K-pop! Goes February

Hello darkness my old friend. I’ve walked into this wall again.

That’s a Jasper Carrott joke that just came to me. It pertains to nothing. Soz. Anyway, February is fast approaching, because time is a construct and the pandemic has removed most common signifiers of it having any meaning. I think we can all agree that February is slightly less awful than January, being mercifully short and potentially a little bit warmer (please, PLEASE be a bit warmer). Because of this, and also because I have no sense of my priorities in life, I have decided to start a little project for this, the shortest of months.

“What is that project?” I hear you, my imaginary readers in my Carrie Bradshaw-esque fantasy, ask? Well, it’s K-pop baby.

I know, I know, I may have mentioned K-pop before. Those of you who have ever met me may have just possibly a little bit heard how much I enjoy BTS. Maybe. But, as much as my knowledge has been steadily broadening since first discovering *my boys* in 2017, like any truly interesting subject, once you delve into this genre, you realise just how deep down this rabbit hole goes. And boy, is K-pop’s got a lot of rabbits. As an industry that has defined itself via a streamlined system of idol training, group formation and relentless scheduling/promotion, K-pop has produced an absolutely huge number of artists. And, as I always do, I have tended to dip my toes into a few of these, found what I liked, and stayed swimming in these particular pools. But not in February!

I am, this month, going to take the concept of this blog- trying out the things I don’t know about- and apply it to my favourite type of pop music, every single day. Each day, I will pick a new K-pop artist that I have experienced little to nothing of in terms of music, and give them a go. As I said, this is a massive list to pick from, so some kind of streamlining and structure is necessary to make it work. Here’s how each little group…investigation? Review? How each little something, will go:

-First, I’ll look at their very first release

-Next, their latest

-I’ll also listen to their top 5 most popular songs, which I will roughly try to eyeball through looking at their YouTube, Spotify, and possibly other channels.

- I’ll finish up with their latest album, of whatever length that may be.

Through doing this, I think I’ll be able to get a fair enough overview of each group’s sound, style and evolution. And who are these groups, I hear the same ghostly figures as before cry? Well, again there is a mountain to climb here, so I will be tackling this by dividing each of February’s four weeks (thanks for being so neat here Feb) into themes:

Week 1: Currently active girl groups.

Week 2: Currently active boy groups.

Week 3: Second generation legends (we’re on the Fourth gen now, yes it’s a thing and hmm maybe I’ll explain).

Week 4: soloists.

If you are, by chance, someone who does know K-pop well and is reading this, you’ll realise pretty swiftly that this means only seven artists in each category, and 28 overall. And yes, I am aware this is not enough, and that this means I will inevitably miss some groups many would consider cornerstones of the industry. But I have asked the good people of Reddit for suggestions, and have a few ideas myself, so hopefully I should at least get a really interesting mix in here. I’m also, as mentioned, going to be looking at groups where I specifically don’t know their output, which eliminates quite a few of the big hitters. So if you’re shocked by the absence of:

-Mamamoo

-Ateez

-Red Velvet

-Twice

-EXO

-Itzy

-G-idle

-Dreamcatcher

-BigBang

-Monsta X

-Everglow

-CLC

And maybe a few others, it’s because I already know them, and in most cases, really enjoy them (I won’t tell you which one I don’t care for, you really don’t wanna know know know know…). I won’t lie, there is no completely set list as yet, but the general outline shall be stuck to as closely as I can. Also, as this is a daily thing, I don’t really think I’ll be able to carve out the time to hear the whole discography of each group. As much as blindly picking the highlights might result in me missing something, I’ll do what I can to get a good breadth in there. Feel free to let me know any crucial moments I miss with any artist.

So, if you’re interested in learning a little more about this sparkliest, most well-choreographed of genres (and let’s face it, it is) come back here every day for the next parts of my (almost definitely over-ambitious) K-pop goes February. 가자!