Best of Weekly Music Shows: 8/12 - 8/18

Welcome to this week’s recap of the best performances from the usual music shows! MBC Music aired its Show Champion K-pop Special with its Sokcho Concert. MBC Music Core also aired their Sokcho Summer Special this week. Winners were 2NE1 on Mnet M! Countdown and Exo on KBS Music Bank and SBS Inkigayo. Below are my favorites of the week, but don’t forget to comment with your own!

BESTie‘s “Pit-a-Pat,” MBC Show Champion K-pop Special [Sokcho Concert], August 14, 2013

Aside from Ladies’ Code, from the 2013 girl group debuts, this one caught my eye with this fairly normal concept that falls somewhere between cute and sexy. The song has a pretty good hook that grabbed me. If any of the girls happen to look familiar, you might have actually seen them before: three of the four are former members of Shinsadong Tiger‘s EXID.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=MEscZMxvTpU]

VIXX‘s “You’re Impressive (G.R.8.U),” Mnet M! Countdown, August 15, 2013

There’s something very pleasing about the set of performances for this song. It’s all straight lines, angles, and smiles, which never fails to be uplifting and when done all together, comes across as very clean and appealing. Just thinking about the comparison to “Hyde” also makes the performance stand out a bit more. It also helps that Ravi‘s rapping doesn’t have any of those higher-pitched squeaks here.

Ulala Session‘s “Fonky,” KBS Music Bank, August 16, 2013

Ulala Session brought the funk out with their new track featuring trot veteran Seol Woon-do. The high-energy music pairs well with that hint of trot in the background that’s brought to the foreground every now and then. It’s great to see the members having fun on stage and attempting to hold back their laughter to maintain the clear seriousness that the song needs. It may not be the most coordinated performance, but it’s a fun one to watch and fills in the trot desires I didn’t know I had.

Exo’s Chen and Baekhyun‘s cover of Lim Hee-sook‘s “Really I Didn’t Know,” KBS Immortal Song 2, August 17, 2013

The power vocals gave an excellent performance, if falling a little flat on the emotional side, but still giving enough to remain eye and ear-catching. Their voices are dissimilar enough to bring extra richness to the performance. I hope they get another shot on the show. I can’t be the only one that likes when they look at each other and harmonize.

Outsider and Hong Jin-young‘s cover of Jang Mi-hwa‘s “Hello,” KBS Immortal Song 2, August 17, 2013

The two put together a disco rendition accompanied by some quick-change (or just clothing removal) and Outsider’s quick raps. The stage was just lit up and full of fun. I don’t know where you all were looking, but Outsider was clearly the life of the party. I think everything is better when he raps. Clearly one of the judges was full-on enjoying the whole performance, and I was similarly bouncing along.

Exo’s “Growl,” SBS Inkigayo, August 18, 2013

I almost chose the harness + white clothes + skin triple threat of the Sokcho Summer Special instead, but what can I say. This performance had suits/school uniforms [i.e., the best styling decision for Exo and f(x) by SME for the year], a pretty neat background that was also blue and didn’t detract from the twelve boys, and stable vocals. It makes those debut day vocalizations, especially for the K portion, seem years away. The group is settling into the carefree attitude imbued in “Growl” pretty well, taming down their vocals a bit to match some of the nonchalance in certain parts.

(Mnet, MBC, MBC Music, KBS, SBS, YouTube [1][2][3][4][5][6], Facebook)