Posts by frala19

  • Another day, another aespa ballad

    I recently finally listened to the entire Armageddon album. Many months late, I know, and I was only reminded to because my friend had extra tickets to the Krazy Super concert and I saw them live. I'm glad I did, though, and I genuinely enjoyed every single song on the album, which is exceptionally rare for me, especially for a full length album. I actually think I'll probably try to get tickets to see them again when they come back to LA next year.


    While I do love Prologue, I actually prefer the other ballad from Armageddon, the appropriately named Melody. The lyrics are probably not as profound as Prologue, but the harmonies and the resulting melodies translate to my taste one of, if not the best written ballads in recent memory, but I'm also quite particular with ballads. Then again, I have yet to hear a song written by minGtion that I didn't love.

  • Anyone else kinda concerned about how HYBE is handling Katseye?

    I only heard about Katseye in passing, but I saw it pop up on Netflix so I watched it. I almost didn't finish it because I was so sickened by the level of and justification for exploitation.

    Seeing discourse on it around social media makes it even worse because it seems like so much of it is moreso dragging the trainees/Katseye members for their struggles dealing with such a high pressure situation that they didn't even have full awareness of and did not sign up for until it was too late than talking about how messed up of a situation they were subjected to was.

    I don't know if this is actually true, as I'm unsure of the source, but I read somewhere that Lexi actually asked to leave, but was not allowed, presumably because she signed a contract, which is why she decided to stop going to rehearsals until they kicked her out. Again, not sure if this is actually true, but it would make sense if that's what happened.

    Anyway, regarding Hybe, I don't necessarily subscribe to a "hate-train" per-se, but I think every consumer, Kpop or otherwise, should at least make a little effort into be aware of the mechanisms behind anything they support. Hybe is a corporation that exists for one purpose only, and that's profit. It is not unique in that, and pretty much every company is similar in that regard which is why I would never trust a company to have anyone's interests in mind except for the shareholders. There are definitely levels to it, though, and the sheer disregard for any ethical considerations in how they handled everything involved in and leading up to the creation of Katseye definitely leaves a very bad taste in my mouth for Hybe in particular. I didn't forget Geffen is also involved, but as someone who works in the American music industry, I already had a terrible impression of all of the major music labels Geffen/UMG included.

  • Grammys thoughts

    Anyone has a right to be sad or disappointed, but I only see everything that happened as positive for BTS. I think the main difference, to use your comparison, between the Grammy's and MAMA or AAA is that realistically, any popular enough Kpop group has a chance to win something at MAMA or AAA, but there was virtually no chance that BTS would have won the Grammy. I say this as a voting member of the academy who did vote for BTS. Yes, I would have loved for it to happen, but anyone who knows much about the political nightmare that is the Grammys or the American music industry in general knew that it wasn't going to. The nomination was there for one purpose: To get Army's eyes on and therefore ratings and social media engagement about the Grammys. What the academy stupidly didn't foresee is that the vast majority of Army only tuned into their performance, and their ratings were only good when BTS was on the screen. So really, the Grammys didn't benefit all that much, and BTS did, since they likely got many new fans. I know not everyone feels this way, but awards mean absolutely nothing to me beyond giving an artist exposure and boost sales, which BTS already got. No amount of awards, even a prestigious one like a Grammy, is going to bring "respect" or make a hater not be a hater.

  • Wayv 3rd EP - Kick Back

    Quote from quark12395

    This is a solid mini. I think Kick Back was the right move for title track as it's very catchy. I really love Good Time. It's such a throwback vibe. I hope if they do a follow up promotion that they choose Good Time. Action Figure is a close second fave. I love how they use Lucas in that song.


    Just finished listening through it a couple times. Definitely enjoyed the mini album. Seems we have the same taste. My favorite is Good Time, followed by Action Figure.

  • WayV Kick Back MV

    What an interesting song. To me it felt like it had the structure of 127 a song, with how the sections unfold, and I am somehow reminded of Punch, even though they don't sound much alike at all. Despite that, it still sounds quintessentially WayV, as others have mentioned, and they definitely have established an unmistakable signature sound. I still get some of the Moonwalk vibes, I suppose mainly due to the strings, in the pre-chorus, but overall the track is brand new and interesting, while still somewhat familiar enough, which is what any great pop song does. I'm looking forward to listening to the rest of the mini album.