Just like Bibimbap

Friday, August 10, 2012 @ 8:51 PM | 0 Comments

I always found it hard to choose that ONE song to show my non-Kpop friends and try to 'convert' them into liking Kpop. Kpop songs (well the older ones) are still quite different from the mainstream music in US or UK, so in today's post I will try to compile a list of more....normal songs (to the non Kpop people that is) to introduce to your friends if you are trying to get them to like Kpop!

Some tips to keep in mind when you are trying to introduce Kpop songs to the beginners:
- Try to find songs without MAJOR Engrish (eg Make a love baby, IN THE CUBE). These songs are a bad idea if you have friends who act like grammar Nazis.
- Never show them the music videos. Things like the guyliners, dancing pretty boys (or girls but just mainly the boys) and tight pants take some time at getting used to. They might get mentally scarred during the first few seconds of the MV and you will lose your chance at turning them into a fellow Kpop-er.
- Try avoiding the use an SM's title song as the introductory song. SM's title songs are quite...over the top and not so usual in a non Kpop-er's dictionary. All of Super Junior's title songs were a bad idea, so were most of SHINee's title songs. I think to like these song, you need to have somewhat of a 'Kpop background'. Like take Ring Ding Dong for example. Before I was into Kpop, I thought it sounded terrible and hated it. Now that I am into Kpop, I found it somewhat normal. Weird I know but that's how it is.
-You can't go wrong with ballads. Well ballads are normally the same right, Kpop or not? I haven't heard of some crazy ballads so I might be wrong.
- Ask that person what their favourite songs are and try to find Kpop songs that are similar. I've been using this way recently and it's the most successful ahaha.

Disclaimer: The following list may not even work because I have lost all senses of how a 'normal' song even sounds like since I've stop listening to English songs (with the exception of Muse and a little Temper Trap) for nearly 3 years. But you must know I tried my best.

Ultimate list to successful conversion (in no specific order)
1. Beautiful Night - B2ST
2. The Fact - B2ST
3. Tonight - Big Bang
4. Lies - Big Bang
5. In My Head - CN Blue
6. Lie - CN Blue
7. 못해 - 4Men
8. Baby Goodnight - GD&TOP
9. My Heart is Beating - K.Will
10. Replay - SHINee
11. Hot Times - SM the Ballad
12. It's You - Super Junior
13. Coagulation - Super Junior
14. Wedding Dress - Taeyang (Everyone seems to know this song so it might work!)
15. Before U Go - TVXQ
16. Mirotic - TVXQ (Quite a lot of my non Kpop friends know this song...strange but give it a try too!)
17. They Are Coming - Wheesung
18. This Song - 2AM
19. Without You - 2PM (This song got me into Kpop. I was so against it and this got me into it. Might be the magic potion to all conversion.)
20. I Am The Best - 2NE1

So fellow Kpop-ers, go out there and spread the Kpop loooooooove ♥

-Rachee

Labels: 2am, 2ne1, 2pm, 4men, b2st, big bang, cn blue, k.will, music, random, shinee, sm the ballad, super junior, tvxq, wheesung

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My (and my sister's) CD collection!

Sunday, August 5, 2012 @ 11:25 PM | 0 Comments

Feel like showing off a bit hehe. It's not a huge collection, just a few that I bought because of one of these reasons:
1) I like more than half the songs in the album
2) It was cheap
3) Super Junior
Some of them I had people bringing them back from Korea while the rest I bought them at Rock Corner or Speedy. If you only like the ones made in Korea, I suggest you don't buy your stuff from Speedy because they tend to have more different versions (I would get to that later on).

TADAH! So here it is, my collection so far after 3 years. Not too crazy right? :P All of them are bought with my own money excluding the U-Kiss one which was a gift from my aunt. She bought it all the way in Korea! I also have 3 second hand ones (SHINee 2009 Year of Us, B2ST Shock and SJ M Super Girl) that I bought from a friend when she was selling all her albums.

One thing though, not all of these are the original ones. And by that I mean not produced in Korea. There are a lot of albums that are either printed in Taiwan or Malaysia and I got a few of those. Before that I didn't really know and I thought all of them were the same but I don't really mind. But if you don't want to miss out on some of the photo books or photocards, buy the ones printed in Korea. I have 5 that I am sure that are made in Korea.

And to confirm whether your copy of the CD is made in Korea, just look for this gold sticker. Or compare the price. Imported ones are always more than 60 ringgit.

More than half of my collection aren't the original ones actually :P

Quite easy to tell if they are made in other countries. The price will be cheaper generally, most probably won't exceed 60 ringgit (based on the ones I got) and they have these written at the bottom.

SO yeah. That's my collection. My sister's though, is larger (and more expensive) than mine. Before I start, I'm sorry for taking pictures of your stuff. I tried putting them back in their original places. Please don't kill me. OKAY MOVING ON!

She has a lot of SM albums.

Look at her Super Junior collection! D: She even bought all version A, B and C of Bonamana. And look at that latest buy of hers. Isn't it beautiful? It was so expensive though. ): Still haven't convinced her to trade her Donghae photo card with me.

Her SHINee ones.

Omg I was so jealous when she got this. It was almost 200 ringgit I think but my dad got it for her as a birthday present? Wait, I think she paid half of it, not sure. But woah it was so thick and the photo book was HUGE!

Her beloved Infinite. She got Be Mine from Korea I think.

One of the nice album covers EVER!

Yeap! That's all we have in this household. Hoping to add a few more when I get back from Korea. Less than a week! :D :D :D

-Rachee

Labels: b2st, big bang, cn blue, exo, infinite, random, shinee, sm the ballad, super junior, tvxq, u-kiss

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July favourites

Tuesday, July 31, 2012 @ 8:40 PM | 0 Comments

It has been nearly a month since we had this blog! *sprinkles confetti* So like we said before, we will post up what we loved (or not) during the month of July with links to it/things related to it at the tabs above! Click it, click it!

Video: Psy - Gangnam Style

How often do you see dancing kids, grooving horses, fat guys in sauna, explosions, disco bus, Yoo Jaesuk, Noh Hongchul, Hyuna and EHHHHHHH SEXY LADEH(s) in ONE videos? Mm, seldom. Now don't bother us while we dance to this. OP OP OP OP OPPA GANGNAM STYLE!

Song: Beast - Midnight
This song sounded better than Beautiful Night which was their title song for their latest album to be honest. Super catchy!

Drama: Big
Okay before we continue, it was Rachel's favourite, UNTIL THE LAST 2 EPISODES. This drama was really interesting and the whole body switch (that was so overdone) was done pretty well should we say. Wasn't too crazy with the fantasy side. Rachel was excited to see how the end would be but we will leave it to you to decide whether they did it well.

Dish: Japchae
Nazlin is currently fasting so I shall be the one commenting on this. I actually JUST tried this today and I totally loved it so K FOOD OF THE MONTH (maybe cause this is the only korean dish I had this month :3)

Hottie: Gong Yoo
Rachel would love to keep Simon in this category forever but she will not be so selfish. For a 33 year old man, he sure is hot. And he was so lovable in Big. Oh and ABS.

News: T-ara Controversy
OOH we were so sure Nichkhun's whole DUI case would definitely be the the news of the month but looks like the whole controversy T-ara stirred up these few days ago deserved this spot more! Oo catty!

Labels: b2st, drama, eyecandy, favourites, food, gong yoo, lee min jung, music, Psy, random, t-ara

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Album Review: Midnight Sun - Beast

Sunday, July 22, 2012 @ 3:40 PM | 0 Comments

Here I am, writing this post at 1 am in the morning immediately after I gave the whole album a listen. Okay gonna be honest. This mini-album, I didn't love it but I didn't hate it either. It was just..okay. I was totally in love with Fiction and Fact. It was those rare albums where I liked every song. This one though I kinda only liked about half the album.

When they released Midnight a week before, I was so excited and it didn't disappoint me! It was catchy and got me humming along to it after the first time listening to it. So I thought "Wow, if Midnight is already so good, does that mean that the mini-album would be amazing?!" Sadly, not really.

Beautiful Night is the title song for Midnight Sun. It was really different from Fiction. Beautiful Night is more of a dance party kinda song. It's fun! I was totally grooving to it the whole time and it was one of those song where you can easily memorise the tune after the first time. Still though, as a title song........it's okay. I prefer Midnight.

Then we have It's Not Me, which in my opinion has a REALLY interesting start. I think my sister and I both agreed that it sounded a bit like a snake charmer's tune. It got a little better in the middle but I didn't really enjoy this song.

When I Miss You is a really nice ballad. Really chilled. Dongwoon gets to sing in the chorus *claps in glee*. I really liked the kinda rap-y singing after the chorus. I like this!

AND we have another song with a super funky start. The background tune for The Day You Rest made me imagine colourful bouncy balls bouncing around in a white room. I don't know why. Maybe you guys should give it a listen and tell me what you see in your mind while this was playing. Not really my thing either.

Dream Girl...I can't decide whether I like this yet. I loved the guitar at the beginning, it was quite interesting. It has a little of an R&B vibe? (Don't kill me if I got the genre wrong. I can't differentiate. That's why I seldom mention genres when I review songs. Sorry!) I'm still deciding for this but I think I'm leaning towards the good half of it.

I think the reason why I was dissapointed with this mini-album was because I really had my hopes high after Fiction and Fact. That album pretty much set the bar high since I totally LOVED Fiction and had it on replay for nearly 2 months (Explains the 600 over playcounts it got). It was even my caller ringtone at one point so you can tell how much I liked it. The rest of the songs in the album were also really nice and I liked all of them. So I kinda expected the same for this mini-album but I guess they were experimenting with different styles for this, which I think is not a bad thing cause some things get boring after awhile. It's not a bad mini-album, not at all. It's just..I didn't like it as much as I thought I would.

Rating: 3.7/5

-Rachee

Labels: b2st, music

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Beast's Midnight Sun

Saturday, July 21, 2012 @ 11:48 PM | 0 Comments

OMG IT'S OUT! Gonna go listen to it now and see how I like it. I totally loved Fiction and Fact. LOVED. So I hope this will not disappoint me.

Expect a review soon!

-Rachee

Labels: b2st, music, random

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Rachel's Top 10 Hotties: 6

Tuesday, July 17, 2012 @ 2:21 PM | 0 Comments

Disclaimer: These are ALL my own opinions (obviously) and if you don't agree...sorry but no one has the same taste in guys right? Also, my ranking pretty much changes based on when groups are promoting or whenever they appear on different shows so don't be surprised if I give you a totally different answer when you ask me another day.