I've been deliberating this over the past week, and I think I'm going to change the song used to represent Monsta X. The currently selected song is "From Zero," which I chose originally because it had charted so high on Billboard (as we've been selecting songs partly based on their popularity with Western audiences). The other day I found out that the only reason it got so popular is that fans "streamed" it (played the song on repeat) to pay tribute to Wonho, a member that had recently been forced to leave the group.
While it could be interesting to keep this song around as a way to demonstrate fan-behavior and the streaming phenomenon, the greater point of this project to is (at least in part) help Westerners understand why K-Pop is so popular and enjoyed. A big part of that was providing examples of songs that appeal to Western audiences, or at least have proven themselves popular in the West. Additionally, "From Zero" is (to me) a rather generic song, and one that doesn't full demonstrate the group's aesthetic/sound or K-Pop's high production quality in general (it also doesn't even have a music video!)
So, we're changing the song to Monsta X's newest comeback "Love Killa." I feel this is a better fit for the project, especially because it helps show a darker and more mature side to K-Pop -- it helps battle the stereotype that K-Pop as a whole is very juvenile and "made for kids." This song, alongside EXO's Obsession, shows a side of the genre that I think is often very missed by the West when discussing K-Pop, which is part of the mission statement of this project.
I'll be updating the links in past issues and uploading the marked up version of Love Killa within the next few days.
I've been deliberating this over the past week, and I think I'm going to change the song used to represent Monsta X. The currently selected song is "From Zero," which I chose originally because it had charted so high on Billboard (as we've been selecting songs partly based on their popularity with Western audiences). The other day I found out that the only reason it got so popular is that fans "streamed" it (played the song on repeat) to pay tribute to Wonho, a member that had recently been forced to leave the group.
While it could be interesting to keep this song around as a way to demonstrate fan-behavior and the streaming phenomenon, the greater point of this project to is (at least in part) help Westerners understand why K-Pop is so popular and enjoyed. A big part of that was providing examples of songs that appeal to Western audiences, or at least have proven themselves popular in the West. Additionally, "From Zero" is (to me) a rather generic song, and one that doesn't full demonstrate the group's aesthetic/sound or K-Pop's high production quality in general (it also doesn't even have a music video!)
So, we're changing the song to Monsta X's newest comeback "Love Killa." I feel this is a better fit for the project, especially because it helps show a darker and more mature side to K-Pop -- it helps battle the stereotype that K-Pop as a whole is very juvenile and "made for kids." This song, alongside EXO's Obsession, shows a side of the genre that I think is often very missed by the West when discussing K-Pop, which is part of the mission statement of this project.
I'll be updating the links in past issues and uploading the marked up version of Love Killa within the next few days.