Kpop: Laysha (레이샤)

My first thought when seeing the debut music video of Laysha was that Nassun was the singer, I mean...

But then I realised four of the girls are actually the centerpiece. They are part of a trend with kpop girl groups working their way to success via sexy dance numbers, growing a fan-base who shares fan-cams of their performances, and then in the end they debut with 'real' music videos of their own. Now one could just say they are trying to do a more hip hop version of Stellar's successful and sexualized 'Marionette', but the thing is, the song and the performance (yes, I really mean the singing part...) actually grows on you and at the end of the video they got me. This will be interesting.

• Laysha ft Nassun - Chocolate Cream
• Laysha - Turn Up The Music (360 VR)

Kpop: Fiestar - Mirror

It's been almost exactly one year since Fiestar released their latest video "You're pitiful", a simple but effective track. The new "Mirror" first struck me as a classier version of Stellar's speculative and popular video "Marionette", but then when I had seen the bath sequences and all it really is more like Secret's "Talk That", a sensual kpop video due to its mixture of bittersweet tone and beatiful and slightly dreamy visuals.

• Fiestar - Mirror

Kpop: Stellar - Sting (찔려)

Stellar have established themselves as a kind of the ruling kpop girl group when it comes to sexual innuendo and meta references to female kpop, with videos as Marionette and Vibrato being the best examples. While not being on par with those two songs, Sting continues the tradition with lots of attention going to netizens (be it haters or lovers) this time, and the song is good enough too as a background to this.

• Stellar - Sting (찔려)
• Stellar - Sting (Dance version)
• Stellar - Sting (Hanbok version!)