Since the start of The Bias List in January 2016, I’ve always looked back at my three favorite title tracks by K-pop artists each month. Now, it’s time to look even further into the past, one month at a time. And, yes, the top three rankings count toward The Bias List’s personal artist scorecard!
August 2011 Overall Thoughts
Compared to what was waiting in the wings for September, August 2011’s K-pop slate felt somewhat underwhelming. The month resulted in a few undeniable classics, but many of the comebacks just never clicked with me. Looking back, August’s girl group releases sound particularly dated — mired in the kind of tinny electro pop instrumentals that were all the rage during this era.
With that said, the month gave us several notable debuts in the form of Stellar and Chocolat. The former would go on to release some great pop music, but 2011’s Rocket Girl was nothing short of terrible. August also unveiled the first peek at upcoming boy group B.A.P, with the release of Bang Yong Guk’s angsty hip-hop ballad With You.
Though I don’t include remixes in my monthly round-ups, T-ara’s fun Eurodance mix of Roly-Poly was a welcome start to the month. For my top three picks, we’ve got some grade-A Sweetune wedged between two songs by a group who released a solid album with fantastic singles choices.
Honorable Mentions
Bang Yong Guk (B.A.P) – With You (ft. Yang Yoseop) (video)
Dal Shabet – Bling Bling (video)
Sistar – So Cool (video)
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
I 100% must disagree with ‘Rocket Girl’
which isn’t to say it’s a mess but it was one in an interesting & dynamic way. it definitely needed some fine tuning but there was intention behind it and they, if nothing else, committed to the concept in a way that I can’t help wondering what it would be like if they stayed in that direction post UFO.
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I listened to ‘Rocket Girl’ for the first after this comment and I have to agree that it’s a interesting piece of music with an energetic instrumental…
However, the verses are all over the place (this this aegyo stuff even a melody?) and who is the dude in the bridge?
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I hadn’t heard Stellar “Rocket Girl” before either. It sounds like Orange Caramel covering an f(x) song. If it were an f(x) song, I think it may have rated at least honorable mention. The production is also an effective artistic use of autotune to get that dissonant video game robot sound.
The video makes me chuckle – there is a sound effect that sounds like she is hitting everyone over the head with a frying pan like an old school cartoon character.
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Mr Simple to me is an obvious number 1. Half sung, half percussive chanting, and all fun. This is another song I like to make up lyrics to. I put a prominent Jesus in the second half of the chorus (instead of “… geochin sesang …”). The video is in the “Dear Lord what are you wearing” era of SM Entertainment.
Mr Simple is right behind Sorry Sorry in importance in their catalogue, and a key reason they got over the 7 year curse – here we are in 2011 a full 6 years past debut and they drop this song and album, with two repackages following (including “A-Cha” which will be my favorite for Sept 2011), and collectively they were the hottest seller in Korea since TVXQ Mirotic.
“Super Man” wasn’t promoted much separately, but is a regular in Super Show tours. It most importantly known as the source of “The Last Men Standing” line that every ELF quotes liberally.
(In case you were wondering, yes, they also did a song called “Super Girl”, released by Super Junior M in Mandarin and Korean in 2009.)
Aug 2011 is also the month “Titanium” by Sia + David Guetta was released. Now we can all feel old.
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I love the goofy charm of Superman, even if promotion-wise it’s basically a glorified b-side. Couldn’t leave it off, though!
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Man, I’d die for a full-length review of Mr. Simple from you (I don’t think you’ve done one – probably?). Our music taste converges on a lot of things (Sweetune good, trap bad, why can’t we just have a chorus melody again, etc.), but occasionally you diverge from me so heavily that I must know why.
That aside – how do you make these posts? I mean, I’ve been a k-pop fan for a good amount of time and I couldn’t for the life of me create a comprehensive account of what was released in August of 2016, much less August 2011!
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I keep pretty exhaustive playlists year-to-year. Combine that with a bit of internet research and it’s not hard at all. But, that’s the librarian in me talking. I love classifying and categorizing things!
About that Mr. Simple review… Never say never! It may just happen sometime down the line.
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