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Showing posts with the label My Universe

“The Astronaut” by Jin (진), Wednesday, May 24, 2023

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A few years ago, I remember (shamefully) having a conversation with my students as to why K-pop would never fully make it in America and my argument had to do with how American radio stations rarely played music in a foreign language. But K-pop proved me wrong, albeit, it didn’t hurt that BTS sang some of their major hits in English. But just as BTS was ascending to international fame, a legal barrier threatened the band.  AN UNENDING HISTORY. Last October, BTS announced that they were taking a break from releasing new music together, which promptly caused Hybe Corporation 's stock, the band's record label, to plummet. Each member of BTS would release solo records, and they would reconvene in 2025 to assess future projects as a group; however, Hybe Corporation's chairman Bang Si-hyuk (방시혁) expressed some doubts about the timeline as a renegotiated contract hadn't been discussed. The reason for this musical break had to do with South Korean law. All able-bodied males m

“My Universe” by Coldplay ft. BTS (repost) Thursday, May 11, 2023

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I've written a bit 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. Two years ago, 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, 2021 . Before the release of the record and after releasing "Higher Power," the band released the promotional single, the 10:17 track " Coloratura ," which was praised by critics for its composition and production. Then they released 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 .

"Higher Power" by Coldplay, Saturday, September 3, 2022 (Updated repost)

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Back in 2010 we learned that yes, a pickle can get more likes than  Nickelback , a band that had become the most hated  "butt rock"  band in the mid-'00s. In fact, the conclusions of the social media study found that a pickle had more likes than Oprah Winfrey or other beloved figures. It turns out that internet users' hate outweighs Internet love, or the terrible outweighs the good. In 2014, the most hated rock band would become  U2  after their release of  Songs of Innocence   was forced into every  iTunes users' library. People tried everything to scrub the songs from their shuffle. Today, people have mostly forgotten about Nickelback, and Apple Music no longer comes standard with that U2 album, so people have other musical axes to grind. Justin Bieber has grown up and is no longer blaring in our cultural continuousness. So who is the most hated band these days? After the 2019 Super Bowl it was   Maroon 5 , for taking to the stage when the NFL was in the middle