Today's A Sad Day To Be A K-pop Fan

YG Entertainment came out with some news today. None of them too surprising but still heartbreaking. At least one of them had me feeling really upset. Seven years after their debut, 2ne1 is officially disbanding. Minzy left earlier this year and there seemed to be no hope for Park Bom after her smuggling scandal, so to say that I didn't' see it coming would be a lie. Still doesn't make it any less sad though, and despite me not being a huge fan of the group it's upsetting to see such a legendary and groundbreaking K-pop group throw in the towel. I'm positive however that their name and legacy will continue to live on for many more decades to come.

Contrary to 2ne1, who debuted in the "golden years" of K-pop around 2008-2009, Winner are also experiencing a loss in member Taehyun, and this is where my heart truly breaks. I know 2016 has been a horrible year in terms of disbandment and member losses but this I honestly didn't think would happen. I mean, considering Winner's strange hiatus, YG's statement about Taehyun's mental health issues and his own ambiguous instagram posts certainly made clear that something wasn't right, whatever that was.

YG has been treating Winner like shit, quite frankly, and although I can't say for sure what the relationship between the members was like it never seemed like they didn't get along with each other or didn't enjoy working together. I really want to blame YG for this and I'm sure the management of the group has played part in his decision to leave, but I don't know if we'll ever find out. It's said that Winner will stay as a four-member group but I have a hard time seeing how it will work considering that Taehyun was both one of the main vocalists and one of the main composers of the group's material. His absence will definitely not go unnoticed.

I want to say good luck to him and to the rest of the members, but I can't find the spirit to utter those words right now. All I can feel is sadness that one of the groups I rooted for the most had to come to a situation like this one. I'm sure everything will turn out ok somehow, but today is a day of sorrow, and thus I will continue to mourn for a little while longer.

More Girl Group Member Departures: Miss A & Nine Muses

Earlier in April this year YG announced that Minzy was leaving 2ne1, which left I think no one surprised considering how neglected she's been all these years (and recently the entire group as well), but little did we know it was going to be the beginning of a new epidemic of female idols leaving their respective groups. Last month Miss A's dancing queen Jia decided not to renew her contract with JYP and thus left Miss A, which was also not a surprise but very sad news. Thinking about Miss A and what they could've been makes me furious because they've been done so wrong by their management, and basically every member that isn't Suzy has been more or less left on their own since her solo career shot through the roof.

Jia is such a multi-talented woman with skills in basically all areas and she seems like really sweet person as well, and I will forever be holding a grudge at JYP for not promoting her better (same with both Min and Fei). For her own sake I definitely think leaving Miss A was the best decision as now she can branch into more fields and areas and most certainly the Chinese market. As for the rest of the group JYP has said that the members will be focusing on solo activities and that there are no plans of a group comeback anytime soon, which confirms to me that Miss A is pretty much done for. They could've been a top tier group and now they're barely a group anymore. This will never not upset and anger me.

Speaking of anger towards a management you can't go a post without mentioning Star Empire and their terrible managing of all of their current groups, one of them being one of my favorites; Nine Muses. This group isn't unfamiliar to member changes and I have kind of been ok with it as it has been pretty unavoidable but the fact that Minha and Euaerin are leaving did come as a shock to me. Back in 2013 the group arguably had their best lineup with nine flawless members, but then shortly after Sera, Lee Sam and Eunji left and my heart was broken. However they later came back in 2015 with another killer lineup and I thought that finally the group might settle but no. Now the balance has been rubbed again and I'm not sure how long I can keep this up. Sure my favorite member Kyungri is still around but it's getting exhausting trying to stan this group as it's always changing its rooster. I guess I'll have to wait until their next comeback but I'm certainly not feeling good about this.

What are your guys' opinion about these members leaving their groups and agencies? Who do you think will be next? What will happen to Miss A?

8 Favorite Female Voices In K-pop

Putting together this list was actually a lot harder than the male one I did months ago, and although I'm not entirely sure why (as there are plenty of female idols with amazing voices) I do have an idea. Since I, a heterosexual female, am the one putting together these lists the boys already have an advantage because they are, well, boys. Naturally I'm more attracted to male voices in general, and while there are some female voices I knew right from the bat I wanted to include here some I had to dig deeper to find. Nonetheless I did manage to put together this compliation of female vocalists, in no particular order, and like with the male version it's in no way representative of whom I find the most skillfull (although those two overlap too of course). Additionally this list only includes idols from K-pop groups, so that means that other extremely talented vocalists might be left out because they're singers rather than idols.

Of Sub-units and Solos Pt. 2

If your favorite group isn't announcing an upcoming debut of a sub-unit, and let's face it, they are, it's highly likely that they will announce an solo debut instead. Recently there has been a flooding of new solists, from Taemin, Secret and T-Ara to the forever underrated Zhoumi getting his own album. Due to this I though I might take a look at some of Kpop's more memorable solo acts as of yet.

[I know this post is way overdue, since the first part was posted way back in March, but better late than never I suppose!]

Song of the Week #5

2ne1 - If I Were You

This is probably one of my favorite songs from this album, and it's quite unexpected because I tend not to like these type of tracks unless they're especially good. Apparently CL composed this song all by herself, which is really impressive because I liked it on first listen and that does not happen a lot. The vocals are great too- Minzy kills it and CL shows she can do more than rap and swag all over the stage. My only wish is that Bom would just sound a bit less like Bom and it would be perfect.

The Different Positions In A Kpop Group - The Leader

When I first got into Kpop there were many things that struck out as odd to me, and one of them was that each member in a group had a certain position, a responsibility assigned to them. This was not something I had much experience with, because when I don't listen to Kpop, I listen to rock music. I really like bands, and bandmembers have their positions because they play different instruments, but I didn't think it worked quite the same way with non-instrumental groups. However, when you think about it you realize that it's not so strange for them to also have different positions after all.

For a non-Kpop fan, it seems as if they all do the same things, you know? They all dance, sing (or rap), wear similar clothes and look similar in makeup and hair. But, you'll soon discover that there's more than what meets the eye. 

Best Of Kpop 2013 - Gayo Daejuns

The absolute highlight of the year has to be the year-end fesitivals broadcast by the three largest television companies SBS, MBC and KBS. This year was my second time watching the Gayos and I was able to semi stream the first two ones but the MBC is broadcast on New Year's eve and unfortunately I wasn't home at the time.
As a whole I must say I'm a bit disappointed with all three of them, because neither really impressed me all too much. Obviously there were some great performances but overall it was a step down from last year. I've heard it said so many times how much better the Gayos used to be back in the day, for example 2008 which is usually named the best year. I, however have not experienced that myself so all I can compare to are the ones last year.