2020 Rookie Roundup 5

An Album a Day

An Album a Day is my exploration into the Korean music scene. This podcast will cover mainstream, indie and some underground artists within the scene and provide both factual and opinionated commentary. The biggest benefit to sharing my thoughts this way is that it will hopefully expose you to more great music and exploration of your own.

Welcome to the final Rookie Roundup for 2020 Korean idol groups. Todays lineup consists of nine groups and my top three groups to watch, right after the drop.

Youre tuned into An Album a Day. Show start.

Hey yall, tomorrow we move along with A-named idol groups but today, weve a bounty of new babies and one supergroup to acknowledge. The previous rookies brought a lot of enjoyment to my ears so I dont think its premature to say that more great music is heading our way.

In the previous Rookie Roundup for 2020, I mentioned that Refund Sisters was the follow-up supergroup to another group from the television show Hangout with Yoo. The Nations MC Yoo Jae-Suk combined forces with sensational soloists Rain and Lee Hyori to create SSAK3, and their music is good. I mean, for those of you who are fans of Korean t.v. series, youre familiar with Yoo Jae-Suk in an unavoidable way. Hes one of the most well-known celebrities in South Korea, hands down, and absolutely loves music and dancing. I had a brief interaction with him on a t.v. set and was blown away by how he commands space, so pairing up with two other entertainment legends was bound to pull lots of attention. And so SSAK3 did, much to the frustration of some netizens who said theyd have an unfair advantage due to unbridled popularity. Thus, the standard to donate all proceeds from their works to charity was set for both them, and Lee Hyoris second group, Refund Sisters.

But come on now, what could they have expected from a group whose name is a play on the Korean word, to sweep? These are proven stars and star-quality sound coats their pop projects. Each album builds upon the concept and season of summer and there are other widely popular artists as features on their last album. In short, add them to your warm-weather playlist rotation.

Next up, Star To A Young Culture, a six-member girl group on High Up Entertainment. Making their debut on November 12, 2020, StayC (get it, its the first letters of their longer name now stylized as its own name?) was formed by production team Black Eyed Pilseung and has an exciting production style. The group doesnt have fluffy vocals or the stereotypical vocal softness of many girl groups on their first go-around. Their debut single album has two memorable tracks and Im excited to hear more from them. Likewise, netizens who enjoy Korean dramas and K-pop are excited too, as member Park Si-eun is a popular actor and the daughter of solo male artist and former actor Park Nam Jung. Her dad invented the L-dance craze in the late 1980s -- I wonder if shell be able to innovate a dance with StayC? Side note, you have to YouTube the video of him performing with Super Junior. No other words to say except, Do it!

Ten-member boy band TOO has too many people and thats ridiculous of me to say when Ive gone over a year with calling SM Entertainments NCT my bandmates. Though the group made their debut on April 1, 2020, their journey towards debut began publicly in 2019 on the t.v. show To Be World Klass. There were moments when I had a Stank Face of Approval while listening to their two albums and I am ready for more of whatever it is that Stone Music Entertainment has planned for them. They are really good and having almost a dozen members means that subunits could be the next thing for them.

Speaking of 10- and 12-piece boy group combos, YG Entertainment released a dozen young men, two co-leaders included, onto the scene on August 7, 2020, by the name of Treasure. The reality t.v. show survivors of YG Treasure...