Hello fellow K-Pop/J-Pop followers. Tonight I thought I would do an informative post to bring to light some of the newest of BLACKPINK's Jisoo's songs.
1 Earthquake
The reason I like this music video so much is because I was drawn to it by seeing Jisoo play the part of an office worker in the thumbnail. It was incredible to see her play that part and develop the emotional and empowering feel of the song for the audience related to the metaphors that the song represents. Jisoo's voice sounds very mature and well-fit for this song and makes it very satisfying to listen to. Additionally I like the choice of black for her costume as well as the dancers, it matched with the mood of the song very well. All of that together makes "Earthquake" a very entertaining song to listen to and fans will miss out on a must-hear experience by not listening.(JISOO, YouTube, 2025).
2. "You're Love"
Similar to being excited for "Earthquake", I was amazed listening to Jisoo's voice in this song due to her impressive singing talent. What blew me away and made me feel satisfied as a fan was due to both how well she sang and how the background singers contributed to the overall quality of the song. I particularly enjoyed the pre chorus and chorus the most because those were the most emotive parts of the song where Jisoo used breathy vocals that in turn made the song sound ethereal and angelic. "You're Love" is the perfect song to add to your K-Pop playlist if you have not already (JISOO, YouTube, 2025).
3. "Hugs & Kisses"
A very satisfying solo song of her's to listen to. What stood out most about it was her innovative way of singing by switching between casual and confident tones in her voice throughout the song. The lyrics were perhaps some of the best I have heard from her so far and the beat drop (which I explain more about beat drops in Popular K-Pop & J-Pop Terms Explained Using Song Examples) was phenomenal. The funky baseline was also a great addition to the song. I very much so recommend the song because it is very replayable in my opinion (JISOO, YouTube, 2025)
What are your favorite solo song's of hers so far? Please let me know in the comment section below.
Good evening fellow K-Pop and J-Pop fans! Tonight, I wanted to discuss with you some common K-Pop and J-Pop terms and how they apply to never before discussed songs and songs mentioned in this blog so far.
K-Pop Terms
메인보컬 (Mein Bokeol or Main Vocal)- K-Pop term that means the lead vocalist of the group. When it comes to songs/music videos that I have discussed already such as TWICE's "Heart Shaker" and "Dance the Night Away", Jihyo seemed to be the main vocalist due to being given many prominent lines for those songs as well as being at the center of the dance group. It has not always been like this though because Nayeon has had the lead being the center dancer and main vocals in songs such as "Fancy" and "The Feels". Personally, this is a great way to lead a K-Pop group and it would be fun to see other members such as Tzuyu or Dahyun be given more prominent parts in songs, but it makes sense that each member has the parts they already have because of the roll their individual part has in making the song/music video sound and look great. (JYP Entertainment, YouTube, 2017-2019; 2021).
고음 (Go-eum)- K-Pop term that means the high notes of a song. In the SNSD music video, "Mr. Mr.", Taeyeon shined alongside her group mates with her powerful light lyric soprano voice. All of them sang well, but Taeyeon is a great example of a K-Pop singer able to hit the high notes (SMTOWN, YouTube, 2014).
비트 드롭 (Beat Drop) – K-Pop term that describes the higher points of energy in a song. BLACKPINK's "DDU-DU DDU-DU" is a great example of a K-Pop song that contains an engaging and satisfying beat drop. The build up in the pre chorus was not disappointing because of how awesome the beat drop sounds in the chorus (BLACKPINK, YouTube, 2018).
간주 (Ganju)- K-Pop term for a song's interlude. ITZY's "WANNABE" is a K-Pop song with a fitting instrumental break that works to finish the final chorus of the song very well. Depending on the song and story, this is an entertaining way to present the story of the songs to fans. It was definitely the right choice to add one towards the end for this song (JYP Entertainment, YouTube, 2020).
후렴 (Huryeom)- K-Pop term for a song's chorus. MOMOLAND's BBoom BBoom is a fantastic example of a song with a strong chorus and is personally one of my favorite K-Pop songs of all time. It is very energetic and a great beat for dancing to. The lyrics of the chorus are very catchy and so fun that it makes one feel like dancing/hoping along with the beats (1theK, YouTube, 2018).
J-Pop/J-Rock Terms
転調 (Tenchou)- a Japanese music term meaning "key change" that describes the pitch of the song changes up or down. FLOW's "Go!!" is a dynamic example of using tenchou in the music video. The tenchou used in the last half of the song sounded very epic, funny and smooth. This J-Rock song has remained one of my favorite to listen to over and over again for a long time (FLOW Official YouTube Channel, YouTube, 2017).
間奏 (Kansou)- a Japanese term for "instrumental break" and it is similar to the Korean term "ganju". In Nogizaka46's "Kimino Nawa Kibou", the instrumental break in the middle of the song felt quite relaxing, dreamy and atmospheric. As a great example of a J-Pop song with kansou in it, it feels like a song perfect for listening to when wanting to relax after work or wanting to relax on a rainy day (乃木坂46 OFFICIAL YouTube CHANNEL, Youtube, 2018).
高音 (Kouon)- Japanese term for high pitched/ falsetto vocals. Hikaru Utada's "First Love" is simply a famous J-Pop song where Utada hits the high notes very well and expressively (Hikaru Utada, Youtube, 2016).
疾走感 (Shissoukan)- Japanese term to describe a fast paced song.Perfume's Polyrhythm is a perfect example of this type of J-Pop song because of the ambient background effects and soundscapes. The song is well sung and is a unique sounding song, the background effects sound very well incorporated (Perfume, YouTube, 2013).
余韻 (Yoin)- Japanese term used to describe highly atmospheric tracks. "Ikimonogakari" by Blue Bird is an emotional piece of music that is fitting as a Naruto Shippuden intro song. The fade off at the end of the song leaves the listener with the appropriate nostalgic effects that they are supposed to feel both from the song and anime (いきものがかり OFFICIAL YouTube Channel, YouTube, 2020).
With these ten terms, that concludes our evening study of K-Pop and J-Pop terms. I hope you had fun learning them and that they were informative in your exploration of fun and interesting K-Pop and J-Pop topics!
This time the topic is similar, but is now expanded into a fun version that looks at the potential that both genres have for the entertainment future compared to what has been available to us fans by the artists so far in the 21st century.
Last week, I discussed Tzuyu from TWICE's music highlighting that she did a cover of an Ava Max song and a Taylor Swift song. Covers of western music and K-Pop singing with a western twist are not limited to only Girls Generation and Tzuyu, but many other K-Pop/J-Pop artists have done covers of western songs. K-Pop groups such as A.C.E. performing a cover of Lewis Capaldi's "Someone You Loved" and individual artists like Rose from BLACKPINK singing a cover of "Eyes Closed" by Halsey. Additionally, a J-Pop band such as Goose House performing a cover of "Take Me Home Country Roads" by John Denver.
"Someone You Loved Cover"
There are a lot of things I have to say about this video and cover. In one way I can relate to the message of the song because of the loss of something that mattered to me. Donghun, Jun and Chan had strong masculine voices that fit with the lyrics, at the same time their voices and talent make the song appealing to someone who may not be a fan of either A.C.E., Lewis Capaldi or K-pop. The cover was so great that it nearly caused me to tear up or at least want to because it was so well sung. Lastly, since this is trio of a group of 5 doing a song of one artist, I liked their idea of alternating vocals instead of unison singing. With respect to the original singer and to the idea of unision singing, this was a creative idea that added to the emotional impact of the song (Official A.C.E., Youtube, 2019).
"Eyes Closed" Cover
Rose's voice was enhanced in this cover of Halsey's song, "Eyes Closed" because it was the first time I listed to a solo member of BLACKPINK sing. In contrast to the trio of 5 from A.C.E., this music video cover was great in its own way. It had a great lead in and had fitting vocals for the song type. It was enjoyable to listen to and it was interesting that the cover was shorter than the original version, but the shortening in this cover takes a unique turn to focus on singing ability (BLACKPINK, Youtube, 2018).
"Country Roads" Cover
John Denver was one of my favorite singers growing up. I remember when I was seven that my dad used to have a CD of his in the car. When I used to listen to it before school started, I would ask my mom to replay songs such as "Rocky Mountain High" and "Country Roads". Therefore, it was awesome to sing a Japanese group sing one of my favorite childhood songs growing up in one of my favorite languages. This music video can be enjoyed by anyone! (Goose House, Youtube, 2013)
All of these covers are great examples of eastern music meeting western music, but the idea gets even larger than that. Imagine not only famous K-Pop/J-Pop artists creating covers of popular western artists, but imagine them integrating western music into the genre completely.
The covers in this list serve as an example of what is already happening in modern history of K-Pop/J-Pop singers performing covers of western songs. An interesting answer to my own question would be that it seems like K-Pop is already heavily influenced by western music through a lot of the dancing and style of singing in their albums. J-Pop however is still maintaining its appeal to its own market which is Japan. It can be easily heard through the instruments and tones that J-Pop songs have. I happen to like it a lot, but imagine if western music was more integrated into J-Pop, it would change the production of the music as well as the goal of the marketing to match that of the K-Pop music industry. That would be something new, yet surprising. Coming soon, I will take time to discuss the past influences of western music on Japanese City Pop from the 1970's and 80's to listen to what happened in the past and imagine what would happen if there were modern or future attempts to integrate western music into Japanese Pop.
Don't forget to tell me what you thought of the ideas presented and whether or not you agree with them.
