NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

I've written a bit this year about how I'm a Coldplay apologist. I believe that the London-based band is very good at what they do. Though so many artists accomplish their sound, both musically and lyrically, better, there's something uplifting about a new Coldplay album. Earlier this year, I talked about the band's first single from their ninth studio record,  Music of the Spheres, " Higher Power ." The album was released on October 15 this year, but after "Higher Power" the band released the promotional single, the 10:17 track "Coloratura," which was praised by critics for its composition and production, and the second radio single "My Universe" featuring the South Korean boy band, BTS. The song shot straight to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the second Coldplay single to top the Hot 100, the first being "Viva la Vida." I JUST WANT TO PUT YOU FIRST .  The reviews for Music of the Spheres  were quite low. M

The third Thursday of every November, barring no situations like a pandemic delaying the start of the school year or an earthquake in a major city the day before the exam, South Korea holds its once-a-year College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) or 수능. Much of a Korean student's academic future rests on the score he or she receives on the test. Unlike American SATs or ACTs, failure to get a good score means either waiting another year to take the exam or settling with a lower-tier college. The subjects covered on the CSAT are Korean language, Mathematics, English, and Korean History. There are YouTube videos in which graduates from top universities around the world ( in this video US college graduates ) attempt to solve the questions on the CSAT. Korea is a country that places so much importance on students' scholastic abilities, but it comes at a cost--both financial and emotional.  IS THIS REALLY TRUE? Several dramas and films have looked at the economic inequality in the wor

  Like yesterday's song , today's song also comes from 2007, but that's maybe the only similarity. Composed by Kenzie , the professional name for SM Entertainment 's songwriter Kim Yeon-jeong, the debut single of one of the biggest K-pop groups set the tone for a ten-year career of fun, bubble-gummy, uplifting songs. Composed of nine young women all born between 1989 and 1991, Girls' Generation has been been called "the Nation's Girl Group," in South Korea due to their popularity between 2007-2017. Beginning with a sample of Don Henley 's 1984 classic " The Boys of Summer, " (covered in August by The Ataris ) the song builds on the nostalgic piano and synth sample. Rather than calling back with longing for the past, this song propels listeners forward into the future. I LEAVE BEHIND THIS WORLD'S UNENDING SADNESS. I've been pretty critical of K-pop in the past for being a-political. I used to think that music in America was too p

I probably wouldn't pick up an album by a group called "Mischievous Child Musician," but in 2013, a group by that name, or Akdong Musician, AKMU for short, won the hearts of the Korean people when they won the second season of  K-pop Star. AKMU are siblings Lee Chan-hyuk  (이찬혁) and Lee Su-hyun (이수현). They began playing music together because they were bored. Their parents were missionaries in Mongolia and their mother homeschooled the children. However, Su-hyun had to return to South Korea to sort out a visa issue, and while she was away, she began auditioning to be singer. Later her brother joined her and the two competed on K-pop Star. The group's debut album Play was released in April of 2014 and peaked on the Billboard World Albums at #2 . " 시간과 낙염 ” (Time and Fallen Leaves) was released in October of 2014.  TIME PASSES LIKE WATER FLOWS. Originally planed to be part of the group's debut album, it felt out of place with the energetic, spring-released P

As a promotion for the first Star Wars film in ten years, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens ,  Disney collaborated with South Korean boy band EXO to record a track called " Lightsaber " in three languages, Korean, Chinese , and Japanese . The multi-national boy band, signed to South Korea's biggest record label, had become a worldwide phenomenon in the 2010s, thanks to strategic marketing in South Korea and China. In 2015 at the time of the song’s release, EXO was the biggest K-pop group. “Lightsaber” was released as a bonus track on the group’s fourth EP, Sing for Me , recorded in both Korean and Mandarin. The EP was their fastest selling record at the time. I WANDERED HERE TO YOUR OUTREACHED HAND. I have an unpopular opinion. I don’t care for Star Wars . Perhaps it’s due to my religious upbringing. There was a book in my house when I was growing up about all the ways that the New Age and occult were imposing their way into the American family. Some examples wer

Like with the American pop charts, there are numerous acts that don’t chart well on the Korean pop charts. Maybe the group stays together to produce a few low ranking groups, maybe they break up, maybe they fade to obscurity. Groups like this might be remembered when a radio DJ decides to play it on a whim or maybe a situation or meeting an old friend makes the song come to mind. Other groups may have a low charting single, but by luck garner some attention for some reason. Maybe it’s a slow but steady influx of new fans. Maybe it’s the work of a new promotional team. But in the case of the Korean group Exceed in Dreaming, better known as Exid, a viral, fan-made performance video of the group’s follow up song “ Up & Down ,” that helped the song become one of the biggest hits of the year and cemented the groups as a top girl group in South Korea. DON'T EASILY SPEAK OF ME TO OTHERS. DON'T EVEN SAY HOW I WAS. Like “good 4 u,” “Whoz That Girl” is a break up song dripping in sa

I regret to admit that a few years ago I told my students that BTS probably would never enjoy mainstream success in America. Sure, the signs were all there: the Spotify numbers, the growing fervor for diverse cultures in the pop scene, a growing media interest in Korean culture--movies were featuring more scenes in Seoul, and Asian actors were getting more and more leading roles. "However," I assured my middle school students, "American radio listeners aren't very tolerant of foreign languages." A song like " Despacito " got huge because of its featuring Justin Bieber  on the remix . However, when I made those regrettable comments, I was thinking about the America that I knew. I was thinking about the time in college I was a faithful reader of Billboard's charts, before you had to pay a monthly fee to read them. I was thinking of a time when radio airplay was the majority of an artist's success. And with BTS's Billboard success--two #1 Ho

Kim Jong-won, singer of the South Korean soft-rock band Nell makes a third entry for the month. The writer of Taeyeon's " Time Lapse " and Kim Sung-Kyu's " Shine ," knows how to write an autumny, nostalgic track. Nell became known for their bleak music in the early 2000s. Their release of 2008's Separation Anxiety is no exception. "Time Spent Walking Through Memories" would become one of Nell's most recognizable songs. However, conscription would force the band on to go on hiatus before making their comeback in 2012, changing their sad tune to the uplifting, anthemic "Ocean of Light." "Time Spent Walking" sees singer Kim Jong-won wax poetic, describing the loss of love, in similar manner to "Time Lapse" and "Shine." "Time Spent Walking," however, has a calmer, lullaby quality to the soft piano and the ending "La La"s.  FROM THE VISION OF A STRANGER PASSING BY. You probably still r

Sensational Feeling 9, better known by the acronym SF9 , debuted in 2016. Before their debut, the group performed in Japan with 11 members, but ultimately only 9 members would make the final cut when they released their Feeling Sensation single. The group enjoyed modest success in Korea and toured Japan, Taiwan, and the U.S. In January 2020, they released their first full-length studio album, titled First Collection . This record has been the band's most successful release, shattering their previous record sales and chart placements. The group also garnered award nominations. "Am I the Only One," is the second track on First Collection. The song wasn't a single, but its accessible smooth harmonies, minor key, and edgy rap parts, give the song an early '00s feel, making the song hard to place with its 2020 release. Whether released in 2002 or 2020, the theme of pining over a lost love will be relevant forever. THE DAY IS QUITE LONG. EVEN WHEN I CLOSE MY EYES, IT

Many credit the formation of Seo Taiji and the Boys in 1992 as the birth of K-pop. Singer Seo Taiji had been a member of a heavy metal group in '80s but decided to experiment with electronic music and choreography. Seo, in essence, started the ripple, whereas, today's boy band was part part of a forming Korean wave, or Hallyu (한류) that seems turning into more and more of a tsunami every year. The boy bands and girl groups of early '00s were known by Korean enthusiasts. Korean cinema was known by film buffs. But in 2012 when Psy's " Gangnam Style " hit the Internet, the wave officially hit everywhere. In the late '10s, BTS and other K-pop groups started placing well on Billboard's Hot 100, performing on American television shows, and featuring on American pop albums. Then in 2020, Korean director Bong Joon-ho cleaned up the Oscars with his film Parasite  (기생충). Korean dramas, too, are part of the wave. While they haven't broken through in their orig

  In 2013, vocalist Hyolin from the K-pop girl group Sistar released her debut solo record. Sistar had debuted just three years earlier and only lasted until 2017. Songs like "Push, Push," " Touch My Body ," and " Shake It " made them some of the sexiest K-pop songs of the time. On 2013's Love & Hate , Hyolyn worked with Korean Hip-hop producers and featured several Korean Hip-hop acts. Listeners can draw comparisons between Hyolyn and Ariana Grande . Both singers are light lyric sopranos with a whistle range. But singers introduce a light femininity to a hip-hop backdrop. Both singers' performances are permeated with an overt, proud sexuality. YOU'RE A SELFISH GUY WHO ONLY THINKS ABOUT HIMSELF. "One Way Love" talks about a rather toxic relationship, that sadly, often turns into a toxic marriage. While, the intro, confusingly and in English, is spoken by the male perspective, the rest of the song is the female perspective. Hyol

In recent years, YG Entertainment boyband Big Bang has had quite a share of scandal. From the accidental drag on the wrong kind of cigarette for rapper G-Dragon to T.O.P's military drug scandal  to Seungri's involvement in an underground gambling and prostitution ring , the hit machine that was Big Bang has been canceled by many former fans. Taeyang, however, is the only member free of controversy.   Rise was Taeyang's second solo LP, and the album was huge in 2014. Paste included the album in their article " 10 K-pop Albums for People Who Don't Like K-pop, " and as a former K-pop skeptic myself, this album was the slippery slope that got me into the genre. Taeyang's Rise sounded like nothing I had ever heard before. The surging pulse of the EDM drum machine, the minor-key tonal hip hop was perhaps reminiscent of some era of Linkin Park.    PUT YOUR HANDS UP LIKE THE COUNTRY'S BEEN LIBERATED. Taeyang's Rise album starts with a sample of Tears for

Adoy is a Korean Indie group that formed in 2017 with members from other indie groups. The band contains the keyboardist/vocalist Zee from the indie band From the Airport, who I talked about in January. Zee has also been involved with writing on George 's "Summer in Love," covered last month.  Adoy was founded as musical project to produce " commercial indie,"  an oxymoron that reminds me of the early 2000s when bands like Modest Mouse and The Strokes went mainstream. In Korea, too, the growing indie sound is flooding cafes, television, and movies. The Korean indie wave is much smaller than K-pop and K-dramas, but within Korea and in some underground scenes, Korean indie music is a cooler alternative to the bubblegum pop, the cute boys and and girls stickers slapped onto a binder.  WE RAN AWAY FROM THE TOWN. In Korea, though, a K-pop act's visibility helps to contribute to their sales. Much like seeing the image of a giant McDonald's M or a Nike che

Getting his start as a participant on Season 4 of the Korean Hip Hop talent show, Show Me the Money in 2015, Sik-K released his debut album the following year and has released music until his enlistment in June of 2020. Sik-k's brand of hip hop sounds much like the auto-tuned emo rappers popular in the U.S. market these days, like Machine Gun Kelly or Yungblood or other artists I don't feel at liberty to talk about because they're so Gen. Z. "Addict" is song about the speaker trying to numb his thoughts about a girl, though not the most beautiful in the bar, she has him in a trance that will not let the speaker sleep or get on with his life. I CAN'T SLEEP SO I POP TWO PILLS. South Korea has extremely strict drug laws for its citizens and residents. Korean rappers will often add lines in songs about drugs or getting high, but the musicians who have been found to use drugs, are arrested. Stemming back to the the Opium Wars between the Great Britain and China, dr