Happy Thanksgiving!

                                     Happy Thanksgiving (or Twerksgiving) to all of my readers!
While all of you guys are stuffing your faces with turkey, don't forget to enjoy some HAM as well, courtesy of Colette Carr.

SISTAR's Hyolyn Released Her Debut Solo LP "Love and Hate" With Two Title Tracks

It was inevitable that Hyolyn (or Hyorin) would release a solo project sooner or later. And I'm glad it was sooner. "Love & Hate, Vol. 1" sees Starship Entertainment pull out all the stops for Korea's Beyonce in terms of both production credits and aesthetic. And I'm guessing they want this cycle of promotions to last a while because they released two title tracks. The first title track, "Lonely" is a midtempo ballad that reminiscent of Brown Eyed Girls "Cleasing Cream" (and I mean that in a good way) and is a lot more heartfelt and genuine than most ballads that come out of the K-Pop realm this day. And the video! Whoever shot this deserves all the awards. It's literally perfect and captures the essence of the song.
The second title track, "One Way Love" is a bit more upbeat and utilizes more of Hyolyn's killer higher register. I'm kinda of disappointed though as I expected it to be edgier and be on the rock side, much like the teaser made it out to be, but I'm ok with the more straightforward approach. I mean, it is a Brave Brothers production.

Britney Spears "Pefume" Lyric Video

The lyric video for Britney Spears's "Perfume" promo second single has arrived. The single has be floundering on the charts, though it should be slaying because its Britney...Bitch. Well, there's always Vegas. To be honest they should have just used the background during the chorus for the entire song and saved RCA a lot of money than filming some girl wandering around a cheap motel picking up even cheaper bottles of bargain brand perfume. "Britney Jean" is set to drop December 3rd, but it will probably leak before then.

Richard Osborne "Wherever I Fall" (feat. Torch of Triple Cs)

Someone's horny! UK R&B artist Richard Osborne already released a strong EP earlier this year with "Late Night Thoughts" and is already working towards releasing his third. To be honest, I'm ready for a full-length project but I guess you can't rush perfection. His latest output is ditty called "Wherever I Fall" and features Maybach Music Group's Torch. I assumed the title was about getting back up again after failure, but nope! It's about making wherever you fall a bed...so you can do the nasty!!! The production is a more straight-forward affair, with Osborne reaching for falsetto in the middle part of the song (and pulling off quite nicely). Vocals are consistent, but maybe Torch's part could have been done without, as it really doesn't add much to it as a whole. Side note: you know you're about to hit it big when you have a Parental Advisory sticker on your single cover. I'm just saying.

VIXX Releases a Darker Version of SHINee's "Dream Girl" With "Voodoo Doll"

VIXX has been doing the damn thing all year with their concepts, but this has to be their darkest and most disturbing yet. The K-Pop boyband will release their first full-length LP on the 25th of this month after a string of successful singles, EPs and repacks (which includes the glorious "G.R.8.U"). The title track, "Voodoo Doll" is the dark electropop banger that I've always wanted them to do, but instead we got "Hyde", a song I didn't particularly enjoy. It reminds me of SHINee's "Dream Girl" but shrouded in a dark throbbing shroud of mystery and Miley Cyrus's failed coming-of-age single "Can't Be Tamed." The music video is NSFW (in my opinion) and if you are squirmish, I don't recommend watching this at all. A lot of people are desensitized to these things now (I blame "American Horror Story" tbh), but I cringed through about 85% of the video as the boys we're poked, prodded and stabbed within an inch of their lives. I mean I'm all for artistic expression through any means necessary, but...yeah. Enjoy the M/V.

Lily Allen "Hard Out Here"

Lily Allen. Oh Lily Rose Cooper, how I missed you so! First she teases us by releasing her John Lewis advert song, a cover of Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know" then she drops the second best song of her career ("Who'd Have Known" stiil reigns surpeme in my book) "Hard Out Here" or as I like to call it: The "Blurred Lines" Antithesis.
It's the Lily Allen we know in love: cynical, critical, honest, conversation starting and still catchy as fuck. She's one of the few artists who are putting Miley's new contrived image on blast and highlighting Robin Thicke's rapey "Blurred Lines" song (no matter how catchy the tune is, rape is still rape).
1.The large amount of Auto-Tune in the chorus
2.The objectification of women in the music industry (and as a whole)
3.Double Standards
Lily Allen leaves no stoned unturned!
Of course there are people who miss the entire message of the song and video and jump to silly and untrue conclusions, like how she's using the black women in the video to propel herself as some type of white saviour or how she's perpetuating all the messages she's against in the song with the video.

Lily can't help the way that she looks: she was born a Caucasian woman. Also, I don't think she had any stereotype in her mind when the concept of the video was brought up, like what another pop singer did earlier this year with her comeback single. The fact that Lily has to make a song like this is sad because we haven't moved past women being looked as pieces of meat rather than talented strong, intelligent equals. She wasn't lying when she said it was hard out here for a bitch...

A Snippet of Pixie Lott's Next Single Has Surfaced...

British singer Pixie Lott is coming...and she wants you to be N-A-S-T-Y. Her last LP, "Young Foolish Happy" as a whole was considered a flop after peaking at #18 on the charts, though it spawned three top ten singles ("What Do You Take Me For, Kiss The Stars, and All About Tonight). Now a 16 second snippet of Pixie filming the music video for her single, "Nasty" has surfaced and I'm loving every minute  second of it. Apparently the original was recorded by Christina Aguilera and Cee-Lo Green for the "Burlesque" soundtrack, but clearance issues got in the way. Oh well. I feel like this is more Pixie's style any way. Christina's version does nothing for me, while Pixie's short clip has me fiending for the full song as soon as yesterday. Let this leak soon before I have to download the Xtina version...

Rebecca Ferguson "Freedom" Album Sampler

Rebecca Ferguson's "I Hope" will be released in a few weeks and the (partial) album sampler for its parent album "Freedom" is out! From what I heard, it's a bit more upbeat then her debut, but still packs a punch! "Hanging On" and "All That I've Got" are early favourites!

Taeyang Has Been Hanging Around G-Dragon Too Much...

Taeyang's comeback has been a long time coming. His "Solar" album is a great R&B/K-Pop album ("Wedding Dress, "I Need a Girl" anyone?) and I assumed that we would be getting a updated spin on that sound, until I saw the teaser photos. Then again, sometimes teasers are very misleading. Then I saw the title...Again, titles are misleading. Then I heard the song..."Ringa Linga" sounds like it was meant for G-Dragon (he did produce it after all) but he didn't have room for it on his "Coup D'etat" album, so he gave it to Young-Bae. GD already had his time to shine with his solo efforts and was featured on Seungri's album back in the summer, so maybe he should have a seat until BIGBANG comes back as a group. The song is a banger that grows on you though, the best part of the song being the bit where before the chorus starts and the blantant "We Can't Stop" rip-off towards the end. I was impressed with the dance video, though EXOtics weren't feeling it because they assume that everything EXO does is original and accused YG of copying their one take "Growl" M/V. Then you have the actual video, which takes me back to the 90s when Busta Rhymes made those crazy ass videos. This is pretty much the best video from the YG camp all year. But can we please petition YG from messing with his and Dara's hair whenever they have comebacks? Let's keep it subtle like in the "I Need a Girl" video plz.
Dance Video
Music Video

2AM Club "Evidence"

Overall amazing band and musical trolls 2AM Club have released another single, which is (hopefully) gonna be on their upcoming album (which I'm now declaring will come out in 2014 since all they did was release freebies, tour and tease us with singles). "Evidence" is a midtempo tune about breaking up with someone and removing every trace of their existence, including pictures, toothbrushes and clothing. It isn't as hard-hitting as their past tunes, but it's still a winner in my book. Make sure to pick up a copy on iTunes!

Homework:Defending Girls Generation's Win At The YouTube Music Awards

Girl's Generation was awarded Video of The Year for their redefining, genre mashing smash "I Got a Boy," beating out the likes of Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato. As I was going through the GG tag on Tumblr so I could find the acceptance speech, I noticed that were a lot of references to racist and rude Tweets made after the fact:

And these are tame compared to the others that followed:

But wait there's more!

Not done yet! (unfortunately...)

Aside from the fact that I think it's extremely hilarious that the people in these fanbases are pressed more than a good lacefront, it's disheartening as a music fan. So let me address the main arguments about why Girls' Generation deserved this award and your fave didn't.
1.It was rigged!
Your fave didn't win because your fan base didn't vote enough. Simple logic.
If your fandom is so large, so devoted and can make a trend for him/her/them every five seconds, then there is no reason why they shouldn't have snatched that award with ease. Just because they have 100 million+ views on YouTube and worldwide hits, doesn't make them entitled to anything. Plus, (no shade SONES) SM Entertainment doesn't even want to pay for a decent on location music video, what makes you think they're gonna shell out the coins for an award?
2.They aren't American! 
Justin Bieber is Canadian, One Direction are from the UK. Tiffany (the girl who accepted the award) was born in America. We're not coming at your faves about where they're from so please leave the person's nationality out this. Also, do your research before you jump to conclusions. #next
3.They didn't work as hard as our faves! 
Non-K-Pop fans are unaware of the process that most K-Pop idols have to go through in order to be even mildly successful. Years of dance, singing and language training while most of them are attending school on the side. They didn't get lucky because they were on some TV show or because they happened to be noticed by some big musician. They worked (bitch) for years. And Girls Generation is one of the most popular, just take at this convenient list of their accolades. (thanks to http://theonewhopostskoreanmen.tumblr.com for making that!)
A lot of people look at K-Pop as a joke rather than a legit musical genre that is acknowledged throughout the world and is growing. This was my problem with PSY's "Gangnam Style" becoming the first major K-Pop crossover. A lot of people were more about the portly Asian guy dancing like a horse with all the random stuff rather than appreciating the satire of the song itself. But as a fan of some the artists that were nominated, it's actually embarrassing. If I learned one thing, it's that music has no language barriers. K-Pop thrives on YouTube and for people to resort to racist, deprecating language to express their frustration because your fellow Bieliebers, Selenators, Lovatics, Smilers, Little Monsters and Directioners don't know how to vote, I honestly cannot. Just know that with every hateful comment, GIF set, Tweet, you're possibly exposing someone to K-Pop and it's many wonders, so in the end K-Pop wins. #staypressed

Homework:My Somewhat Tribute To Lou Reed (1942-2013)

I wasn’t sure how to approach this subject because I never wrote about an artist’s work posthumously. If you aren’t familiar with Lou Reed, you may be more or less familiar with some of his songs. “Perfect Day” was used during the overdose scene in “Trainspotting” and when Christina Ricci popped Molly for the first time in “Prozac Nation” (in which he makes a cameo). The Velvet Underground, the pioneering avant garde collective that Reed helped spearhead was mentioned in Disney’s underrated “Bandslam” film. I would add more, but I can’t think of any off the top of my head. I’m not going to sit here and lie saying that Lou Reed was a major musical figurehead in my life, that I own all his albums, how I’m such a major fan of his, because I’m not. I can tell you how the music that I have heard by him had some kind of influence on my musical tastes.
I was introduced to Mr. Reed’s music during my sophomore year at Towson. I was taking a class and we were assigned a five page paper in which we had to choose a certain era of music and research five songs from it. At this time, in the words of Sam from “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” I was listening to the worst top forty. I decided to go with the glam/art rock period during the late 60s-early 70s because I wanted to be different since everyone was choosing to do The Beatles or Nirvana. Reed’s “Satellite of Love” was one of the songs that happened to pop up while I was doing my research and I remember being somewhat mesmerized by the song for a week or so after I turned the paper in and had it on repeat nonstop. Looking back on that paper, I’m kind of ashamed that I wrote about the song so robotically.
I didn’t revisit any of Reed’s music until about a year ago when I impulsively checked out Reed’s “Transformer” LP in full on YouTube for some reason and wound up enjoying that a lot, though I was never compelled to listen to any of his other works. I spent last week after hearing the news of his death actively listening to his music and contemplating if the praise that all of his peers and music publications was really worth it. Would I have cared if the guy hadn’t died so suddenly? Most likely not. Am I just being a bandwagoner by reblogging “Vicious” and “Sweet Jane” on Tumblr and writing this column make me seem more cool and cultured? Not at all. I think it’s selfish to for anyone to think that I can’t have any interest in an artist just because they are no longer on this Earth. Like it somehow taints their memory or something. This may sound terrible but if Reed hadn’t kicked the bucket last month, I wouldn’t have discovered how much I like his other stuff. From what I could gather Reed was a polarizing figure who didn’t care if he got another charting album/single in his half decade of being a musician. I mean he released an album full of questionable spoken word with Metallica and another that was just guitar feedback. However, Reed loved the music that he made and the following quote speaks volumes on what he sought to do during his career: “The music gave you back your beat so you could dream … The people just have to die for the music. People are dying for everything else, so why not for music? Die for it. Isn’t it pretty? Wouldn’t you die for something pretty?” 
Some other songs I liked during my week listening to Reed's music
Walk on The Wild Side
Sweet Jane (Live Version)
Coney Island Baby
Make Up

Demi Lovato "Let It Go" Music Video

Demi has been really raking in the coins this year! The release of her fourth self-titled album, her work on The X-Factor and all these soundtrack songs! When will Miley and her faux-ratchet weave ever?! Her latest musical contribution comes in the form of ballad "Let It Go", which will be included on Disney's upcoming animated movie "Frozen". The video shows Demi giving full emotional realness as she wanders around an old house with scenes from the movie placed in.