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: Heize (헤이즈)

Heize was a semi-finalist in the latest season of korean Unpretty Rapstar, where female rappers battle it out, and it was probably just a quastion of time before she got som solo succes and I think with what the two singles so far has shown it should come true. I hope her not being part of a group shouldn't be to big a disadvantage. As many other contestants, outside the hiphop competition she sings mostly non-rap songs, Heize going for the soulful and it seems to suit her, and she and Dean really seems to have something going musically.

• Heize ft Dean, DJ Fritz - And July
• Heize ft Dean - Shut Up & Groove

Jpop: Wagakki Band - Strong Fate

Wagakki Band don't just revel in historical/fantasy Japanese culture in their looks and videos, they really own the concept as they combine rock guitars and drums with classical japanese instruments to deliver music that is distinctly theirs. That said, their videos is really worth watching in themselves, the music and Yuuko's song acting as a perfect companion to the visual drama.

• Wagakki Band - Strong Fate

Jpop: Daoko - Bang!

The up and coming Daoko has released a nice new video "Bang!" from the upcoming september triple single, and it shows her going all in pop in a catchy track with clapping beeing central.

• Daoko - Bang!

Kpop: Bebemon (베베몬)

This project group of solo singer Bael Sul Ki and boy trio Monsterz debuts with the song Bokkotonic that is a musically relatively meaningless song but the video and dance is a fun parody (celebration of?) video games like Just Dance and it has the potential for giving the group a nice niche in kpop. The name of the song is a play on the famous Bokgo dance that Bael Sul Ki did and which in part was behind her success.

• Bebemon - Bokkotonic (복고토닉)