Posts by frala19

Nevermind, I listened to it again after a few hours and I like it now.

Despite the plethora of issues I have with the company overall, this is what I appreciate about the creative direction specifically at SM. Even though Whiplash didn't hit for me, I respect it. They aren't afraid of being polarizing and don't play it safe conceptually. Great art is polarizing, and I'm glad SM has at least remained true to really pushing the boundaries of experimenting in Kpop even as they lost their industry dominance. That's what makes Kpop the only mainstream music I really follow.

Wow, I literally just wrote in the Whiplash Mini Album discussion that it sounds like it could've been a title track. I do like Drama better, but I may be in the minority in that i like Kill it better than Whiplash, though I do understand why they would choose Whiplash over it, since it sounds a lot like Aespa of the past, and they want to move forward.

3 songs are going on my playlist:

Kill It (I have a suspicion this could've been a title track, but sounds very classic Aespa, very much like Savage specifically, so I can see why they wanted to do something different with Whiplash)

Pink Hoodie (Nobody seems to like this one for some reason, but it's the most interesting one to me. If you can't guess by now I loved their sound from the 1st Savage mini album most)

Flowers (It's good, I don't love it as much as a lot seem to do. I think it's nice, but I wish there was something more interesting in the chord progression/harmonies. Or at least more of a change during the bridge)

Honorable mention:
Whiplash (It's catchy, and if it comes on randomly somewhere, I'll enjoy it, but I won't actively put it on myself)

*edit* Nevermind. It grew on me and I'm putting it on my playlist. I still like the other three more though.

They obviously are very different tracks, but it is hard not to compare Whiplash to Supernova. Tbh, Supernova wasn't for me when it first came out, and Whiplash isn't either. But Supernova did grow on me, but I also really like Demjointz, and the details and his creativity in his productions always give my ear a new interesting thing with each section. Whiplash doesn't have that and and really generate enough interest in it's production for me. It is pretty stagnant throughout, which if you really love the beat, is probably a positive for you, but unfortunately not me. That said, like Supernova, it is pretty catchy, and I can see it popping back in my head later today, probably more than once. I doubt I'll go out of my way to listen to it again though. I haven't formed a solid opinion on the full mini album yet, but the feeling on the rest of the songs is generally positive

This and Bored are tied for my favorite of the 4.

Not sure about other platforms, butI find it interesting that at least on Spotify, all of the solo releases are classified as aespa rather than the individuals. It tells me they are interested in maintaining the group identity/brand, not to mention the streams counting for the group.

Quote from autumnleaf_soshi

that song reminds me of a Big Bang song every time I hear it, but I can't pin point exactly what song it reminds me of

It's not super obvious, but Prologue and Big Bang's IF YOU share some similarities, if that's the comparison you're thinking of.

I got reminded of another one, which it does share some harmonic similarities in parts of Big Bang's Blue as well.

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.

Quote from tetetete

Jiminie

Kookie

AOA
Turbo

It's probably a good time to go with the Taeil case investigation happening.

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.

Quote from killingtime1934

bored

They only have like 15 to choose from, but in no particular order:

Attention
Bubble Gum
How Sweet

It's The Road you fools. Followed by Why Can't You Love Me?

Fantastic mini album. I enjoyed every track, but top 2 is probably All I Got and Cry For Love, but Privacy is close behind.

Wow. I'm loving every single track so far. This is nostalgic for me, as like 10 years ago, this was the kind of music I used to listen to almost exclusively for a while.

Great cover

Quote from daniel-cruz

Wait what? You're a voting member? For the GRAMMYs?

Yes. Becoming a voting member is actually not a difficult process if you work/have worked in the industry. All it takes is 2 recommendations from other people in the industry, and they don't even necessarily have to be members of the academy.

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.