It was a big week for music shows: Music Core celebrated its 400th episode with special performances and big names like CN Blue, 2NE1 and SNSD made their comebacks, with the latter picking up trophies on M!Countdown and Inkigayo. Meanwhile, Soyu and Junggigo continued their monster run on Music Bank (though it has been called into question).

There were a lot of performances to choose from. Below are my picks for the week, but don’t forget to include yours in the comments, too!

 

B.A.P‘s “1004 (Angel)” on KBS Music Bank, Friday March 7th 2014.

The aliens said goodbye this week, wrapping up promotions for their first full album and preparing for their upcoming US tour. Not the best stage effects or outfits, but the performance was still good as always. I’m really going to miss the Jong-up and Zelo dance intro — I really wish there was more paired dancing like that in K-pop.

 

T-ara‘s “Do You Know Me” and “Roly Poly,” and Koyote‘s “1999,” on MBC Music Core, Saturday March 8th 2014.

It was nice to see T-ara back on the Korean stage, and even nicer to hear the song of 2011, “Roly Poly,” again. Koyote’s appeared towards the end of “Roly Poly,” which segued into their own track “1999.” I would have preferred the trio getting their own stage, and maybe a performance of “Hollywood” too, but they were so cute in “Roly Poly” and seemed to be enjoying themselves, too.

 

SNSD’s “Mr. Mr.” on Mnet M!Countdown, Thursday March 6th 2014.

Remember when everyone was speculating on a “man” concept for SNSD’s comeback, and then SM refuted that? Fast forward a few weeks and here we are with GG in fedoras and ties… The choreography has interesting points — my favourite is when Sooyoung walks right over the guy, it’s so perfectly timed that he barely pauses like he did on Music Bank — but ultimately it isn’t dynamic enough to overcome the lack of a captivating hook move.

 

2NE1’s “Crush” and “Come Back Home” on SBS Inkigayo, Sunday March 9th 2014.

Every time I attempt to listen to 2NE1’s latest album, it’s hard to get past the first track because I keep replaying it so much. So naturally, “Crush” was an absolute treat to watch. I hope G-Dragon is paying attention to this song, because “Crush” is pretty much what “Coup D’Etat” wanted to be. “Come Back Home” is an enigma of a song, but I ended up being too busy watching 2NE1 perform it than figure out how reggae and trap work together this well.

 

Minho and Kim So-hyun‘s “Why Do You” (original by Chuli and Miae) on MBC Music Core, Saturday March 8th 2014.

… You know why I chose this performance, I know why I chose this performance, we all know why I chose this performance — so let’s just sit back and enjoy Minho in dungarees, Okay? Even if that isn’t your thing, there’s still So-hyun to admire; something for everyone, can’t accuse me of being selfish.

(Mnet, KBS, MBC, SBS)