OK, people, we were going to obviously get to BTS. How could we not? Their harmonies are absolutely infectious.
You will notice over the next couple of weeks that we are talking in a lot of superlatives - biggest, best, first. We are also using words like "influenced by" or "a throwback to". And, a lot of those do apply here. This is the band's first all-English language song, and it is both their first #1 hit in the US and the first #1 hit by any all-South Korean group. It earned the band their first Grammy nomination.
But this song isn't influencED. It is influenTIAL. It is a fresh, modern pop hit. The country of origin doesn't matter. Other artists are now looking to South Korea for influence. This song is a great example of that.
I mentioned the Grammys. BTS performed this song at the 2021 Grammy Awards broadcast... and gave a hell of a performance.
You see, in 2009, this song entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 76. Modern K-Pop fans take for granted that there will be South Korean artists on the pop charts. Here's the list of all the artists that were on the Billboard Hot 100 from South Korea before Wonder Girls:
1)
Oh. Wait. There weren't any.
NOT ONLY was this the FIRST South Korean song to be a US pop hit, it would go on to become the best selling physical single of 2009 (in an era when the physical single was dying a quick death). The song itself is a bit of a Motown throwback in its harmonies.
The version above is the one that hit the US charts. Of course they did a Korean version, and of course it was a hit in their home country.
Roseanne Park was born 11 February 1997.... in Auckland, New Zealand.
She lived in New Zealand, and then Australia, until she was 15, and she had an audition with YG Entertainment, the famed K-Pop label. Two weeks later, she was in Seoul, and she hasn't really looked back.
The way K-Pop works, when a label signs you, you usually train with them in singing and acting and dancing until you are ready to join a group. With Rosé , that happened four years later, in 2016, when she was paired with Jennie, Jisoo and Lisa - which the world knows better as BLACKPINK, who are likely in your area.
K-Pop groups often have a set beginning, middle, and end. I don't think BLACKPINK is done, and since the debut of Rosé as a solo artist happened AT a BLACKPINK concert, I think the group has a future.
That doesn't mean that Rosé isn't a great artist in her own right. Internationally, this song, released on 12 March, 2021, has been huge. Its debut on YouTube has been the largest ever by a South Korean solo artist - with nearly 42 million views in its first day. This song has so far peaked at #70 on the Billboard Hot 100, far higher than any other Korean female solo artist. Worldwide, it's done even better. Universally, this song is loved and respected.
Two things of note with this song.
1) The song is 100% in English. 100%. Since it's Rosé's first language, it makes sense that she would cross over and do that.
2) Her first single probably could have been light and fun pop music. This isn't.... and in fact, Rosé is listed as a co-writer of this deep and meaningful song.
I add this "live" performance to illustrate a piece of the K-pop machine that I don't really enjoy. There's several videos like this. Rosé CLEARLY wants to sing her song. She's fully capable of singing her song. The helper track is turned up so high she can't. When she can break through that track, you can hear the absolute passion in her voice.
Here she is on the Tonight Show. Pretty much the same performance. She doesn't break through as much.
Those familiar with the Spotify music platform know that they automatically create a number of daily mixes of music for subscribers. Usually, they are broken out by genre - electronic, rock, folk, indie.
Since #MapleLeafMarch, one of my lists has been consistently French-languange pop music. I have no idea why. I haven't been terribly upset about it, though, because it has reintroduced me to one of my favorite French artists and Lily-Rose Depp's mom, Vanessa Paradis.
This song, from her 1990 album Variations sur le même t'aime, never released in the States as far as I can tell, was one of the biggest hits of her career - not "Joe Le Taxi" big, mind you, but pretty big. With its sultry, bluesy pop and Vanessa's voice belting out with passion, it's not hard to understand why it was such a hit. But it was more than that. It was a move to a more mature sound - a sound that would continue throughout her career.
I don't want to give the impression that her career is over. It isn't. Here she is in December 2019, performing the hell out of this song, live.
Ice-T's story is that he was a badass gang member before he cleaned up and turned to music, and then to the Manhattan SVU.
In this song, he's clearly pushing something that isn't drugs - which is why we didn't post this song on Tuesday, frankly. It's a great song that gets lost in some of his harder, flashier stuff, but this is a reminder of how positive an influence on hip-hop Ice-T really was.... and is.
In 1981, there were not many all-woman rock groups playing their instruments and making music like this. Los Angeles had two prominent ones. This was one of them.
So when these five women burst onto the scene with a song one of them (guitarist and backup vocalist Jane Wiedlin) co-wrote with Terry Hall from The Specials, it was something of a big deal. Despite their short tenure (they officially broke up in 1985, after only forming in 1978), they remain one of the most successful female rock bands of all time (the Rock and Roll Hall of Fall calls them "the most successful" but I'm not sure that's true), and they still reform and play together from time to time.
This song is a tour de force, a phenomenon in its own right. It was a top 20 hit in 1981 in the US, and a top 5 hit around the world.
Remember what I said about them reforming? Here they are in 2001. I always loved that Jane Wiedlin sang that bridge, and here, she absolutely BELTS the end of it.
Incidentally, that verse you don't recognize in the middle that Belinda Carlisle shoves in was part of the original composition. This is the full version.
This was the first single from Dr. Dre's 1992 debut solo album, The Chronic. It also introduced the world to Snoop Dogg, famed marijuana customer.
Warren G is pretty openly smoking a blunt in this video.
Soooooooo, that's why we're posting this today. It's also a song that combines the "I'm the best MC" vibe of 80's hip hop with the in-your-face style of N.W.A. brilliantly. The public responded, too - it made it all the way to #2 on the POP charts.
