Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Given that almost all award shows in Korea are either just popularity contests, blatantly rigged, or both, the only thing relevant coming from them is special stages. That’s the main reason the Melon Music Awards were completely uninteresting to me, as nothing was heard that we hadn’t heard dozens of times before.
Fortunately, if nothing else, MAMA usually delivers some kind of special stage at least, and they did so again this year. Aside from the ones listed, there were other collabs, but there surprisingly wasn’t a lot this time that captured my attention. They either weren’t that fun/good, just made me nostalgic for the original, or both. Thankfully there were just enough interesting stages to provide content for a post.
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Jessi & MAMAMOO’s Hwasa – Rain’s “GANG”
The gender switch, the two talented artists, and the changing things to make it their own made this extremely impressive.
The song has come full circle from cringe mess to meme masterpiece to legit hype song. Pop culture can be confusing sometimes.
Aespa’s Winter + (G)I-DLE + Oh My Girl’s YooA + IZ*ONE’s Eunbi, Yena, Chaeyeon, Chaewon – “ID Peace B”, “Listen To My Heart”, “Tree”, “Atlantis Princess” BoA Medley
I will post any tribute to the queen, but I honestly did enjoy these covers of BoA classics. That said, not trying to be a dick, but these did kinda showcase why BoA was and continues to be so impressive, especially as a soloist.
Like I’m not even talking about compared to now, even when she was 13 it was just different.
BoA – “No. 1”, “Only One” With SHINee’s Taemin, “Better”
Yeah, still my ult for a reason.
The collab with Taemin makes sense, since he did it eight years ago as well.
TWICE – “Cry For Me”
Well, well, well, what a pleasant shock this was. Glad to hear JYP Entertainment will release this as it certainly deserves to be a single.
Following “I Can’t Stop Me”, TWICE’s transition into more mature music is going a lot better than I ever anticipated.
