The Best Songs You've Never Heard By: After School

People are often familiar with the songs that are featured in music videos for groups. However there are a number of really good songs that people miss because they never check out the groups full track list on their albums.

(The songs listed are of course based off of nothing more then my personal preference. However they might be worth checking out if you want to hear another side of a certain artist you never knew existed.)

[These songs may not be songs of musical genius, but they are different from the normal songs presented by the groups main tracks and worth listening to. Also please note my descriptive skills of the song aren't the greatest but hopefully they are enough to intrigue you into checking them out.]

AFTER SCHOOL

With U : This just has a different feel from all their other songs.

Wristwatch : After School is really known for their sexy songs but they have some really nice slow songs.

Love Beat : This has a real club like vibe to it.

Dressing Room : Love this song, yes there are a lot of vocal filters used, but it just adds to the song.

AFTER SCHOOL (Japanese songs)

Gimme Love : It sounds like a title track song.

Miss Futuristic : It is super repetitive, super auto-tuned, and super addictive.

ORANGE CARAMEL

I'll be honest I was not a big fan of Orange Caramel's songs from just watching their music videos. The only one I slightly liked was Lipstick. I was however very surprised at the range of songs their album had. See this is a the exact reason you should check out a groups track list since you may not like their title tracks but you may really like their other songs.

Bubble Bath : This has an electronic sound to it.

Not Yet : When I think Orange Caramel I think funky and a bit crazy so to hear a ballad it's a nice surprise.

Superwoman : This is a great song it has a nice beat.

Clara's Dream : Such a simple and lovely song.

Close Your Eyes : This song really show of their vocals.

(I was going to put the Youtube links to these song but it is too time consuming and the links sometimes get taken down so you're on your own to search for them. P.S. Most of these songs are on itunes)

The Best Songs You've Never Heard By: Girls Generation

People are often familiar with the songs that are featured in music videos for groups. However there are a number of really good songs that people miss because they never check out the groups full track list on their albums.

(The songs listed are of course based off of nothing more then my personal preference. However they might be worth checking out if you want to hear another side of a certain artist you never knew existed.)

[These songs may not be songs of musical genius, but they are different from the normal songs presented by the groups main tracks and worth listening to. Also please note my descriptive skills of the song aren't the greatest but hopefully they are enough to intrigue you into checking them out.]

GIRLS GENERATION

If you want to check out these songs you check go to this link https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/girls-generation/id357463500 to listen to a preview or you can check out the full version with the youtube link I provided.

Merry Go Round : This is just a fun and girly song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqBIbLQwv6w

Dear. Mom : Talk about a song that will make you cry. When I first heard it I didn't even know the words and I started to get misty eyed. It's slow but not quite a ballad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIYpJLY5nNI

Star Star Star [Acoustic R&B Mix]: Such an amazing song. It really shows off a softness to the girls vocals and it is one of my favorite live stages they've done.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny1QhZtTuKI

Mistake : This is a slow paced song that really shows off the girls vocals and the chorus is great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZNs-9io_W4

Wake Up : This is the type of song you would expect more from After School then Girls Generation since it has a hardness and fierceness to it. If you liked Run Devil Run you will probably like this song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoYn6gdXkpg

Trick : By far one of my favorite songs by SNSD. It's catchy and so different from their normal aegyo type songs. It has more of a Run Devil Run feel.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nleQnZBppMo

Oscar : A fierce in your face type of song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YZZROnqXz0

Top Secret : This song has the vibe of Hoot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkWHmL55jLQ

Telepathy : Nothing vocally amazing it's just a fun song to sing to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOUFK2BawxU

XYZ : It's super repeative but a really nice song nonetheless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKXNDjO26vk 

GIRLS GENERATION (Japanese songs)
I can not say enough how big of a fan I am of their Japanese releases, the producers on their Japanese songs know what they are doing when putting together these songs.

The Great Escape : Again a different sounding track from anything i've heard from them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geNBLzlPmT0

Beautiful Stranger : The pace of this song is so interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bastINQYUcw

T.O.P : Fierce and something that would be fun to dance to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbandpCEiBE

Stay Girls : It has a 2008 SNSD feel to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rC7X-rcMf8&list=PLpP4xTKy4LHFC4V1B6jqzFfBLdgtPjE9U

Reflection : One of my favorite Japanese songs of theirs. The beat is so different and so catchy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNVuDn1a22s&list=PLpP4xTKy4LHFC4V1B6jqzFfBLdgtPjE9U

Animal : A great beat and something fun to dance to.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofe01Coazes&list=PLpP4xTKy4LHFC4V1B6jqzFfBLdgtPjE9U&index=2

TITAESEO

Baby Steps : It really shows off their vocals and has a sad vibe to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39M9NEZMKzQ




I'll try and make this a regular segment. Be warned that I will probably cover more girl groups then boys. I seem to listen to more girl groups then boy groups for some reason.

Non Korean Kpop Talent Search Show

(for some reason they don't have the Philippines or Indonesia on here even though they have contestants from those countries)

So this is somewhat of a follow-up to my last post Kpop Group Members/Soloist that are not Korean where I listed all of the non Korean or half Korean artist active in the Kpop scene.

While browsing various Kpop website I came across an article about a show called Kpop Star Hunt 3.  I had actually seen articles about it before, however I always thought they were talking about some aspect of the show Kpop Star 3 and the Hunt had just been added accidentally.

After clicking the link though I found out that the concept of Kpop Star Hunt is a show that takes two contestants from seven different countries in Asia [Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Philippines, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Thailand] and they compete for a chance to be signed by a Korean entertainment company.


Here's a detailed explanation about the show from their website

"Scoot: Kpop Star Hunt 3 is a singing and dancing reality show competition. Organized by channel M, a regional Asian Kpop channel jointly owned by CJ E&M and Fox International Channels, with full training support from FNC Entertainment, one of the top music labels in Korea, which houses idol band groups CNBLUE and FTISLAND.

Aspiring hopefuls with outstanding vocal and dance talent from five regions, including Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand, will have the incredibly opportunity to compete with each other to win a recording contract!

The entire audition and training process will be filmed and broadcast across Asia as a weekly survival reality program. Once you pass the audition and are chosen as a trainee, channel M, CJ E&M and FNC will make YOU into the next mega star!"

The first two seasons of the show was collaborated with Cube Entertainment. Season one and two winners were both from Thailand.

Here are the contestants for Season 3

If you want more information about them you can find it at this link http://kpopstarhunt3.interest.me/top12/profile.m

If you want to watch the episodes you can check out their youtube page (the episodes are in Korean but they have Chinese subtitles) http://www.youtube.com/user/ChannelMAsia/videos


So what does this show mean for kpop. It means that the Korean entertainment industry is taking notice of the interest from foreigner not only wanting to see Kpop acts but be a part of them as well. Now while many Korean entertainment companies have held auditions in countries like China, USA, Europe, and a few other places. To have a show completely dedicated to helping foreigners break into the kpop industry is a very interesting concept.

If you are wondering if anyone has actually managed to gain some success from the show. Sorn who won the first season is a full time trainee at Cube Entertainment, and Ling Ling the second season winner is undergoing CJ E&M training and preparing for a concert debut. Lucica from season one signed with Yedang Entertainment, and many other people from the show have gone back to their home countries and participated in their entertainment industries.  

Asian Pop Acts

Once again sorry for the long absence, hopefully this dreadful semester will be over soon.

So when I first started listening to music that was outside of my home country, the first thing I was introduced to was J-pop. Thanks to the anime opening and closing songs. For a while there I was really into J-pop, however oddly enough I only really got into solo artist or bands no J-Pop groups. Mostly because youtube was still just starting out and Japanese companies were not posting stuff on there yet and I was unaware of the different website out there that helped promote different Japanese acts.

Once I got into high school I had less time to watch animes so my interest in J-pop declined. It wasn't until I entered university that I discovered K-pop. By this time I was able to find a number of K-pop sites that helped me learn more about the large number of groups/solo artist out there in K-popdom. 

Slowly though, every now and again, I would find a group in the recommendation side of my youtube page that had a group. I would click on it thinking that it might be a new k-pop group only to find out that the group was not singing in Korean. This is how I discovered T-Pop, Thai-Pop.

Recently, the same thing happened to me, I clicked on a group from the recommendation side of youtube and found that the group was an I-Pop group, Indonesian-Pop.

So i'm going to ask you guys for some help. Since my readers are from all around the world I would love to find more groups from around Asia. If there is a group that you think I should check out could you comment and give me a few suggestions.

Right now I'm just looking for groups, but I have a lot of favorite solo artist from various countries in Asia. (You can even suggest songs from artists I featured below, there is a good chance that if it's not a title song I haven't heard it.)

Here are a few of the groups I've found from around Asia.

[Many of these groups have more videos then what is shown below,  I just picked a few of my favorites]

Thailand:

Candy Mafia  (Their company is really great, they add English subtitles to a lot of their videos)

3.2.1 (See! The co:ed formation does work)

SWEE:D (I really miss this group, they disbanded but I admire the girls for pursuing their education.)

K-OTIC: (They disbanded in 2012)

No More Tear (Haha I snuck in a T-Rock band)

I swear they had a video for ฉันเป็นดีเจให้เธอ (I am DJ for you) but I can't find it anywhere, but it is one of my favorite songs of theirs.

Indonesia:

S.O.S [Their name stands for Sensation Of Stage] (Hanhae from Phantom is an actor in their music video >-<)

Taiwan:

S.H.E (Their name stand for Selina, Hebe, Ella, the names of the members)

[Special] Feature BLUSH

Ok so I know my blog is mainly about Kpop artist and K-Dramas, but the group i'm about to talk about has a Korean member who was on Superstar K therefore I'm using that as my justification for this post, and if you don't like that explanation then I'll just say this is my blog and I can write about whoever I please. At the bottom of the post I'll write my reasoning for why I think they could play a part in helping kpop spread worldwide.

Moving onward today I will be talking about the pan-asian group Blush.

MEMBERS: 

Alisha

Angeli 

Ji Hae

Natsuko aka Nacho

Victoria 

BIO: Blush is a five member girl group who is made up of five girl all from different counties in Asia. The members are Alisha (Indian), Angeli (Filipina), Ji Hae (Korean), Natsuko (Japanese), Victoria (Chinese). In 2010 FarWest Entertainment held a talent search called "Project Lotus." The girls were chosen and trained, since then they have released a few singles and have been the opening act for Justin Bieber, The Black Eyed Peas, and many more. They were on the "Shake It Up" soundtrack, and the game "The Sims 3 Pets." They preformed at a number of events and parades.  

OFFICIAL WEBSITES:        Official Website: http://www.blushband.com/home

                                          Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blushgroup

                                           Official Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/blushvideo

                                           Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/blushgroup

        

                                         

MUSIC VIDEOS: (I'm only including my favorites)

Warrior

Miss Out

Electric (I really disliked the music video for this song, I fill it does not do the song justice so here is the lyrics mv)

All Star

Christmas Lights (there's a mv for this song but I really like their live performance) [performance starts at 1:52]

As Long As You Love Me [Cover]

My Thoughts On This Group:

I've known of Blush since their debut single. Like many other people I thought it was a gimmick. Simply an entertainment company trying to copy the success Korea has had with groups. I also did not care for their debut song and I really thought featuring Snoop Dogg added nothing to the song at all. I watched their "So You Think You Can Dance" performance and felt that only one member was highlighted and the rest looked like backup dancers. So occasionally they would pop up from time to time on different kpop website I visit and I would pay them no mind. Fast forward to 2013, once again an article about them was on one of the kpop website about their new single Warrior. I decided why not give it a chance, so I watched the video. I was impressed with what I saw and heard. A well put together music video, good costumes, and a nice song. They had come a long way from their first single each member was getting more screen time and more parts. Their dancing had greatly improved and overall they looked like the real deal. Having been impressed by their improvement I decided to visit their youtube page and look at some of their other videos. I was truly shocked by what I found, these girls were really talented. They could really sing, their first single had just simple not done their voices justice. So, I can say I support these girls, they are talented and have a great chance of making it big.

Ok so i'm sure you're wondering how does all of this relate to kpop, well for the most part it doesn't, but in a small way it does. If this group manages to make it big they will be the "In" thing. That means more USA companies will want to capitalize on the "In" thing, and that would be groups with Asian members. And won't those companies be surprised when they find that the work has already been done for them, that groups already exist in Korea that are just waiting for a chance to make a USA debut. I feel like they will seek out groups in Korea that they normally would have never given a chance and actually help them make a debut. If nothing else, if Blush becomes a household name it will help people realize that people of Asian decent are just as great singers as others in the USA.

These girls are talented and it would be amazing to see such a diverse make it big https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/blush/id445745534

Feature [17 ]May Doni

So you might have wondered who his the girl in the P of my banner, well her name is May Doni and she a very talented singer with an interesting story to share.

BIO: May Doni was born in the United States and she was discovered by a JYP talent project in 2001. She was later sign with YG Entertainment in 2005, she left YG in 2007 and signed with Nega Network. She left YG because her sister Yenny was deemed not good enough to debut, May Doni wanted to debut with her sister and therefore when her sister was kicked out she decided to leave as well. May Doni went on to make an unofficial debut with Cho PD. In 2009 she made her official debut as a solo singer. After that she seemed to drop off the radar only occasionally posting videos of herself covering various songs online. In 2010 she recorded a duet with Hwanhee. She then made her acting debut with a fairly large role in the horror film "White." In 2012 she signed with J2Star Entertainment. She is now making her comeback in February of 2013 so support this talented girl! 

OFFICIAL WEBSITES: Official Website: 

                                           (I think this is a fan channel)Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/HDPmegainu/videos?view=0 

                                           Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/kimmaydoni

        

                                         

MUSIC VIDEOS:

메이다니(May Doni) - 교실에 오면 [TEASER]

[Here's a link to the full audio] http://pann.nate.com/video/221257372

조 (PDIS) - 끌려 (Feat. 메이다니 May Doni) 

Strangers(남남)-Hwanhee(환희) & May Doni(메이다니) 

May Doni - Molla Ing (feat. 2AM) 

[a live performance] 처음처럼[Like the First Time] (feat. July)

[cover]Jessie J-Domino (This is one of my fav covers by her)

[cover]David Guetta-Titanium 

[cover]Adam Lambert-Whataya Want From Me (the video and audio are a little out of sync but she still sounds amazing)

(showing off her rapping skills)

(dance practice) 

I really like her because she is a triple threat (she can sing, dance, and rap, oh and act as well) and she has stage presence and knows how to connect with the audience.