Ok-Pop’s first era is usually referenced as the muse for the business we take pleasure in now, however there aren’t sufficient good English-language sources that give its music the main target it deserves. I’m hoping to vary that with a unbroken flashback collection, spotlighting private highlights from the period – each iconic and obscure.
The period in query is usually thought of to run from the debut of Search engine optimization Taiji & Boys in 1992 to the emergence of TVXQ in late 2003. The music featured on this collection will largely match inside that timeframe, give or take a number of years on both aspect.
It was a time of bonkers music constructions, wild style, slamming techno beats, dangerous reggae impressions, flagrant use (theft?) of American hip-hop samples, hearty energy ballads, foul language, the growliest rapper tones you possibly can think about and an anything-goes scrappiness that’s inconceivable to pigeonhole. To borrow the identify of a well-liked second-gen act, these years had been the “huge bang” of an rising musical powerhouse, nonetheless discovering its footing and throwing every thing on the wall.
Years earlier than Eminem exhilarated the world along with his rap/rock hybrid Lose Your self, Korean co-ed hip-hop supergroup Bros had their very own pump-you-up anthem. However this being early Ok-pop, Win Win is kind of idiosyncratic.
On this period, it was quite common for songs to pattern widespread American hits, and also you’ll usually hear wildly surprising interpolations and straight-up rip-offs framing a lot of this music. Given the business’s underdog standing its normal stealth throughout the international music market on the time, a part of me wonders what number of of those samples had been legally obtained. Nonetheless, I’ve bought no sourcing for this speculation. What’s most essential about Win Win is that it chooses a killer pattern. The music is constructed across the mammoth guitar riffs from Survivor’s 1982 mega-hit Eye Of The Tiger, fueling the monitor with an addictive depth.
Bros was a 14-member collaborative undertaking, together with artists from widespread teams Roo’Ra, Diva, and Chakra together with luminaries like Bobby Kim. They launched precisely one album on the flip of the millennium, and it’s a blended bag of disparate sounds and concepts. However Win Win stands as a complete triumph — a music so exhilaratingly energetic that it’s inconceivable to sit down nonetheless whereas it’s taking part in. Even when the vibe adjustments midway by (a standard incidence in Ok-pop on the time), the manufacturing retains a way of pressure that retains you ready for the stabbing instrumental to make its triumphant return. And boy does it ever!
| Hooks | 8 |
| Manufacturing | 10 |
| Longevity | 9 |
| Bias | 9 |
| RATING | 9 |
Grade: A-
