8th's K-Countdown '16 | The winner is... - Page 4

8thPrince

Disclaimer: All 10 of these songs are fantastic, and anyone of them could've gone in any position, including number one. After much delibiration, I decided that this was the best order. Some previous Top 10s, as I see them now (In no particular order!):

Top 10s

10. Vidan "Wishes of the Rings"

Hands down the best ballad of the year, and possibly one of the best ballads to emerge from Korea since the first Korean banged two sticks together in antiquity. Distinguishes itself from many other ballads by being indispensable. There's very, very few ballads out there that sound like this, I'm betting. Wishes of the Rings abandons the piano+string+guitar arrangement and instead incorporates traditional instruments, even putting these instruments ahead of the voice within the mix (Gasp!). Many K-pop listeners overuse the word 'beautiful' when it comes to same-y ballads, but this is honestly a song that'll stick with you, with a unique vocal performance and interesting arrangements that don't expect the vocalist to sell the whole song with predictable high notes. Truly spectacular song, right here.

9. Hexagonal Water "Adduddu"

Some notes on why Hexagonal Water is better than your fave:

He is portly. Dude gets to eat what he wants, when he wants. He listens to no manager!
His video is cheap: no crippling debt for this guy!
He's having fun on camera. Your bias's every giggle and crease of the mouth shares the same chreographer that does their dances.
He can generate clones of himself
The song is a kickass trot tune
The song has a gnarly guitar solo, poor your pissweak fave
#StanHexagonalWater2K17

8. Taewan "Problem"

People pissed themselves over Dean this year. Notice the wording: "Dean", not "Dean's music", thank you very much. If those same fans listened to Problem, I imagine they'd piss themselves in a similar manner, what with the rocking R&B/80s pop tune Taewan has on his hands. Whether the soiling occurs due to the song's awesomeness or the fact that it's a lot beefier than Dean's anemic tunes and might shock Dean listeners out of their catatonic states, I don't know. Thankfully Taewan realized he isn't as pretty as Dean, and instead asked some edgy-looking chick to do some cool popping and whaacking routines for the video. Only downside is the overuse of the MJ-esque creepy breathy vocals and R&B vocalizing. With the removal of those, I wouldn't have any reservations putting this song at number one.

7. Oh My Girl "Windy Day"

Oh My Girl are sort of on a roll, aren't they? Western fans love them, their Korean base is building, and their songs kept getting better up until they released that awful dancehall crap a few months back. Windy Day was the peak of their busy 2016, and it owes its success to a cathartic chorus and wonky drop. The song clicked for me on first listen, I just appreciated how it's a really great pop song incorporating one calculated turn. Sort of like what f(x) and 2NE1 used to do, except then after I Am The Best, 2NE1 tried to add fifty-three different turns, and after Red Light, f(x) tried to add approximately zero interesting ideas in any of their music. If history repeats, I guess now Oh My Girl is either going to put out noisy, busy garbage or radio static with a kick drum underneath. Closer-through-Windy Day was a good run, I guess.

6. GFRIEND "Rough"

Umji's Rough borrows heavily from all of Gfriend's previous titles, which borrowed heavily from Girls Generation's Into the New World, but wow, does this song surpass that bland teenybopper song. Seriously, Into the New World is textbook-average, people. (Although I will find some humor in people thinking that after a decade of work, Girls Generation still haven't made anything worthwhile as their debut song.) UmjiFriend's Rough is moody, it's dramatic in a way that has dynamics and shades. Basically I'm saying that I like how this song has a bunch of different levels, something the other UmjiChingu song's skimped on, not to mention that Rough has a great melody. I'm honestly hard-pressed to see how they could find a way to top this after they've perfected this sound, but I'll keep faith in Umji.

5. Snuper "Platonic Love"

This song won the 80s competition that occurred during 2016. It just sounds ridiculously 80s, and I'm glad Sweetune threw out all the stops to make such a kitschy tune. Rips off Take On Me's keyboard sample and heavily borrows from the structure, harmonies, and phrasing New Order's Subculture. I certainly don't mind, Subculture's probably my favorite New Order song, and Snuper really improve on it with updated production and better vocal performances. Seems like "80s" is going to be Snuper's concept, I hope they continue putting their all into it like they did here!

4. April "Tinkerbell"

If I could describe what made the good songs "the best" of this year in my eyes, I'd say that they all share a common aspect of "extremity". Wishes of the Wings is extremely folky, Problem is extremely heavy and groovy, Platonic Love is extremely 80s. Tinkerbell by April is just extremely girly. It could be the opening for Barbie's Playhouse or The Powerpuff Girls. The only difference is that this is a lit girly show opener. It's not written for babies, it's got cool string and guitar arrangements that definitely are written for older listeners (Much older, ahem. We know who April markets to!). Honestly, this song being so good is probably dumb luck on their songwriters' parts, I doubt they ever mess around and make something that comes together this well again. Who knew a vibrating egg would make me reevaluate a song I had written-off earlier for being obvious pedo-bait?

3. Stellar "Crying"

This is the Heart Attack of 2016. Not even a metaphor of "oh this song is a dance song, it's very fun...", they're very similar songs. Similar tempos, similar arrangement in where the rapping, high notes happen... Stellar's company definitely asked Brave Brothers for another Heart Attack, and for good reason. And the result is very good: different enough from Heart Attack by having different, lighter sections, but still keeping the pulsating dancefloor sound. It's ridiculously stupid and simply and generic, but it's generic music written economically and in a fun way. This is probably the only case where a group's prestige hurt the reception of a perfectly good song, it was perceived as being too basic and too much of a sellout for a "high-brow" and "high-concept" group like Stellar. That's too bad, I thought this was clearly better than Sting, which I felt was trying a bit too hard to be sleek and restrained.

2. Berry Good "Angel"

Berry Good's Don't Believe was their breakout song for western fans, but Angel is clearly superior to that song. There was no doubt that this was going to be very high on my list from the first listen. Angel's niche is that it's extremely melancholic and emotionally-charged, obtaining an added dimension from it's real-world ties: the song is addressed to Berry Good's late long-time songwriter, who wrote their first three singles and worked with them predebut. Angel soars, floats, shimmers, and more. The orchestral arrangement is super sleek and very nice, the song has intimate moments and huge hits, Angel basically has everything going for it... Until the unfortunate edition of a vocal breakdown where the girls deliver money notes over the track for the forty seconds and smother the nice melody. That's still not enough to sink a song this spectacular, but it was enough to move it from a clear number one pick to a runner-up. And taking Angel's spot at number one is...

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drumroll plz

rtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrttrtrtrtrtrtrttrtrtr tah~

1. Fiestar "Mirror"

This song is fucking amazing. There is absolutely nothing I would want to change about this song, it completely satisfies me. It's a spiritual successor to Miss A's fantastic Touch, but surpasses even that song, dialing up the sexiness further by making the instrumental breathe a bit more. I'd say this song's greatest asset is its wonderful atmosphere: it's slinky, dark, and really just sexy, there's no other way to put it. The combination of those 808 kicks and and those brassy synths that play throughout the song sounds wonderful. The melody is great, and the song features no vocalist upstaging the song for their own benefit. Mirror's similar to Fiestar's song You're Pitiful from last year, but while that song lacked color or flavor, Mirror adds vibrancy. It's like Fiestar's writers looked at You're Pitiful and were like "OK, we have an OK base here, how can we scientifically apply ourselves to make this song even more awesome?" Mirror is honestly a home-run for Fiestar.

Kingie

TALENT WON!

Suilen

OMFG, same no. 1 as me

Fiestar really went all out this year.

I agree that Crying is getting too much **** and is better than Sting. Rough is surprisingly high, though it does destroy GG's debut. The rest is nice, let me listen to 8-10 and some tracks from previous years I don't know.

8thPrince

Quote:

Originally posted by Kingie

TALENT WON!

It did

Quote:

Originally posted by Suilen

OMFG, same no. 1 as me

Fiestar really went all out this year.

Yep! Both their songs were really good this year!

AshleeSimpsonFan

Nice #1

Problem is good too! and my favorite from this set Windy Day