Let’s Discover: Crush

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It’s been a while since KultScene has done a Let’s Discover piece. And this one may not seem like a true Let’s Discover as there are a good amount of people who already know about this young man. But for those of you who want to know more, or do not really know him at all, this article is for you. Crush is the focus for this Let’s Discover. From his vocals to his humor, Crush is an all around entertainer.

Vocals

Crush’s voice perfectly suits his R&B and hip hop style. His powerful vocals can easily show fans his finesse when singing. His falsetto is another key element of his voice. Crush uses his falsetto in almost every, if not every, song on his first album. His tone is different from other artists, which makes his voice easy to pick out among others.

There are a lot of instances where an artist’s voice does not live up to the hype when they perform live. There is a lot of production behind the scenes to create an album and in some instances the artist’s voice is altered, if ever so slightly. But with Crush, what you hear is what you get, which is a good thing. If you listen to his songs on his album and then live versions, they are just as good as the album.

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Songs & Music Videos

Something that sets Crush apart from other K-Pop idols and solidifies him as an artist, is that he writes and arranges all of his songs and lyrics. Crush debuted with Sometimes an R&B song that perfectly showcases Crush’s vocal abilities, arranging capabilities, and writing skills. The music video loosely tells a story related to the lyrics. Crush shows off some of his dance moves as well. Not to mention he holds a jam session with some well-known names in the Korean hip hop industry.

Crush released a second music video from his Crush on You album a few months after Sometimes. Hug Me features Gaeko and even has choreography featuring female dancers. Sometimes and Hug Me stick to the overall theme of his album, which is smooth R&B tracks that will draw you in with his great vocals.

Crush recently came back with his latest single, Sofa. Sofa shows a slightly different side to Crush in that they song begins with strings instead of a R&B beat and his vocals carry so much emotion.

Collaborations

Before he debuted with his first full length album Crush on You, Crush featured on many artists’ songs, such as Supreme Team, Zion.T, Gaeko, and more. His solo debut also sees the likes of those artists as well as Lydia Paek, Jay Park, Choiza, Gray and more. In fact there are only three songs out of the 11-song album that do not feature another artist.

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Personality

There aren’t many videos of Crush online. He isn’t on any variety shows. But there are videos of him in 1theK’s original YouTube video series. These videos are one-on-ones with Crush so fans get a feeling for his personality and they get to know more about him through the questions he answers.

In both videos, Crush jokes around with himself and the staff off camera. It makes the interview experience more enticing to fans as they sit and watch and listen to him. His personality isn’t over the top or boring. His humor, at least in these interviews, is subtle and if you’re not paying attention you may not catch it.

Crush mentioned in the latter video that he started underground and took the time to hone his skill. If he is this good now, I can’t imagine what he was like when he started (he must be a natural). Crush’s R&B style music, multiple featured artists, and talent for writing and arranging his songs shows his passion and talent as an all around artist. His music is always worth listening to and we look forward to more music from him in the future.

Are you a new fan of Crush or an old faithful? Share your thoughts in the comment section below and be sure to subscribe to the site and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr to keep up with all of our posts.

Let’s Discover: EXID

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The five-member female group EXID recently made a comeback with Up & Down. And with their new single out, it seems like these girls should be receiving a lot more love, and this article will hopefully help build upon that.

Although EXID started out as a six-member group, they are now a five-member group with three original members. For this article’s sake, the focus will be on the current five-member group and their music collection starting from their debut as the reformed EXID.

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I Feel Good. Everyone loves to say those words because it says exactly what you feel. And who doesn’t love to feel good? EXID chose to promote I Feel Good as their debut single in the summer of 2012.

The song itself is an upbeat club track that showcases the talents of each of the ladies of the group. The music video shows EXID enjoying their day and night after a few hiccups, but nothing too serious. Throw this song on at a party of the club and everyone will soon be singing the chorus.

After I Feel Good, EXID released their single Every Night, which was a completely different feel from the debut single. Every Night is a slower track that utilizes elements of R&B and pop music. It again perfectly showcases the vocal abilities of each individual member.

This quintet offers something that a lot of other girl groups do not. They have amazing vocalists (all of them) and rapper in the group. Not that other girl groups do not boast superb vocalists or rappers, but the quality of the EXID members’ abilities is above many other groups.

Let’s take a look at sub-unit Dasoni, made up of Solji and Hani. They released their debut music video in the winter of 2013, and although they did not promote the song or the sub-unit for that matter, one cannot overlook the amount of talent Dasoni has. They perfectly showcase their strong and controlling vocals with Goodbye.

As mentioned above, the vocal abilities and talents are not the only thing that makes EXID impressive. Their resident rapper LE always flawlessly showcases her rapping abilities on each of their tracks. That should be expected of someone who was member of an underground rap group.

In every EXID song, LE’s rapping is phenomenal. After she collaborated with BEAST’s Junhyung and Bigstar’s FeelDog on You Got Some Nerve, it became much clearer that LE can clearly roll with other rappers as well as with male ones. She showcases her unique sound in You Got Some Nerve and she more than holds her own on the track in the music video with Junhyung and FeelDog.

Aside from the talent of EXID, they’re just like the rest of us. They have an online series titled BUTBUT TV that shows the group members’ personalities and what they do during their time off.

EXID’s song Up & Down (release date August 26th, 2014) begins with a peppy saxophone that brings to mind Jason Derulo’s Talk Dirty. The music video is reminiscent of an Orange Caramel-style video and the dance features hip thrusting as the ladies’ wear skin tight pants and crop tops.

Up & Down is an appealing and fun song with a strong beat that is perfect to listen to at a party or when you just want to have a good time.

EXID only debuted two years ago and they do not have an extensive music collection, but with their latest comeback and the singles they do have, it is clear that their talent is deep and it is only a matter of time before they gain more popularity.

Are you guys fans of EXID or are you new to them? What is your favorite EXID song? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below, and be sure to subscribe to the site and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Bloglovin’ so you can keep up with all our posts.

Let’s Discover: Exit

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The power of the Internet is unbelievable. I didn’t know about this group until recently. And by recently, I mean a few minutes before sitting down to write this article. But, as I listened to a video of a cappella group Exit, I wanted to write about them for a number of reasons. So let’s get started:

Who is Exit?

Exit is a five-member a cappella group who just released their first mini album on August 12th. But looking at their YouTube channel, it’s clear that they began to “promote” themselves well before the release of their mini. They have been on YouTube for three years, but are only now gaining commercial recognition. Their channel consists of a cappella covers of famous Korean and Western artists. Each video shows a bit of the members’ personality and is a great way for people to see the talent these guys have.

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They also sing in English. It may not be perfect English, but does that really matter? No, it does not. Exit’s English is perfectly understandable and the fact that everything you hear is created with just these five guys’ voices is more than enough to overlook mispronunciations. It’s not important. What is important is that native English speakers can understand them and therefore feel more connected to them than other groups. They are marketing themselves to English speakers as well as Korean speakers.

Obviously choosing popular songs to cover will also increase their views online and therefore their name will (theoretically) spread around the internet and thus popularity will ensue. It will be difficult for Exit to break into the K-Pop scene, which may not even be their goal. But the fact that 1theK uploaded one of their videos makes it seem like they want to broaden their fan base.

Why should you care about Exit:

You should care about Exit because, well, they’re talented. There are A LOT of talented K-Pop groups, artists, individuals out there now, but Exit brings things to a whole new level. They are the first a cappella group (that I am aware of) that is being promoted by a large company, 1theK (even if it’s only one video). In the about section of the video of Exit, 1theK states:

[K-POP Rare Clip] introduces various videos from artists in diverse genres including pop, indie, hip-hop, R&B, jazz.

From their videos online, Exit definitely deserves to have their music and talent shared in Korea and around the world. 1theK is helping to shed light on a cappella in general, and on Exit in particular. These five men use only their voices to create music. They are the instruments, the vocals, and they create an atmosphere of joy with these amazing talents.

A cappella groups in general are obviously full of talented individuals and Exit is no exception. So why should you care about them? Because they are a Korean a cappella group that have been around for a while, but are just releasing their first mini album and getting recognition for their talents online.

Each member not only adds to the production of the song, but they also lend their vocals. In some a cappella groups there are people who are strictly vocals, but Exit utilizes everyone’s voices and vocals to create beautiful harmonies and performances.

Even if you are not a fan of a cappella groups or are only into K-Pop, you should take some time to listen to Exit. Their skills and talent will entice you to watch more of their videos and hopefully you will become a new fan and explore their music collection. I leave you with this:

Are you a fan of a cappella groups? What groups are your favorite (any nationality)? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below and be sure to subscribe to the site and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Bloglovin’ so you can keep up with all our posts.

Let’s Discover: MAMAMOO

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This Let’s Discover is a true one in that I will focus on rookie group Mamamoo. I’m not sure how many people have heard of this girl group, but I want to give them the spotlight. Personally, I didn’t discover them until a few weeks after their debut, and I decided to see what their music video was like. I am so happy that I stumbled upon this group. These four ladies have an immense amount of talent and I look forward to watching their career blossom.

Mamamoo consists of four girls: Solar, Moon Byul, Whee In, and Hwa Sa. They debuted in June with Mr. Ambiguous. The song has strong jazz and swing elements to it, which is the perfect style for their sultry vocals. I did not hear anything about Mamamoo leading up to their debut, or even after their debut. Nevertheless, Mr. Ambiguous is a great debut song.

MAMAMOO

(Top, L-R) Whee In, Hwa Sa (Bottom, L-R) Solar, Moon Byul

As I mentioned above, the jazz and swing elements in the song make it stand out among other K-Pop songs. The song sticks to traditional instruments and does not heavily rely on machine-made sounds. It is not overly produced and, to me, it gives off a crisp feeling, because of the different sound from the mainstream K-Pop songs out now.

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Aside from the refreshing sound, the music video for Mr. Ambiguous boasts appearances by well-known celebrities. Wheesung, K.Will, Lee Jonghyun (CNBLUE), Bumkey, and Baek Ji Young, among others, all make appearances in the music video. Even if these girls do not have a strong commercial following (yet), they are certainly given love by some of the big names in the business.

From the music video, it’s clear to see that these four ladies are talented individuals who shine as a unit as well. The style theme they chose for their debut sticks to the older sound of their song. They wear fitted, yet modest dresses, sensible heels and just the right amount of makeup to act as an accessory rather than a separate character. Their hairstyles and colors are also simple and do not take away from their vocals, which was the right decision for this debut. With voices like these, the outfits, hair, makeup, and accessories should accent their vocals, not overpower or overshadow.

Mr. Ambiguous was a perfect debut song for Mamamoo. And the fact that part of Mamamoo’s choreography incorporates fake mustaches was enough for me to like them. Their mini album Hello contains six songs all of which stick to the older, jazz, and swing sounds.

As I listen to the mini I picture myself in a lounge enjoying a cocktail while Mamamoo perform their songs flawlessly on stage. Their songs transport me to an era before I was born, but one that I long to experience.

Aside from a kick-ass mini album, I literally just found out today that Mamamoo sings a song from the OST of my favorite drama at the moment. Love Lane appears in the drama Marriage, Not Dating, and when I fist heard it played in an episode, I immediately paused the episode to look up the song. I was excited to see that it was Mamamoo, and not in the least surprised based on the vocals in the song.

I hope Mamamoo gains the love and support they deserve. I’m interested to see if their future comeback will stick to the jazz and swing-themed music or branch out into other genres. Quite frankly, with the vocal ability of these four ladies, they could probably pull off any genre. Only time will tell.

What do you guys think about rookie group Mamamoo? Do they have what it takes to thrive in the constantly-changing K-Pop genre, or will they thrive in other ways? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below and be sure to subscribe to the site and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Bloglovin’ so you can keep up with all our posts.