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Music and Lyrics: Holding Out For A Hero
Heroes are a fact of life. They exist in every culture, every language. After all, heroes are the foundation of storytelling—they’re the person we all root for to succeed as whatever tale in engaging...
View ArticleThe SB Mixtape, 7/26/2018: All About That Bass
Music is, at the core, a subjective jigsaw puzzle. A good song means taking a dozen disparate parts– melody, harmony, strings, brass, synths, bass, vocals, guitars, woodwinds, marimbas—and arranging...
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Seventeen’s ‘You Make Me Feel’ Is Solid– If You’re Ready For It
After a busy 2017, Seventeen has had a fairly quiet year, with a repackage of their second album and debuting in Japan. The fifth EP You Make My Day marks their first full comeback since last year’s...
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iKon’s “New Kids: Continue”: Desperately Seeking Self-Identity
It looks like 2018 is going to be the year iKon gets serious about building a domestic fanbase. They’ve already had the release of their second full-length album Return, and are now returning with the...
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Stray Kids’“I Am Who” Shows Potent Lyrics and Pitiful Production
JYP’s newest boy band, Stray Kids, made waves with their debut I Am Not, notching two mentions on our mid-year debut list. Their brand of rock-rap, spearheaded by the sub-collective 3racha, made a huge...
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Side B: Shinhwa’s Early Years On Top
Twenty years is a long time. That’s true in general, but it gets longer when placed in the context of K-pop. We’re used to groups disbanding after five years. Ten years is an event rarer than hen’s...
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Park Jimin’s ‘jiminxjamie’ is Good But Not Great
Park Jimin has had a varied career. She was the inaugural winner of K-pop Star, joined JYP Entertainment, debuted as half of duo 15&, became a host of After School Club, and debuted as a solo...
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Oh My Girl’s “Remember Me” Is Better Off Forgotten
Oh My Girl is back! 2018 got off to an auspicious start for them, with “Secret Garden” pushing them from a cult following to mainstream success. This leaves them in the rather enviable position for...
View ArticleThe SB Mixtape, 9/25/2018: K-pop On Broadway
I’ve always had a soft spot for musicals. They’re the thing I go to when I want to feel larger than life; when I want music that doesn’t just get in my head, but pulls me into another world. Grease,...
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Yuri Stuns in “The First Scene”
It’s been a complicated year for Girl’s Generation. They’ve had multiple member departures, leaving them with a questionable line-up repackaged as a sub-unit, Oh!GG. It’s not surprising that this is...
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Weki Meki Fall Flat In “Crush”
It’s a crowded field out there for rookie girl groups with seven-plus members, and while 2018 has seen some of these groups carve their niche, Weki Meki has not been one of them. Their latest comeback,...
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BoA’s “WOMAN”: A Vintage Voyage Through Her Eyes
BoA is the queen of K-pop. There are few statements about music that can be uttered with any sense of definitiveness, but that one is undeniable. And yet, she’s someone I don’t have a lot of experience...
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IZ*ONE’s “Color*ze” Is Exactly as Expected
As a rule of thumb, I try to avoid having expectations about music. I want to go into a release as a blank slate, so the only thing I can judge it on is itself, and not be falsely weighed down or...
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The End of Dramafever And The Illusion of Mainstream
On October 16, drama fans the world over had their hearts broken when Dramafever, one of the biggest sites for Asian dramas, was shut down without warning. The statement issued at the time cited rising...
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Music & Lyrics: Monsters Among Us
It is a universal truth that people are scared of monsters. The specifics might change, given place and time, but deep down, we’re all afraid of things that go bump in the night. The inhuman and...
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Red Velvet’s “RBB” is a Really Good Mini
Red Velvet has had quite the year. They kicked off the year with their Perfect Red Velvet re-issue before making a bid for the title of summer queens with Summer Magic. Now, four months later, their...
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Boys Over Flowers: 10 Years Later
2008 feels like a lifetime ago. It was the dawn of K-pop’s Golden Age, and entire careers have begun and ended in that ten-year span. 2008 saw the birth of more than music, however. It was also the...
View ArticleSide B: The Power Of Infinite
It’s been close to a year since the last time Infinite had a comeback, but it’s been six years since us at Seoulbeats took the time to examine their discography in full. Given that they’re coming back...
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A Pink’s “Percent” Has Good Content but Stumbles On Execution
A Pink has long been associated with soft hyperfemininity in K-pop; having stuck with that concept for their first seven years. Last year’s “I’m So Sick” saw them adopt a sultrier, more house-driven...
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GFriend’s “Time For Us” Proves A Shake-Up In Sound
It’s been close to six months since Gfriend has made a Korean comeback with Sunny Summer. After successfully breaking from their repetitive cycle last July, they made their first inroads to Japan. Now...
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