Lee Junyoung - Last Dance - New Album!! with Bounce MV

Quote from xx-jenn-xx

i found it out by coming across a random video that played The Rampage Swag and Pride i was like this looks ike a movie, researched found it was, watched it realize there was a whole ass series literally, i watched everything i could find except the mighty warriors one in 5 days i completed everything. I cried I laughed, i wnated to punch things but it introduced me to the rampage, jsb3, ldh in general. I dropped kpop right after that lol. I am a huge fan of everything LDH has to offer, their acting team, their artists are so good.

Literally it's my life lol

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Well, damn, that's some dedication right there.

There's almost too much talent in LDH to comprehend. I'll always be thankful they gave me E-girls for a short period. Thankfully, their male groups make great music too, so I don't feel too disappointed. I don't exactly listen to them often, but I know enough about them that I can be confident whenever I come across a new MV that I'll enjoy both the song and video. They always bring an infectious energy, especially The Rampage. I like that members of LDH groups aren't forced to be anything they are not, and they're able to focus on doing what they specialise in.

Quote from xx-jenn-xx

Same here. The vibe I get from LDH artists is completely different from K-Pop artists. Take The Rampage, for example, 16 guys, which I half-jokingly call “three vocalists and their glorified dancers.” But unlike a lot of K-Pop groups, not everyone fits the cookie-cutter beauty standard. With LDH, it feels like talent really comes first, and I love that. I can’t say the same about every company, but LDH doesn’t give off that “you have to look a certain way” vibe.

The diversity in ages is refreshing too, and the fact that the members themselves own the company, run a school, and have sustained success for so long is commendable. Sure, scandals happen occasionally, but not often. Honestly, I’ll see members wear things that K-Pop fans would absolutely rip apart, yet in J-Pop it barely registers.

I don’t follow the two groups with mostly minors, but the other nine groups each have their own clear identity, you can immediately tell Psychic Fever apart from Generations, or Wolf Howl from anyone else. The Rampage will always be my number one, followed by JSB3 and then Jet Boy, but I enjoy bits and pieces from the rest. And the soloists are incredible too—Takahiro, Omi, Kazuma, Sway, Shokichi.

On top of that, their dramas and movies are genuinely high-quality, with acting that holds up. I love that they even have a dedicated acting branch (Gekidan Exile). They let their artists explore their passions too, like Alan DJing or Omi running his own label. Personally, I don’t really connect with girl groups or female voices, so the lack of female talent doesn’t bother me.

At the end of the day, there are something like 84 active members in Exile Tribe, and everything they put out feels top-tier. No one gets overshadowed, no one’s stuck with a half-baked music video. It’s amazing to me how consistently polished their work is.

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Sorry for taking a long time to reply, I had to finally get some sleep.

Yeah, I guess for K-pop fans who expect every member to both sing/rap and dance, it can be a bit jarring at first when two or three members of a large group get upwards of 95% of a song's lines. I'll admit it sometimes still confuses me too. For example, there have been Psychic Fever songs that are quite evenly distributed, and then the very next song they release there will be a huge disparity where three members basically get the entire song to themselves with maybe ten seconds carved out for the others to have adlibs or throwaway lines. I guess the confusion stems from the fact that I already know that the other members are well-equipped enough to have contributed more, but at the end of the day, the company puts the song first. Sure, the others could have added more vocally, but that might not be how the song was envisioned. They don't compromise the song to please expectations.

Appearance-wise, there's definitely a sense that of all desirable qualities, conventional attractiveness is prioritized the least. That's not to say that the company doesn't have any visuals because they do, but it comes across as a bonus rather than the main quality. I feel like it's a Japan thing. Sure, they probably take appearance pretty seriously too, but their beauty standard is far less restricting, and their idea of what is considered attractive is different. When it comes to male artists, there are still "pretty boy" types in the industry, but they also allow for more rugged and masculine ideas of handsome, which LDH is a clear example of.

It also impresses me that despite the company being built around a central, pervading sound and aesthetic, each of their groups is able to create their own identity. Of course, sometimes there is overlap, but it feels very intentional when it happens. This gives the sense that LDH is very effective at managing their artists, especially when you consider how many of them they have. In terms of their consistency, based on what I've seen, I also feel like no one is being shortchanged. I don't remember ever watching an MV and thinking to myself: "this looks like way less effort or budget went into it than that other group." I think that is a testament to how much they value each of their artists.

Anyway, this has been a fun dialogue. I'm glad you've found a group that you enjoy this much and has had such a positive influence. I wouldn't call myself a fan of any of the groups, but I'm definitely a casual listener who recognizes their quality and appreciates what each of them brings to the table. We ended up going way off-topic, didn't we? I guess that's what happens when curiosity meets passion.

Back on-topic, thanks for sharing Jun's new music. He's definitely an underrated artist, but I'm glad he's been focusing on acting recently because he's clearly passionate about it and he's built some real momentum.