K-Pop (General Discussion)

PopZeitgeist

PopZeitgeist

Vixen said:


It’s kinda an embarrassment to other artists and songwriters how GOOD this chorus is…it’s kinda embarrassing the way this community didn’t think this was the song of 2022…..and they were partially right – it is the song of the millennium. Not many can relate to it.
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HippoSteaks said:


It’s kinda an embarrassment to other artists and songwriters how GOOD this chorus is…it’s kinda embarrassing the way this community didn’t think this was the song of 2022…..and they were partially right – it is the song of the millennium. Not many can relate to it.
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Perfection and near perfection sadly can't compete with total and complete annihilating exhilarating perfection.
 
Monado

Monado

leedlelee... said:
Girl group fandoms have gone absolutely insane over the past 2 or so years, to the point that they [almost] make boy group stans look well adjusted…
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Yeah I don't really interact with K-Pop fans other than here so I was a little taken aback by the level of abuse.
 
codecat

codecat

he/him
SloMover said:
Agree with this 100%. The Cheshire release is MUCH better than pretty much anything they’ve released in the past two or so years but it’s all quite faceless. Like ma’am, where’s the energy and personality that they used to have in truckloads?
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I agree so much with the faceless aspect. Wanted to reply to this some days ago, and after realizing that ITZY had FIVE releases this year and not one single of them stuck (SNEAKERS is an outlier but also let's be real: when the first snippet came out, people were speculating that the song was a parody and that they were gonna release the "real song" when time was due...and the real song was the one in the snippet and that says it all skdhfdksjhf) I have some thoughts and rambles!

There are many groups who can achieve success, but not many can have that while bringing a fresh new energy to the stage. When ITZY debuted, they had already a strong blueprint: brat pop that's unsettlingly structured but melodic, with bass-heavy verses in strange keys that contrasted against their explosive choruses – and that kind of sound was everywhere after DALLA DALLA, from literal to light interpretations (in some days, they're even better than the original). Just to measure that impact, IZ*ONE, the only GG at the time that was competing with BLACKPINK, had a signature sound but you didn't see 10000 clones of it after they debuted.

That happened with ITZY, which is an amazing feat by itself! But I feel like it must bring a very difficult challenge for their evolution: how can you evolve your identity when it has been overtaken by so many other groups? Do you keep on doing the same thing or do you try to explore more stuff with your own sound? And if you move away from what people know and celebrate you for, won't that be alienating?

Kudos to JYP for trying to come up with something new every time but it's clear that they're failing at doing so. LOCO to me was a positive preview of what they could be after something like WANNABE or Not Shy, but then we have these attempts at throwing stuff at walls and hoping they stick...

Their most streamed songs are basically all GALACTIKA prods (yeah they've been around longer but let's go with, for example, the Popular algorithm on Spotify) which makes me feel like that's the stuff people mostly love. Which got me thinking: their current producers are all Swedes or Americans (I'm starting to think it's cheaper to outsource because of some tax break or labor laws or something) who make stuff in tune of what Westerns globally think K-pop sounds like – and naturally, they want to sell these songs to the largest amount of people possible because everyone has to put food on the table. An environment like this allows for really good stuff, but without that personification, tailor-made aspect, you can't feel that these last FIVE songs were made exactly for ITZY. The musicians don't get the concept of the group and then JYP picks these songs which is ultimately the misstep here because it feels like not even they know what ITZY are about. Unless JYP is setting up these writing camps which is even worse!

Overall, 2022 has been a truly confusing year for JYP (bar Nayeon's solo and some TWICE stuff). Maybe their magic left the door and took out the best creatives they had with them?
 
HippoSteaks

HippoSteaks

codecat said:
I agree so much with the faceless aspect. Wanted to reply to this some days ago, and after realizing that ITZY had FIVE releases this year and not one single of them stuck (SNEAKERS is an outlier but also let's be real: when the first snippet came out, people were speculating that the song was a parody and that they were gonna release the "real song" when time was due...and the real song was the one in the snippet and that says it all skdhfdksjhf) I have some thoughts and rambles!

There are many groups who can achieve success, but not many can have that while bringing a fresh new energy to the stage. When ITZY debuted, they had already a strong blueprint: brat pop that's unsettlingly structured but melodic, with bass-heavy verses in strange keys that contrasted against their explosive choruses – and that kind of sound was everywhere after DALLA DALLA, from literal to light interpretations (in some days, they're even better than the original). Just to measure that impact, IZ*ONE, the only GG at the time that was competing with BLACKPINK, had a signature sound but you didn't see 10000 clones of it after they debuted.

That happened with ITZY, which is an amazing feat by itself! But I feel like it must bring a very difficult challenge for their evolution: how can you evolve your identity when it has been overtaken by so many other groups? Do you keep on doing the same thing or do you try to explore more stuff with your own sound? And if you move away from what people know and celebrate you for, won't that be alienating?

Kudos to JYP for trying to come up with something new every time but it's clear that they're failing at doing so. LOCO to me was a positive preview of what they could be after something like WANNABE or Not Shy, but then we have these attempts at throwing stuff at walls and hoping they stick...

Their most streamed songs are basically all GALACTIKA prods (yeah they've been around longer but let's go with, for example, the Popular algorithm on Spotify) which makes me feel like that's the stuff people mostly love. Which got me thinking: their current producers are all Swedes or Americans (I'm starting to think it's cheaper to outsource because of some tax break or labor laws or something) who make stuff in tune of what Westerns globally think K-pop sounds like – and naturally, they want to sell these songs to the largest amount of people possible because everyone has to put food on the table. An environment like this allows for really good stuff, but without that personification, tailor-made aspect, you can't feel that these last FIVE songs were made exactly for ITZY. The musicians don't get the concept of the group and then JYP picks these songs which is ultimately the misstep here because it feels like not even they know what ITZY are about. Unless JYP is setting up these writing camps which is even worse!

Overall, 2022 has been a truly confusing year for JYP (bar Nayeon's solo and some TWICE stuff). Maybe their magic left the door and took out the best creatives they had with them?
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Weapon and Voltage are both this year and top tier ITZY, so it’s not a matter of quality in my opinion, but choices. Voltage could have been a moment for ITZY had they released it in Korea. Putting it out in Japan was such a mistake. Lia’s “tick tock tick tock” part would have set the world ablaze.
 
Slice of Life

Slice of Life

Staff member
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L

leedlelee...

HippoSteaks said:
Weapon and Voltage are both this year and top tier ITZY, so it’s not a matter of quality in my opinion, but choices. Voltage could have been a moment for ITZY had they released it in Korea. Putting it out in Japan was such a mistake. Lia’s “tick tock tick tock” part would have set the world ablaze.
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Voltage is my favorite ITZY track since Dalla Dalla…
I’m not giving up on ITZY just yet, but I can’t help but think that JYP has no idea what to do with them (beyond releasing music and selling a lot of records)…
 
HippoSteaks

HippoSteaks

leedlelee... said:
Voltage is my favorite ITZY track since Dalla Dalla…
I’m not giving up on ITZY just yet, but I can’t help but think that JYP has no idea what to do with them (beyond releasing music and selling a lot of records)…
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I think that’s true. They are kind of scrambling with different sounds. Personally, I really like Cheshire.
 
Gashina

Gashina

HippoSteaks said:
I think that’s true. They are kind of scrambling with different sounds. Personally, I really like Cheshire.
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You can call me weirdo but I’ve loved every ITZY single… yes Sneakers and Cheshire. I think that ITZY is the girl group that JYP really wants to break into the American market and he’s kinda figuring out how to do it. I think that’s why their sound has kinda evolved or devolved into a more Western friendly sound, all the girls are proficient in English, and they literally have an English version of all of their singles other than Cheshire. I think this year was almost like a litmus test for ITZY. What’s working and what’s not… I’m curious to see what they come out with next.
 
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