Okay-Pop’s first technology is commonly referenced as the inspiration for the business we get pleasure from now, however there aren’t sufficient good English-language sources that give its music the main focus it deserves. I’m hoping to alter that with a unbroken flashback collection, spotlighting private highlights from the period – each iconic and obscure.

The period in query is commonly thought-about to run from the debut of Search engine optimisation Taiji & Boys in 1992 to the emergence of TVXQ in late 2003. The music featured on this collection will largely match inside that time-frame, give or take a couple of years on both facet.

It was a time of bonkers music constructions, wild vogue, slamming techno beats, dangerous reggae impressions, flagrant use (theft?) of American hip-hop samples, hearty energy ballads, foul language, the growliest rapper tones you may think about and an anything-goes scrappiness that’s unimaginable to pigeonhole. To borrow the title of a preferred second-gen act, these years had been the “huge bang” of an rising musical powerhouse, nonetheless discovering its footing and throwing all the pieces on the wall.

Take a look at different “Again to Okay-pop’s First Technology” evaluations right here.

Co-ed Okay-pop teams had been way more frequent within the first technology. Actually, within the late 90’s they had been nearly the norm. S#arp stood on the tip-top of this hierarchy, releasing a collection of in style singles and albums. This was all introduced down by a bullying scandal for the ages, however I don’t wish to focus an excessive amount of on that as a result of different shops have already coated the scandal intimately and this function is all in regards to the music.

2001’s Sweety is the group’s most enduring traditional, however I’ve an enormous tender spot for 1999’s Inform Me, Inform Me. This music succeeds not on its bombast (it’s truly form of laidback), however on the nuance and phrasing of its hooks. Like so many nice pop tracks, it simply scratches sure pleasure facilities within the mind. The music opens with an immediately memorable “rub a dub” pattern that I’ve heard in a number of different tracks of the period (I’d like to know the place it got here from initially!) earlier than segueing into the chirpy refrain. For my part, the repeated “aniya (아니야)” hook is Inform Me’s best second. I simply love how that vocal sounds. However actually, the music is a seize bag of catchy vocal approaches.

Whereas the feminine strains in S#arp songs typically got here throughout as candy or quirky, the male raps provided an aggressive (at instances comically so) counterpoint. The distinction is jarring, however in a method that may typically be charming in a dated, foolish method. So far as musical legacy, I hear a lot of early Surprise Women on this monitor. JYP woman teams generally appeared to have latched onto this sound.

Grade: A-