September 27, 2013
1. Tarantallegra - Xia Junsu (2012)
I didn’t quite expect my roommate to fall in love with this song the way she did when I first played the music video on my TV, she immediately fell in love. I sometimes make a playlist of YouTube videos to leave on my TV when I’m cleaning around the house which means those around me will be subjected to my musical tastes while I tidy up. While I was busy she caught sight of the video and grew obsessed with the song, so much so that she even went as far as to try and learn the dance (which I agree is absolutely amazing).
2. Hate You - Ladies Code (2013)
I know it sounds weird. Hate You wasn't one of the big hitters Ladies' Code released like Bad Girl and Pretty Pretty but something about this song clearly stood out (but everyone agrees that Rise's autotuned part is terrible). Ever since Bad Girl, I’ve kept my eye on anything and everything Ladies Code. When Hate You came out, I was all over it and my best friend happened to be with me at the time when I was first listening to it. At first, I thought he didn’t much care for it but later he would ask me to play that “I hate you but I love you” song quite often. He’s even asked me to give him the file so that he could listen to it on his own without having to ask me all the time.
3. Sherlock (Clue + Note) - SHINee (2012)
Sherlock, in my opinion, was perhaps one of the best songs of 2012 (which was a good year for Kpop in general) which makes it understandable that it would catch on with a friend of mine and her sister who love to sing together. They may not have been able to understand the language but they went to great lengths to try to sing along to the best of their abilities and I have to say, they do a decent job at getting the syllables down.
4. 1234 - Lee Hi (2012)
This is yet another song listed on my list of top songs of 2012. When the song first came out, I wanted to show it to my sister because she's a fan of Adele (and everyone always compares Lee Hi to Adele, don't even deny it) and she fell in love. She thought Lee Hi was the cutest little thing and found her song insanely catchy. Even my mom liked the song and she said that it reminded her of Moulin Rouge (which is a little odd). My mom is generally one of those types of people who doesn't like to listen to music if she can't understand it but something about this song must have spoken to her because the language barrier no longer mattered when hearing the song. Me and my sister are suckers for almost any type of "independent lady" type of song which is why I thought it would be perfect to share I Don't Need a Man with her. It only took her one listen while she read the subtitles of the song and she immediately thought it was one of the best Kpop songs ever. She loved how sassy it was and she loved how, even with the Korean cultural differences, a lot of the same ideals about relationships still applied to Americans which made the song relatable to us too. Even now, she still finds ways to incorporate the English hook to the chorus into her conversations whenever possible.
5. I Don't Need a Man - Miss A (2012)
Me and my sister are suckers for almost any type of "independent lady" type of song which is why I thought it would be perfect to share I Don't Need a Man with her. It only took her one listen while she read the subtitles of the song and she immediately thought it was one of the best Kpop songs ever. She loved how sassy it was and she loved how, even with the Korean cultural differences, a lot of the same ideals about relationships still applied to Americans which made the song relatable to us too. Even now, she still finds ways to incorporate the English hook to the chorus into her conversations whenever possible.
Honorable Mentions
I took a poll just to see what other songs my friends and family may have liked. There aren't really interesting stories to tell with this list, plus I had to limit it to five songs. If you ever want to try to get your friends into Kpop or at least appreciate it without turning their nose up at it, try having them listen to any of these songs
Electric Shock - f(x) (2012)
Growl - EXO (2013)
Fantastic Baby - BigBang (2012)
Scarecrow - Lee Hi (2012)
Twinkle - Girls Generation TTS (2012)
Have any of you had any similar experiences? Share your stories about your non-Kpop friends below!
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One song I like in Korean is Electric Shock. I'll be honest, I don't listen to most kpop songs. I'm Japanese, so I tend to listen to kpop songs that are sung well in Japanese (this is a pretty small list). But the chorus is really catchy, (E-E-E-Electric Shock), so it get's stuck to your head, and the beat is pretty snazzy.
ReplyDeleteElectric Shock is extremely catchy. I was practically obsessed with the song when it came out, so much so that some of my friends were getting annoyed with it lol. My sister didn't, though, 'cause she liked the song too.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested now. What's your list of the good Kpop songs in Japanese?
IKR!!!
ReplyDeleteAnyways, the Japanese versions of K-pop songs that stick out to me the most are KARA's Mister, T-ara's Day by Day, Bo Peep Bo Peep, Love Me, Brown Eyed Girls' Sign, and Gummy's I'm Sorry.
T-ara does have a really good Japanese track list. That's a really good list of songs and I agree with every single one of them.
ReplyDelete