#Random 17: K-pop wrecked my playlist!!!

My K-playlist

It has been going on for quite some time --the trend of me discovering so many good K-pop songs, but now K-pop literally is the theme of my playlist... It now comprises 204 out of 647 of my liked songs, almost reaching 30% of it!

As you can see from the image above, I started collecting K-pop songs in 2016. At that time, I actually used YouTube a lot more than Spotify. While doing my school work at night, I usually shuffle my YouTube playlist and was so happy singing along to the songs. At one instance, my YouTube recommended me so much of K-pop songs and it just.... grew on me.

I remember the first non-mainstream K-pop song I discovered was I Am You, You Are Me by Zico (only recently I found out that the song is actually SOTY 2016 material, up against Cheer Up and Blood Sweat & Tears, no wonder). I was recommended that song by one of my friends (who has just started being an early ARMY hahaha I see u chingu) and I quite liked the song. Somehow, the song was played on V-Channel (RIP..) and I finally noticed the K-pop segment there, searched some songs myself on YouTube, and this started the K-pop recommendation frenzy in my channel lol you now how persistent YouTube can be once they decided you like some topic. I was not even mad.... they were gold!

It stopped for a while. I still liked Korean songs but I didn't search for it actively anymore. Throughout the years, several catchy Korean songs got me again, for example, IKON's LOVE SCENARIO and KILLING ME, SEVENTEEN's Oh My, WINNER's ISLAND and AIR, or BLACKPINK's songs. They adorned some highlight moments of my college life if you read this. My friend even curated me a May 2018 playlist comprised of so many good K-pop songs and from there I discovered that IU indeed is so great! However, this still has never brought me to another K-pop listening spree.

Then in 2020.. you know I was suddenly weirdly enchanted with TWICE LOL (yes I finally spoke it out loud hereeeeeee after making it quite mysterious in my previous blog post). I started to rigorously listen to sooo many TWICE songs in my Spotify and as you can guess, they recommended me other K-pop songs!

After it was suddenly full of TWICE back in April - May 2020, my playlist is now officially so diverse with K-pop songs and I AM SO HAPPY. I think finding good foreign songs is like finding treasures. Not all songs fit your style and when you find one that's super bop, the happiness is immeasurable!

I loved Korean songs because somehow they offered a huge range of melody, it can be full of beat, it can be full of melancholy (gosh I *LOVE* this kind of songs really hahaha), it can be super cheerful, but most of all you can just not understand a thing.. :) I think this has always become my main attraction to K-pop or foreign songs in general. By not understanding a thing, you become solely attracted to the melody and sound. You can even listen to these songs while concentrating on doing other things and should not be afraid that your thinking can be distracted since you don't understand the lyric!

My K playlist, which I was hiding consciously back then, is now something that I am proud of. I've passed through the era where listening K-pop was considered.. shameful or uncool? and have decided to just love what I love. Wow the sudden #ILoveMe post. I am still bad at finding new songs independently so I am looking forward to all these big data thingy to continue introducing me to good K-pop song (or any song really) out there that suits my taste!