Violin in C Sharp

 I did a post like this last year - my top 21 songs of 2021 and had a lot of fun with it - so here we are again with the top 22 from this last year.  Expect most (if not all) songs to fall into the K-Pop genre because that has been my dominant genre of the year. As I said last year, my  Spotify wrapped gave pretty good insight into which songs got the most play from me on that service, but that doesn't take into account my non-Spotify listening or the songs that might not have gotten as much airplay even though I like them more.  Let's face it, songs released earlier in the year had more chances to get repeated plays after all. 22) The Astronaut by Jin Release date: 10/28/2022 This song didn't have a chance to make my Spotify Wrapped at all - but it is the song that best represents my musical journey for the last 3 months of 2022.  It's a farewell song from Jin as he and his other members head off to military service. In June, BTS announced that they would be t...

  My friend Jess and I got into a music swap today.  She was sending me Russian ska and I threatened to retaliate in K-Pop but I realized there were so many more songs that I wanted to share with her that I was just going to have to sit down and dedicate a block of time to fully getting into it without interrupting her work day too much.  So.... here we go. Mayfly  - Playing with Paints Lyric video:  https://youtu.be/PCKVCAIbh20 Performance video:  https://youtu.be/yTJiKjZy5Xo This one I actually already shared with her - but since it's what started the sharing trend in my head, it's where I have to start again.  This is from the recently ended South Korean idol competition show Kingdom: Legendary War.  It was part of the combo team challenge and was the "rap team" entry.  It's rappers from BTOB, Stray Kids, & ATEEZ coming together - and it is glorious. BTS - MAP OF THE SOUL:7 'Interlude: Shadow' MV:  https://youtu.be/PV1gCvzpSy0 Thi...

     A friend of mine recently reached out to me and told me she was interested in checking out BTS.  She approached me since she knew that I liked their music and wondered if I could suggest which songs she should listen to first.  Excited at the idea of being able to share their music with someone unfamiliar with the group, I offered to put together a playlist for her.  Little did I know what I was getting myself into.     I should have known better.  I am from the era of mix-tapes after all.  I remember the stress of putting together mix-tapes for friends in my early years.  The pressure of what song should lead off, which song could both follow the initial track AND stand up to the pressure of being the sophomore track on an album, to remember not to follow any one song with another that had too similar a feel, to include both hard hitting songs as well as tracks that could serve as rests, and always to keep in mind with every s...

 Music you may not have heard, but should Song: 내 방을 여행하는 법  -  (Fly To My Room) Written by: Cosmo's Midnight, Joe Femi Griffith, RM, Suga, J-Hope Performing Artist: Suga, J-Hope, Jimin and V  (BTS) Album: BE Released: 2020 (yesterday night) Spotify link:   Fly to My Room YouTube link:  내 방을 여행하는 법 Yes, this is K-Pop.  Yes this is a BTS unit song. Ok, let's get the K-Pop conversation out of the way.  Rather than posting all my thoughts on that here in this post - you can find them here:  (my blog on being a k-pop fan)   It's just easier and cleaner that way. Right - now that that's out of the way.... BTS dropped their new album last night around 9pm or so.  The big push from the band and the label is focused on the "Life Goes On" track  - which is a good song with a good video - but if you dig into the album only one track further, you find this gem sung by 4 of the 7 members. Musically, I like the stripped down instrument...

I dabbled slightly in K-Pop before the Quarantine started, but I didn't self-identify as a K-Pop fan.  Now?  Now things are different.  Now I self-identify as ARMY, CARAT, MOA, ENGENE, and starting to even work into becoming STAY as well. For those of you not up to speed on the K-Pop lingo, that was a list of band fandom names.  BTS fans are ARMY, Seventeen fans are CARAT, Tomorrow x Together (TxT) fans are MOA, Enhypen fans are ENGENE, and Stray Kids fans are STAY. I don't have a long history of being a devoted fan to many bands.  I tend to chose my music by song and not by any sense of loyalty to an artist or group.  Over the years, there have been a few exceptions - The Corrs, N'Sync, anything by Cirque du Soleil - but I never followed any of those artists to the degree that I've started following these K-Pop bands during Quarantine. I listen to songs from these bands EVERY DAY.  I watch videos of their performances, their interviews, their variety ...