A Okay-pop act’s title monitor isn’t at all times the most effective music on their album, even when it’s the one most individuals will hear. Typically, b-sides deserve recognition too. Within the singles-oriented world of Okay-pop, I wish to highlight a few of these buried treasures and provides them the props they deserve.

There’s a motive I nonetheless watch Okay-pop’s weekly music exhibits in full. Whereas I are inclined to catch 99% of recent releases every week, there’s at all times an opportunity that one thing passes me by — particularly if it isn’t paired with a music video. And as well-versed as I’m on the historical past of Okay-pop releases, there are nonetheless a handful of artists I’ve by no means listened to earlier than.

Baek Chung Kang is a type of artists. He received MBC’s Star Audition: The Nice Delivery in 2011 and debuted in 2012. Since then, his comparatively sparse catalog has been a mixture of ballads and bangers. He’s at the moment performing Dot Dot Dot on music exhibits and it’s a licensed banger with a nostalgic second-gen sound. That is for these of you who love dramatic preparations and big, belt-it-out hooks. Dot Dot Dot opens as a piano-led ballad earlier than the beat drops almost a minute in. We’ve obtained surging synths, banging percussion, violin and a dynamic melody that strikes from energy to emotive falsetto and again once more. And that’s earlier than we hit the electrical guitar solo on the music’s climax. The drama! Shut your eyes and picture a newly debuted boy or woman group rising with this actual music. What an thrilling growth that may be! As an alternative, we’ve obtained skilled veterans protecting this stylistic custom alive. Thank goodness for that.

Grade: A-