Katherine Does K-POP

I’m on Summer Break!

As regular readers will know, I currently work as an elementary school English teacher in South Korea. Yesterday was the last day of the first semester in my city, so i’m officially on summer break until September!!! Unfortunately, I only have about two weeks of actual vacation… I still have to go to school for the rest and do some work like summer camp and preparing for the second semester. BUT, I will have a lot more free time than I normally do! And I plan on investing a lot of it on some projects for this blog, so I thought I’d drop a quick update and let you know what’s going to happen.

Mid-Year Check-In: My Favorite K-pop Releases of 2021 (So Far)

I genuinely can’t believe we’re already well into July!!! Seriously, where has the time gone??? Since we’re officially over midway through 2021, it’s time for me to make another “halfway point” post about the K-pop releases that I’ve spent the most time and energy on from January to June. I tried this out last year, and it was super interesting to see how my preferences shifted significantly by the time I got to December. I feel like my current tastes and favorites are rather predictable at this point, but I’m very curious how my experiment will turn out this time around.

Favorites of 2021: June

~~We’re pretty much halfway through July, but whatever~~ June in K-pop typically involves a rush of comebacks that can overwhelm a multifan, and this year was no exception. So many groups and artists I regularly follow dropped new music that I found it hard to choose favorites. In fact, no song released in June made it into the top of my Most Listened To playlist because because I just kept cycling between them (meaning I didn’t listen to any of them enough times to surpass the songs that already had a lot of play counts). It was really difficult to decide because I had a lot more “likes” than “loves,” but I think I finally figured it all out.

Katherine’s K-pop Recap: July 5-11, 2021

A summary of the news, current and upcoming comebacks, charts and music show wins, and more!

Knee Jerk Reaction: “Make It” by 2PM

It’s been nearly five years, but 2PM has finally made their much-anticipated and long-awaited return as a full group. Plus this is the first time a group has been able to make a comeback with a member who changed agencies, which hopefully means it will be possible for others in the same situation. Though I certainly like 2PM, I’ve actually never really considered myself a huge fan. This is mostly because they’ve only had two comebacks in the time that I’ve been into K-pop: this one, and their last one that was way back in 2016. So I’ve watched the majority of their content retroactively, and I haven’t really had many chances to see them “in action” (so to speak). But despite all that, I still found myself pretty antsy and impatient for this post-military comeback… so I can’t even imagine how their longtime fans are feeling right now. Thankfully, it seems like “Make It” is pretty much everything we were all hoping for.

Knee Jerk Reaction: “Hello Future” by NCT Dream

Given NCT Dream’s massive – and I mean MASSIVE – explosion of popularity in South Korea this spring, having a repackage makes total sense. Unfortunately for me, my habit of going all-in on a group’s comeback and then taking a break from them is not conducive to repackages. “Hot Sauce” took over most of my May (and part of June too), and I spent a lot of time and energy on it. NCT Dream’s comeback announcement came right when I was feeling like it was time to move on to another group, so I was worried I wouldn’t be able to fully appreciate “Hello Future” as a result. (I had a similar situation with SHINee earlier when I overdid it with “Don’t Call Me” and needed some time to get into “Atlantis.”) But I’m delighted to say I was 100% wrong – I LOVE “Hello Future,” and I can’t get enough!

Knee Jerk Reaction: “PTT (Paint the Town)” by LOONA

Though LOONA is incredibly popular with international K-pop fans, I must confess I’ve never been super invested in them. I certainly admire their creativity and ambition, and I respect how their discography is so diverse and spans many genres (including their pre-debut solo and subunit work). But at the end of the day, most their title tracks are hit or miss with me. For the time being, we’re just not much of a musical match. That being said, I’ve started to become more interested in LOONA as they began heading down the girl crush route for their last couple of title tracks. So they’re on my radar, but they haven’t released anything I’ve fallen in love with yet.

Katherine’s K-pop Recap: June 28 – July 4, 2021

A summary of the news, current and upcoming comebacks, charts and music show wins, and more!

K-Pop Starter Kit: June’s Topic is Now July’s Topic

Hi all! It’s the end of June (technically already July here in South Korea), and you’ve probably noticed that I didn’t make any K-pop Starter Kit posts this month. Though I started out my last update optimistic and enthusiastic about writing new content, my life seems to love getting in the way whenever I decide to make a personal goal or commitment for this blog ^^”’ So I thought I’d just briefly explain what’s up and how my plans have changed.

Katherine’s K-Pop Recap: June 21-27, 2021

A summary of the news, current and upcoming comebacks, charts and music show wins, and more!