Monday, April 15, 2024

Music Mondays: K-Pop, Carpenter, and Batz--Plus More!

The Segment Returns!
I said in March that this would be my newest randomly occurring segment and now that we're here with the second edition I've made good on my claim! Let's get into it.

Music & Musings


I've been listening to a chunk of what is known as K-Pop lately. It is a bit of a blanket term for pop music from South Korea. I quite like the song, "Cat & Dog," by Tomorrow X Together, "Easy," by Le Sserafim, and a variety of other tunes by popular artists (Stray Kids has some good hits). As I got into K-Pop I learned about how one aspect can be extremely controversial. Debates persist over K-Pop artists re-recording their songs exclusively in English. A lot of K-Pop incorporates English and Japanese, but fans have strong thoughts on when the artists only sing in English (there are versions of songs exclusively in Japanese to appeal to that market too, but the debate focuses more on the English-exclusive takes). I personally am fine with a musical artist doing whatever they want with their own music, as it is a bit like a remix. This isn't a case where some other random American artist is ripping off a K-Pop song, after all. As I continue to check out more K-Pop I'll share what I like.

Having loved Vince Staples' show, "The Vince Staples' Show," I've been listening to more of his music. Two songs I find on repeat in my playlist are, "THE BEACH," and, "Yo Love." which also features 6lack.

Beyonce's county album, "Cowboy Carter," continues to dominate the music charts. I enjoy a number of Beyonce's songs, but readers of the blog are aware that I don't listen to much country. That said, I love seeing artists who don't hesitate to dabble in a range of genres and I applaud Beyonce for trying something new and succeeding at it!

Sabrina Carpenter is another of those new young pop stars (she's only 24 and started making hits a smidgen ago). I often whine about today's new music but I like some songs I've heard by her. "Nonsense," and, "Feather," are both good fun. So you see, I don't hate all the new youth with their pop jams!

A number of OutKast's albums (and lots of other hits) were produced by Organized Noize. One member of that production outfit, Rico Wade, passed away recently at the age of 52 (the cause of death was not disclosed). A ton of amazing music artists expressed their sympathies to his family and I do the same.

J. Cole was part of a spat with Kendrick Lamar, but after releasing a song critical of Lamar, "7 Minute Drill," he apologized publically a couple days later to mixed reactions. The song has now been taken down from official music streaming sources at the request of Cole. Don't you think that Cole is done engaging in beef, however, with a new track apparently taking a swipe at Drake.


4batz is an artist I don't know much about, but their weird little song, "Act ii: date @ 8," was on the radio randomly and I really dug it. It's incredibly short, trippy, and catchy.

Coachella happened last weekend and was quite the event by all accounts. I feel a little bad for how Grimes's equipment had a technical meltdown, but at least we got to see a reunion of No Doubt (Gwen Stefani's Ska band from back in the day), and Olvia Rodrigo joined them on stage too!

Finally, Taylor Swift is one of the biggest names in music so her fans (who are known as Swifties) are pumped for the debut of her 11th studio album (15th overall), "The Tortured Poets Department." It drops this Friday, April 19th.


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