melissa johnson

Have been kicking around thoughts about Japanese pop culture/visual styles making their way into k-pop only for nugu rookie group Tomatomat to drop these teasers

Using Blockchain to Unearth the Next K-POP Superstar with the Z-POP Dream Project HONG KONG, CHINA - Media OutReach - 30 August 2018 - Z-POP Dream Project (Z-POP Dream), a Korean Headquartered global entertainment platform is...

I vaguely remembered there being a whole crypto angle to this project and I was not wrong

YouTube video by Z-POP Dream [MV] Z-Girls 'Streets of Gold'

I know Lee Soo Man wants to make zalpha pop his next big thing but it just reminds me of the last time someone tried to make ‘z-pop’ happen

So you want to be a trainee I am too old to qualify for most entertainment agencies' auditions, but I do not feel this is a loss. Not only have I never harbored dreams of debuting as an idol or stardom, even if I had I would by....

Wrote about the "trainee experiences" and what they are really all about: blog.mjohnso.com/post/7949673...

Miss those days when we came by our nonsensical signage in k-pop music videos honestly

YouTube video by 월간 윤종신 [MV] 2025 월간 윤종신 7월호 - Summer Seoul

Also, mid-summer, Yoon Jong Shin gave us this unsettling example

YouTube video by Stone Music Entertainment 이현도 (D.O) - 곁에만 있어줘 (Stay With Me) (Feat. Ailee) MV

continue to be flummoxed by the weird marriage between AI music videos and city pop

On This Day:

Red Velvet released "Dumb Dumb"

Issue #96: u:phobia This Side of Japan is back to discuss the new Emma Aibara album, GLAY's "HOWEVER" and Perfume's new single for the latest Chihayafuru spin-off

After a couple of months on vacation, we're back with a new This Side of Japan issue! What's inside:

👻 on Perfume's "Megu-loop" and Chihayafuru: Meguri
👻 new Emma Aibara album
👻 singles by Barren Path, cyber milk chan, e5
👻 GLAY's "HOWEVER"

thissidejapan.substack.com/p/issue-96-u...

YouTube video by Rainbow18 - Topic A

This also applies to Rainbow subunit Rainbow 18's cover of "A":

YouTube video by SUPER SOUND Bugs! [MV] FIESTAR(피에스타) - Vista (2025)

Even though I cannot stop comparing it to the original song any time I listen to it, for the record, I am 100% on board for second-generation groups doing this, by which I mean capitalizing on the brand power they themselves accrued but did not profit from

Ode to Summer (Music Videos) Pt. 2 The summer music video is a great equalizer. It blurs distinctions between popular and nugu groups as their summer music videos, regardless of whether they were filmed abroad in a tropical locale or....

Wrote about the summer music video in k-pop (but mostly wanted to invent an excuse to write about the MV for Yukika's "Cherries Jubiles":

There was a clip of them doing the “Into the New World” circulating a few months ago so that is definitely a possibility! That song aligns with their concept too.

Yes, and then "A" can get the music show win it always deserved

씨스타(SISTAR) -So Cool Music Video YouTube video by STARSHIP

On the subject of Brave Brothers releases from a bygone era, this gem just celebrated its 14th anniversary

YouTube video by DANAH ENTERTAINMENT DIVA-X DIVA M/V

First, Blingone released a cover of "Mister," and now DIVA-X released a cover of After School's "Diva" (complete with some of the original choreography)

YouTube video by DEEPSTUDIO 2025 DEEP GIRLS ONLINE AUDITION | RATATA Choreography by Mood Dok

FC ENM Entertainment is not the only one. Deep Studio has also been trying to recruit more members for a group they plan to debut this year, and boast of a 'quick debut plan'. (They also gave us this deeply weird audition promo video featuring the other future group members, hence the masks:

FC ENM Entertainment holding auditions for members for a group they plan to debut this year, just further proves my point that the way we think of how groups are formed ( audition, train for years & agencies select from their trainee pool when making a group) is wrong, or at the very least dated

Off the top of my head, there is that boy group 1verse that debuted last month, and the group celest1a who debuted and disbanded all within last year. The trot duo Two Sisters. Another boy group, 82major.

That was me last month at a graduation party when someone came up to me to talk about K-Pop Demon Hunters and I tried to use that to segue to how they should check out Twice and it didn’t work 🫠

This perfectly articulates something I have been thinking about regarding this equivalency of the success of K-pop Demon Hunters with K-pop on the whole (or I’ve been encountering a lot of people who love that OST but have no interest in the rest of k-pop)

On This Day:

KARA released their hit track "Mr."

Big week for k-pop x anime

YouTube video by POCLANOS [MV] 토마토맛 (Tomatomat) - 토마노바 (Tomma Nova) / Official Music Video

begging the tomato rookie group to really lean into this tomato thing more

YouTube video by Warner Music Japan きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ - PONPONPON , Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - PONPONPON

Happy PONPONPON Day! Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's Harajuku-powered hit song from #Japan first debuted on YouTube on 7-16-2012. youtu.be/yzC4hFK5P3g?...

Periodic Rookie Groups Report No. 25 Periodic Rookie Group Reports are a series of biannual reports that seek to put a number to how many rookie groups debut and make comebacks in a given year. For Report No. 25, I covered the activity.....

Mid-year rookie group checkpoint time:

YouTube video by GENIE MUSIC BLINGONE - 미스터 Mister Official M/V

🫣

“First K-pop boy band with North Korean defectors” is a helluva sell

Ugh, if only! Kota is so much better than this

And for k-pop fans of a certain age: yes, this is Kota from Sunny Hill, a group that gets (re)discovered by new k-pop fans every few years