The Countdown Continues

So yesterday, remember how all those teaser pics were released?
Well today SM published a COMPLETELY NEW BATCH!!! Like, Seohyun's official one leaked yesterday, so no new one for her... but OMG SM ARE YOU GOING TO DO THIS EVERY FREAKING DAY???

I don't know how they can afford to do that... If these pictures will be used in a photobook or something, how can they?

On that note, here ya go:

TIFANNY!!! OMG, she looks like YOONA here. Totally bizarre.  Wow, that hair color is super awesome!!!

Jessica, OMG. I love these pictures because they are closer up. Her hair is awesome.
Plus she has those cutesy little eye gems.
And lol, does that badge say Sweet Potato? Awesome.

OH MY GOD THANK GOODNESS.
Pant pant pant.
Oh, thank god.
Sunny! Your hair is back to purple! Awesome purple! Not crazy yellow-green! Cuz that would be DISGUSTING!
Phew. Phew. Phew. THANK YOU SUNNY.

Woooooooa. Yuri.... you are so freaking punk. You're gonna rock this comeback.
Oh, I really really REALLY hope SM gives her more air time!
She barely had any lines in Flower Power.
I WANT MORE YURI! Her voice is so nice... I like it.

Aw... aren't you cute, Sooyoung. Green suits her.  She has sort of a green voice.
Her hair bunch is really cute.

Yoona. Yayayayayayay. Yoona. YAAAAY.
Her eyes are back to normal :).

YAAAAAAAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAAAAAY!

OMG AAAAAH. Her hair is back to normal! And it's awesome! So cute! Taengoo!

Yup, still this....

Soshi Sneak Peaks

The rest of the teaser pictures for SNSD's comeback have been released! I was surprised, because it is very unusual for a company to release them all at once, but perhaps they were just leaked... anyways, they are on allkpop. And I will now show them to you!

Seohyun! She looks so cute!
In some ways, the long shirt plays off better without shorts at all, instead of an attempt at mini-shorts.
I love her hair all fluffy, and her eyeliner is super awesome.

Taeyeon... rrgh, PLEASE don't wear a blond wig in the music video!
When you're actually blond and well styled, you look awesome, but...
SM has a bad history with blond wigs! Sunny in Flower Power, You and Tiffany in Hoot...
Sigh... 

Jessica... where are you? Did you kill that unicorn? This theme looks so color bleary in an awesome way...
Love your hair!

...
What the frigging hell, Sunny?
What are you doing?
WHAT IS UP WITH YOUR HAIR?
IT'S FREAKING GREEN???

WHAT THE HEEEEECK??? This is the weirdest picture of Sunny ever! You can't even tell who she is! If this picture were floating around the internet, I would NOT RECOGNIZE HER.
...
Unless I saw the Sunny hat. But still.
I HATE THIS PICTURE.

Tiffany! You look so beautiful! You're like a fluffy goddess!!!
Tiffany totally rocks this hair color. I like the floaty chopped style, but in the teaser, the long waviness was also awesome.

Way to go Hyoyeon! You ride that plastic horse! You paint your hair rainbow!

OMIGOD YURI AWESOMENESS AAAAAAAAAH!!!

I actually really really like this picture. More than some of the others (coughsunnycough).
Sooyoung isn't a huge favorite of mine, but here she looks totally awesome. I love this style for all of them.
With one notable exception (coughsunnycough).

OH MY GOD YOONA YOUR EYES ARE FREAKING BLUE!!!
I don't know what face she's making but OMG!!!

Additional Seohyun picture officially released. I guess maybe the others were leaked, but then they'll each get additional ones? Hmm...

Well that was AWESOME. Hwaiting! Can't wait!

~Julia

P.S. Rrrgh, can't wait for T-ara's teasers...

SNSD Out of the Blue

So we all know that everyone's promising their comebacks of the new year... SNSD's return to Korea, Dani's debut with T-ara, Sistar19's alleged return... and many more from other groups.

But just two minutes ago, I went on allkpop and BAM - out of no where, Girls Generation's dropped a single. From their upcoming album. No teasers or anything, just here.

No one in the comment sections seemed to be so surprised, but I was kind of like WTF SMTOWN??? NO WARNING???

But omg it's awesome. The song is called Dancing Queen, and it was filmed and recorded in 2008!!! 4 - almost 5 years ago! I really love this song, because it puts all of their vocal talent in the spotlight. In SNSD, sometimes their amazingness is drawn from their looks or dancing or status or whatnot, but the only people who get real singing recognition are about 4 or 5 of them, depending on the song.

So, while this isn't the CATCHIEST song of theirs, I really like it. I can't believe it was filmed in 2008! I mean, I can watching it, because they look like they did then, but it's like... it's like I time traveled to the beginning of their career, watching them release songs as rookies. So weird.

Also, I kind of prefer Sunny with longer hair. Bonus points for that.

Anyways, at the beginning there was a little prologue filmed recently. Then at the end, it sped forwards and morphed into sort of a teaser for their upcoming album. It had them posing and looking absolutely amazing (YURI BABY!!!) with all this exotic hair stuff going on.

The album shall be called "I Got a Boy" and will be released January 1st - when I'm in freaking Mexico!!! Anyways, bursting out of my skin. They look so hot.

Also, there were teaser images for Hyoyeon, who had this really cool iridescent rainbowy color over her regular blond hair. The makeup was crazy. I can't wait for Yuri's image. She looked so hot in the teaser!

This was posted on Youtube literally 3 minutes ago. Enjoy!


I'm going to go see if it's available on iTunes yet.. actually, don't bother. I'll wait for the album. Actually I won't, but I'll wait for tomorrow anyways.


THANKYOU GIRLS GENERATION!!! YOU ROCK!!!

~Julia

Jia Rocks

OMG!!! Jia has a kitten! She keeps posting pictures of it on instagram, and it's so cute! Jia, that makes you awesome!

(Not that you weren't already awesome. This just attests to your awesomeness. Yaaaay, Jia!

Sistar19 Comeback!!!

I just went on Tumblr, and according to Sistarology, Sistar19 will be making a comeback next year, 2013. I don't know if this means January, or before or after Sistar's next comeback as a group, or what.

I'm glad that they're still keeping up with that as a subunit, but it's weird, because they are such a tight foursome... I'll miss Soyu and Dasom :(

Well, I hope they have lots of success. Can't wait for more details!

SPICA

I discovered Spica a while ago, on the Kpop Lyrics site, with their previous comeback "I'll Be There". I'll be there was kind of a bubble-gum style pop song. They seemed very at home with the style, so I just sort of assumed that they were that kind of group.

Well...


nope.

Turns out their past two releases, as well as their most recent comeback, is all sexy and darker and stuff.
They are pretty awesome, but I'm not used to visualizing them as more dark. I mean, even SPICA just sounds so bubly as a name. I'm not sure what it's supposed to mean.

UPDATE: Hello, this is like a month later, and I am here to tell you that SPICA is AWESOME!!! Spica is the name of the brightest star in some galaxy, and so yeah. I found out that Sistar's fanclub was almost named that (cuz it's a STAR) but they aren't.

SPICA's fanclub is named Mercury. Don't know what that makes me. A Mercury? A Mercurian? Anyways they are SUPER FREAKING AWESOME AND AMAZING YAAAAAY!!!

They are all really really talented singers, which you can't always take for granted in kpop. Like they are SUPER great. The lead singer is the Maknae, which I think is pretty cool. I can't tell who's better, her or the leader (who also raps).

My bias is the lead rapper, Juhyun. Juhyun has this really rich, low voice. She can sing too, but I feel like she always has a lot of... substance. Not that the others don't, really, but her voice is more relaxing.

The group has five members, including Jiwon, who was in pre-debut T-ara.

They're a rookie group, but they've already released three singles and a mini album. Wow!

My favorite song is probably Russian Roulette. Painkiller is awesome because it really shows off their vocal amazing-ness, but the vibe of Russian Roulette kind of appeals more to me. It's a really cool music video. At the end Juhyun dies :(. You don't really see that though. The gun goes off and a candle blows out.

So sad...

Anyways, here are there other music videos:

I'll make an official profile for them soon...

Teensplop Kpop Awards

BEST ROOKIE:
Ailee

Runner's Up:
1) Ace of Angels
2) SPICA
3) Lee Hi
4) D-unit


CUTEST MUSIC VIDEO:
Sistar's Loving U

Runner's Up:
1) She'z UU
2) TaeTiSeo's Twinkle
3) Orange Caramel - Lipstick
4) Hello Venus - Venus


SEXIEST MUSIC VIDEO:
There has been a tie for first place between:
Sistar's Alone and T-ara's Day by Day dance video.

Runner's Up:
1) KARA's Pandora
2) T-ara's Sexy Love
3) Girl's Generation - Flower Power


WORST MUSIC VIDEO:
Rania's Style

WEIRDEST COSTUME:

*pending

BEST OUTFIT:

It's currently a tie between:

Miss A's Touch and Orange Caramel's Lipstick

VERSUS

SEXIEST OUTFIT:

T-ara Day by Day - story version

Runner's Up:

1) Sistar - Alone

2) T-ara - Day by Day - dance version

3) SNSD - Paparazzi

4) SNSD - Flower Power

BEST NON-TITLE TRACK:
T-ara's Holiday

Runner's Up:
1) TaeTiSeo - Baby Steps
2) Sistar - Lead Me
3) Miss A - Time's Up
4) Miss A - Over U


SEXIEST KPOP PERSON:
Jiyeon

Runner's Up:
1) Bora
2) Yuri
3) Hyomin
4) Hyorin


BEST CHOREOGRAPHY:
SNSD's Paparazzi

Runner's Up:
1) Sistar - Alone
2) KARA - Pandora
3) AOA - Elvis
4) AOA - Get Out
5) SNSD - Flower Power


BEST MUSIC VIDEO:
T-ara's Day by Day/Sexy Love saga

Runner's Up:
1) TaeTiSeo - Twinkle
2) Secret - Poison
3) T-ara - Lovey Dovey (dance version)
4) Ace of Angels - Get Out
5) Orange Caramel - Lipstick
6) KARA - Pandora


BEST SONG OF THE YEAR:
Sistar's Alone

Runner's Up:
1) TaeTiSeo - Twinkle
2) AOA - Elvis
3) T-ara - Day by Day
4) Sistar - Loving U
5) SNSD - Flower Power
6) SNSD - Paparazzi
7) f(x) - Electric Shock


BEST GIRL GROUP:
Sistar

Runner's Up:
1) T-ara
2) Girl's Generation
3) Secret
4) KARA

Teensplop Kpop Awards Round 2

Time for Round 2! The candidates will be evened out and 5 of each category will be eliminated. At the bottom of each category, we will list the rankings of the eliminated nominees.

THE NOMINEES FOR BEST ROOKIE OF THE YEAR:

1) Ailee
One of the strongest vocalists this year, she disputes the title of "Korean Beyonce" with Sistar's leader Hyorin. Starred in the TV-musical Dream High 2 with Hyorin and Jiyeon, showing off her strong vocal talent in their joint single "Super Star", preceding her debut with the light song "Heaven". Just released her first mini-album, Invitation, two months ago.

2) Spica
I didn't even know these guys were rookies... because they've released like five singles. It's crazy. They all have wickedly good vocal talent, and the main rapper/singers have really juicy, rich voices. Most of their stuff is toned sort of dark and sulky, but they released one bubble-gum style single called "I'll be There".

3) Ace of Angels
These guys are like awesome. The group arrangement is kind of confusing - 8 members, 5 in a band, 7 in a dance group. Their songs are catchy, they're all talented, and they're super unique. Keep fighting your way back to heaven, angels!

4) Lee Hi
Lee Hi is now known as the monster rookie for staying on top of the Gaon charts for a month straight, making all sorts of records, and winning a bunch of shows since her debut. She was the winner of Kpop Star, marking her as the next big hit as a kpop soloist.

5) She'z
She'z has only released two songs. Neither of them ESPECIALLY jumped out at me, but they are all great at singing and performing live, their music videos are bright and energetic, and the member Taeyeon-not-Taeyeon looks like a freaking porcelain doll!

6) D-unit
3 members. Going for a badass-y loner angle. Super talented singers, rappers dancers. Their most recent single, Love Me, is pretty freaking awesome. Includes Boram's younger sister Ram. Who is... dare I say it? Potentially more talented than her sister!


THE NOMINEES FOR BEST PACKAGED ALBUM (EVER)

1) T-ara - Day by Day
Comes with possibly the biggest freaking amazing photo book in a mini-album ever. Comes with great quality pictures of each member, as well as many many pictures from the amazing music video. High quality, sturdy pictures.

2) SNSD - Paparazzi
Want packaging? SM's got packaging. Newspapers from the paparazzi press... photocards... coolness.

3) SNSD - Girl's & Peace (deluxe)
42 page photobook, SNSD diary, 2013 calendar, and cosmetic set.

4) T-ara - Black Eyes
Kind of the same deal as Day by Day, but different concept in the solo pictures, and Cry Cry and Lovey Dovey versus Day by Day and Sexy Love.

5) SNSD - 1st Japanese Album
Comes in this big square box-a-licious maze, with a double zippered purse. Photobook. Awesome photos. Plus I love all the songs which AREN'T ON FREAKING ITUNES.

6) Ace of Angels - Angels' Story
Sturdy, thick, embossed cover encompasses this photobook with an actual plot to it - a plot of angels come to earth! Way impressive for a rookie album. Lots of time and effort in design.

7) T-ara - Best Of, 2009 - 2012
Photobook... DVDs.... CD collections... it's got it all...
Not sure if that counts as PACKAGING though...


THE NOMINEES FOR CUTEST SONG/MV

1) Sistar - Loving U
Cute, pretty girls bouncing around in summer clothes in Hawaii... on the beach... in the pool... roller skating... on slides... what could be cuter than that?

2) TaeTiSeo - Twinkle
With their hand flicks and hair flips and Tiffany winks flying all over the place... the aegyo is spilling over the top without seeming overwellming and stuff.

3) Orange Caramel - Lipstick
Sexy ping pong ball in tight orange jump suits...
...
Okay.

4) She'z - UU
These guys are just super cute, so pair that with a light hearted song in a cute music video, and you get... SUPER CUTENESS!

5) Hello Venus - Venus
Whatever. They're cute, I guess.


THE NOMINEES FOR SEXIEST SONG/MV

1) Sistar - Alone
Sultry, sexy, sullen.... A new concept for them, and they hit in on the nail. Their faces are perfect, the dance is perfect, their costumes are perfect... the shots of in the bar are so freaking sexy!

3) T-ara - Day by Day
The dance is just amazingly sexy. It's not even overly sexy, like Hyuna or anything. Subtly amazingly beautiful and curvy and smooth. Go T-ara!

4) Girl's Generation - Flower Power

5) KARA - Pandora
This is my first experience with KARA, and I am very impressed. From Hara's GIGANTIC FREAKING EYES to the little sexy arm jolts and leg slips, to the break down as the bridge... they are awesome.

6) T-ara - Sexy Love
A song called Sexy Love has to be sexy to some extent... T-ara went with robots. Sexy robots. Sexy robots meaning Jiyeon being sexy doing a robot dance.



THE NOMINEES FOR BEST ALBUM TRACK OF THE YEAR

1) TaeTiSeo - Baby Steps

2) T-ara - Holiday

3) Miss A - Time's Up

4) Miss A - Over U

5) Sistar - Lead Me


THE NOMINEES FOR BEST CHOREOGRAPHY

1) Sistar - Alone

3) KARA - Pandora

4) Girl's Generation - Paparazzi

5) Ace of Angels - Elvis

6) Ace of Angels - Get Out




THE NOMINEES FOR BEST MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR

1) KARA - Pandora

2) TaeTiSeo - Twinkle

4) T-ara - Day by Day/Sexy Love story version

5) T-ara - Lovey Dovey dance version

6) Ace of Angels - Get Out

7) Orange Caramel - Lipstick

8) Secret - Poison



THE NOMINEES FOR BEST SONG OF THE YEAR:

2) T-ara - Day by Day

3) Sistar - Alone

4) Ace of Angels - Elvis

5) f(x) - Electric Shock

6) Sistar - Loving U

7) TaeTiSeo - Twinkle

8) Girl's Generation - Paparazzi

9) Girl's Generation - Flower Power



THE NOMINEES FOR BEST GIRL GROUP OF THE YEAR

1) Sistar

2) T-ara

3) Girl's Generation (TaeTiSeo)

4) KARA

5) Secret

Teensplop Annual Kpop Awards

Tis the season.... for kpop to wrap up it's awards! Youtube channels are tolling their votes, and all sorts of prizes are being awarded for song of the year, best group, that sort of thing. I decided I might as well follow the trend here. The flaw in my plan is that no one can vote, so it's really just me, and then I'll feel guilty...

I could ask my friends... but they don't really know much at all...

I'll work something out.

The point is, I'm announcing the nominations! I might make little award show videos, but I might not if all I can do is screenshots... we'll see.

Here it goes!


THE NOMINEES FOR BEST ROOKIE OF THE YEAR:

1) Ailee

2) Spica

3) Ace of Angels

4) Lee Hi

5) She'z

6) 15&

7) Hello Venus

8) D-unit

9) THE SEEYA

10) Fiestar


THE NOMINEES FOR BEST PACKAGED ALBUM (EVER)

1) T-ara - Day by Day

2) SNSD - Paparazzi

3) SNSD - Girl's & Peace

4) Sistar - Loving U

5) T-ara - Breaking Heart

6) T-ara - Black Eyes

7) SNSD - 1st Japanese Album

8) TaeTiSeo - Twinkle

9) Ace of Angels - Angels' Story

10) T-ara - Best Of, 2009 - 2012


THE NOMINEES FOR CUTEST SONG/MV

1) Sistar - Loving U

2) TaeTiSeo - Twinkle

3) Miss A - I Don't Need a Man

4) Orange Caramel - Lipstick

5) Spica - I'll be There

6) She'z - UU

7) Hello Venus - Venus

8) IU - song

9) Yuna Kim - Super Girl


THE NOMINEES FOR SEXIEST SONG/MV

1) Sistar - Alone

2) Hyuna - Ice Cream

3) T-ara - Day by Day

4) Girl's Generation - Flower Power

5) KARA - Pandora

6) T-ara - Sexy Love



THE NOMINEES FOR BEST ALBUM TRACK OF THE YEAR

1) TaeTiSeo - Baby Steps

2) T-ara - Holiday

3) Miss A - Time's Up

4) Miss A - Over U

5) Sistar - Lead Me

6) Miss A - Lips


THE NOMINEES FOR BEST CHOREOGRAPHY

1) Sistar - Alone

2) T-ara - Sexy Love

3) KARA - Pandora

4) Miss A - Touch

5) T-ara - Lovey Dovey

6) Girl's Generation - Paparazzi

7) Miss A - I Don't Need a Man

8) Sistar - Loving U

9) Girl's Generation - Flower Power

10) TaeTiSeo - Twinkle

11) Ace of Angels - Elvis

12) Ace of Angels - Get Out




THE NOMINEES FOR BEST MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR

1) KARA - Pandora

2) TaeTiSeo - Twinkle

3) Psy - Gangnam Style

4) T-ara - Day by Day/Sexy Love story version

5) T-ara - Sexy Love dance version

6) Sistar - Loving U

7) K-will - Please Don't

8) T-ara - Lovey Dovey dance version

9) Ace of Angels - Get Out

10) T-ara - Lovey Dovey story version

11) Miss A - I Don't Need a Man

12) Orange Caramel - Lipstick

13) Secret - Poison

14) Girl's Generation - Paparazzi

15) Spica - Lonely

16) Miss A - Touch

17) Ace of Angels - Elvis


THE NOMINEES FOR BEST SONG OF THE YEAR:

1) Ailee - I'll Show You

2) T-ara - Sexy Love

3) T-ara - Day by Day

4) Sistar - Alone

5) Ace of Angels - Elvis

6) KARA - Pandora

7) f(x) - Electric Shock

8) Sistar - Loving U

9) TaeTiSeo - Twinkle

10) Girl's Generation - Paparazzi

11) Miss A - Touch

12) T-ara - Lovey Dovey

13) Girl's Generation - Flower Power

14) Miss A - I Don't Need a Man

15) Spica - Lonely


THE NOMINEES FOR BEST GIRL GROUP OF THE YEAR

1) Sistar

2) T-ara

3) Girl's Generation (TaeTiSeo)

4) KARA

5) Secret





Okay... sooooo... this is the first round! Most of the categories have an even fiveable number of nominees, but some don't. For the next round, categories with candidates of 12 and over will be rounded down to 10, and under that down to 5.

After the next round, categories at 5 will remain so, and categories of 10 will be once again lowered. At the final round, there will be individual descriptions of each nominee in each category.

Good luck to all our contestants!

T-ara Won Best Kpop Idol

I don't know what this was for, but T-ara won this big award of Kpop Superior Awesomeness. The 20th Korean Culture Awards! I'm really really glad. T-ara doesn't get enough credit, and Sistar's had its turn.

They've had real boosts of sales and stuff in Japan, though. Personally, I find it really hard to listen to Japanese versions of Korean songs, because even though I couldn't sing the words, I know how they go, and the Japanese sounds wrong.

The girls are in these super spiffy wedding dresses. They look awesome, like the queens they are. Yaaaaaaay! Yay T-ara! That must be really meaningful to them, after they lost popularity over the scandal.

Part of me hates that Areum is taller than Jiyeon... but whatever.

My favorite dress is probably Qri's, but I also like the pink pearly sheen on Jiyeon and Areum's... I mean, they're all amazing dresses. A lot of the photography was crappy, though. And not a single solo shot of Qri! Like, wth!

T-ara also won another award not to long ago... It's this big Japanese Gold Album award. It's super prestigious, and they beat Girl's Generation to earning it. They all wanted the award, but they gave it to Dani, the joining member, to motivate her.

For some reason, this made a lot of people angry. They were like "Dani didn't even do anything on that album and it's stupid and she sucks."

I'm like, it still belongs to T-ara, technically... and honestly it probably makes sense to give it to her. They're all supposed to be of equal value to the group, and maybe they would give it to Soyeon, because she's the leader, but she wasn't the leader the year this album was released, but she is the main vocalist, but we don't want to discredit Hyomin and Eunjung...

In a group like SNSD, it might be easy to decide that Taeyeon gets the prize, but here, it's a lot more nasty to untangle.

Luckily, they have the perfect outlier - Dani! Dani is the new, inspired, joining member, who probably needs the encouragement. She's like their mascot now. I thought it was really generous of them to give that to her, and I expected people to agree with me, but they were really unpleasant towards Dani.

Anyways, many congrats to T-ara! Keep slaying!

Sistar is Officially the Best Girl Group Out There

MAMA is this big thing in Korea. It's basically THE Korean award show/competition/ceremony of the year. Like the Oscars of kpop.  MAMA takes into account a lot of stuff. Chart sales, awards won in little weekly shows, views of music videos, judges' scores, and the popular vote.

You go online and you vote in all the categories. The only categories I really cared about was Best Girl Group and Best Rookie.

The candidates for best rookies that I cared about were:
-Ailee
-AOA
-Lee Hi
-Spica

It was a tough choice for me between Ailee and Ace of Angels, but honestly I'm really really glad that Ailee won. Congratulations! I hope it brings her lots of future success as a soloist.

The candidates for Best Girl Group were:

-2NE1
-Sistar
-T-ara
-Taetiseo
-KARA

And possibly one other group... like 4minute or Wonder Girls or Secret or something.

Anyways, this was really tough for me, because every time I went to my groups' fan sites, they would be like "Remember to vote for T-ara!" or "C'mon Star1! Sistar for the win!"or "Sones! We can still beat Sistar! Let's do it!"

And I'm like "Yeah!" I want to support them all. Honestly, in most of the other voting competitions since, I've been voting for T-ara. I think they unfairly lost a lot of their support, but they deserve it, so I assume that Sistar can take care of itself, and just aim to get T-ara higher in the rankings.

Anyways, Sistar won. Am I surprised? No. Am I happy? Totally. They deserve it. People don't really seem to realize what a big deal they are. I'm kind of sad though, because a year ago, when I found them, they weren't as famous. Alone hadn't happened, or Loving U. It felt more personal. Now I feel like all these cheap Psy-addicted kpop junkies are just going along with it.

I miss my little underrated Sistar!

Anyways, congrats to them. Good luck in the future, other girl groups!