~ FEBRUARY 2021 ~

DISCLAIMER 1: All the pictures included in this article are screenshots taken by me from official music videos. If there is copyright infringement, I apologize in advance and will remove any problematic picture upon the owner's request. 

DISCLAMER 2: Viewer discretion is advised. Some of the pictures may contain sensitive content.

Hello everyone, and welcome to my top Kmusic releases of February 2021! This month was PACKED with comebacks. This one was really hard to make, especially the top 5. Honestly, the songs that are in the top 5 are all amazing, but the #1 had to be #1. The link to the YouTube playlist can be found at the end of the article as usual. Let's start!

#18 Imlay ft. Chenle (NCT) - Too Good - February 24

The beat and the melody of the song is pretty similar to this song called "Catch and release" of Matt Simons, and it's a very chill and relaxing song. This collab never crossed my mind but it's a win for me, and the MV is pretty cute too. Watch the official MV for "Too Good" here.

#17 Jun (Seventeen) - Silent Boarding Gate (single) - February 14 [CHINESE]

I may be wrong but I think this song is all about leaving everything behind and flying to another place, asking yourself when you will get used to this. And this is kind of what I'm going through right now in my personal life so this song holds a special place in my heart. Watch the official MV for "Silent Boarding Gate" here.

#16 Kang Daniel - Paranoia (comeback) - February 16

The strength of this song lies in its lyrics and its message. The song in itself is powerful (especially the chorus), the MV is really dark (sometimes creepy), and the melody very hypnotizing. The song is even more powerful when you know that Daniel has been struggling a lot lately. Watch the official MV for "Paranoia" here.

#15 J.UNA - Foolish - February 10

I really want to thank the YouTube channel Kville entertainment for making these "new kpop songs (week x)" types of videos because it helps me discover hidden gems like this one. I have absolutely NO IDEA about who this guy is, but that song is a MOOD.  Watch the official MV for "Foolish"here.

#14 I.M (Monsta X) - God Damn (solo debut) - February 19 [ENGLISH]

The best unleashed itself, I repeat. THE BEAST UNLEASHED ITSELF! I mean, this is totally different from the I.M we know in Monsta X (and it's a totally different vibe too)! I'm so glad he finally has the opportunity to express himself as a solo artist. Also, I need a collaboration with DPR IAN ASAP. Watch the official MV for "God Damn" here.

#13 Chungha - Bicycle (comeback) - February 15 

You might be surprised of this relatively low ranking for Chungha, especially that I praised the album in my full review of her comeback that you can check here. But after multiple listens, I realised I wan't even paying attention to the song. However this does not mean that it's a bad song, far from this, neither that the album isn't good. This album is in fact one of the best that has been released so far during the year. Watch the official MV for "Bicycle" here.

#12 Lucy - Hero (comeback) - February 16

You guys, they are so cute. I've been paying attention to Lucy since their debut as I always love to discover new bands, but this song is on another level. The violin is the key to me, it brings such depth and originality to the song and even to the whole group. Watch the official MV for "Hero" here.

#11 GOT7 - Encore (special release) - February 20

I called it you folks, I knew that this wasn't the end of GOT7 and that it's just a page that's turning. They made this song to reassure all of us that they'll always be there for us and sing the "encore" for us. Ugh guess what? I cried again. Watch the official MV for "Encore" here.

#10 The Boyz - Breaking Dawn (comeback) - February 24 [JAPANESE]

Ok so this song isn't fully in japanese but it's still a japanese comeback so yeah. Sunwoo and Eric KILLED their rap and they all killed the choreo (damn Juyeon…). The contrast between the vocals in the verses and the chorus is really interesting. I just can't wait to see them on Kingdom. Watch the official MV for "Breaking Dawn" here.

#9 Mark Tuan & Sanjoy - One in a million (single) - February 14 [ENGLISH]

I'm so happy for Mark, his solo career sounds promising already. This song is just soo good, and it is such a great collaboration. I seriously cannot wait for more from Mark. Watch the official MV for "One in a million" here.

#8 Purple Kiss - Can we talk again (debut) - February 3

These girls have rock-like solid voices. The technique is amazing! Their facial expressions are on point too! I seriously cannot grasp how talented idols are when they just debut! Hands down, great job girls. Watch the official MV for "Can we talk again" here.

#7 Wonho - Lose (comeback) - February 26

This MAN!!! I wonder how many hours a day he spends at the gym... "Open Mind" as a song didn't convince me honestly but this song is on a whole other level. The beat is so sexy, the bass is amazing, and the choreography is powerful. The man on his own holds a huge power. Watch the official MV for "Lose" here.

#6 HyunA - Good Girl (release) - February 3

I prefer this song to "I'm not cool" because it's easier to listen to, it's more catchy and more melodious so I can hum over the song lol. And I was honestly surprised by her singing voice! Damn girl can sing. Watch the official MV for "Good Girl" here.

#5 Gaho - Home (single) - February 3

I don't think I need to make any more comments on Gaho's voice. One of the best and one of the most unique voices in this industry. And not only he has a delicious tone of voice but his technique is on point too. The way he plays with notes is extraordinary. Watch the official MV for "Home" here.

#4 ONF - Beautiful Beautiful (comeback) - February 24

They be like "let's pump the budget up"! I seriously felt like I was watching a movie with all the robots and the futuristic world, which matches the storyline they've been going for for a while now (since "why" I think). The song is very cheerful and almost has this summer vibe, but in contrast we have a very powerful choreography. I just love this comeback. Watch the official MV for "Beautiful Beautiful" here.

Before we enter the top 3, here are some honourable mentions:

• Kim Woo Seok - Sugar (comeback) - February 7 - MV link
• Momoland X Chromance - Wrap me in plastic - February 5 - MV link
• Tri.Be - Doom Doom Ta (debut) - February 17 - MV link
• Narachan (of M.O.N.T) - Beautiful Sunday - February 19 - MV link
• J.Don (of N.Flying) - Clicker - February 22 - MV link

 

#3 ONF - My name is (pre-release) - February 19

If you guys want to get to know them, you should just listen to this song. This is the most original way for a group to introduce themselves, the song is so catchy and the lyrics pretty accurate, I just melted. Cuteness overload. Watch the official MV for "My Name Is" here.

#2 SHINee - Don't call me (comeback) - February 22

I was planning to put Shinee at #1 since they are my utimate group. However, after multiple listens, I realised that the song lost a bit of its magic. It's still an amazing song done by a legendary group (I invite you to listen to the full album, it has so many amazing b-sides), but there's one song that deserved the first place and that, after countless listens, makes me happy every time. Watch the official MV for "Don't Call Me" here.

#1 CIX - Cinema (comeback) - February 5

I'm currently witnessing myself becoming a hardcore FIX (CIX's fandom name). Movie Star was such an iconic debut, Numb had such a strong message, Jungle won my "Best MV of the year" award (see the 1st edition of my own Kpop award show here), and Cinema is just so addictive. I dare you to name a song that's catchier than this one. Watch the official MV for "Cinema" here.

There's one last song that I didn't want to "rank" because it was such an emotional song, and it's "Wish you were here" by CL. CL lost her mother not long ago and dedicated this song to her, saying how much she missed her. There's this line where she says: "Can't believe you went from mother to angel in the space of a day". This line hits hard because we forget that everything can change in no time, so it's important to say "I love you" to the people you love because you never know when they'll be gone. 

That's it for this month's top Kmusic releases! I'm eager to know what were YOUR favorite releases of the month, so feel free to leave a comment under this article or in the comment section of the dedicated instagram post (if you're still not following me there... what the hell are you waiting for T-T... kidding). 

Here's the link for the YouTube playlist if you want to listen to (and watch) all the songs at once.

Take care and I'll see you all soon ;)

Love, Swan

Hello everyone, and welcome to the summary of all the "Top Kmusic" you can find on the blog! Each month I rank my favourite Korean Music releases. I sometimes include all-english songs, Chinese or Japanese remixes, but the majority of the songs are in Korean. I hope that these rankings will help you discover new songs and new groups as well. 

2020

October

November

December

2021

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

 

Disclaimer: All the information provided in this article are taken from multiple sources that I verified beforehand. However, misinformation can still happen. If that's the case, please notify me and I will correct the false information. 

"BTS is like some f***ing virus we'll hopefully get a vaccine for", said Matthias Matuschik, the host of the German radio show "Bayern 3".  

In a world where people are becoming less and less tolerant towards racism, some people still behave with this "superior vs. inferior" idea in their minds. This is who Matthias Matuschik seems to be, and we, Army, and the whole Kpop community, cannot tolerate this. 

I. Context

Matthias Matuschik is the host of the German radio show "Bayern 3". When talking about BTS and their cover of "Fix You" (original by Coldplay), performance that was praised by the original artists themselves, he compared the band to a virus, and accused their cover of "blasphemy", an unacceptable way to express his dislike of the cover. 

Let's start by analysing what the radio host said. According to the translations, he starts by comparing BTS to a virus we'll hopefully get a vaccine for. This is straight up racist, considering Asian countries were directly accused for being the source of Covid-19. Then, he says: "You cannot say I'm Xenophobic, only because of a boyband from South Korea. I have a car from South Korea (and here he gives details about his car we obviously don't care about)". You cannot 'cancel' what you just said by saying that you have a South Korean car. Might it be the best car in the entire world, you're attacking people and you're hurting them without any excuses.

Then, he continues by saying "These little f**kwits are bragging that they covered 'Fix You' from Coldplay. I say blasphemy, and I'm an atheist but this is outrageous". Already using the F word is being straight up disrespectful for nothing. They did nothing to you right? So just be respectful towards them. He sounds just like a teenager who just wants to use bad words for fun. Second, have you heard the cover? And if you did, even though you didn't like it, why the hell are you calling it a blasphemy? Blasphemy, by definition, is the action or offence of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things. Did they do that? I don't think so. All they did was covering a song they liked because it brought them comfort during those hard times.

Finally, he says  "For this, BTS is going to have a vacation in North Korea for the next 20 years". I don't even want to comment on this last sentence. It just doesn't make sense to wish someone to spend 20 years in North Korea, and here he's tackling an even more sensitive topic. 

II. How the radio handled the case & public backlash

In response to what happened, Bayern 3 defended their presenter, saying that while he may have gone too far, it was not Matuschik's intentions to harm anyone. Their exact words were the following: "It is the character of this show and also of the presenter to express his opinion clearly, openly and unvarnished. In this case, he overshot the mark in his choice of words in an attempt to present his opinion in an ironically exaggerated manner and with exaggeratedly feigned excitement, and thus hurt the feelings of the BTS fans. But, as he assured us, this was in no way his intention. He only wanted to express his displeasure about the above-mentioned cover version" (source: dw.com).

Now, here's my take on this: You cannot justify such words by saying that it fits the "bold" character of the show and its host, because nothing justifies racist words, and it may have not been his intention to hurt people but he should've anticipated it. You cannot be racist towards a group of people without being backlashed, especially nowadays when people are not afraid anymore to fight for causes they think are worthy fighting for, anti-racism being one of them. 

Celebrities such as Max and Lauv took their twitter accounts to express their disgust towards the issue, while Halsey expressed herself on her Instagram account. Here are some captions I took from their social media accounts:

Seeing that the public was still angry after they released their first statement (and the hashtag "Apologize to BTS" was trending worldwide on Twitter), Bayern 3 decides to release a second statement saying the following:

The one thing I agree with here is that Matthias and his family shouldn't receive serious threats. We shouldn't respond to this by violence, otherwise we would step as low as Matthias Matuschik did. I think he understood the message now that we all expressed our disagreement and our anger, but violence isn't the right way to do this. 

III. My personal story with racism and how I interpreted things

First of all, I have witnessed people being racist for my entire life. I am from a middle-eastern country where people are hostile towards Asian and European people. But it's like this everywhere. I am now living in France, and when I go to take care of administrative work they laugh when they hear my last name. But racism towards asian people became even worse after Covid-19 started. The whole world thinks that it started because of the asian countries, but these countries managed to control the virus better than some others. 

Second of all, this man had the wrong image about BTS in his mind. BTS isn't just the most popular group in the world right now. They aren't people who just like to show off their money. BTS is a group that always expressed themselves on sensitive topics such as violence, suicide, the educational system in South Korea, etc., and they always stood up and spoke up against social issues like racism and children abuse, materialised by their "End Violence" campaign with UNICEF. BTS fights for what they think is right fighting for, and they know what they're talking about because they have been through difficult times. This is also what makes them so strong and so popular.

To conclude this article, I want to send a message to everyone who's victim of racism and/or violence: Speak up. It's your right to defend yourself, and people will help you. Nowadays, people are more aware of this issue and are less afraid to condemn it by helping the victims as much as they can. So don't be afraid, and SPEAK YOURSELF.

I'll leave the link to the speech RM (the leader of BTS) did at the first UN assembly they attended here. I believe it's the best way of asking people to speak up, and that it's a great message of tolerance. 

On that note, I hope you all take care of yourselves and I'll see you next time.

Love, Swan

 

Sources: Soompi, allkpop, official twitter accounts of Max & Lauv, Halsey's official Instagram account, dw.com, voici.fr, opoyi.com.