New Music Monday - 22 September 2025
Sep. 22nd, 2025 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Suho - Who Are You
KickFlip - 처음 불러보는 노래 (My First Love Song)
Lee Junyoung - Bounce
Genblue - Badass
TWS - Head Shoulders Knees Toes (pre-release)
The KingDom - 화월가
TIOT - My Pride
Yerin - Awake
Woodz - I'll Never Love Again
Hearts2Hearts - Pretty Please (pre-release)
Aimers
P1Harmony - EX
Corbyn Besson, Tzuyu - Blink
Chanyeol - Zuruiyo (Japan)
New MVs are also added to an ongoing youtube playlist.
Last week's MVs: 15 September
Feel free to add new comments in the replies for songs/MVs we missed.
more kpop stuff: engene era going strong
Sep. 20th, 2025 10:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Here's their amazing performance: Criminal Love, Bad Besire, Heeseung dance break, No Doubt
Heeseung was incredible and he looks so good in center. Sunoo and Ni-Ki's styling are also so cool. Enhypen are all really the most handsome men of all time.
They recently finished touring in USA and Europe. I was following closely their touring even though i couldn't participate myself this time. It's been fun watching concert clips and concert vlogs from engene.
They're preparing for a new album currently! They're also gonna have an anime based on their webtoon Dark Moon: The Blood Altar. It airs next year. As Halloween is approaching i'm really shifting into Dark Blood era and searching for vampire fics (sunsun ofc).
kpop stuff vol. 2
Sep. 20th, 2025 08:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)

Martin, James & Seonghyeon from CORTIS (source)
BigHit's new boy group CORTIS debuted a month ago. I was following them ever since the first concept pics dropped, and i really liked the vibe because they had that same fresh energy NewJeans did. Then they dropped their pre-debut song "GO!" I became obsessed with it. There's been lot of buzz around the group, so i would say it has been a very successful debut. I doubt I will become a hardcore fan, but because their concept is so interesting and i like their music too I decided to write about it a little bit.
CORTIS : DOCUMENTARY
Youtube, 4 episodes, 20min
I love kpop documentaries.
Last year le sserafim doc "Make it look easy" and "Pop star academy" were great hits also within the kpop community. They serve different purposes for example to both humanize and scandalize. I mean ofc the main idea is marketing. Cortis documentary is a good introduction to the members, their work, and inspiration. It usually takes lot of time for people to learn all the members of a rookie group. The doc doesn't go very deep, but we'll see if they'll have follow-up docs like le sserafim. The documentary is similar/continuation to BTS's documentary "American Hustle Life", where rookie BTS go to LA to learn about hip hop from the ogs. The doc highlights how Cortis members take part in music production and get guidance from some of the best people in the industry.
There's been lot of discourse about is Cortis' music really new or fresh, as it is very much Western inspired and specifically from Black artists. In Martin's words they make "hip hop influenced pop". Lot of the discussions about Cortis could be about any kpop group: people think genre mixing and inspiration is stealing or unoriginal. I personally don't think so. Also, inspiration from hip hop/Black artists can be done in a lot of ways, it doesn't necessarily mean it's offensive(but ofc there are those in kpop too). I will talk about this later in the next post and I'm definitely not an expert in music industry, but i think it's interesting what makes kpop different and how it's also approached in a different way than Western music.
For me saying Cortis is fresh is more about their concept being fashionable, nostalgic, d.i.y., fun, youthful, and that sunny LA vibe. Right from the beginning they have a distinct brand, their own aesthetics and lifestyle that especially younger people really like. It reminds me of the A24 film Mid90s(2018), which is about a group of teen boys in the skating scene in 90's LA.
MUSIC VIDEOS
Cortis was part of making GO! and What You Want (they made the demo mv).
The music video really capture their spirit and lifestyle. 3/4 shot in LA.
FaSHioN was shot in New Zealand, and it is truly an incredible music video.
GO!

What You Want


FaSHioN

JoyRide

There's already lot of fan content made about them. They seem very funny so they've made lot of attention that way too. There's lot of gf fans, but that's ofc part of kpop. I believe they have potential to get also male fans and even more international recognition in the future. I have to say that part of me is concerned for them because they're so young and became famous so instantly. The industry is not easy for anyone especially for teenagers. But the group also shapes what kind of fandom they will have and although there are inappropriate fans i would say majority of at least Western fans are very protective about them. I feel like other 5th gen groups they will become a fun and relatable group to other teens. They also have lot of support from "older" Army, who say they remind them of rookie BTS. Watching them does make me feel like i'm a teenager again :D
Part 3 coming later (I'm gonna talk about the KPOPPED series)
kpop stuff vol.1
Sep. 19th, 2025 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I've still kept up with kpop stuff. I deleted tiktok at the beginning of the week (yes, again) and haven't used it. I'm not sure if i'm gonna leave the app forever, but for now i want to start a new chapter of my life without brainrot lol.
People say they grow out of kpop when they get older or get employed, but i feel like this kpop life will stay with me forever.
Some music i've enjoyed lately:
Min Jiwoon - pink, then grey
SM's new R&B artist. I really loved her whole album, and also her first singles she released last year. She has a very beautiful and calming voice. The album also has very nice design and i'm considering buying it.
XG 1st world tour "the first HOWL" live
It's nice to have an album with all their releases and bonus for it being a live album! Their energy is next level!
+ new song out today:
This gotta be maybe my favorite release of theirs, it's on the same level as Woke Up. I'm obsessed with this aliens x fashion concept. This is also one of the coolest music videos i've seen. House music and rapping = perfect combo. A true power anthem.
VVS - D.I.M.M
Their song D.I.M.M was used in some really good kpop edits and i got obsessed with it. They've recently gone viral again with their song "Touch it" with the banger line "I got the curves with the Barbie anatomy, and yall bitches mad at me", i gotta say it goes hard. So i had to check the EP. I usually haven't been into kpop with heavy rap influence like YG groups haven't been for me, but VVS songs simply sound better to me. They kinda have the vibe i wished for MEOVV. Apparently the leader Brittney was trained under Blacklabel. Their debut EP is banger after banger!
Also been getting into NMIXX, i really like their latest album "Fe304: FORWARD" , but i've been listening their whole discography and they have so many good songs. I also started watching their own variety "PICK NMIXX" and it turned out they're all really funny! They're releasing their first full album "Blue Valentine" next month, i already preordered the album :D
Part.2 coming this weekend~
💔📚👩❤️💋👩
Sep. 17th, 2025 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Gilbert may or may not have hidden depths and great character or whatever but the books (which I probably read over three times all through) did not really demonstrate that at all. I remember reading a great essay on Anne as well as the Emily of New Moon trilogy about how the interesting (male) love interests inevitably get shelved, and the MC ends up with the cardboard cutout. Wish I knew where that was; I’d like to read it again.
Anyway, I refuse to read the books anymore because they killed off my best beloved Walter, so maybe there are secret hidden depths that older-me could decipher. Whatever.
Two Sad Elf Fics, Coming This Fall to an AO3 account near you.
Sep. 17th, 2025 05:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
With Harsh Light at 81,318 words, and Gentle Dark at 91,740, I have two complete drafts in front of me.
I've been working on these two FFXIV fics for... something like a year and a half, I guess? Because all of my fic for Ariane (my player character) lives in one scrivener project and I've had that going basically since I created her, I don't have a file creation date to go on. I was going through an old journal recently and thought I found the page where I first jotted down the concept for this fic project, but that was only a little over a year ago and the word count spreadsheet I keep doesn't check out with that. Digging up some tumblr posts tells me I was probably first digging into it seriously in April 2024, and for that I think the word count from my spreadsheets checks out. Old dreamwidth entries tells me I had the concept in mind least as far back as December 2023 and was probably already jotting down some snippets as they came to me. April 2024 was also when I finished Endwalker, so it tracks that that's when I'd start working seriously on longfic.
Safe to say, I have been working on this for a lot of the past two years.
There is revising and editing and beta reading and more editing still to do, but it's WRITTEN! It's written!
Sad though they may be, I've enjoyed writing these so much. I'm really excited to share them when they're ready.
Boys 2 Planet
Sep. 17th, 2025 03:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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