Kpop Craze!!

I really don't listen to much music that's heard on the radio anymore. It's lame. Except for the people I love. But yea, Kpop has finally become relevant again in 2012. Big Bang came back with their new album 'Alive' in late February and it is AMAZING. Really. Last year it was their return from a 2 year hiatus, but the album was a disappointment. It was good...but it felt like something was missing...I was skeptical when the teasers for Alive came out, but then, OMG. The first single, 'Blue' is beautiful. You can hear how lonely and sad they are when they sing, even TOP haha.

Then, Big Bang returned with 'Bad Boy', IT IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!

AND JUST WHEN WE THOUGHT IT COULDN'T GET ANY BETTER, 'Fantastic Baby' was released. BEST SONG OFF THE KOREAN ALBUM. When you see them perform this live, you can't help but get excited!!

Next, we have one of SM Entertainment's most talented boy groups: SHINee. They recently released their new mini album 'Sherlock'. Now, when the teaser images of their comeback were released, everyone pretty much HATED it. I admit, I did too, so I was skeptical about what type of theme their comeback would be. 'Lucifer' their last album from 2010 was amazing and vibrant and powerful, but all of a sudden you start looking like teenage boys trying to look sexy? EW. However, when 'Sherlock' finally came out, IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER.

Next, we have one of the originators of kpop, SHINHWA. THEY ARE AMAZING. Really. Their style is different from kpop boy groups now because they portray a more manlier image, with r&b, and their choreo is NO JOKE. Very powerful. Shinhwa is the longest running kpop boy group ever, they've been together for 14 years and they recently released their 10th album VENUS. The song is addicting and although it sounds Westernized and the choreo looks similar to idols today, they still got it.

Meanwhile, when the kings and princes of kpop returned, rookies started debuting. Now, in order to hop on the bandwagon with new kpop idols, the teasers have to be appealing, and they have to have talent. SM Entertainment, one of the leading kpop companies in Korea, recently produced EXO, their new boy group. In my opinion and to be honest, the best thing SM ever created was TVXQ(DBSK) because all 5 can sing and dance, they are the Korean version of Boyz 2 Men and NSYNC. Yea. Awesome. However, they split, sadly. Trainees that did not make it into DBSK were left to create Super Junior, Shinee, and EXO. Super Junior is one of the top kpop boy groups filled with currently 10 members(13 originally) and only 3 of them can sing, and 3 can dance. The others are irrelevant and good looking lol. Shinee however is a fantastic boy group. Fast forward to EXO. SM has released 30 teasers of this group consisting of 11 members. EXO-K will promote in Korea with 6 members. EXO-M will promote in China hence the M, Mandarin. Half of the teasers released focus on one sexy member Kai. LOL. I'm in love with him.

Anyways, EXO has not OFFICIALLY debut but instead they released prologue singles. 'What is Love' (r&b ballad with just 2 members singing) and 'History' (pop). EXO will actually debut sometime this week. So far, they don't have the talent to surpass TVXQ. But, they dance pretty good. Sorry.

New female rookie group, SPICA have amazing vocals and they just released an r&b ballad called 'Painkiller'  and it's the best thing I've heard from the kpop world in 2012 so far from a female group. Simply amazing. We need to keep our eye on them.

Well, these songs are currently on repeat because kpop has finally returned to awesomeness again, compared to what's happened in the past 9 months haha. 2012 has started off great with talented rookies and we've seen the return of world stars. Hopefully there will be more to come.