Okay-Pop’s first era is commonly referenced as the muse for the trade 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 alter that with a seamless flashback collection, spotlighting private highlights from the period – each iconic and obscure.
The period in query is commonly thought of to run from the debut of Website positioning 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 couple of years on both facet.
It was a time of bonkers music constructions, wild trend, slamming techno beats, unhealthy reggae impressions, flagrant use (theft?) of American hip-hop samples, hearty energy ballads, foul language, the growliest rapper tones you’ll be able to think about and an anything-goes scrappiness that’s not possible to pigeonhole. To borrow the identify of a preferred second-gen act, these years have been the “large bang” of an rising musical powerhouse, nonetheless discovering its footing and throwing all the things on the wall.
Take a look at different “Again to Okay-pop’s First Era” evaluations right here.
Co-ed Okay-pop teams have been rather more widespread within the first era. In reality, within the late 90’s they have been virtually the norm. S#arp stood on the tip-top of this hierarchy, releasing a collection of fashionable singles and albums. This was all introduced down by a bullying scandal for the ages, however I don’t wish to focus an excessive amount of on that as a result of different shops have already lined the scandal intimately and this function is all concerning the music.
2001’s Sweety is the group’s most enduring traditional, however I’ve a giant smooth spot for 1999’s Inform Me, Inform Me. This music succeeds not on its bombast (it’s truly sort of laidback), however on the nuance and phrasing of its hooks. Like so many nice pop tracks, it simply scratches sure pleasure facilities within the mind. The music opens with an immediately memorable “rub a dub” pattern that I’ve heard in a number of different tracks of the period (I’d like to know the place it got here from initially!) earlier than segueing into the chirpy refrain. In my view, the repeated “aniya (아니야)” hook is Inform Me’s simplest second. I simply love how that vocal sounds. However actually, the music is a seize bag of catchy vocal approaches.
Whereas the feminine strains in S#arp songs typically got here throughout as candy or quirky, the male raps provided an aggressive (at instances comically so) counterpoint. The distinction is jarring, however in a method that may typically be charming in a dated, foolish method. So far as musical legacy, I hear a lot of early Surprise Women on this monitor. JYP woman teams on the whole appeared to have latched onto this sound.
| Hooks | 9 |
| Manufacturing | 9 |
| Longevity | 9 |
| Bias | 9 |
| RATING | 9 |
Grade: A-
