Welcome to another “Best of Weekly Music Shows” recap! This week, Music Bank had their half year special and gave as some fun, outlier performances in order to shake up their regular line up. This week sees a lot of comebacks from the likes of 4Minute, A Pink, Jewelry, Dynamic Duo and Myname.
I’m still taken aback by the sheer improvement Girl’s Day has undergone in terms of their material in the last year and a half. As a song, “Female President” is so relatively well produced and polished, it’s hard to believe it’s from the same girl group that brought us “Tilt My Head.” Unfortunately, Girl’s Day still can’t really sing live. Sojin and Minah are talented, but I’m presuming years of being unable to hone their voices with the right songs has made them extremely shrill and shaky to listen to. Nonetheless, in terms of stage presence, the girls are really working it, unlike they ever have before. Not to mention the styling for the girls are more gorgeous than it’s ever been in the past.
I’m actually rather impressed with how well Exo pulled this off. Considering “Why So Serious?” as a song itself is pretty horrible, I’ve never really been wowed by any of Shinee’s performances. As a result, Exo can’t do it as well as Shinee, but all things considered this performance is contextually pretty good. Baekhyun has the most charisma on stage, but I’m really impressed by Chen too when it comes to knowing how to move. Now that they aren’t trying to reach for notes completely out of their range, the vocalists of Exo sound much more at ease, and it’s kind of unfortunate they don’t get to sing songs on their range more often.
Aside from the fact Hanbyul has fast become the entire K-pop fandom’s ideal type from his MC-ing stints, Led Apple definitely deserves more attention than they get. I only hope “Bad Boy” helps them get there. It carries a lot of mainstream appeal for the Korean public, with it’s trot influences, while still maintaining a modern spunk. The issue of instruments not being live is an old one, and through their YouTube uploads, the boys have already proven they’re perfectly capable of playing live if Music Shows provided them with the means. The other vocalist, Kyumin, also deserves some love, he has a very nice voice, and watching him groove with Hanbyul makes me so giddy.
Hey, my favourite comeback song from the first half of the year makes a comeback with Sistar as a four piece. Though it might as well not be. Originally this is a Sistar19 song, so it is only fair Hyorin get the bulk of it for this four piece special, and as per usual, she does no wrong when it comes to performing Sistar’s own songs live. Soyou’s executed her small part well, which makes me wish that this song was divided a bit more evenly since I definitely wouldn’t mind hearing more of her.
This song is basically “My My” 2.0, but honestly, A Pink does the cutesy throwback thing so well I don’t even mind. “No No No” is absolutely adorable, and miles above their last title track “Hush Hush” (though A Pink’s song names could do with some shaking up). I know many a Pink Panda are complaining about Eunji taking the spotlight in the group, but she seriously deserves it. She is by far the most fun to watch on stage, not just because her voice is mind blowing on it’s own, but because she sells the song and aegyo so well. Aside from that, am I the only one who considers it a travesty that Namjoo doesn’t get more lines? She’s probably the most consistent and stable singer in the band after Eunji, and continues getting better with each release. Yet, she probably gets just as much as Hayoung, whose voice is, bluntly put, gross to listen to.
Those were my favourite performances this week; what were yours?
