Girl Groups Galore!

2NE1 and 4minute have awoken the devil.

Since those two girl groups made their debut in the summer, they've been followed up by a plague--and I mean plague--of other girl groups.
Let's make a list, shall we?
There's Twiny, Flying Girls, Honeysh, f(x), and TEN who have all come out on the Korean pop music scene.



I'm gonna talk about Twiny first. The members of this group are Seo Kyeong and Sung Hee. They're another girl group going for the whole "cute-and-sexy" look. But apparently, cute-and-sexy is in style, so record labels are going to sell it for all its worth. The girls also sing dance music (no surprise there.) I haven't heard their debut song, "Flutter", yet, but I really want to.

Both of these girls have been continually bashed for their skinniness. I think that a person gains weight on their own time, and that people should leave them alone. >.> But then, the girl in the blue's wrists looks awfully bony...






Flying Girls are next on my list. Out of all of the girl groups that I've seen debut so far, these girls have got to be my favorite. They had Brown Eyed Girls rapper Miryo to do the rap part in their debut track, "Girl's Hot."

Their debut is a mini album called "Girl's Hot" and consists of three tracks--"Girl's Hot," "Plus Minus," and "Love." It's set to be released on September 7th. Well, three original tracks at once--that's a lot more than what I've seen these other new girl groups come out with. Hooray for Flying Girls! I have a feeling that they're going to produce some great music--"Girl's Hot" sounds great!








Honeysh is third on my list. They received a lot of controversy over the content of one of their teaser trailers, which invloved a close-up of one of the members' breasts (although, she was wearing a pink checkered bikini top), and showing one of the girls making out with a guy.

Honeysh also works in the dance genre, with fun dance tunes that you want to, well, dance around to. I don't really have much to say about Honeysh, besides the fact that they're also trying to use the "cute-and-sexy" look to their advantage. Although, they might be trying to add more "sexy" than "cute."





f(x) is the newest addition from SM Entertainment. They're...probably going to be a little bit different from the rest. They've got a different look, that's for sure. It's...I don't know how to say it. A little bit darker, I guess?

And then there's Amber, an androgynous tomboy who looks a lot like Mickey from the Mirotic days.
Their song, Lachata, has been leaked, and I just took a listen.
Actually, they're nothing that stands out; pretty mediocre, I'd say.





TEN is the last girl group I'm going to talk about in this post.

They've gotten a lot of buzz for their "homosexual marketing" tactics (via two girls holding hands and two girls in their underwear hugging). Apparently, they're going for the sexy look, too.

They've gotten a lot of comparisons to girl group t.A.T.u., who also used lesbian marketing to their advantage, and were a big hit in their time. Is TEN their Korean successors? Let's hope so! t.A.T.u. produced some great music! (In my eyes, anyway.)


Well, now that I've written up some information about each of them, let's list debut singles/mini-albums/studio albums now!

Twiny - Flutter (Single)

Flying Girls - Girl's Hot (Mini-album)

Honeysh - Shall I Get Married (Mini-album)

f(x) - Lachata (Single)

TEN - Cheer up (Studio album)

~Review Candy: G-Dragon - Heartbreaker~

Okay, well after all of the plagiarism accusations and a personal love for the album, Heartbreaker has topped my list of "things to review." But first, before we go any further, let's list all of the accusations in order from "most serious" to "least serious."

-"Heartbreaker" accused of plagiarizing "Right Round" by Flo-rida
-"Butterfly" accused of plagiarizing "She's Electric" by Oasis
-"Boy" accused of plagiarizing "Not Ur Girl" by Katharine McPhee
-Concept art accused of plagiarizing a Lee Jun-ki photo shoot
-Album art accused of plagiarizing Spiritualized's 2001 album art "Let It Come Down"
-"The Leaders" accused of plagiarizing "Drop It Like It's Hot" by Snoop Dog
-Album title "Heartbreaker" accused of plagiarizing Kanye West's album title "808s & Heartbreak."

That's a pretty bad list of accusations. (The last two accusations I've just heard randomly through forums, and are not widely supported by a large fan and/or anti base.)

But what does Sony ATV music have to say about this? (This company owns 10% of the rights to "Right Round" and 100% of the rights to "She's Electric.")

All 10 composers to "Right Round" have not all expressed their opinion on this issue. We have sent samples of G-Dragon's songs to the parties involved for the two songs "Right Round" and "She's Electric." There are indeed similarities between "Heartbreaker" and "Right Round" and "Butterfly" and "She's Electric," but it's hard to say if it's plagiarism at this stage. We will all go with the final decision of the composers to the songs. (Information from K Bites)

So now, we just need to wait and see what the composers of the songs say before it can be considered plagiarism or not.

Now onto the review!!

Tracklist:
1. A Boy
2. Heartbreaker
3. Breathe
4. Butterfly (feat. Jin Jung)
5. Hello (feat. Dara)
6. Gossip man (feat. Kim GunMo)
7. Korean Dream (feat. Taeyang)
8. The Leaders (feat. Teddy and CL)
9. She's Gone (feat. Kush)
10. One Year Station

The opening track A Boy definitely gets you hooked from first listen. It's one of the "funkier" songs on the album, with an interesting series of electrobeats in the opening. G-Dragon's voice sounds wonderful on this, and the melody of the chorus is addictive.

Heartbreaker is the title track and the second track of the album. It's the focal point of the whole G-Dragon plagiarism deal. But beside this well-known fact, G-Dragon's voice blends beautifully with the electronic sound of the music and sounds wonderful! The bubbly chorus makes you just wanna dance. The MV is absolutely amazing, though! For me, the song isn't complete without its surreal music video partner.

Track three is Breathe. The first few seconds of this song was played on the music video for Heartbreaker. This song is definitely one of my favorites, with its uplifting chorus and catchy verses.

Butterfly is completely different from every other track on the album. It's purely acoustic, minus a few electrobeats at the beginning of the chorus. G-Dragon wrote the song to describe the feelings of first love. It's definitely a pretty good song for that, too. The powerful lyrics combined with the music reminds you of the one you love the most. As GD says, close your eyes and think of them.

Hello is my favorite track on the album. The chorus is definitely the catchiest off the entire album, and you always wanna get up and dance to it. The spoken intro is golden. This song features Dara...and her voice totally steals the spotlight. When you get to her part in the chorus, you just want to keep listening to her for the rest of the song. G-Dragon can't really compare to Dara here.

Gossip man was the first full track from the album that was leaked. It's relatively nondescript, but it can also get stuck in your head from days on end. The beat for this song is like just about every other one on the album--you wanna get up and dance to it.

Korean Dream is a great song, for sure. The first thing you'll notice about it is that it's a collaboration with fellow Big Bang member, Taeyang. The melody is so, so, so great. My favorite part? "One, two, step and turn left, to the right 바로 서!. Ladies and gentlemen." =3 I absolutely love the chorus. =P

The Leaders is track eight on the album, and a collaboration with other popular YG singers Teddy and CL. It seems much shorter than it is, really. I didn't even think that it was nearly four minutes when I first listened to it. The song really wouldn't be anything without CL in it. Once again, the 2NE1 girl steals the show. I love the spoken parts at the end. ^^ This song has such a great beat--perfect for blasting in the car.

She's Gone is one that I never really listen to; it's not much of an attention grabber. It has a nice enough beat with it, but it isn't one that I would have put on the album. ^^;;;

One Year Station is another upbeat dance track. The melody is really cute, but around this point in the album you're getting tired of upbeat dance tracks. ^^;;;; Either way, it's still pretty nice.

Overall Rating:
4/5

Recommended Tracks:
Heartbreaker
Butterfly
Hello
Korean Dream
The Leaders

Enough Already!

Only a few more days until the release of G-Dragon's first solo album, "Heartbreaker," and he's already going to end up the most searched person on Korean web--not because of interest in the album, but for interest in the five plagiarism accusations that's tacked to this album.

First off, there's the most well known and the most serious "Heartbreaker" plagiarism accusation. After thirty seconds of the song being released, and netizens began talking about the similarities, Hollywood bigwigs got involved with the accusation of G-Dragon plagiarizing Flo-rida's "Right Round." Yes, I'll admit--the electrobeats in the first verse of both songs sound strikingly similar. But it's only thirty seconds of a song that could range from three and a half to five and a half minutes.

Secondly, "Heartbreaker" and "Butterfly" have both been accused of copying "She's Electric" by Oasis. Now, I've compared this song to the teasers for both of these songs, and they sound nothing alike. So that isn't a valid charge, really.

Thirdly, "Boy" is said to be plagiarizing "Not Ur Girl" by Katharine McPhee. Okay, before I say anything else, I must make this comment--would G-Dragon even know who Katharine McPhee is?! I mean, seriously. I don't think that the songs sound too similar, either.

Fourthly, the concept art for the album is accused of copying Lee Jun-ki's photo shoot for "JStyle," in which Jun-ki also sported white hair, smokey eyeshadow, and extreme paleness. One striking difference, however, is G-Dragon's use of unqiue style and splashes of color. If you compare the two photos, you'll see that there's enough difference with G-Dragon's that it can't be plagiarism.

Fifthly, the cover art for "Heartbreaker" is said to copy the cover art for American band Spiritualized's 2001 album "Let It Come Down." Now, how likely is G-Dragon to have intentionally copied them, if I live in the United States and I've never heard of Spiritualized in my entire life?

The only things that haven't seemed to have gotten any criticism or plagiarism accusations are his leaked track "Gossip man" and his preview for "The Leaders" which features Teddy and CL.

I feel very, very sorry for G-Dragon with this whole thing. I can tell that people have been trying to come up with charges against G-Dragon. However, I think that a lot of these accusations are invalid, since there's plenty of difference to a lot of these things.

I, personally, am mucho excited for G-Dragon's album! Patiently (or maybe not so patiently) waiting for the release! =3

~Eye Candy: Tsuyoshi Domoto and Reita~

Okay, I totally apologize for being so behind in "Eye Candy." I forgot to post for Tsuyoshi last month, and I'm running out of time for Reita this month. I've cut the Eye Candy poll for September a little short (by mistake), and now that there's only six days to vote, I might as well keep it that way.
The previous total for the poll before I changed the layout was: G-Dragon = 2 votes, T.O.P. = 3 votes. Now we've got three votes for G-Dragon, three votes for T.O.P., and one vote to Taeyang.


Now, we've got Reita, the super-hot bassist (?) for the awesome J-Rock band, the GazettE.


I promise, promise, promise that I'll do better on getting the Eye Candy posts up! For September, I won't put the pictures up right after the poll closes; there will still be a lot left of August, and I might just run part three of the poll. >.> But I won't post Eye Candy until the first or second day of September.

Remember, the current Eye Candy standings are this:

Taeyang = 1
Seungri = 0
G-Dragon = 3
T.O.P. = 3
Daesung = 0

1 Week Left!!

Ladies and gentlemen, just one week left until the release of G-Dragon's solo album! I've got this marked on my calendar and I'm counting down the days!
G-Dragon has *recently* replaced Seungri as my favorite Big Bang member. T.O.P. has got second position. **sigh** I never realized how great that G-Dragon actually was until I re-listened to Big Bang's Since 2007 album and heard his cover of "This Love" by Maroon 5. Ah-may-zing. =P

Okay, so, to my knowledge, G-Dragon has released two *titled* teasers of two of the tracks on his album--"Butterfly" and "Heartbreaker."

"Butterfly" is an extremely beautiful acoustic track that has been getting rave reviews from fans all over. G-Dragon describes his song as "the fluttery feeling of love when it first begins." He also says that this is a song to close your eyes and think about the one you love when you listen to it. And that's exactly what I did, and it fits! ;)

"Heartbreaker" is a very upbeat electro track that I loveloveloveloveLOVE! However, it's been getting a ton of plagiarism allegations. I, personally, don't care about Flo-rida or "Right Round" or whatever it's called. Whatever it is, G-Dragon can pull it off better than Flo-rida. ^-^ Either way, this is also the title track for his album, and it's going to be the main single. It's a really great song.

Here are YouTube embeds of "Butterfly" and "Heartbreaker." Take a listen for yourself, and see what you think about them!