Artist of the Week | 4Men

I am a huge fan of R&B! And K-R&B/Soul was literally probably one of the best things to ever happen to music… In my humble opinion.

Introducing 4Men.

4Men debuted in 1998 with four members. Over time, this dynamic changed and the group of Four has become Three, Kim Young Jae, Shin Yong Jae, and Kim Won Joo. They’ve released plenty of songs for OST’s like “I Remember You”, “Secret Garden”, and “Gu Family Book”.

I love their sound and I think they are absolutely incredible! Check out some of their songs in the featured playlist below!

브라운 아이드 소울 (Brown Eyed Soul) [Artist of the Week] (Playlist)

브라운 아이드 소울 (Brown Eyed Soul) [Artist of the Week]

Last week, you may have noticed that there wasn’t an Artist of the Week. My whole week was thrown off and I just completely forgot. However, it’s back and to start it off right, I picked a group that I completely love! If you’re into real soul and R&B music, this is a group you should get to know. They kinda remind me of late 90’s – early 2000’s American soul music.

브라운 아이드 소울 (Brown Eyed Soul) is an R&B/Soul 4 member male group. They debuted back in 2003 with the album Soul Free. Since then, they have gone on to release 3 additional albums and 4 mini-albums. Besides working as a group, they have each done their own solo work as well. Still staying within the realms of R&B. I love this group for not only their unique sound but also for their amazing harmonies! They are just absolutely amazing and I’m a huge fan!

Don’t forget to check out the Artist of the Week playlist featuring more of their music.

Artist of the Week:: Park Ji-min

I’ve kinda been following 15& just a bit. They’re still kinda new in my book. The officially debuted in 2012 so that makes them 3 years old. I’m sure by now you’ll probably heard of them though. Although the duo is not the Artist of the Week this week, one half of the duo is and that’s Park Ji-min.

Park Ji-min is an all around talent and is currently in the midst of her solo debut. She began as the first winner of K-pop Star and initially was given the option to sign with YG, SM, or JYP. She chose JYP, did a bit of solo music before being paired with Baek Yerin for the group 15&. Since then, they’ve done collectively (and solo) what I like to call “Pop-R&B”. It kinda teeters between the two sounds. And for a young duo, it’s a good place for them. But aside from singing, Park Ji-min has also done a bit of acting. She’s been in Dream Knight and MC’d for the After School Club.

Don’t forget to check out the featured Artist of the Week playlist!

프라이머리(Primary) | [Artist of the Week]

I’ve been highlighting a lot of albums but I haven’t forgotten about the Artist of the Week! The artist I’m highlighting this week is one that I’ve heard about but never actually sat down and listened to any of his music. Biggest regret! Glad I did today!

The Artist of the Week is 프라이머리(Primary)! I really love the mellow and chill sound that he displays on his albums but especially the one below. Shininyru was released in 2017. As I was listening to it, I noticed how his music from the past is slightly different than what’s he’s been releasing lately. It’s still that same r&b sound but I think it’s starting to have more of a neo-soul feel to it.

And if you’re curious how I found him again, I was introduced to him by the song “When I fall in love” featuring Meego which came out last month. You can hear that song here.

If you haven’t heard of 프라이머리 before, check out his album Shininryu below! And don’t forget to check out his other music on Spotify as well!

Reading and Listening in Korean Practice | iKON-ON: Bobby & Ju-Ne ‘깊은 밤’ MAKING FILM

Okay so I was just scrolling through YouTube today when I ran across this video. Normally, I kinda just watch them and then move on to find some more new music but I noticed something about this video that I really wanted to share with you guys.

Maybe you’ve been searching for ways to practice reading in Korean or even working on your listening but the things you’ve been finding aren’t all that interesting or maybe they’re not something you would use in everyday speech. Well, this is a video I thought would be helpful.

Sometimes I find makeup tutorials like this and share them when I find them because for the beauty gurus that follow me but also want to practice Korean, it’s super helpful! And this is no different, especially if you’re a fan of iKON.

The video is completely in Korean but it has built-in subtitles, that are in Korean to help you follow along if you’re working on listening and/or reading. To help you out some for words you may not understand, just click the CC button for English translation. This video is also subtitled in Japanese so you can switch to that translation as well.

Challenge:

Try to watch it first without the subtitles and then go back again with the CC on and see how much you understood!

New Music Update! | [Videos]

I haven’t done one of these in a while and since I spent a good portion of the afternoon just listening to a lot of music and watching music videos, I decided to share some of my favorite new music so far!

New Music Alert! [Videos]

I haven’t done this in a while but sometimes while I’m just kinda relaxing on a lazy Saturday, I’ll just click on the recommended videos on YouTube and I’m always happy to hear the new music. Sometimes I get to hear new artists that I’ve never heard of before and sometimes it’s familiar faces with a creative visual for new music.