It was the radio premier of Leona Lewis’ lead single from her sophomore album the other day and now I’m blogging about it. This lead in sentence is annoying me… Anyways, it’s okay… I’m not sure if I like it or not. A lot of people are talking about how emotional it is and how it’s very tear-jerky. But… I don’t quite agree. It does not have the same amount of emotion that her cover of Run has, or even Bleeding Love. The chorus isn’t as catchy either… and the ending doesn’t soar quite so aurally either. Eitherway, I guess this will be a hit and you’ll probably hear it in karaoke bars soon enough.
f(x) – Lachata @ Inkigayo
6 SepFollowing on from their debut performance on Music Core, the girls performed live on Inkigayo. It was another smash performance! Totally amazed!!!
f(x) – Lachata Live Debut
5 SepSo! f(x) performed their live debut of Lachata on Music Core! I have to say, I was blown away! They performed amazing for their debut! Compare it to certain other groups’ debuts and you’ll totally agree! Likewise, I can’t believe how much the crowd were going crazy for them! It wasn’t that long ago that SM Ent were releasing teasers; I’d put money on f(x) being the hottest girl group for the forseeable future. Yep, I think they’re going to knock 2NE1 off from their number 1 spot. The performance reminded me of Pussy Cat Dolls. Congrats to them for giving such a hot performance!
G-DRAGON – Heartbreaker
4 SepFollowing the world’s Summer love affair with electro-pop music, G-DRAGON has gone all vocoder on us for his debut solo single, Heartbreaker. It’s a tuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuune! The similarities to Flo Rida’s Right Round should be ignored and just turn your speakers up to the top and just dance and jump around your room. Awesome stuff!
JASMINE – sad to say
4 SepSo, there has been a recent flood of female rappers in the Asian music scene; if you don’t have a rapper in your girl group in Korea then you’re not a girl group at all! Granted that only applies to this generation of girl groups, but still… it’s very… I’m not sure I like it. Each song has a rap intro and/or outro. I blame Yubin from Wonder Girls. But she’s ace, so I’ll let her off. JASMINE is a J-pop singer who debuted this year with sad to say which is pretty awesome! It has a cute melody, her rapping skills are pretty sweet too. The song isn’t overly produced like a lot of music these days, but it does sound a bit dated, not a bad thing, but you can totally hear it playing on a 90s radio station. Sadly, she dresses a bit like Jentina… which is horrific.
Abe Mao – Anata no Koibito ni Naritai no Desu
4 SepI recently discovered this artist whilst going through WordPress, jumping from blog to blog. I’m pleasantly surprised. She has a very distinct voice, it reminds me of JYONGRI’s, with a bit of Koda Kumisan thrown in too. Her sound is a mixture of pop and rock and seems to be an edgier and more mature version of YUI. That’s not to say I don’t love YUI, but to me, one of YUI’s strong points is her vulnerability, I think Abe Mao is more fierce. Check out my favourite song of hers below~
aiko – milk
4 SepI guess I’m a pretty bad blogger for not being up-to-date with the goings on in the J-pop world. I used to be on it! But now I’m happy to just wait for my favourite artists to put out new songs. But I shouldn’t be like this! The Japanese music industry is alive and kicking ^_^ This song is by aiko, who is amazingly popular in Japan but doesn’t seem to covet fame like Kumisan or Hamasakisan. I never really got into aiko though, granted, she’s a good singer. Her voice is very interesting and she makes great little indie-pop records which I should love! Maybe I should pay her more heed. I love her song 星のない世界 (Hoshi no Nai Sekai; which was Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Rings of Fate’s theme song) but other than that, don’t know much about her. But this little song is sweet and refreshing – just like a good glass of milk ^_~ It’s got a little bit of a jazzy/reggae sound going on. I like it lots.
Koda Kumi – Alive/Physical Thing
4 SepI don’t really like Koda Kumi… Her voice isn’t one that I find very nice to listen to and her style isn’t one that I like. Having said that though, she does release quite good music now and again. Particularly like her Winter themed releases and there were a few good songs on Kingdom. She’s releasing a new single soon (I think she’s trying to beat Ayumi Hamasakisan to most singles released by an artist ever in the whole history of time and space). Alive/Physical Thing is one half ballad and one half dance tune. I prefer the former, because it has some European instruments going on. Kind of like when I heard Christina Milian’s Dip It Low and was like: ‘!!! That has Asian sounds!’; I’m lame, I know.
Angela Aki – 愛の季節 (Ai no Kisetsu)
4 SepI was thinking today that this blog is a little bit K-popcentric… I rarely post about anything but K-pop… I think it needs to open up a bit! So! I’m posting about one of my favourite J-pop artists (arguably second behind Utada Hikaru). Angela Aki is awesome and not necessarily what you’d expect from the bright lights of Japan’s pop world. She’s like… Dido… but with bigger hair and glasses. Don’t let this put you off though! She writes beautiful songs and has an amazing voice. She recorded the Final Fantasy XII theme song. Anyways, I always witter too much about stuff. She’s finally back after being away for ages with a new song, Ai no Kisetsu (Seasons of Love). It’s the theme song for some J-dorama. I don’t watch J-doramas or animes or anything so I don’t really know about them. It’s beautiful, I love it ^_^ PV is very beautiful; I’m so thrilled she’s back!
f(x) – Lachata
4 SepI’m a bit slow with this but SM Entertainment are debuting a new girl group called f(x) (don’t ask me what it means… it’s complicated and about flowers and xx chromosomes or something). I’ve not really listened to this group properly yet… but this song seems preeeeetty cool. I don’t think it has the same catchyness as Girls’ Generation’s Gee or Tell Me Your Wish but for a debut song, I think it’s not half decent. Besides, they’re with SM Entertainment who are, for me, the leading entertainment managers in Korea at the moment (BoA, Girls’ Generation, Tohoshinki???). Sometimes they make a couple of mistakes… I think maybe they think they can make no bad choices, but they do… ahem… Anyways! Krystal (sister of SNSD’s Jessica) and Victoria (leader of the band) are my favourites ^_^
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