K-Pop Songs of the Summer: Concluding Thoughts

Hello Everyone! Yesterday, the K-Pop Songs of the Summer series concluded. It has been an amazing ride, to say the least. Everyone wrote some incredible reviews, I think nearly all of us peaked with these reviews, writing beyond what I would have considered possible.

I had gotten the idea for this feature a few months ago, but I only decided on the final form in July, right in the middle of summer. However, as I use Blogspot, a lot of commenters, including reviewers, don't leave their emails. Thus, I emailed StillBangtan of Deforested Music to get some emails. Using the emails he provided, I was able to start the feature. Indeed, I was not able to get everyone's email (I could not get K.Kive's email on time, and Mr. Simple was on hiatus due to academic competitions), but I had a strong line-up.

When I sent the initial email request to everyone, I was not expecting everyone to positively reply. Indeed, no one rejected the idea and accepted it gladly. I was surprised, many of the bloggers have long followings, and are much more popular and influential than me. It shows that large blogs such as TheBiasList and KPOPREVIEWED are reviewing not for views and popularity, but because they enjoy it, special thanks to everyone who accepted. The only person a day or so late for accepting was Jei's Kulture Notes, as she was on a minor hiatus. However, she positively replied the moment she could, thanks!

I then tried to make the title image on my own, and it came out miserable (the rest of the bloggers can attest for me). Thankfully, Lina from Hallyu Reviews was there to help, and she made the blog image entirely on her own. As you can see above, it perfectly captures the feel of summer, thank you so much!

Everyone proceeded to select excellent songs (as you all know) and were extremely diligent in preparing, and we soon posted the teasers on the first available date. On Lina and Una's shared Twitter, it was tweeted how excited they felt to see the teasers go live at the same time. I felt it. The positive comments everywhere, as well as the hilarious super group comments on Nick's site, it gave me a good feeling.

Then, there were the reviews. Everyone outdid themselves. Indeed, no review was an outlier, all were incredible, in-depth, and well researched. Even the more wacky picks, such as EXO's Power were reviewed incredibly. I knew there was a community between all the blogs, but seeing us work together was incredible.

Initially, I was quite skeptical on how some of the bloggers would write their reviews. Indeed, me, Deforested Music, TheBiasList, KPOPREVIEWED, Hallyu Reviews, and KBOPPED had formats for reviews like this. However, Jei's Kulture Notes and 8.5 Music did not. Both, however, knocked it out of the park for their reviews. Instead of trying to fit the reviews into their style, they went outside the box, and I greatly appreciate it.

Indeed, everyone outdid each other for the reviews, it was quite spectacular. I would like to thank everyone for their willingness for their collaboration.

Thank you to:

Una and Lina of Hallyu Reviews

StillBangtan of Deforested Music

Nick of The Bias List

KH/Bluerasberrysyrup of A Floating Realm in the Corner

Arpydarpy of KBOPPED

Jei of Jei's Kulture Notes

Terrance of 8.5 Music

Tony of KPOPREVIEWED

Now, to conclude, I thought it best to do something fun. I am going to rank all the songs we chose to review. This is just my opinion, and I gurantee no one else will agree with me. Still, it is a fun idea. I will also provide the review links!

Note: This is a ranking of the songs in my opinion, not the reviews. All the reviews were so good it is hard to pick!

1. TVXQ - Hi Ya Ya (Review by me)

2. SNUPER - The Star of Stars (Review by KBOPPED)

3. SHINee - View (Review by 8.5 Music)

4. ATEEZ - Wave (Review by Deforested Music)

5. Sistar - Loving U (Review by The Bias List)

6. F(x) - Hot Summer (Review by KPOPREVIEWED)

7. EXO - Power (Review by Hallyu Reviews)

8. NCT 127 - Summer 127 (Review by A Floating Realm in the Corner)

9. WJSN - Boogie Up (Review by Jei's Kulture Notes... and apologies by me)

However, all songs grew on me extremely well after the reviews!

Thank you to everyone who read our collaboration, and wishing you the best!