Welcome to Comments of the Week!
This week, in idols and music we covered Girls’ Generation‘s “Party” comeback, those idol Instagrams you have to follow, Got7‘s “Just Right” MV, TVXQ‘s Yunho‘s first solo effort in U Know Y, Infinite‘s return with “Bad,” Girls’ Generation’s CFs and Kara‘s Hara‘s “Choco Chip Cookies” and Alohara.
Our Mixtape covered songs with a sweet tooth, and in celebration of our 100th K-pop Indie Gem post, our writers discussed their experiences with K-indie and the segment, highlighting their favorites and the most memorable.
In fashion and TV topics, we highlighted our favorite performances from last week, the final episodes of Warm and Cozy, photoshoots showing off boyish and youthful charms, the first episodes of new web drama, I Order You and the initial episodes of The Time We Were Not in Love, a remake of a Taiwanese drama.
In socio-cultural themes, we discussed idols and Korean feminism in the context of the conversation between Shinee‘s Jonghyun and Dear Cloud‘s Nine and ensuing events and the power of words, especially regarding recent controversy.
Our Sunday Social asked who you can best impersonate in honor of Yoo Jae-suk‘s T.O.P impression, and our Roundtable discussed the highs and lows of this year’s summer comebacks. We continued with our Week in Review segment, covering last week and this week‘s news and events, and also with our Mid-year Reviews, looking at the most remarkable thus far this year in K-indie.
I’ve chosen some stand-out comments this week, per usual:
idalis23 on Roundtable: Summer Group Comebacks
Girl group summer comebacks were so mediocre I ended up actually yearning for the summer of 09′ – which really sucks, because I’m no fan of reminiscing the “good old days” to rag on song turn outs that I didn’t like. I just can’t believe that this wave of comebacks had more misses than 2013 and 2014 combined…especially since groups like 4Minute, Red Velvet and miss A did a good job of showing that 2015 would be…a very interesting year for girl groups. What the hell happened?
Boy groups, on the other hand, have done surprisingly well. There’s something to be said when a rookie group from a currently “struggling” company like Pledis managed to release a solid track this season.
@Mark you forgot f(x) how could you lol.
mundyyys on Rage Against the Fandom: Words Hold Meaning
The whole situation is ugly as hell. I’m not happy that Big Hit/RM (I’m not sure whose final decision it was, but based on the photo scandal, I’m assuming it was Big Hit’s) decided not to issue an apology when it was obvious it was becoming a big deal online. “Fans” online quickly turned disgusting, dragging him in ways that, quite honestly, don’t make them much better than him. If you’re going to rail against someone’s prejudices, best not to answer with those of your own. Anyway, it’s gotten to ridiculous levels now, but I hope people will chill bc in reality, RM and BTS didn’t owe us TRB ticketholders anything but a good show and that’s what they gave us in NYC last night.
As far as the show, it was great until the abrupt ending and subsequent confusion. The venue sucked and the staff were grumpy and ill-prepared for the onslaught of fans, but I have zero complaints with the actual concert. RM and all the boys were in good form – they were hype, smiley, and talkative. Anyone online who says anything bad happened during the actual show is trolling. I hope BTS are on a plane by now, getting far away from NYC and this ugly mess. Dallas will, no doubt, be more welcoming.
Jazzy1105 on Rage Against the Fandom: Words Hold Meaning
I was really annoyed about how this was handled. I agree with everything you said it really would not have taken that much for him to just be like “I apologize for the misunderstanding”. I don’t understand why he couldn’t just do that. We give rapmon the benefit of the doubt for English being his second language but we bash fans who don’t like him using the word “too black” because its doesn’t translate well. On both sides their is a misunderstanding but fans aren’t given the same amount of empathy as rap monster. Like I said he really could have just apologized and things what have been fine.
WIth that being said I have to admit I laughed at some of the jokes being made on tumblr about rapmon, the ones about BTS hitting him after the interview or whatever thinking it was a harmless joke. But I was wrong (see how easy it is to admit your wrong). These jokes seemed harmless to me but obviously it escalated into something wayyy bigger than it should have been. I dunno if these girls even cared about what rapmon said but I feel like they used this opportunity to pull this prank. I feel guilty now for even being mad at him because of this and I shouldn’t have to feel that way because he was still in the wrong. It just sad that this happened. I hope bts doesn’t have a negative view of international fans now because of this.
Tia_ on Sugar Isn’t Enough for Hara’s “Choco Chip Cookies”
The song is pretty much on par with most GG’s summer releases. It’s not totally awful, but it’s not that great either. It’s uninspiring and forgettable.
Hara would have done much better with a song similar to her previous solo “Secret Love”-a fun and energetic summer song, instead of going down the now predictable sexy route. The MV though, is stunning.
♥♥ on Week in Review: 7/3 – 7/9
Basically Suju‘s concept for this comeback is pants down, cock loose. I’m already excited ;)
(Images via The Celebrity, JYP Entertainment, MBC, Big Hit Entertainment and SM Entertainment)
