Dream K-Pop Concerts
2022 has been a real treat for K-Pop concerts and K-Pop concert announcements, with the likes of HallyuPopFest and MIK Festival bringing a wide range of K-Pop and K-Hip-Hop acts to the UK and artists such as ATEEZ, The Rose, BLACKPINK, Dreamcatcher, Jackson Wang, CIX, Kang Daniel, Epik High, and so many more having either already performed or announced overseas tours for the upcoming year. With so much to look forward to already within the K-Pop sphere, this week’s B-side article will take a look at some tracks from a few artists who I hope and wish would announce a world tour, or at least perform a show in the UK someday.
“The Crown” - Super Junior
The opening track from Super Junior’s ninth album Time_Slip, “The Crown” highlights Super Junior’s versatility as artists who can sing and rap just about any sort of music genre. “The Crown” provides Super Junior with a more mature sound that differs from a lot of their previous works — not to say that their other songs are immature, but many of their songs are quite fun, uplifting, and more on the light-hearted side, whereas “The Crown” takes on a more surprising, heavy, and powerful sound. Although, like all of Super Junior’s songs, “The Crown” highlights the members’ vocal talents and vocal chemistry with one another, and who doesn’t enjoy a behind-the-scenes video disguised as a lyric music video?
“ROYAL” - IVE
Starship Entertainment’s girl group IVE has yet to release a bad song. Since their debut, a year ago this month, this six-member girl group gets stronger and stronger with each release, with this B-side track from their second single album LOVE DIVE being just one of those strong tracks of theirs. “ROYAL” allows the girls’ vocals to shine in several ways, with them singing in different styles that play along with the ever-changing beat throughout; from showcasing high register vocals in the verses, pre-choruses, and the bridge to singing within a low registered range in the song’s repetitive yet fun chorus.
“Pirates” - Xdinary Heroes
“Pirates” is the incredible cinematic track from Xdinary Heroes’ debut mini-album Hello, world! that I described as having a sound fitting for both a film of the silent movie era and today’s modern Hollywood in my review. “Pirates” opens with a staccato piano composition before keyboardist and vocalist O.de enters with a gritty, low vocal style sung with somewhat of a vocal effect over it (as do the others). The song perfectly highlights the members’ vocals, especially bassist and vocalist Jooyeon’s impressive high register that you may have come across on TikTok if you have not listened to this song before.
“Moon & Back” - 2PM
The seventh track from their 2021 and most recent album MUST, 2PM’s single “Moon & Back” is a smooth R&B love track —a great addition to 2PM’s strong discography and music range. The beat and backing track carry a very modern R&B sound that, if you didn’t know that this was 2PM, you could imagine working for any K-Artist with an R&B style. The song is quite simplistic, but in the best way, in that the members' vocals and ad-libs are able to shine through (including rapper Taecyeon’s), allowing listeners who may be unfamiliar to 2PM and their sensual, slow, R&B music to hear a different side to the group.
Edited by Vivian N.