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Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Together We Can
Idol groups don’t only promote cell phones and hair products. Sometimes, they produce entire songs for various PSAs, like BESTie did when they partnered with the Seoul police to release Together We Can Together We Can is a PSA against bullying, and schoolyard bullying in particular. This is a problem everywhere, but especially in South…
By Seung Park Published September 20, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Lollipop
This intensely catchy song was a promotional track for the purposes of marketing LG’s Lollipop flip phone, which were still en vogue back in the faraway year of 2009. Even today, the Lollipop still looks pretty sweet; they came with an integrated display built in to its front cover that would allow for some really…
By Seung Park Published September 19, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Picks Of The Day: Chocolate Love & Chocolate Love
This is Brand Song Week, where we pick out some of the best songs to come out of K-Pop endorsement deals. In 2009, LG—still one of today’s premier smartphone makers—partnered with two girl groups from SM Entertainment to launch their new lineup of flagship phones: the next-generation Chocolate. LG went all-in on the marketing campaign,…
By Seung Park Published September 18, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Turned Off The TV…
Going into the weekend, one craves for a melodic, optimistic pick-me-up from the workweek. I can’t think of a better one. Look at that thumbnail! It’s so pleasantly blue! Turned Off The TV… is one of the promoted tracks from Asura Balbalta (stylized as *checks notes* AsuRa BalBalTa), Leessang’s penultimate album before their breakup. The…
By Seung Park Published September 14, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Pray
Behold: the best K-Pop music video of 2011. We’ve covered Sunny Hill before, with Midnight Circus. That alone should’ve been enough to clue you into what sets this group apart: their embrace of the macabre, of vaguely Lovecraftian settings, a particular brand of dreamy horror that doesn’t exactly shock, but instead, perpetuates a kind of…
By Seung Park Published September 13, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Illa Illa
It’s a bit late for a spring-themed acoustic track, but what the hell, it’s a good song. And good songs are always in season. When Juniel debuted in 2011 under FNC Entertainment, the same company behind the rock bands CNBLUE and FT ISLAND, the agency made a big push touting her as the “next IU”,…
By Seung Park Published September 12, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Up
It’s Tuesday, a.k.a. Honorary Hump Day. Let’s perk ourselves up a little bit. I’ve covered Epik High before, but I’d yet to delve into their modern discography (“modern”, in this case, defined as the moment when they signed their contract with YG Entertainment, completing their transformation from an indie band to joining Korea’s mainstream). Their…
By Seung Park Published September 11, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: IDOL (feat. Nicki Minaj)
Uh… hmm, okay, so this is a thing now? Cool. Cool cool cool. This is definitely not the first time an American artist has collaborated with idols before, and the track record isn’t exactly spotless. Akon had a brief fling with the Wonder Girls (whose grand plans to advance into America failed), and famed producer…
By Seung Park Published September 7, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Lil’ Touch
Girls’ Generation just doesn’t know when to stop. That’s a good thing. Despite recently going through a brutal round of contract negotiations that would see any other, lesser girl group call it quits, the remaining five members of this era-defining group coalesced under a “subunit” label, and announced a comeback as Girls’ Generation-Oh!GG. The subunit…
By Seung Park Published September 6, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Supa Dupa Diva
An interesting K-Pop quirk is the creation of fandoms for not artists, or labels, but the producers themselves. In some cases, the producers become well-known enough to become the driving force behind entire girl groups; Dal Shabet, and their debut song, is one of those cases. Supa Dupa Diva was composed by E-Tribe, an incredibly…
By Seung Park Published August 31, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: This And That
This And That by 5dolls is the product of a long and tortured history, even considering the amount of drama that goes on behind the scenes in K-Pop. After the idol group Coed School unceremoniously crumbled in 2010 following drug and rape allegations against one of its members, their agency split the group into two…
By Seung Park Published August 30, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: It’s Okay
After School member Raina has quietly built up a respectable solo discography after, and even prior to, the group’s radio silence since 2014. It’s Okay is her first solo track in more than a year, and it’s a good one. Raina has chosen to focus on romantic ballads, which is a great fit for her…
By Seung Park Published August 29, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: IDOL
BTS fever is back. Bangtan Boys, stylized in the West as BTS (after their Korean name, Bangtan Sonyeondan), is a tour de force of the Korean music industry. Unlike the country’s girl group lineup—which is currently seeing many different artists jockey for the “top” designator—the boy group situation has no parallels, and everyone agrees: BTS…
By Seung Park Published August 28, 2018 -
Kotaku East
Beware Of Fake Hibiki Japanese Whisky
Earlier this week, two men were arrested in Japan for selling bottles of fake Hibiki. The bottles were real, but the whisky inside was bogus. According to Jiji (via The Japan Times, where, full disclosure, I am a columnist), Mie Prefecture police arrested Tokyo-natives Takeaki Nemoto, 29 years-old, and Yu Sasagawa, 26. They were charged…
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 24, 2018 -
Kotaku East
Dragon Ball Pachinko Machine Probably Won’t Happen
Loads of anime and manga have been turned into pachinko machines, including Fist of the North Star, Evangelion and Lupin the Third. However, there is no Dragon Ball pachinko machine and probably won’t be anytime soon. Among pachinko players in Japan, the question as to why Dragon Ball doesn’t have a pachinko machine has been…
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 24, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Sixth Sense
If the opening chords to 2011’s Sixth Sense sound familiar, it’s because the same melody was used as the intro to 2008’s Alles Neu by the German artist, Peter Fox. Both songs are sampled from the fourth movement of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No.7 in C Minor. While 2009’s Abracadabra remains Brown Eyed Girls’ most well-known…
By Seung Park Published August 24, 2018 -
Kotaku East
Ride Tokyo’s Pokémon Trains For A Limited Time
Starting this past Sunday, special Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! Tokyo Metro trains have been making commutes more enjoyable. Pokémon plastered trains are running on both the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line and the Marunouchi Line. Ride ‘em while you can!
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 23, 2018 -
Kotaku East
Right Now, The Nintendo Switch Is Dominating In Japan
The Switch has been out for a while now. Wondering how it’s now doing in Japan? Pretty dang well, that’s how. Here is how the best-selling video games at Japanese retail for the week of August 13 to August 19. 1. Minecraft (Switch): 25,948 copies sold 2. Splatoon 2 (Switch): 24,188 3. Taiko no Tatsujin…
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 23, 2018 -
Kotaku East
Average Anime Industry Salaries Get Depressing
The anime industry is brutal. The average salaries can get low. Just how low? Let’s have a look at how they break down per position. TheJapanese Animation Creators Associationpublished results of average salaries and ages for different production jobs in the anime industry. Before we get to that, Tokyo-based animator Thomas Romain created a helpful…
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 23, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Hello
Cho Yong Pil is one of the titans of the Korean music industry, having debuted in 1968(!). He has a staggeringly long list of hit songs, awards, nominations, and accolades too long to list here; instead, let’s listen to one of his modern classics, Hello Hello was the title track for 2013’s eponymous album, his…
By Seung Park Published August 23, 2018