Daesung

Recently I've been listening to Big Bang quite a lot, and inevitably, stumbled upon each member's single albums. Big Bang (빅뱅)  is a Korean pop band with five members, including leader G-Dragon, T.O.P, Taeyang, Seungri and Daesung. Before I actually got into Big Bang, I would sometimes listen to much loved singer G-Dragon. His 'Heartbreaker' and 'Butterfly' were pretty epic for the ears of my younger self. Then, a couple of months ago, I really got into Taeyang's music. His part in 'Wow, fantastic baby' is actually my favourite, and his style, voice, charm is top notch. Taeyang is my favourite member of Big Bang.

But. For one awesome voice, and a very epic style I have to appauld Daesung!
His song 'Lunatic' even encouraged me to write this post. I could not help but fall in love with such a different style for a kpop artist to sing.

In this blog I only wanted to include top quality music that deserves more attention than it gets. Despite the band itself having a big fanbase, this song is highly underrated.

Daesung has also performed the Korean version of 'This is the moment' (left) and a personal favourite, 'Baby, Don't Cry' (right).

For me, Daesung's variety of performances along with his unique style, emotional and fantastic voice -- It's something that should really become a trend for other Korean artists. A good musician shouldn't just stick with safe ballads or just simply sing songs written for them. A really good musician makes them their own, and I think Daesung can really do this well.

I only hope Daesung continues to do what he does well - sing and act with his pure 'Daesung-ness'. Whatever makes his performances so good and not boring - I hope he can confidently do this for as long as he wishes. In the K-Pop genre/era, there is a muffling of Korean talent caused by money hungry companies. As with a lot of mainstream music, there has been a routine of forcing bands and artists to sing sell-out song after song that sound very similiar to everything else already out in the market, thus preventing their artists to be creative. It's really self-destroying their careers, and I can only hope that Daesung and other talented Korean artists/bands can continue to be awesome.

Radwimps

RADWIMPS is a fantastic J-indie rock band that began in 2001, and still continues to the present day. J-indie itself is a genre that can get overlooked by a lot of Japanese Rock fans, but RADWIMPS is a goldmine for great music. Their tracks vary but each have some kind of similiar 'feel' to them, most likely helped by the unique singer's voice and their deep lyrics which usually have more than one meaning to it.





As it seems to be the trend in a lot of Asian music, RADWIMPS also incorportates some English lyrics to their songs. Luckily, they do this quite well, and even include Eddie Murphy in 'Setsunarensa' below. I mean, come on. This just proves how awesome they are.



My personal favourite is probably 'Dada'. Most likely because the drums and sound is particually awesome.

 And finally, their most latest track 白日 which translates as - "Hakujitsu" which means "Broad Daylight" is a tribute to the victims of the Japanese earthquake in 2011. It is a touching song.