There were quite some interesting comments on my last post, about censorship in the Korean music industry. A few conflicting opinions, but I definitely enjoyed reading each and every comment. Thanks, guys! Today I bring you an MV. I may have mentioned 박효신 before - he's one of my favourites, with a smooth, soulful voice that's perfect for the ballad style he sings. He's actually been pretty quiet in the music scene for quite some time now. There were a few legal issues that I'm not entirely sure about (some problem with the label he's signed to, sueing, court battles, I don't even know what was happening but whatever it was it sucked), and to be honest I was a little worried that all of it would mean an even longer period of silence... Show more

The Korean music industry is a strict place. While America and other Western countries seem to have few problems with the content of songs as long it isn't incredibly offensive or full of swearing, Korea on the other hand seems to have very strict ideas about what is and is not suitable for the public. Bad language is an obvious one, but what takes me by surprise every single time is that one of the things they ban songs for - or at least demand lyric changes for - is sexually suggestive content. 비's latest title song Rainism has recently been banned in it's original form because the the government feels some of the lyrics are unhealthy material for young Koreans, and encourage sexual behaviour. The original song has been removed from... Show more

Last week was the 10th anniversary of MNet KM Music Festival Awards, also known as MKMF. Award/performance shows like this generally aren't my thing, I believed I watched it (or something similar) last year and ended up thoroughly annoyed at some of the choices and the balantant insider favouritism and music scene politics, so I decided to spare myself the annoyance and not sit through it. But I got all caught up on the end results, and thought it'd make a good (and long, sorry XD) blog entry for today. The actual event took place on November 15th, but overseas viewers could cast their votes online on the MKMF 2008 website back in October. Nominees for the Best Male Newcomer category were JYP's two boybands 2AM (이노래) and 2PM (10점 만점에... Show more

Thanks everyone who commented on my previous post, I really enjoyed hearing about what you guys like ^^ I've talked about him before some time ago, but today this post is going to be about 비 again, because he's just released his 5집 and although I know a few of you don't like him, I'm a big fan and really happy! It's been 2 years, almost to the day, since he last released an album, which was his 4집 Rain's World, with singles like I'm Coming, 내가 누웠던 침대 (In My Bed) and With U. In the 2 years since then, 비's gone through a lot of changes in his career. He attempted a world tour that was mostly cancelled due to bad management, and when his contract with JYP Entertainment expired he chose to not ignore it - something that recieved a lot of... Show more

I sat my linguistics exam yesterday. THANK GOD THAT IT'S OVER. I don't know a single person on that course who enjoyed it in the end, no matter how enthuisastic they started out. I just hope that I've passed, fingers crossed! Now I have 2 weeks worth of Romanticism history to catch up on ... *dies* I just have to keep on reminding myself that all of this is so that I can go study Korean in my dream university. Today, instead of talking about the music that I like, I wanted to ask, what music do you like? How did you start listening to Korean music? What are some of your favourite artists, or favourite songs? Do you listen to Korean music more than the music of your own country or another country? I'm always very interested to see what... Show more