On the morning of December 26th, I was shocked to find not only a new YouTube video of Youngji and Mijoo together, a new Seulgi video (guest-starring Joy), but a Byul the Gatekeeper episode with the entire 9294* crew. It was a true Christmas miracle. … More A Very 9294* Christmas
Once again, we’ve come to the year-end K-pop recap. To supplement the episode, I’ll be zeroing in on Oh My Girl as a kind of tribute for helping me get through the year. Mentioned briefly in the previous installment, one year ago, I really got hooked in 2025. Oh, and I forgot to mention, as far as the number one song goes: how could you not love the lyrics “cheombeong cheombeong,” or as I’ve come to think of it, “chumba chumba”? … More My Year in K-Pop: 2025 – Oh My Girl Special
Back by popular demand, “My Year in K-Pop: 2025” has actually been tricky to piece together. Damn that demand! Because I was anchored in this difficult year by Oh My Girl, I wanted to focus on their music in a special edition of the (theoretically) annual episode — a celebration, a thank-you. The plan was to count down their top five songs and, in between, introduce each member. The problem was twofold: one, a personal dissatisfaction with how I discuss idols, an issue I haven’t been able to resolve in six years in part because my enthusiasm had me barreling through any self-doubt. I may be reaching an age where other factors are competing with the enthusiasm, but whatever the case may be, I certainly can’t resolve this in the next few days, this episode being due before year’s end. Second, Oh My Girl is more complicated than I thought. I had two options: try to reconcile a celebratory episode with criticism, or do what I always do and ignore the problems. … More Mimi
Mijoo. I have to hand it to Mijoo. Seulgi couldn’t get it done, nor Youngji or Hyojung. Well, they did so partially. As covered last time, Seulgi hosted Youngji and Mijoo on her Hi Seulgi YouTube channel, but Hyojung couldn’t make it. Since then, Youngji had Seulgi and Hyojung on her channel but no Mijoo (and no subtitles). At some point, Hyojung managed to gather everyone, but barely filmed it. Now, believe me, I understand. These are highly in-demand people, and the whole thing here is their friendship. When I hang out with my friends (let’s say I have them), I’m not gonna think to record it. Perhaps it takes a special occasion, like a birthday, and who else’s but Mijoo’s? As it turns out, she was responsible for the entire ‘94 Line to begin with. As Youngji puts it in the resulting video on Mijoo’s channel, linked above, she was too lazy to keep meeting up with everyone individually, and had them all get together as a group. And this includes Moonbyul now, as they rechristen the group: 9294*, with the asterisk a reference to “byul” which means “star.” How lovely! … More The ‘94 Line: War Stories
You probably noticed there’s something missing between “My Year in K-Pop: 2022” and “My Year in K-Pop: 2024.” That’s what we call “pattern recognition.” The truth is, 2023 was an off-year for myself and hallyu. Whatever I had going on, I missed out on a lot which I’ll have to chronicle in this episode… … More My Year in K-Pop: 2024
Wow! Where to begin? Maybe with a group I’ve yet to properly explore — KARA. Or Kara, because I just cannot with the all-caps. Sorry, BLACKPINK. This is a 2nd-gen girl group which debuted in 2007, the same year as Girls’ Generation. … More November Round-Up: A Very Good Month in K-Pop
There are two hurdles for me and music, and maybe K-pop in particular: repetition, and “cool.” I may need to explain the latter. I don’t know if it was just the environment I grew up in, but I felt like the only thing worse than being uncool was trying to be cool. Even today, nothing is worse than cringe; nobody likes Elon Musk. For me, Blackpink skews too western, and while I respect their artistry – I love Jisoo’s voice – there can be something uncanny about the style. It’s like when anime music has too much broken English. Remember Black Lagoon? … More Selfish, by YooA
With Eyes East 