Bent torsos and wavy hair

[koganbot]

The mp3 blogs took a pass on Badkiz's "Babomba" last November which is why I didn't hear it. Could've made my top ten: it's like T-ara in relentless dance mode — "Sexy Love" and "Number 9" — but instead of those songs' strenuously beautiful love pain it's got high-pitched playground chants similar to those on Badkiz's previous single. Though he didn't produce this, Shinsadong Tiger, who wrote and produced "Sexy Love" and "Number 9," is listed as a co-writer (says Wikip). Maybe that's where most of the budget went, to the song and the sound.* The rather cheap video** has the band pushing foam in the face of annoying guys, maybe a follow-up to the funny anti-bully moves of Badkiz's first vid, but too crude and slack in its attempt at comic timing. The dancing is greatly improved but still rudimentary, the concept being to bend the torso and wave the hair. Manages to be appealing, in its little way, especially live.

Watch on YouTube

(But on Inkigayo, they were, strangely, wearing hoodies, for a kind of delinquent-cute look, maybe. A YouTube wiseass suggested that this was to hide the fact they couldn't afford a hair stylist.)

Allkpop called the video concept "sexy and funny." I think when you come down to it Badkiz don't really have a concept. Maybe "invention a little outside the box," which draws comparison to Crayon Pop, but Crayon Pop really are inventive. How about: reasonably good voices and they're willing to try hard, with joy (guerilla performance here)? People on YouTube have been creating dance covers of Badkiz's simple moves, which gives me hope the band will continue. Two songs so far, both of high quality.

Watch on YouTube

*"Babomba" also has a sequence where successive lines are started by a shouted number (3 and then 4), a gimmick Tiger lifted from "Hot Issue," the first track he did for 4minute.

**[UPDATE: The agency seems to have killed the original cheap video in favor of a cheap 2nd video made around the same time.] [UPDATE Nov. 3, 2017: And for some reason the agency seems to have taken the second video down as well, though a fan has one posted.]

Comments

Reheated aegyo

[davidfrazer.livejournal.com]

MINX have returned with a cute summer song called Love Shake, which is a cover of an old Dal Shabet B-side.

Fortunately, the other tracks aren't recycled, and they have more bite (except for the obligatory ballad, I Like You). Shut Up is a swaggering diss anthem -- the chorus is "Hey you, shut up, boy" -- and GVK on OneHallyu says Superstar Superman "sounds like something Crayon Pop would do".

Re: Reheated aegyo

[koganbot]

By which maybe they mean "sounds like something the Go-Gos would do." Anyway, I like. And I like how anything a Girl Group does that's fun but not quite on the spectrum (whatever the spectrum is) gets immediately compared to Crayon Pop. Meanwhile, Crayon Pop seem adamantly not to have settled on a sound or a look. "FM" is unexpectedly full and rich, not just for Crayon Pop but for Shinsadong Tiger, too. (But I was disappointed by "Rarirure," and that they went back to the Speed Racer helmets for its vid.)