Musical Monday – Booty Shakin’

This week was painfully good for new releases. With Seventeen, Block B, Monsta X, and so on all releasing new mini to full-length albums with fabulous MVs, it was difficult to know what to write about today. The ladies and I were all up at the crack of dawn all week watching what had come out in Korea while we were sleeping and Friday night quickly devolved into us force feeding two of our work colleagues video after video while we argued about the merits of each and fully explained the ins and outs of the members. It wasn’t sad at all. Nobody lost respect for us.

You are all more than aware that I’ve been waiting with baited breath for the comebacks mentioned above, and rest assured, I wasn’t disappointed by a single one. But the song I wanted to talk about today is actually a bit unusual for me. I’m not shy about my interest in the slightly quirky girl groups of Kpop. I’ve talked about a few of them here and frequently force my more boy group oriented friends to at least receive a link or two from iTunes, even if they don’t ever actually listen to them (full disclaimer, I do have friends that love girl groups with more passion than I and I don’t want to ignore that fact.) But, I don’t tend to listen to a lot of the more popular groups as I am clearly not in their targeted demographic and don’t connect with them on that more basic level.

EXID, short for Exceed in Dreaming – which is a fabulous name, showed up on one of my recommended songs lists this week and I immediately loved it. I listened to it multiple times and checked back each time to confirm that it was, in fact, EXID. This is not to say that I haven’t liked any of their stuff in the past, I have, but they have never risen to the ranks of those groups that I recognize at first listen…or apparently at second or third either

It should come to no surprise to me or anyone else that I enjoy their music as most of their stuff is actually written by LE, formerly an underground rapper and recruited by Shinsadong Tiger to join this motley crew of former JYP trainees in their pre-debut days. I have a fondness for groups that write and produce their own stuff. It all just feels more authentic…plus, underground rapper…we all know I’m a sucker for that.  

These ladies are still kind of an underdog in Kpop. They work hard for their successes and have had their fair share of disappointment. They are super talented, savvy, super sexy, and frankly, earning my respect even if I’m not throwing money at them in the same way I might be doing for, say, Seventeen.

There’s only so much money in my budget for making sure Kpop stars get fed. I need to work on that.

EXID, DDD