they were the band. But over time, I decided to give Alt-J another go, and it was probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. And I obviously LOVE Tessellate now.

6. Adeline

I’m pretty sad I didn’t get to see this song live, but listening to it at home with headphones is a magical enough experience. It has such powerful lyrics, the way everything gradually builds up is just so beautiful (yes I say that a lot, but they do it a lot okay), it’s just incredible. Especially that end bit where Gus is singing “ohhhhh my Adeline” and you hear the “YAAA YAAA YAAA” over the top. MIND=BLOWN.

5. Matilda

I can honestly say that it was love at first listen with Matilda. Given that I’d been introduced to Alt-J with Breezeblocks and Tessellate, it was nice to listen to something that was a little more light and gentle (in my opinion). I love the way the song references the film Léon, and the drum beat right at the start of the first verse is so peaceful and nice to listen to.

4. Fitzpleasure

When I first got into Alt-J and I’d only heard An Awesome Wave, Fitzpleasure was actually my number 1 favourite song of theirs. I obviously still love it, given that it’s now number 4. The bass line (and guitar in general) is so COOL!! It’s such a groovy sounding song and I love the way it switches between Joe singing a cappella and heavy bass. 10/10.

(P.S. yes I know what the song is about, and no, we are not discussing that today.)

3. Pleader

My favourite Relaxer song, the music video for which has made me cry on multiple occasions. The introductory violins, the way everything is layered, the vocals, the lyrics, basically this song just makes me feel every single emotion at once and it gives me goosebumps and it’s AMAZING. What a killer song to end an album with.

2. Bloodflood

This may come as a surprise, but I actually took ages to listen to this song. I didn’t actually listen to An Awesome Wave from start to finish, I kinda just put it on my laptop and listened to each song gradually, which I now realise was not the best idea. But HOLY MOLY. BLOODFLOOD.

I don’t think I need to say much about this song, because every Alt-J fan knows why it’s amazing. However, it is only number 2, because in terms of personal connections and meaning, there is only one song that can top it.

And that song is......

*drumroll*

1. Nara

WOW. Where to even start. The first time I listened to This Is All Yours (actually from start to finish this time), Nara just stuck out to me for some reason. I have always been a huge supporter of the LGBT+ community, and hearing a song about a gay relationship is just really nice for me. It’s incredibly powerful due to its description of how difficult it is to be gay in a situation where that isn’t truly accepted. 

As well as that, the repetition of “hallelujah, Bovay, Alabama” at the end always hits me right in the feels. It’s such a simple motif, yet it works so well as an outro, especially if you understand why they chose those specific words.

So there you go, my top 20 favourite Alt-J songs. Congratulations if you made it this far.

Honourable Mentions

(aka songs that could’ve been on the list but I only thought of them after I’d finished writing the list and I couldn’t be bothered changing it so here they are)

Breezeblocks

Bloodflood pt. II

Deadcrush

Every Other Freckle

Intro (An Awesome Wave version)

Last Year

Portrait

353

Ok I promise I’m done now

[Here’s the interview if you’re interested, Left Hand Free is at 7:14]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrqIws8Q7H4&t=441s

[captainfawful]

It’s the end of the year, know what that means? It’s time for my second annual “Nobody Cares” Awards! Click the post if you’re super bored and have nothing better to do!

So.... 2017′s been a year, huh? Personally, it hasn’t been as bad as 2016 for me, but it was definitely.... A different kind of shitty, I guess. But hey! There were a lot of games that came out this year; many of which were really damn good. I’ve sorta been enjoying the whole mass writing thing, so I plan on this being more writing than last time. Get ready for my 9 paragraph essay on why I think Nier: Automata was the most overrated game of the year! (Just kidding, I would never make you suffer through that. God forbid I anger that fanbase.) I also tried coming up with different categories, so I don’t end up completely ripping off Giant Bomb (at least at the time of writing I haven’t, for all I know they could have the same categories as me and I’ll eat my words). That said, Best Music will always stay, without question. Now let’s start the show!

Best Title Screen

Persona 5

Atlus are geniuses. They kept churning out Persona 4 remakes, adaptions, and spinoffs like there was no tomorrow. It went so far that many people, including myself, were convinced Atlus was focused entirely on milking this cow. A few teasers came and went, and my thoughts of 5 just being “Persona 4: 2″ had not waned one bit. Then they showed the first real trailer. The trailer that would end up being the games opening music video. It was at that point that I realized “Oh wait, I actually had no reason to doubt them at all.” Everything about that trailer showed me the error of my ways, and convinced me that Persona had not lost its’ edge one bit. The game simply oozes style and creativity, and I believe the title screen to Persona 5 is a perfect representation of that style. I have more to say about this game later on in the Top 10, but I’ll say for now that the opening movie and the title screen give off an amazing first impression.

Runners Up:

Nidhogg 2

Sonic Mania

Best Game To Watch

Yakuza 0

I’m not a big fan of Beat-Em-Ups, Brawlers, Hack-N-Slash, Character Action Games, whatever you want to call them. I often find them repetitive and kinda boring. I’m not saying they’re bad or anything, I can totally see why people enjoy them. They’re just not for me. That’s one of the lesser reasons I believe Nier: Automata was one of the most overrated games of this year. My point is, I never got into the Yakuza series for that reason. A couple of my friends would tell me the ridiculous or silly things that happened in the games, and I was interested, but never enough to actually give one enough of a shot. When Yakuza 0 came out, I remember seeing it on a Giant Bomb Unprofessional Fridays, where Mary Kish played the first 45 minutes or so, including a karaoke song. That’s when I got hooked. I knew that Yakuza had a ton of weird sidequests, and over the top action, but I never knew that it also had legitimately good drama. I was fascinated by how good the cutscenes were. A little while later, Giant Bomb East did a playthrough of the whole game, and I watched every second. The quirkyness of the series is obviously a big selling point, but the amazingly well done cutscenes were what tipped me over into becoming a Yakuza fan. That being said, if I had to play the entire game on my own, I don’t think I would have finished it.

Runners Up:

Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds

My Summer Car

Best Music

Pyre

This one’s a surprise. I went into 2017, and got a lot of the way through 2017, thinking there would be no way Persona 5 wouldn’t have the best soundtrack of the year. Pyre’s soundtrack is really great. Darren Korb has a knack for making fantastic music, but the real reason I ended up liking Pyre’s OST more isn’t just because the songs are good, but also because of how they’re implemented. The game is structured mostly like a visual novel, with character portraits standing over their dialogue box when they talk. Depending on the character currently speaking, the instrumentation goes through very slight changes. If a larger character starts talking, the drums and/or bass become more prominent. If a more calm or quiet character starts talking, the song goes into a more acoustic arrangement, so on and so forth. Also, there’s a thrash metal song that is hype as fuck. That being said, while it’s not in the runners up, SteamWorld Dig 2 has the best music track of the year.

Runners Up:

Persona 5

Sonic Mania

Best Hand Drawn Animation

Cuphead

Here’s a trend I hope keeps up. It seems like this year brought more hand drawn games than years past, many of which look spectacular. Cuphead was first shown in.... 2014 I believe? It was just a random clip in an Xbox One Indie games compilation shown off at Gamescom, and it made a huge impression from just a couple seconds. The animation quality is flawless, and the attention to detail is extremely deep. They replicate that 1930′s cartoon style perfectly, on their very first shot.

Runners Up:

Sundered

Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap

Best Bat-Wielding Motherfucker

Goro Majima (Yakuza 0)

What else needs to be said? There’s almost nothing more fun than smashing the shit out of things with a baseball bat. Granted, Majima doesn’t smash a lot of things, but more often people; luckily, I never was one for semantics!

Runner’s Up:

Mae Borowski (Night in the Woods)

Chloe Price (Life is Strange: Before the Storm)

Coming Soon

Listen, Iconoclasts is coming out in less than a month. That’s reason enough to be excited for 2018. On top of that, we have Dragon Ball FighterZ, Griftlands, Ni No Kuni II, Full Metal Furies, Wonder Wickets, and maybe Crackdown 3 also coming in the first quarter. However, there’s not a ton of 100% confirmed 2018 releases. Games like Valkyria Chronicles 4, Wargroove, Megaman 11, Indivisible, UFO 50, and mother fucking Spelunky 2 are all games that are allegedly coming out next year, but I have a feeling most of those will end up pushed back. Also, I can’t wait to see the glorious train wreck that will inevitably be Detroit: Become Human.

And maybe Mother 4 (name pending) will come out this year? Probably not. But here’s hoping!

And now.... The Top 10!

#10: What Remains of Edith Finch

I’ll cut straight to the point: Edith Finch is my favorite walking simulator (or as some might call it, stroll-playing game) I’ve ever played. Perhaps I’m a bit biased, as my personal favorite movie is Big Fish, which was definitely a source of inspiration for this game. I will say, however. that Edith Finch’s ending is nowhere near as good as Big Fish’s.

#9: Pyre

#8: Gorogoa

#7: Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

You know what I love? The combat in XCOM. You know what I hate? All of the base building garbage in XCOM. Mario + Rabbids puts a few interesting spins on XCOM’s combat, while also removing all of the boring bullshit in between. While there are several issues I have with the game, like not being able to take Mario out of the party, overall Ubisoft did a very good job creating this very... bizarre crossover. Disclaimer: I do not, nor have I ever had a hatred for Rabbids. I think they’re fine. In fact, if I had a source of income when I was 16 and Rayman Raving Rabbids came out, I would probably own a piece of Rabbid merchandise right now.

#6: Sonic Mania

Sonic Mania is pure fan-service, and I am a fan. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot when Mania was originally announced. As you know, Sonic hasn’t had the... Best reputation. Especially when they say they’re going back to his roots, Sega always manages to screw up one way or another. I’m not even that big a fan of Sonic Colors! So while I was into the way the game looked, I was still very skeptical. The more I learned about the game, however, the more interested I became. Finding out Christian Whitehead was front running the development, Tee Lopes providing the music, and seeing posts from people pointing out little in-jokes and references from the original trailer, all of this made me more and more excited. I figured even if the game wasn’t that fun, it would still be worth it to see all the little details they added to it. I got the game, loaded it up, and the intro began playing. I got shivers all over from the pure joy of that opening cutscene. Maybe this will actually be good? Shortly after, I got to the first Special Stage, where everything went all 3d. Okay, this game is kinda good. I played it a little more, and found myself in a boss fight where I had to play a round of Puyo Puyo against Dr. Robotnik. This game is amazing. While the Puyo fight was definitely the highlight of my excitement, but the rest of it didn’t fall off too far. Sonic Mania is an experience that I don’t think can be recaptured; a sequel would be fun, but I really doubt it could affect me the same way this game did.

#5: Horizon Zero Dawn

#4:  Persona 5

Persona 5 had the potential to be my game of the year. The aesthetics, style, music, color schemes, story revolving around punks and rebellion, creating a group of master thieves, and potentially off heists are all things that very much resonate with me. So what happened? What caused this game that should have turned into an all time favorite end up being a “I guess 4 is a good enough spot”? First of all, too many of the game’s segments go on for way too long. The dungeon designs are poor, with uninteresting puzzles that get extremely repetitive. Unlike Persona 3 and 4, however, this game does not get the excuse of randomly generated rooms as an excuse (despite how bad an excuse that may be.) Most of the later dungeons just straight up drag near the end, with a couple of them not having save areas for oddly long stretches of time. It felt like they just needlessly extended the dungeons to double the length of what should have been a 30-40 hour JRPG. I thought the characters overall were interesting enough, but their confidant links felt kind of same-y. The story didn’t feel nearly as important as in the previous games, and the big twists were either confusing, full of plot holes, or needed a half hour for the game to explain itself to you. But, at the end of the day, it’s still a Persona game. It may not be the best Persona game, in fact I would probably say it’s the fourth best (behind 3, 2, and of course 4) but overall Persona 5 managed to deliver an enjoyable experience. 

#3: SteamWorld Dig 2

#2: Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

#1: Super Mario Odyssey

I’ve been trying for weeks to write up a big thing about why I love Super Mario Odyssey so much. And really, there’s not a whole lot to it. It is a joyous game. My entire time spent with it was fun, and I constantly had a smile on my face. Much like the intro to Sonic Mania, the Festival segment of Odyssey also gave me shivers from how happy it made me feel. And really, isn’t that what we need most in 2017? The biggest gripe I have about this game is that there isn’t enough of it. I would have liked to see a few more worlds, or have a bit more variety so there’s not, say, two water levels or two jungle levels. Which is a much better problem to have than with Persona 5, where I thought there was too much of that game. Hell, I played a lot more of it after the end credits, which is something I very rarely ever do. Overall, Odyssey is a splendid game that excels in almost everything it does, and makes the exploration of each world something I actively want to do. Odyssey, ya see?

Hey, hi! You made it to the bottom! If you read all that, or even a little of it, then you have my appreciation! Hell, even managing to scroll past all that to get down here deserves a pat on the back in and of itself. Well, that just about wraps up my pointless little awards ceremony. Due to the influx of big important games to play, plus some personal issues that ate up too much of my time, I didn’t make much progress in beating Kingdom Hearts II.8, or the Zelda games I missed out on. Oh well, there’s always next year? There’s always a next year. Even after humanity collapses in on itself (soon-ish?), there will always be a next year.Hope you all had a good holiday, and have a better 2018! Toodles!

[seauxfientertainment]

Is "How You Like That" by BLACKPINK worth the hype?

[July 11th, 2020]*

It's been only two weeks since BLACKPINK (BP) released the seemingly hit or miss, record-breaking single; "How You Like That" (HYLT). It is the pre-release single from their upcoming debut studio album and there has been a lot of talk surrounding it.

People seem to either hate it or love it for a multitude of reasons. Reasons I will explain in this post.

I'll be talking about the song itself, the aesthetics, the music video and the controversy it incited, as well as the records it broke, and then I'll give my final thoughts on the song.

So if any of this interests you, you can continue reading. I'd appreciate it if you did.

*this post was originally written a couple weeks ago for a different platform.

                                                            •••

                1. CONCEPT PHOTOS AND PROMOTIONAL ASPECTS

The hype for HYLT actually started about a month before the name of the track was even revealed (longer if you consider the year long hiatus BP took between the "Kill This Love" EP and this new comeback.)

On May 4, 2020 reports came out stating that BP had finished recording their first full length album and then on May 18 YG ent. projected a June 2020 release.

The first teaser poster was posted on social media on June 10, confirming that the release date would be June 26.

Finally, the Blinks' more-than-a-year-long wait for a comeback was coming to an end!

On June 12 YG ent. released a prologue to BP's new reality show "24/365 with BLACKPINK" on the BP YouTube channel. In the video Jisoo gave a spoiler to HYLT saying, "if our previous songs gave off the vibe of being strong and powerful, I think this song is more hip [hop], that shows us our swag." (Translation comes from the in-video captions.)

So, at this point we'd been told that BP would be taking an artistic turn from their previous discography. Things were going good. For those who were complaining that most BP songs were essentially the same song, now were being promised something different.

Then things started to look really good.

From June 15 to the 21st YG released individual posters, concept photos, and videos promoting the single.

And everyone was excited for the new comeback. The previews were nothing short of enticing. It seemed like we were getting a dark concept. Jennie had red smudged tear stains. Lisa had deep red hair. They all looked so stoical. Maybe this comeback was going to be a serious one?

YG dropped the Music Video teaser on June 24 and everyone was hyped.

Although the theories were flying and everyone seemed to have differing ideas for what this new song would have to offer, in general everyone was happy. We might just get something unlike the typical BP comeback and the hype built up from there.

                                                            •••

                                                      2. MUSIC

Now let's discuss what we actually got.

On Wikipedia, HYLT is credited as a blend of trap and hip hop, but I would include electropop into that mix. To start, the song is fairly short, barely making it to three minutes long (a little bit more about the hastiness of a couple parts on the track later), a common theme that has been occurring in pop music in the past several years.

I listen to this podcast called "Tiny Meat Gang" (it's done by two comedians, Cody Ko and Noel Miller), and in one episode they mentioned what they believed was the direction the music industry will take in the future. They believed that TikTok was pushing the music industry in a direction where all songs can be shorter since only 10-15 seconds of the song actually goes viral instead of the whole track.

(The clip is from 38:25-41:40, if you're interested)

HYLT definitely has the elements needed to go viral. Something I'll continue to point out throughout this post.

The song opens up with an orchestral instrumental beginning, then slowly builds with Jennie, Jisoo, and Rosé's vocals to the bass drop and into a chorus, which to put it nicely, leaves something to be desired by those who were expecting a drastic change of pace from BP's previous comebacks.

The recycled beats and the over use of tag lines and onomatopoeia are just some of the reasons why people have been critical of this particular BP comeback and previous ones.

mera (Youtube channel), her video titled "The Real Problem with Blackpink" goes way more into detail on this topic of repetition in BP songs. I highly recommend you check it out.

In the second verse Lisa raps over this Arabic sounding beat that's actually really cool. By far my favorite part of the entire song and was the only part that really stood out to me and was distinguishable from other BP songs. Lisa's style of rapping fits the song well in my opinion.

Up until this point the song had been fine, it wasn't the best thing ever but it also wasn't the worst. This is where things started to seem rushed. The bridge, with Rosé and Jisoo, was barely there and then we go into the usual beat switch outro with chanting.

                                                        •••

                                                 3. LYRICS

The lyrics are quite vapid, at least in my opinion. The message of the song isn't ground breaking and doesn't really tell us anything about who they (the members of BP) actually are or how they feel.

In essence, the song is a revival track. At quick glance it may seem that the song is about coming out of a bad breakup feeling empowered despite the circumstances (which make sense since that was essentially the same concept used in "Kill This Love"), however, according to Genius, the meaning is actually 'deeper' than that.

Apparently, the meaning of the song is that the girls were in a dark place with all the hate they had received and now they're back stronger than ever.

As mera so colorfully says in her video, BP's music suffers from "forget to write the chorus" syndrome. All they do is repeat the same phrases over and over again. I will say this though, the chorus can easily make it a viral song. It's simple and easy to sing along to, as well as the dance isn't super difficult.

They also stick in seemingly random phrases. Such as the reference to the 1950s "Adventures of Superman" with the line "Look up in the sky It's a bird, it's a plane". Some had mentioned that it's a play on their group name.

Bird = B

Plane = P

BP = BLACKPINK

But I think there are visuals that better support these lyrics in the music video.

As for the line distribution, it's pretty good for BP standards. Rosé and Jennie together make up more than 50% of the song, each finishing with 29.4% and 29.3% respectively. Lisa's in third place with 23% and Jisoo is last with 18.3%. However, what Jisoo lacks in lines she gains in screen time in the music video, so in my opinion it levels out.

From what I understand there is a small group of people that make BP songs but prominently this man, Teddy, is the main producer and lyricist for them. He's made songs for them for basically their entire career.

Personally, I think YG needs to either find someone else to make their songs, someone with new ideas, or have Teddy and the others on the team work with the members themselves. Let the members write some of their own stuff so that it seems more personal. Many groups do this and it adds an authenticity to their sound.

This is only the first song released from the new album, so who knows, maybe the other songs are very personal. But until then, HYLT is all we have, and things don't look too promising.

                                                          •••

                                         4. CHOREOGRAPHY

I'm not going to lie, I actually really like the choreography.

I know a lot of people complained that BP uses 'recycled' dance moves. I did some research and they've used the same choreographer, Kiel Tutin, for their past couple title tracks ("Kill This Love" and "DDU-DU DDU-DU") so that's why things might seem familiar.

Side note: Kiel Tutin has choreographed for a ton of K-POP artists. For example, 4minute ("Crazy"), TWICE ("Feel Special", "Fancy", and "More & More"), Big Bang ("Bang Bang Bang"), and he also even did Jennie's "Solo."

I think the choreography matches the tone of the song. It's fun and not super complicated yet it looks elaborate with all the staging.

My personal favorite parts of the choreography is Lisa's little body roll movement in the second post-chorus:

And when Lisa and Jennie make an little arch with their arms for Jisoo to walk under:

I don't really have anything else to say about the choreography. It's just good.

                                                          •••

                               5. MUSIC VIDEO AND AESTHETICS

The music video is gorgeous, who is anybody kidding? Nothing too mind blowing but just beautiful to look at:

The sets were so intricate and gave atmosphere to the song. Rosé in the flowers, the arctic oil field, the tropical jungle, the staircase with the wings, the street market, the pink world dome. It's all so aesthetically pleasing.

However, the music video wasn't just nice to look at. It did reveal a lot more to the story told in the song.

Jordan Orme, a music video editor made a video breaking down all the little details the director and editor(s) used to show the story written in the song. I found it very useful to better understand the meaning of the song and the visuals. Check it out if you want.

Some of the visuals that I appreciated the most were the umbrellas during the second pre-chorus with Jennie and Jisoo.

Jordan had spoken about how he thought the umbrellas represented protection or being shielded from the hate. And then with Jisoo the umbrellas are burning because they no longer need protection, they can take on the hate themselves. It was just a little detail I enjoyed.

I also quite liked the buildup to the outro and the outro itself.

Each of the members stood in front of the wings as Rosé and Jisoo sang:

"The day I went down with my wings lost / Those dark days when I was trapped / You should have ended me when you still have a chance"

During the Superman reference ("It's a bird, it's a plane") they showed the heads of the Trojan horses and then later showed their wheels, rolling in, when Jennie yells "Bring out the boss bitch!"

It's the little details that get to me.

Although now I know that the Trojan horses represent the BP members passing themselves as a gift to the music industry but in actuality they're preparing to 'attack' (supposedly with their upcoming album), when I was researching the meaning behind them I found this user on Quora, Hamedah Badmus, who while answering the question "What does a Trojan Horse means in the latest Blackpink video clip 'How You Like That'?" gave their interpretation of the music video using Greek mythology. It's amazing how people can imagine things that others can't. They created a whole other storyline.

The music video for HYLT appears to be universally liked. However, there is one problem with the video. Which brings me to my next topic.

                                                          •••

                                           6. CONTROVERSY

In the scene where Lisa is rapping on a throne in a North African street market, there is a statue of the Hindu deity Ganesha:

This upset many followers of the Hindu religion, and rightfully so. There's no excuse for making fun of someone's religion. It's personal and should be taken seriously.

From what I understand Ganesha is the Hindu God of New Beginnings, Success, and Wisdom, and the Remover of Obstacles. In regards to the statue, the proper way to display Ganesha is on an alter. You are not supposed to place the statue on the floor or in low energy areas, such as the bathroom, garage or laundry.

I'll probably talk about this in more depth in my next post about Agust D's new album, because he dealt with a separate but similar situation, but here I'll simply say that ignorance, such as haphazardly using a religious icon in a music video without real knowledge on how to properly display said icon, is unacceptable. Especially with a group as popular as BP who reach millions of people from around the world.

This isn't the first time BP has upset followers of the Hindu religion. In "DDU-DU DDU-DU" Jennie was criticized for wearing a Bindi, a decorative mark worn in the middle of the forehead by Indian women. Jennie's, I believe, was a jewel one. And in the "Kill This Love" music video when Jisoo is shooting an arrow she's wearing an Indian headpiece.

I've also seen clips of the members mimicking traditional Hindu dances. It's tasteless and done out of ignorance. Like any other instance of cultural appropriation, it must be addressed and learned from.

                                                          •••

                         7. LIVE PERFORMANCES AND FASHION

The live performances have been a bit lack luster for me (so far.)

The members just don't seem that into it. The dancing was uninspired to say the least. Lisa's always giving it her all, but the other members are just going through the motions. And it hasn't even been a month yet.

The Inkigayo Comeback Special from 0628 was by far their best performance. They got to do a short intro and the set looked like a jungle temple. I also really liked the costuming during that performance. Lisa has these red boots and all the background dancers were wearing cute pink tops with jeans and their hair in braids. It all looked great to me.

They also looked stunning on Jimmy Fallon. (They wore the outfits similar to the top photo down below). I liked Jisoo's bell sleeves and her little pigtails.

In general, the outfits for this comeback have looked really nice and complement each other well (except for Jisoo's purple dress in the bottom picture from above. A lot of people said they liked it, that it made her stand out but I didn't care much for it. I think it clashes with the other outfits.)

(BTW did not notice Lisa's yellow glove in the winter scene of the M/V)

This comeback also has many different looks. It would be nice to see all of them with slightly different sets similar to the music video during their live performances.

I believe that this era is Lisa's era, at least fashion-wise. I mean Jennie's modernized Hanbok is nice and everything, she's definitely been given some pretty amazing outfits:

And the hair, you can't forget about the hair. From braids, to blonde streaks, to a shoulder length cut, the stylists seem to be giving Jennie everything.

But Lisa's outfits are killing it.

My favorite look from her, and probably from the entire comeback, has to be the jewel-beaded top and blue (denim?) pants she wore during her rap in the music video.

Also she looks gorgeous with that black bob cut hair.

(She also looked great in her LILI's FILM dance performance but that's on the side)

I did very much enjoy their encore performance. There's something about watching them in a relaxed environment where they don't have to worry about messing up the choreography. They can just sing and have fun.

YG should include more moments like these in their performances.

                                                         •••

                                         8. INITIAL ACCOLADES

One of the biggest reasons why HYLT is garnering a lot of hype is the amount of records it's breaking and how much success it's gotten since it's release.

HYLT has broken five Guinness World Records:

—most viewed YouTube video in 24 hours

—most viewed music video on YouTube in 24 hours

—most viewed music video on YouTube in 24 hours by a K-POP group

—most viewers for a premiere on YouTube (1.66 million concurrent viewers)

—most viewers for a premiere on YouTube for a music video

They received what they call in South Korea as a 'perfect all-kill', charting #1 on Melon, and charting on Genie, Naver, etc.

HYLT debuted at #12 on the Gaon Digital Chart. (The Gaon Music Chart is essentially South Korea's version of the Billboard Chart.)

On Spotify, HYLT debuted #5 on the global chart with 4.073 million streams and #10 in the US with 762k streams. Although that's not that surprising since BP is the most followed girl group on Spotify.

                                                         •••

                                          9. FINAL THOUGHTS

So, is "How You Like That" worth the hype?

The short answer: probably not.

The song itself isn't bad, it's just repetitious. Like we've already heard this song before, and we kind of did with "Kill This Love" and "DDU-DU DDU-DU", among others.

I think the song fits it's purpose; a fun song for people to dance to and make videos with. It has its catchy tag lines ("How you like that?", "Look at you, now look at me", etc.) and its electropop dance beat. It doesn't really need anything else.

I was reading many of the opinions on Reddit, one person had suggested that if the outro was used as the chorus the song would have been better. Everyone's saying the song would have been better "if Jennie had her own rap", "if Rosé got a high note", or "if the song went on longer."

Another person said that if HYLT was sung by another artist it wouldn't be receiving the same amount of hype. That's probably true.

I don't know, man.

Those who like BLACKPINK songs will keep on liking them, those who don't will keep on complaining. And that's that.

                                                            •••

I believe a majority of the problems BLACKPINK faces is due to their company YG. They have the money and the resources to make unique, sentimental music. They just decide not to. Rather, they make budget cuts, putting the least amount of money into the group and maximizing capital. Especially because, just like this comeback has proved, BP can put out anything and it will sell. Only further encouraging YG to put in the bare minimum.

I don't dare to question the talents of the BP members when it comes to song writing, because, honestly, I don't think they've even been given the chance to try. Like I said earlier if YG had Teddy work with the girls to write songs and get their input into the creative process they could release innovative and inspired songs.

I hate to make comparisons because I don't want to say one particular group is better than any other. In actuality they're all talented, they just need the support from their company. That being said, I do look at groups like BTS who were given a whole lot more reign when it came to the creative process. And it certainly has never hurt them. If anything it increased their popularity since more people could relate to the deep meanings in their songs.

You can't feel empowered all the time. It's only human that we feel weak and vulnerable at times. I want to hear about those sides of BP. It would humanize them rather than being idol robots that do whatever they're programmed to do.

Anyways, thank you for reading this post. I put several hours of research just to write this, no joke, but I enjoyed it.

This type of project would probably be better suited for YouTube but I'm just not a sit in front of a camera type of person. I enjoy writing though, so this seemed like a better fit for me.

Please, leave a comment on what you thought about BLACKPINK's "How You Like That" and maybe leave a suggestion for what K-POP topic I should review next (songs, albums, idols, groups, videos, etc.)

Until the next one,

Seaux Fí

                                                       •••

                                                 SOURCES

Wikipedia

Genius ("HYLT" English Translation)

BBC NEWS (BP: HYLT scores the biggest premiere in YouTube history)

kieltutin.com

guinnessworldrecords.com (BP's return sets new YouTube records with HYLT)

scmp.com (Did BP's HYLT video insult Hindu religion? Plus 4 more times K-POP's biggest girl group stoked controversy)

allkpop.com (forums: Jennie's Bindi Controversy)

kpopmap.com (BP talks about the choreography for HYLT, fashion and thoughts on breaking records)

r/unpopularkpopopinions (Mega Thread: BP - HYLT)

thespruce.com (The Proper Way to Display Ganesha)

[haveyouseenthis]

I Wanna Have More & More | TWICE Comeback Review

TLDR: The girls are back and better than ever. 

Okay Tek, bear with me. I’m trying to work out a skeleton of sorts for these reviews. 

Pre-Release: (I’ll dive into the teasers, trailers, and my thoughts going into the comeback)

Back in 2019 TWICE started a chain reaction in their concept with the release of the EP Fancy You. ONCE finally started to get the TWICE that J.Y. Park promised us back in 2015 on SIXTEEN: a cute girl group with an edge.

The sound was different, the looks were shocking, but I was left wondering if it would be a one time thing and that we’d go back to eras like “OOH-AHH” and “Likey” (not that that would have been a bad thing in the slightest). Would Fancy You just become an outlier in TWICE’s discography? A failed experiment?

Five months later in September, I got my answer with the release of Feel Special: No, this TWICE was here to stay. Both comebacks were shocking and bright in a way I hadn’t seen the girls tackle before, but they still hung onto a hint of something, a feeling, that was so TWICE. 

“More & More” individual teasers played with a peaceful and dream-like world. Album design told a different story. It looked like the girls were going to be tackling a darker concept, or at least one with duality. 

The M/V trailer was released, and wow! When I say it gave me Alice in Wonderland vibes - yes. I was a fan from the moment it came on screen. It made perfect sense, right? All the trailers I’d seen showed a perfect utopia and all the memes my discover had been flooded with told of ONCE���s excitement of an upcoming dark concept - what encapsulates that better than Alice’s world of her own where nothing is as it seems? Right at the end of the trailer though, we’re hit with a red lensed shot of a snake wrapped around a tree branch. The edge we’d been waiting for. The hint of darkness first teased in the album designs. My mind immediately abandoned my previous Wonderland theory and linked the shot to Adam and Eve. Suddenly everything made so much more sense. The teasers, the tone of everything released so far - this peaceful garden with its bunny-rabbits and butterflies wasn’t Wonderland, but rather The Garden.

Post-Release: (a smaller section where I’ll cover how my thoughts above changed with the release of the m/v. Were my speculations correct or way off? Did it live up to the hype going into it? etc.)

With all the hype from ONCE insta I was expecting a little more “dark” than I got. While I was disappointed, I couldn’t stay mad because JYPE didn’t exactly promise ONCE as dark of a concept as we got hype for. On the contrary, JYPE gave us exactly what they showed us in the teasers. I respect that. 

While there was a very clear Garden motif going on, it wasn’t as prominent as I thought I was going to be. Honestly, I’m a little disappointed about that. I feel like there was a lot of lost potential there. Still, the little nods to it were nice. I’m absolutely a fan of the deep-voiced “more”s throughout the song.

This was absolutely Sana and Momo’s era. More on that later...

The album overall did not disappoint. My favorite song is “OXYGEN,” hands down. It’s got so much personality and could easily have been the title track (fun fact, Jihyo actually said it was almost on the tracklist for the Feel Special comeback, and could have even been the title track). Mina’s starting “na na”s give me Melanie Martinez K-12 vibes. A tranquil melody with a dangerous undertone. I love how Nayeon and Jihyo project at the beginning of their parts in that second verse “Yeah 이건 마치 Fiction / 항상 꿈꿔 왔던 오늘 같은 장면 / Feeling na na / 말로 다 할 수 없는 기적 / 꿈이라도 좋아 / 내 기분은 So high / Singing la la”. The repetition of “really” in the chorus helps tie this song down to the More & More era. In my head it feels like a nod to the “more more more more more and more” in the title track, so it fits perfectly in with the style of this era.

I could go on and on about “OXYGEN” forever, but I’d really like to mention “FIREWORK,” definitely my #2 this era (“More & More” comes in at 3rd for me, sorry Tek). This is the first Latin inspired track TWICE has done and I absolutely loved it. This song is everything IZ*ONE’s “Fiesta” should have been. It gives me major KARD “Oh NaNa” vibes. The whole song I’m waiting for Somin and Jiwoo to pop up. It sounds like something they would have done at the beginning of their career. Nayeon’s voice when she sings “I feel like a firework” at the end of the song is sassy and smooth in all the right ways. 

Visual: (My thoughts on outfits, makeup, hair, sets used in the m/v)

There isn’t a single point lacking visually in this entire m/v. The hippie-esque style of the outfits not only fits the style and tone of the song, but enhances it. The opening set is my favorite, hands down. What, with it’s too-blue pond and bedazzled trees, pink and teal plants surrounding the girls. It sets the tone right off the bat for the magical and all too perfect world we are entering. Plus, the 3x3 square formation at the beginning is perfection, it’s something I can never get enough of with groups of 9.

I thought NCT 127’s “Regular” had ruined CGI big cats in M/Vs for me - not a sentence I thought I’d ever have to type, but here we are - but I have to say, I’m really in love with Tzuyu’s scene where she is surrounded by jaguars. It took me aback at first when one of the cats appeared in the background of her close up, but when they zoomed out to give us the full shot with the five or so big cats I was… actually pleasantly surprised? They committed to the theme for her scene and I dig it. Queen Tzuyu from Feel Special has five pet jaguars and honestly, of course she does. 

Onto hair and makeup. The stylists killed it with this era, no joke. The members with my favorite hair are easily Jihyo and Sana. The pale pink suits Jihyo so well, and I was in love with it the second I saw her teaser video. Sana’s firey orange really stands out compared to the other members’, but the more it popped up the more I liked it. It really fit with the whole “everything is not as it seems” thing they had going on. It was another edge they added. I loved seeing her in the center. The bright color really drew your eye to her, and is a big part of why I say this is partly her era.

It hurts me to see my girl Jeongyeon with long hair again. Of course, she looks good regardless, but come on! JYPE, you have a living breathing girl-crush right there and you gave her short hair to Nayeon? As you can probably tell from that comment, T, I’m not exactly living for Nayeon’s short cut either. Again. Of course, she looks good, how could she not? Personally, I think the two would have looked better if they had swapped styles. I would have loved to at least seen Jeongyeon’s hair up more. The colors still look gorgeous on them though. I have always loved Nayeon with that nice, deep chocolatey look like that.

Dance: (My thoughts on the choreo *let it be known up front that I am in no way a professional dancer*, and how they worked center distribution with it)

All the members have agreed that “More & More” holds the title for the title track with the most challenging choreography. It doesn’t surprise me at all. From second number one there is already a lot going on. It’s deceivingly simple on the surface, but it requires the members to be so absolutely in sync and precise with their movements.

The dance break about two-thirds of the way through the song is what really makes me want to call this Momo’s era in addition to Sana’s. Not only did they add a dance break for her, but they added a completely different set and brand new outfits.

And it paid off.

The dance break is easily one of my favorite moments in the song. I do mean to say song, not just M/V. Often I’ll like a dance break in a M/V because I have something right there in front of me to watch, I can see the choreo that goes with it and that keeps me interested. Then I’ll listen to the song on its own and the dance break feels alien to the entire concept. Like it was literally thrown in. “More & More” doesn’t feel that way. I don’t sigh every time the dance break starts as I do with so many other songs, I get excited. I get up and dance myself because it’s so contagious. It manages to change just enough to warrant a dance break but still sounds like “More & More”.

Vocal: (My thoughts on line dist. and associated things)

The line distribution (LD), in my opinion, is godly. To have a large group like TWICE show such even LD is amazing. 

Or maybe it’s not and NCT 127 just poisoned me.

Nayeon has the most time with 14.4% of the song being sung by her, and Momo came in last with only 7.3% of lyrics. Yes, you read that right. A 9 members group only has a LD percentage gap of about 7%. In fact, the line distribution looks ideal. The main and lead positions got about half of the song, and the other half was split between the subs positions and dancers. With that in mind, it makes sense that Momo, the main dancer, has the least lines. Of course, she was well compensated raking in the most composite center time with 34.4 seconds.

That’s not to say positions always determine the LD among members. Nayeon, a lead vocalist, raked in more lines over the main vocalist Jihyo. When I first saw that I was a little taken aback. Jihyo, my main vocalist queen deserved those lines, didn’t she? 

Well, maybe not.

The more I’ve listened to the song, really taken time and let the notes and melody sink in, the more I’m glad they gave a lead more lyrics than a main. Why? Well, Nayeon and Jihyo have very different voices. First of all, Nayeon’s voice goes a little higher than Jihyo’s and sounds sharper than hers. It reminds me of a fairy; light and airy. Jihyo’s has more of a smooth, sexy, bewitching sound. It’s very full and thick, like syrup. 

That’s not to say either one of them can’t do the other. They are both extremely talented vocalists. However, I admire JYPE’s intelligence in divvying up the lines. “More & More” is a song that better fits Nayeon’s natural way of singing. Jihyo got the parts that fit her voice and she sang them well. Nayeon got the others, along with Sana, Momo, and Tzuyu, the three other members who also sing in a similar style.

Final Thoughts:

Very, very, very good. I’ve listened to the whole mini album at least once a day. I really want more comebacks with this same feel and style. They have been expanding their repertoire and pushing their limits every comeback and I don’t want to see that stop anytime soon, however, if it did, this is a good era to get stuck in.

More & More Lyrics

OXYGEN Lyrics

FIREWORK Lyrics

IZ*ONE Fiesta m/v

KARD Oh NaNa m/v

[defdaily]

[TRANSLATION] 10ASIA+Star Magazine August 2014 issue x GOT7

It’s a minor thing but the first question is something I’ve been curious about. When you introduce the team, you say “Come and get it, GOT7”. How was this decided? Yugyeom We wondered together, ‘What should we do? What do we do?’ before coming up with it. Jr. There were a lot of ideas and this one just happened to be the one we chose. Youngjae What was it at the very beginning? BamBam 'Get ready, GOT7’. But then it was similar to YG WIN Team B’s so we changed ours. Yugyeom We were asking the foreigner hyungs (Mark, Jackson) what stuff meant and they happened to say 'Come and get it’. Jr. It was kind of like, I don’t know, let’s just use this one. (Laughs)

What charms do you want people to come and get from GOT7? Youngjae The seven of us each have our own personal charms… Jr. (Looking at Youngjae) And what is your charm? Youngjae My charm is… my awkwardness? (Laughs)

We haven’t been talking for very long but it seems that the members aren’t much different than they are in broadcasts. Right now you are all starring in SBS MTV 'I GOT7’, are your real personalities 100% in sync with your personalities on the show? Jr. It’s the same. Although it’s a bit embarrassing to say it myself, (Laughs) our team’s biggest charm is our honesty. There may be people who feel from time to time that we don’t have manners, but that’s not what we’re aiming for. We want to show the real us without any filters, so we’d like people to not view us badly.

Because it feels like a good time to bring it up, the 'A’ teasers… Youngjae Oh my god. BamBam Please don’t watch stuff like that… (Laughs)

Each member had their own teaser. Because the videos were with a virtual girlfriend, the members say that they’re 'crigeworthy’. Still, is there another member’s version that you thought was better than your own? Yugyeom All the members probably thought that their own was better than JB hyung’s. Jr. I think mine was better than Mark’s. Jackson That version was the simplest. Jr. But Mark hyung’s “A, let’s go” was still cool. The worst part of Mark hyung’s version was JB. Mark (Laughs)

Mark’s and Jackson’s seemed like the least cringeworthy. Jackson Me? Thank you. Youngjae BamBam’s wasn’t bad either. BamBam Mine? But I didn’t even finish tying the shoelaces but the actress just left. (All (Laughs)) To be honest no one does that. If your shoelaces come untied I’d probably say “Tie them yourself”. But it was still fun. Even though filming took a while.

Were you allowed to each pick your own concept? Youngjae: No, no, no. BamBam If we could pick we definitely would not have picked something like that. (Laughs) Jr. I think we were each given something that would suit us the best. So we could act convincingly like boyfriends.

Like it was evident from the teasers that GOT7 would be coming back with different colors, 'A’ and 'Girls Girls Girls’ have different atmospheres. What did you first thing when you heard the song? Jr. The song was really good from the beginning. The current version has been rearranged a lot. The original version was pop. (Mark: American! American style!) In addition, the song was very bright but JYP PD’s thick voice was recorded on it so we didn’t know how we were going to save the song. I personally thing that we were brighter and cuter so the song was saved. (Mark: (Laughs)) Our PD was sticky but we were cute! Sorry, PD-nim, (Laughs).

What you just compared, it’s going to be published just like that! Mark Ahah what do we do. (Laughs)

'A’ doesn’t showcase as much martial arts tricking as the debut song did. It must have been physically easier. Jr. In this album we focused more on our acting on stage. In 'A’ we have to make cute expressions… Like the 'So cute’ part. There wasn’t a lot of martial arts tricking, but we still worked hard on our expressions. Mark I wanted to rest a little this time (Laughs)

Just recently the 'A’ stage changed so that it starts at a table. Is there a reason for this? Yugyeom Our PD told us “In our company, artists change something in the choreography every two weeks”. Jr. Let’s say that we perform a song for a month. Rather than performing the same thing over and over again, our PD must have thought that changing the choreography would hold the interest of the viewers. I heard that our new choreography was positively received.

You’re right. The table scene from the music video was eye catching so personally I liked it more. BamBam It’s less tiring so I like it. Jr. If the new choreography had been for our first album it would’ve been hard but we kept working together and that improved our communication with each other. Mark And we had already done it once in the music video.

Because the music video came up, Youngjae especially looked good in it. Partly because he had more parts and was in the center, but mostly because he’s gotten more talented. BamBam If you watch the music video Youngjae hyung is the only one in it. (Opens eyes wide) With his eyes like this! Youngjae No~ It’s not true~~ BamBam (Making fun of him) It’s not even our song. It’s Youngjae hyung’s song. (Laughs) Youngjae Don’t say that~ don’t say that~ don’t say it like that~~~ (Mark laughing in the background)

Right around the time of debut when your dorm was revealed through a live broadcast, Youngjae said at the end “Right now people call me the 'rookie-like Youngjae’ but I’ll show a cooler appearance in the next album”. It seems like you did what you said you would. Youngae Haha, I remember that. I was so nervous because it was a live broadcast. I worked hard up until now. But I think I’m going to have to work harder. After the first broadcast of 'A’ I read the reactions and people said I looked too awkward and I opened my eyes too wide. (Laughs) So I changed little details and after the next broadcast, people said 'Oh, he looks less awkward today’ and I was glad. Also I thought to myself how I should make hearts more creatively, in different directions.

You’re even concentrating on which directions to make hearts! Then is there a part that another member has that he definitely doesn’t want the audience to miss? Jr. For me, because it’s not a solo stage, I want people to look at us as a whole. (BamBam: He’s right.) Although it’s important to look at each person for his charm, I think it’s more important that it’s a seven person stage. Of course during a solo stage it’s good to focus on one person but right now I’d like everyone to look at how we interact on stage.

Now that we’ve been talking for a while, Jr. is good at calmly speaking. He seems like the spokesperson of the team. Jr. There are some days that the words come naturally to me, today seems like one of those days. (Laughs)

In the album, Jackson wrote the rap for 'U Got Me’ and JB wrote the lyrics to 'Bad Things’. Are there more members who are interested in helping create the album? Jackson All (the members) have interest. We’re all working on it. Youngjae I have a song that I’m almost done with. It’s kind of an R&B ballad, the subject is, what should I say, 'the woman that comes to mind on a rainy day’? (Jackson: Ahhhh!) The title is… No I can’t say it (Laughs) I’ve walked around often on rainy days, so I thought about the sound of rain on those days while writing the song. (Q: It wasn’t written for a specific person?) My imagination is the best, haha. Music is very inspiring for me. Not necessarily that content of the song, but the background sound. BamBam (Youngjae hyung) always writes songs on rainy days. Youngjae I really like rainy days. Oh, there’s something else, I made a track that I haven’t yet written the melody to. I was never taught how to compose, but I get help from composer hyungs along the way. In the future I really want to produce an album.

What about the other members? Yugyeom Jackson hyung’s songs are complete hip hop. Jackson GOT7 is JYP’s hip hop group so I’m composing hip hop tracks. Yugyeom (Youngjae hyung, Jackson hyung) Both are very good. Their styles are different. Jackson My style is 'the man who comes to mind on a snowy day’. All (Laughs) Youngjae The man! Jackson Playing is playing. Hip hop is hip hop! These days when I compose, the rappers Mark, BamBam, and I do it together. Mark I’m trying, but I’m not very good. BamBam We’re trying hard to compose, but we’ve gotten busier so we stopped for a while. Even though we don’t get it to do it often, Jackson hyung makes the beat and the two of us write lyrics. It’s hard, Korean lyrics.

How about writing them in English first? Youngjae I’ll translate them for you! Jackson If we write them in English, Jr. or JB changes it to Korean. BamBam Then… I’ll write it in Thai! All (Laughs)

JB said 'For GOT7 to win a rookie award this year, we’ll have to release another album’. What’ something you want to accomplish with the next album? Jr. We’d like to release another album this year, but because the company has policies, we don’t know how it’s going to work out. For now, we’d like to release another one. Jackson Hip hop, hip hop, strong hip hop! Mark Something cool! Jr. We each have our own musical tastes.

What are your personal musical styles? Jackson I’m always hip hop. All hip hop. BamBam I think new school hip hop is good. There’s also pop hip hop. I like that. (Jackson: Not something cute. The cute should stop here. Haha.) There should be something cute only for a couple places, hehe. Yugyeom I like hip hop and R&B. Youngjae I like R&B ballads. I like sad songs. The overall atmosphere is hip hop but if we wrote our own songs… This is what I want but I’d like each of the members to write a song in their own style and include it in an album. Jr. There’s a lot of things that come to mind. In terms of a singer, Paul Williams. I like it if it’s not too bright, but simple, a beat with not a lot of sauce that has our voices honestly recorded on it. I’d like for us to practice a little more and come out with a song that has our voices on it under a simplistic beat, a song that has feeling. Or something like Justin Timberlake’s 2006 album, 'FutureSex/LoveSounds’ that is still good after a couple years. It’s been 8 years since that album was released but I still like that album more than anything in the world. (Q: Do you still listen to it these days?) I like that artist the best so I always listen to it. I think it would be nice to plan and produce an album like that. Mark I like hip hop, but hip hop that’s slightly R&B, slower, with feeling. I like Drake. JB I like PBR&B, R&B with a little bit of an electronic sound. I’d like to make a song like that our title song. If that was our title song the other songs could be medium tempo R&B or folk. I also like R&B Soul and artists like James Morrison and Damien Rice so I’d like to make songs similar to theirs.

Even though your musical tastes differ, there still seems to be a connection between the members. It may be helped by the fact that the members all share a dorm and gain strength from each other. Either way, on TV it was shown that Yugyeom and BamBam’s room is bigger than the others. BamBam We picked our room last. After everyone chose, only the big room was left. It was nice. There are beds only in our room! Jr. The youngest need to sleep comfortably. The hyungs can sleep even if it’s uncomfortable. Jackson (Looking at Jr.) You’re the most comfortable! Jr. That’s not true. When I’m trying to sleep (Yugyeom and BamBam) always go back and forth through my room to use the bathroom so I can’t sleep. (Q: Ah, so inside Yugyeom and BamBam’s room there’s Jr’s room! Is the bathroom in that direction?) The bathroom in my room has a big bathtub. BamBam Hyung… we definitely told you. If you used the room by yourself then we would use that bathroom and go through your room a lot. And you said it was okay… Jr. They look really sorry when they come in. “Hyung… can I use the bathroom?” BamBam Once I went in very quietly. But then suddenly hyung grabbed my leg. Hahaha. I was really surprised.

Hahaha, so it wasn’t so the youngest could be comfortable that they were given the big room? Jr. We talked amongst ourselves and decided to give the youngest two the big room. Jackson, BamBam N~~o~ Jr, Youngjae We really thought of it that way! Mark (Playful baby voice) If the youngest two have the comfortable room and we’re comfortable in the car… hahaha. Jr. We wanted to give something to the youngest two! Mark No that’s not it hahaha. JB Truthfully the hyungs can’t beat the younger members. They’re too strong. (Laughs)

Mark and Jackson, Jaebum and Youngjae, Yugyeom and BamBam share a room and Jr. rooms by himself. How were the roommates decided? All We just chose who we wanted to room with. Jr. Oh, there was this. At first the members said that they wanted to room with me, but then when we got to our dorm the members that said they wanted to room with me asked other members to room together. Originally Jackson and I were supposed to room together but when we got to the dorm we forgot. Jackson Jr. and I were going to room together, but then something happened and I asked JB if he wanted to room with me. But then we got to the dorm and I ended up rooming with Mark. All (Laughs) Jr. We don’t have any rules, it’s all in the moment! (Laughs)

Are you satisfied with your current roommate? All Yes! JB But Youngjae’s and my room doesn’t have air conditioner. Jr. I don’t have air conditioning either… JB But if you open the door to Jr’s room then the the air conditioning from the maknae room comes in. Our room doesn’t have any. Even if we turn it on in the living room, it doesn’t reach our room. (Youngjae: It’s too far.) So these days we don’t room together. Youngae We look for cooler places… Yugyeom He’s like a lost lamb! (Laughs) Yesterday Jaebum hyung slept in the living room and Youngjae hyung slept in our manager hyung’s room. Youngjae Every once in a while I sleep with Jaebum hyung. Yugyeom When he’s lonely. All (Laughs) JB The two of us share a mat but it’s not too crowded. If the air conditioner just worked our room would be cooler but it doesn’t… We need to put a vent in the wall but there are structural limits so we can’t. So the two of us are living separately right now. But in the winter our room is the warmest. You don’t even need blankets at night.

So that’s Youngjae and JB’s room. (Laughs) It seems like Mark is someone who is actually playful. He doesn’t talk much, but when he does it’s extraordinary. On yesterday’s 'I GOT7’ broadcast his yells of “It’s mine!” while catching fish left a lasting impression. Jr. He’s very possessive. (Laughs) Mark Hm… (Smiles)

Is Mark the only one who hasn’t received a punishment? All He’s been punished! Jr. He got it on the last episode of 'I GOT7’. We all did everything so Mark would get punished… Hahaha BamBam Are you tired of me being punished with the laundry clips? I get punished again on the next episode… ehehe.

Does the laundry clip punishment really hurt as much as it looks? Mark It hurt less than I thought it would! BamBam Hyung, the clips weren’t where it really hurts. Mark They were on my lips. Jackson We were scared that hyung would get angry so we were careful. Youngjae For it to really hurt they need to all be on the lips. JB Now that I think about it I’ve never gotten the laundry clip punishment. Youngjae (Mimes pulling the elastic on the hat) You got this. Mark 2nd episode, 2nd episode! JB So I only got that, I didn’t get the laundry clips. But I didn’t even realize that until now. The elastic hat hurt so much… Wow… All Hahahahaha Jr. When we do the laundry clip punishment, no one has any compassion for the one who’s being punished. Yugyeom (Gestures toward Mark) He’s quiet until there’s a punishment, then he’s the most excited. Because he’s so playful. (Laughs)

Has there been a time where you were mad at each other because of the punishment? Jackson (Glares pointedly at Mark) Of course not. Mark (Laughs)

Oh and another question for Mark! Have you seen the Mark version fancam of 'I Like You’ from the first showcase? The triple combo of shoulder shaking, finger heart, and smile was great. Mark I did see it. The original choreography is (Points forward with finger), but there were fans so I suddenly decided to make a heart. Jr. It’s the feel!

Are you usually like that? Talented on stage, I mean. Mark I try to sprinkle talent… (JB That’s something you share.) showcase talent. Ehehe.

If Mark is a surprising gag, anyone can tell that Jackson is playful. It’s so much that there are compilations of his comical appearances in broadcasts, where is he getting all of this entertainment skills? Jr. Jackson is just funny. So very funny. Jackson I don’t try to maintain my image during broadcasts. I’m trying to that a little these days, but we have a cute concept so I just act naturally… Yugyeom He’s opposite. (Laughs) When we have a cute concept he pretends to be cool. Jackson Because I’m not that good looking, I don’t think it’s really necessary for me to try to maintain my image.

Jackson isn’t handsome? Yugyeom He is! Jr. He has high standards.

But when he’s serious, he’s very serious. The fact that he considers '852’ (Hong Kong country code) to be precious is impressive. Jackson It is precious. Yugyeom I think he’s cool. He has a lot of pride in his country. Then I need to be '031’ (Yugyeom with the Kyunggi-do area code and whose family currently resides in Namyangju)? Jackson No, '82’ (South Korea country code)! Jr. I’m '055’ (Jr. with the Kyungnam area code and from Jinhae)! Youngjae I’m '061’ (Youngjae with the Jeonnam area code and from Mokpo)! (Q: Then we’ll have to go into Hong Kong area codes?) Oh, then we’re all '82’! All (Laughs)

Jackson’s pride in Hong Kong is unlike any other. Jackson I’m very proud. I’m proud. Because it’s my home country… I like it. (Right as he finishes speaking his necklace falls off) Jr. This is right here is gag helped by nature! All (Laughs)

BamBam is from a different country too. Even though he’s from Thailand his Korean seems as good as a native speaker’s. BamBam (In a cute voice) I’m not that good.

Even the aegyo is overwhelming. On GOT7’s official twitter you replied “I’m already in jail” to “I’m filing a complaint about Bam oppa. Because he stole my heart” and “I like you” to “Rice cake vs. bread which one do you like”. BamBam Ahahahahaha. Yugyeom BamBam is the king of fan service! BamBam I also said that I was already in the fan’s house, waiting under the sofa, hehehe. Yugyeom That’s why he has the nickname BamTalker (BamBam + Stalker). BamBam I also get called BamStalker. Ehehe. In my teaser, there’s a scene where I tie shoelaces. When fans say ‘BamBam oppa tie my shoelaces please’ because of that, I reply ‘Turn around, I’m right behind you’. (Laughs) If they say ‘BamBam oppa buy me food’ then I say ‘Open your door, I’m right outside your house’. It’s usually scary to hear something like that but the fans like it so I just naturally say it. Jr. It’s a relief that BamBam is on our team. Because the rest of us tend to avoid stuff like that…

Who’s the hyung who treats BamBam the best? BamBam Ah, can I say this secretly? (Takes the recording device and says in a very small voice) Jack.Son.Hyung. Ehehe.

Along with BamBam, Yugyeom is part of the 1997 maknae line. In person, he feels like a 18 year old high school student, but he has the nickname 'Kim Yugyeom Oppa’. Yugyeom Sometimes I look older (Laughs). There aren’t a lot of opportunities for me to be called oppa so I like it when fans call me oppa. It doesn’t matter if the fan is older than me. Noona fans always ask me, “Can I call you oppa? Is it okay?” And I reply “Yes it’s okay, of course!” It makes me feel better.

When you first debuted, you introduced yourself as “Pure crystal Yugyeom”. Has the size of that crystal stayed the same or has it shrunk? Yugyeom I can’t introduce myself like that anymore. I think the crystal shrunk. (Youngjae: Did it crack?) I think it’s gotten smaller by about half, so I changed my introduction to “The youngest who doesn’t seem like the youngest”. (Laughs)

Hahaha, Youngjae who’s 19 this year, in the past you said that you wanted to attend a music therapy school. What do you think now? Youngjae I have a book pertaining to that subject, but I haven’t had time to look at it properly. Right now I think I need to like music more and practice music more so I want to try to attend the school Jinyoung hyung is attending now, Howon University. I still lack so much so I feel like I need to work harder and learn more. I’m definitely going to university.

You’ll definitely get in! Youngjae (Clenches fist) Hwaiting! (Laughs)

Like Youngjae said, Jr. is currently attending Howon University. Jr. I’m studying theater. Right now it’s okay because I’m on break, but I’m debating whether or not to take a gap year. There are a lot of promotions planned during the next semester… There’s so much I want to learn at school that I think I’m going to have to discuss it with the company.

Is there something you especially like in the curriculum? Jr. At school? I liked the one-on-one lessons. I started off not knowing anything so learning was really fun. And even though I couldn’t participate often, I watched the other students prepare for theater festivals and… Wow… For theater you need to learn the lighting, sound cues, the stage, acting, movement, everything. Theater is something that brings together all of this so the community feel of the production was interesting. It would be hard not to become close while preparing for a show, I was jealous. Theater is about interactions between those on stage so you can’t do it by yourself. While seeing that, I thought to myself that if I ever had the chance, I wanted to give theater a try.

There’s another university student in the group. JB studies film production at Konkuk University. On Mnet’s '4 Things Show’ a short film 'Dream’ was broadcasted. Jr. Jaebum hyung’s feet were quite cute in that. (Laughs) JB That film was similar to a 3 minute university film so there wasn’t anything special about it. I was a bit embarrassed. The visual was satisfactory but the subject matter among other things… It was started in the morning and finished very quickly.

Still, many people didn’t know of JB’s directing capabilites as a student so it still seemed to be meaningful. If JB made a film with GOT7 as the subject, what kind of film could be produced? Jackson Comedy, comedy! JB I think black comedy would match well. Or, a comedy like 'Marrying the Mafia’ with the seven of us as a family. Yugyeom (With a bright smile) Comedy and violence! (Laughs)

There was something JB said on '4 Things Show’ that left a lasting impression. “I feel like the future of GOT7 depends on how I act.” JB If I act rudely then I feel like that’s how people will view the entire team. I’m not saying that I’m a pillar for the team out of conceit. It’s because it’s my responsibility to lead the team. If I throw away that responsibility and play around or don’t focus, then the members might think that because the leader is doing that, it’s okay for them to do the same. (Q: Because of that, is there pressure being the leader?) Every once in a while if we make a mistake then I can feel embarrassed but I never feel pressured. Because we’re people, it’s normal to make mistakes.

Starting this August, you will be participating with the artists in your company in '2014 JYP Nation - ONE MIC’, and your Japan solo concert tour will start on October 7th. Last April, you performed your showcase in Japan, how was it? Jr. The stage and audience were close together so we could see the individual faces of the fans. There are only good memories of it. Yugyeom Compared to Korea, the scale was bigger so I was nervous. I was more nervous for the showcase than when we opened for 2PM in their Japan concert. But after the concert started and we performed more, it was fun.

Scan by Winter Boy (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) | Translated by got7-trans © TAKE OUT WITH FULL CREDITS

[haruheartshallyu]

WANNA ONE: ‘Burn it up’ vs ‘Energetic’

Ladies and gents... the voting of WANNA ONE’s (promotion) debut song is over, but we still don’t know the results. Kinda sucks, right? 

Luckily, YMC will reveal both complete MVs... but WANNA ONE’s only going to do proper promotions with one of them. However, we international Wannables couldn’t vote anyway. Sucks even more, right? 

Still, there were countless discussions on the world wide web about which song would suit better as their final debut track.

And since some of you seem to really enjoy my Produce 101 articles (I’ll put links of them at the end of this post), I thought I will let you know what I think about ‘Burn it up’ and ‘Energetic’... or at least what I’ve heard and seen so far of both songs and MVs. 

Yeah, I know I mention this every single time, but this is just my opinion – not yours... or maybe yours. Don’t know... don’t care. I just wanna write my thoughts down. 

Time for a pause... take a deep breath... and let’s go...

This whole BiUvsE-ride started with a teaser – and that one almost killed me. I was always a huge fan of NU’EST. Of course I am! I’m a Play Girl – and if you are or were (we don’t really know if After School still exists) one of us Play Girlz, you should support Pledis’ first boy group. 

Anyway, the first teaser started with Pledis’ Hwang Minhyun, and – HOLY SHIT – this man is without any doubt extremely good looking (not that I hadn’t known before, but such a sweet reminder always gets appreciated by my naughty self).

I felt like I was in trance while watching this perfect human being arranging food, licking his own finger, rubbing his ears – you trying to kill me, Mnet... yeah? 

And then, suddenly ‘Burn it Up’s drop happened, and I was like – GOD DAMMIT! THIS IS SO FUCKING AWESOME! A few seconds later the sound-teaser of ‘Energetic’ appeared – and I am sorry to say this, but I was unimpressed. How can you put the teaser of a hype-song before a teaser of something more – let’s say – gentle?!

Right after watching Minhyun’s video, I was so sure that almost everyone might agree with me. GUESS WHO WAS SO FUCKING WRONG?!

I’ve looked through hundreds of comments, and besides all those Minhyun-visual-god-praises, most people – and with most I mean more than 9 out of 10 – said that ‘Energetic’ sounds better.

I know, I know... music is always something that depends on a certain taste. But it was not their taste in music that bothered me. It was their argumentation! (We will talk about this in a few seconds.)

Well, one after one teaser appeared. It doesn’t matter if it was Jihoon’s shoe fetish, Jaehwan’s guitar playing, Guanlin’s adorable English, Daewhi’s puppy face, Jinyoung’s fresh style, Jisung’s unbelievable sexiness (who would have thought that, nya?), Woojin’s dance skills, Seongwu’s perfect self (yeah, even in that outfit!), Sungwoon’s mature and handsome appearance or Kang Daniel’s... well, fuck... it’s Kang Daniel (it doesn’t really matter what he does or did or seems to do) – everything was so incredibly visually pleasing! (The only thing that bothered me was the ridiculous amount of pink lip stain and skin softener... Just stop that, Mnet/YMC! JUST STOP!)

But under every single teaser, I found (almost) only comments of ‘Energetic’ supporters. 

Most of these supporters said that ‘Energetic’ would suit WANNA ONE’s image better. Well, if you look at all those over-softened beautiful teaser videos – yeah, I have to agree. But if you look at their Produce 101 evaluation performances – I have to disagree. 

Seriously, it seems like Mnet wants people to vote for ‘Energetic’. With the teasers, the (so-far revealed) magazine pictures, the group’s colors – everything cries for something more soft and gentle... talking ‘Energetic’.

Don’t get me wrong – it is okay to already reveal a concept. And ‘Energetic’ doesn’t sound bad at all! It seems like a wonderful song. 

However, most ‘Energetic’ supporters said something that made me – well, kind of furious. 

There’s a reason why I turned my back on K-Pop for almost two years. This reason was first of all the over-used innocent girl group concept that made me sick after some time (and it still hasn’t stopped), and second was the boring and generic music. But I returned, and all thanks to groups like 24K and BTS who brought hype back to K-Pop.

While looking through all those ‘Energetic’ supporters’ comments, I’ve realized that most called ‘Burn it up’ generic. Why? I don’t understand this at all. WHY?

I personally think it is the exact opposite. ‘Energetic’ sounds like every single boy group track that was released within the last few months (of course there are exceptions). 

Last week, SNUPER released a song called ‘Shooting Star’ – looks and sounds pretty much like ‘Energetic’. Even HOTSHOT’s ‘Jelly’ has literally no similarities with ‘Burn it up’. Four days ago, Starship uploaded MONSTA X’s ‘Newton’, and the concept and music video look a lot like ‘Energetic’. Need more? Then check out MYTEEN’s ‘Amazing’ or VAV ‘ABC’ which all got released within the last few weeks. Oh come on... even EXO’s ‘Ko Ko Bop’ would fit into 'Energetic’s concept (except for the dope drop – I LOVE THAT DROP). So... ‘Burn it up’ sounds generic? WHAT THE HELL?! REALLY?!

‘Burn it up’ is quite obviously a hype-song, and there are literally no hype songs in K-Pop right now. The only group that makes proper hype-songs is BTS. Even 24K stopped doing such kind of music. (Look at 24K’s ‘Only You’.) Funny thing is... some actually said that ‘Burn it up’ sounds like an iKON song. Well, I guess you haven’t heard much of iKON’s music so far.

But I have to agree that ‘Burn it up’ sounds like a BTS song... because it’s fucking HYPE! Hype songs are songs that make your heart race and shout and dance and they produce WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING-moments. 

This is the music I prefer to listen to. I admit it. I am a hype-junkie! Since I used to be a dancer, I love hype more than anything else. However, I hate nothing more than anything else than people who say that hype sounds like BTS... BECAUSE BTS SOUNDS LIKE HYPE. Not vice versa. 

Unfortunately, most people within the Hallyu community think BTS=K-Pop which I understand. BTS are probably the most successful boy group of all time, and the reason is not because they are from a popular label. The reason is their fantastic music (plus their crazy fandom). And guess what... their fantastic music contains mostly out of hype songs. And that’s why they are so popular. Even my ex and his friends – who don’t like K-pop at all – listen to BTS (and 4MINUTE) because their music is dope. Hype entertains everyone! Not only people who are into K-Pop – it gets everyone! My mom who only listens to classical music likes BTS’s ‘Not Today’ because it blows her mind! THINK ABOUT IT!

Anyway, people say WANNA ONE’s ‘Burn it up’ sounds generic because it seems like a BTS song, right? To all those who think the same: Get some proper K-Pop education! We need more boy groups who produce hype songs to get international recognition. It’s not a cute and gentle song that attracts attention... it’s powerful music that blows everyone away!

Okay, okay... I will stop my rant for now, and tell you why I prefer ‘Burn it up’ without mentioning the so important hype factor.

WANNA ONE’s members couldn’t be more different. A fact is that four out of eleven members took part in Produce 101′s dance evaluation (yeah, I know six were in the vocal evaluation, and only one in rap). And those four performed the fantastic stage of ‘Get Ugly’... just a reminder. 

Don’t you want something similar? Don’t you want something that makes you lose your shit? Not because of amazing vocals (with Sungwoon’s and Jaehwan’s voices we get that anyway), but because of a dance performance that will make you scream and fangirl like a lunatic?!

Last week, the MV teasers of both song’s were uploaded, and many commented that ‘Burn it up’s MV looks – well – better. But it’s not only the music video: we got to see a tiny glimpse of the choreography while – during ‘Energetic’s teaser – we saw something that looked like a male version of TWICE’s ‘Signal’. DON’T GET ME WRONG! ‘Energetic’ looks good – without any doubt (Sungwoon with those glasses and the bubblegum? HELL YEAH!). But come on... ‘Burn it up’ looks AND SOUNDS fucking dope. I want them to perform this live – as long as they can.

TL;DR ... ‘Energetic’ sounds really good, but it still seems like a track that every single other boy group would produce these days. ‘Burn it up’ is a typical hype song which we have only seen during BTS promotions within the past few years. And just because BTS makes similar music doesn’t make this kind of music generic or over-used.

After the first Produce 101 season, I loved most of the girls that got into IOI (my bias didn’t make it, but Kim Jonghyun didn’t make it this year as well – so yes, fuck it). But their debut song was shit – literally shit. ‘Dream Girls’ still makes me cringe AF. 

I just want WANNA ONE’s debut song to be a song that gains international attention. I want a song that makes my family want to watch Produce 101 season 2 with me together. I want a song that makes me want to learn the choreography. And as nice and sweet ‘Energetic’ sounds – I don’t think any of this will happen with this song as final debut track. 

(Short explanation: I am from a super small country in middle Europe. I have only seen a few K-Pop groups live because I’ve traveled far far away. And international recognition means A LOT to me. So all those bitches out there who are able to attend KCON LA... fuck you! I AM SO JEALOUS!)

But we all know that ‘Burn it up’ won’t make it, right? It seems like powerful songs will die out in South Korea. It doesn’t matter if this goes for girl groups or boy groups – power and passion are dead. All what leads to success are visuals and a successful label (with a few exceptions of course). 

I am just happy that YMC and Mnet will reveal the MV to ‘Energetic’ as well as the MV to ‘Burn it up’. Even though WANNA ONE won’t do any proper promotions with my favorite debut track, at least I can always watch it online, right?

Just in case you don’t know. I drank a whole bottle of wine while writing this... because I am so scared that most of you might hate me for what I’ve said. But I just want to mention – no matter which song gets chosen – I will always love my eleven babies of WANNA ONE, and I will support their debut... no matter what.

Kang Daniel is center anyway – SO FUCK THIS SHIT AND SHOW ME MA BAE!

*EDIT* I forgot to mention that I caught myself singing 'Burn it up' ... multiple times... even though I only know this one line of the song... while I can't even remember how 'Engertic' sounds.

PRODUCE101 – 10 MOMENTS THAT MADE ME COMPLETELY LOSE MY SHIT

PRODUCE101 FINAL – THOUGHTS AND OVERWHELMING EMOTIONS

PRODUCE101 – HOW THE PERFECT BOY GROUP WOULD LOOK LIKE

TOP5 SEXIEST PRODUCE101 TRAINEES: #5 – #4 – #3 – #2 – #1

PRODUCE101 EPISODE 10 – FEELINGS, FRUSTRATION AND FEAR

[honeybearloco]

“...To Tell Her?”

Part 2 of “…I’m Sorry.” I’m actually going to make a part three and that’ll be the last part. I couldn’t finish it in this one because I was actually got struck with writer’s block. Sorry for not finish it in this one. Part three coming soon. 

It had been four months since you told Baekhyun that you loved him and that you wanted him to forget everything about you. Before you did it, you thought it would be easy to get over him. But he wasn’t just a crush. You actually and truly loved him. No one could replace him in your heart. You’ve never cried over someone like you’ve cried over Baekhyun.

Out of everyone, Mi Sun felt the worst for you. You were the closest to her. She was the only one who knew about everything that happened between you and Baekhyun. She was the only person you could tell without the news somehow getting back to your sister. You thought you were the only one broken.

Baekhyun was as well. He saw something in you that wasn’t in other girls. He saw something in you that wasn’t in your sister. Your smile used to be his favorite part of the day. He was more hurt than you because he knew, no matter how much he loved you, your sister would always be the problem standing in between you and him. He often found himself watching your group’s variety shows, live stages, music videos, and others. His favorite thing to watch were your teasers. Just you by yourself. The way you’d look at the camera made him feel like you were staring back at him.

Your group was preparing for your first comeback since debut. This would be another EP. There are two title tracks and six songs on the EP. After SM Entertainment announced your group’s comeback, it was everywhere. Everyone was ready for your group’s comeback. The release date is tomorrow.

One music video was upbeat, the other was a slow sad R&B jam, which you wrote completely by yourself. It of course was about Baekhyun. It was something you wrote on your own time. Somehow your manager found it and let Lee Soo Man see it. He thought it would be a nice change of concept to see you and your members do an R&B concept.

You were in your shared dorm room with Mi Sun. You originally stayed in a room with Hyun Ah, but Mi Sun and Hyun Ah switched. In your free time you and Mi Sun loved to cover songs. If I Were You just happened to come on. You had an emotional attachment to this song. You’d listen to it on repeat, when you missed Baekhyun. (A/N: If you don’t like that song, I’m sorry. It reminded me of this. And I’ll put the lyrics in English that reminded me of this.)

You began to sing it, tears forming in your eyes. “Another day passes by like this My whole day was spent for you I wore the clothes that you liked the best I should look beautiful in the mirror But I just look miserable The tactless night sky is so beautiful”

He couldn’t stand it anymore. He needed to talk to you. And over the phone wouldn’t do. He went to your dorm. He knocked on the door and waited for someone to open it. He was met with Hyun Ah and Joohyun. “BAEKHYUN SUNBAENIM!” They almost screamed. “Is Y/N here? Can I speak with her?”

Before another word was spoke her could hear your loud and beautiful voice singing.

“I wish I could you I wish you could feel it for a just a day Your heart My heart I wish I could love you I wish you would love me I wish we could be together just for a day I can let you go without regrets.”

He invited himself in and followed your voice. The door to your room was slightly opened. He slowly pushed it open to see you singing your heart out. As the song ended, you looked at the door frame to see him.

You froze at the sight of him. “Y/N, you okay?” Mi Sun asked. She was confused. She looked at the door to see what you were staring at. “Baekhyun sunbaenim!” She said before bowing. “Can I talk to you?” He asked.

Mi Sun looked back at you to see you. You weren’t really that comfortable. “Baekhyun sunbaenim, I don’t think she wants to-” “Min Sun, it’s fine. I’ll talk to him. Can you give us a moment?” She nodded and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

“I miss you.” He admitted.

“I told you to forget about me.”

“I can’t! Do you know how hard I tried to forget you? I love you! I can’t forget you! Y/N, please don’t make me. I don’t want to forget, I can’t. You mean too much to me.”

You were heartbroken at his words. But you weren’t gonna to let him get the best of you. “Do you love me, or do you still love my sister?”

“Y/N!” He yelled.

“No! I’m not Taeyeon! That’s what always happen when the guy falls for the girl’s sister. You’re using me to get back at Taeyeon. You just want me to feel special then you’ll dump me and you’ll hold that over her head, that you got me to fall in love with you. All I am to you is a challegne, huh?”

“You’re speaking nonsense, jagi!”

“DON’T CALL ME JAGI! I’M NTO YOUR JAGI! GET OUT OF MY DORM! GET OUT!”

He ignored your shouts and walked closer to you. He grabbed your face and smashed his lips on yours. You tried to fight it, but he was stronger than you. You let go and kissed him back. You still loved him. He pulled away and put his head against yours. “I did love Taeyeon at one point. But I love you and you only now. You’re way different that she is. Don’t doubt my love for you because I will always be willing to show it.” He explained.

Nothing matter but to two of you. “Now I guess, I’ll have to explain to girls about us, huh?” You questioned. “Are you claiming me as your boyfriend now?” “Maybe. I want to be with you. I want to tell Taeyeon.” You admitted. His eyes widened. “You want to tell her?”

You nodded. “This isn’t something I can hide from her." 

Have an amazing day/night. Love ya~! Thanks for reading.

[weareafuckingmess-blog]

Song of the Day - May 31, 2017

Taeyong x Hitchhiker - Around

[M] I am not sure where to start with this one, I was taken by surprise from the beginning as I did not watch the teaser for this one before it came out. The video caught me off guard, there is so much going on from space men in shiny suits to some strange green screen effects that I feel like this is the result of some heavy drugs. I recently discovered SM Entertainment has two modes No Fun and Fun and when SM attempts their fun genre we end up with some pretty far out there stuff. A prime example of this is the Limitless NCT127 packaging (a giant envelope full of stickers). I feel like the video for Around falls in the SM trying to have fun and things going terribly astray. All that being said though, the video works really well with the song. Around is a collaboration between Hitchhiker making some pretty sick beats and Taeyong from NCT laying down his unique rap style over them. This duo works out really well together and I am really enjoying this song. The first listen through I wasn’t sure what to think but now a couple listens through later I know this is going to be in my playlist this summer. I really hope SM features some more of the NCT guys in future Station songs because they are all super talented, but I wouldn’t mind hearing some more from Taeyong either (not biased or anything).

[C] Okay, M mentioning NCT 127′s Limitless packaging killed me, watching her open it was the best and yet most stressful thing. Someone needs to teach SM how to have some proper normal fun. On that note, this whole music video just messed with my head so much, it’s not what I was expecting or hoping for at all. I was low key really excited for a Taeyong solo and like Ten’s he still didn’t get much lines and it’s his solo. But what normal shots there is of his face he does look really good I must say. Like I said though it’s not what I was expecting so of course it was a huge let down, I’ve only listened to this track two times but I think it’s safe to say that sadly this one wont grow on me.

[S] SM trying to have fun is seriously the best thing ever and I say this with love when I say dear god SM what drugs are you on? XD That aside what can I say about this? I don’t really have much to say other then that I hate it I am extremely disappointed that this exists I was low key looking forward to Taeyong’s station because I am not so secretly NCT trash.

However Taeyong barely has any lines and the noise he rapping over. ( I refuse to call it music) makes me want to rip my ears out it is repetitive at best and is just annoying to listen to and I honestly just hate everything about it. I have heard a few things from hitchhiker now and I can honestly say I could happily go my whole life without hearing more. I really hope they give Taeyong a proper station track and not garbage like this again. I have listened to it twice now and could honestly go my whole life without hearing anymore. PLEASE M! DON’T EVER MAKE ME LISTEN TO THIS AGAIN!

[T] Since Hitchhiker is responsible for this I was pretty sure I knew exactly what to expect thanks to his past releases and I was right in what I expected. I still remember when 11(Eleven) came out and was my introduction to Hitchhiker’s solo work. This isn’t much different from that, so I have to say, I found this boring. Back when 11(Eleven) came out I didn’t necessarily like it, but I found it so ridiculous that it gave me a good laugh and I watched it a couple times. Now this kind of stuff just feels old. Hitchhiker’s responsible for the music of some of my favourite older songs (INFINITE’s Come Back Again, SHINee’s Electric Heart and Dynamite), so I know he’s got the ability to make great music that I can actually take seriously. I guess since this is his solo stuff and not music he’s making for other people he probably wants to make it different. If he’s happy, more power to him. P.S. Unfortunately this blog doesn’t suit me anymore for a bunch of reasons, so I decided May would be the last month I contribute here. I’ve had some fun, but I have other things I’d rather focus on now. Thank you to anyone who’s ever taken the time to read my reviews, but this is goodbye. ^^ ♡