Confession: KARA is my biggest K-pop guilty pleasure, which is really saying a lot considering that K-pop as a whole is one of my biggest guilty pleasures in life. I like to pretend that I have discerning taste when it comes to K-pop (as if that weren’t a contradictory statement already), but when it comes to KARA…the worse the songs are, the better. “Mister” is my ultimate jam. No shame.
So it probably comes to no surprise that I’m seriously digging KARA’s newest song, “Step.” The MV for the new lead single was released today. Check it out below:
Crimped hair and silly hip-gyrating dance moves aside, I really dig the music video for its high energy and bright colors, and I appreciate the fact that there is no irritating cutesy-ness to be seen. Admittedly, there’s not much substance to the song or to the video and Nicole looks better with short hair, but it’s tons of fun and that’s probably what KARA is best at.
The song itself isn’t exactly a work of musical genius, and it’s just one of those dance-party, “Edge Of Glory”-esque songs that probably sounds best on the dance floor. The exception to the rule, however, is the vocal harmony in the song. They sound nice. I doubt that those harmonies will carry over to the live performances, but hats off to the recording engineer nonetheless.
KARA’s 3rd full album, also entitled Step, also dropped today and is currently claiming the number-one spot on multiple online charts. The album’s sounding pretty solid so far – that is, as solid as KARA’s music can get. The thing with KARA is that while the members themselves aren’t all that vocally talented, their music isn’t horrendous and fits their abilities well. The result is fun, catchy music – and isn’t that the operational definition of K-pop, anyway?
(youtube)
