Star Sparkle Blog

Last year I wrote a couple of posts about the solo careers of the members of American girl group Fifth Harmony. You can read them below:  Fifth Harmony Girls' Solo Careers- Part 1: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/11/fifth-harmony-girls-solo-careers-part-1.html Fifth Harmony Girls' Solo Careers- Part 2: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/11/fifth-harmony-girls-solo-careers-part-2.html   I thought it would be cool to do one for the members of Korean boyband BTS as well. The group consists of 7 members- leader RM, formerly known as Rap Monster (real name Kim Nam Joon), SUGA (Min Yoon Gi), Jin (full name Kim Seok Jin), j-hope (Jung Ho-seok), Jimin (Park Ji Min), V (Kim Tae Hyung) and Jungkook (Jeon Jung Kook).* Since making their debut in 2013 and rising to fame in South Korea, they have since gone on to achieve global success. They are probably one of the most well-known Korean boybands (and groups in general) internationally. BTS are not currently releasing music a...

Today's video is Poison by NCT DREAM , the 3rd sub-unit of Korean boy band NCT . The other 4 sub-units are NCT U , NCT 127 , WayV and NCT DOJAEJUNG . It's from their 3rd studio album IST, which was released on 17th July. The title is based on one of the personality types from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator questionnaire. The lead single was Broken Melodies which was released in June and the title track ITSJ (released the same day as the album) was the second single. Poison is an R'n'B love song and the track video came out on 7th July. Click "Subtitles/closed captions" on YouTube for English subtitles! :)    NCT fan? Check out these posts:  WayV- Diamonds (released last December): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/12/weekly-music-video_28.html NCT DOJAEJUNG- Perfume (the debut single from the newest unit, released in April):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/07/weekly-music-video_12.html NCT U- Baggy Jeans (their latest single which came out mont...

Today's video is Perfume by NCT DOJAEJUNG . They are the 5th and newest sub-unit of Korean boy band NCT . The full group had 23 members at one time but currently consists of 20. The other 4 sub-units are NCT U , NCT 127 , NCT Dream  and WayV  (Chinese unit). Two more were supposed to debut (NCT Hollywood and NCT Tokyo) but there have been no further updates on them so far.  NCT DOJAEJUNG are more of an R'n'B group than the other units. There are 3 members- Doyoung (real name Kim Dong-young), Jaehyun (Jeong Jae-hyun/Yun-o) and Jungwoo (Kim Jung Woo). Their name comes from the main band name (NCT stands for "Neo Culture Technology") and the first initials of the members.*  The group was formed in early 2022 and made their official debut in April this year, with the release of their debut mini album Perfume and the title track. Perfume is an R'n'B electropop song about wanting to  leave your scent on a loved one  so you're not forgotten. Both album and si...

It's been a while since I've done a general dance videos post, so today I'm sharing a couple of videos featuring dances from different genres. :)   Happy Feet Legwork/Butterfly Legwork Dance Tutorial- ItsJustNife (Chop Daily) First up is some African dance. This is a tutorial for the dance steps known as butterfly legwork or happy feet legwork, which originated in Nigeria. The teacher is Nifè (known as ItsJustNife online), who is from the UK. This is a simple tutorial that explains the steps well. The video is from last August and features on the YouTube channel Chop Daily. For more Afro dance videos check out Chop Daily: https://www.youtube.com/c/ChopDaily/ And follow Nifè here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJPnNk5-44bX6YhIcti1KPw/   Visit my World Dance- African post to see more African dance videos, including poco and legwork tutorials: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/09/world-dance-african.html   (KPOP IN PUBLIC) B.I. X Soulja Boy- BTBT feat. DeVita- LUMINA...

Today's video is MAGNETIC by popular Korean solo singer Rain (aka Bi) and featuring Hong Kong singer/rapper Jackson Wang (who is a member of K-pop band GOT7 ). It's a nice R'n'B song and is from Rain's new EP PIECES by RAIN, which came out on 3rd March. This is the official audio and was uploaded on the 4th. I will update as and when there's a music video. :)   Update: Just seen that the music video has been uploaded, so here it is! :)     Rain has also released WHY DON'T WE with Chung Ha . Check out the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srWfDwiRVgQ   For more songs by Rain visit this post :  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/08/k-pop-male-solo-stars.html And check out this post for Jackson Wang's latest solo single Alone (Chinese): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/02/weekly-music-video_17.html  

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week; I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :)   Back in 2017 I wrote a post featuring female K-pop solo stars. You can read that here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/04/k-pop-female-solo-stars.html Well, now it's the turn of the boys! I've mentioned before that I've known more Korean groups than solo singers, but since getting more into K-pop in recent years , I know more solo singers now. I've had this idea for a while (I keep a list of blog post ideas), but for some reason it's taken me a while to get around to it, lol. Anyway, here are some male K-pop solo stars I like. :) Note: Korean names are written with the surname first, although some artists (such as Jay Park) have theirs written in the Western way.   Rain (Bi) Rain (also known as Bi which is Korean for "rain"), whose real name is Jung Ji-Hoon, is one of Korea's top solo stars. In addition to being a singer, he is also a dancer and a...

Today's video is Candy by BAEKHYUN , member of Korean/Chinese boyband EXO and also part of the supergroup SuperM . His full name is Byun Baek-hyun (or Baek-hun Byun in Western terms), and he made his solo debut in July 2019 with the EP City Lights, which was a bestseller. He had previously relased the singe Take You Home through digittal musuc projext SM Station Season 2 in April 2017. The lead single from City Lights was UN Village, also released last summer.  On 25th May BAEKHYUN brought out his 2nd EP Delight. Candy is the first single from the EP and came out on the same day. For more on BAEKHYUN visit these links: Kprofile: https://kprofiles.com/baekhyun-profile-facts-baekhyun-ideal-type/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baekhyunee_exo/ EXO fan? Check out these posts: Growl music videos (Korean and Chinese versions): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2014/04/weekly-music-video_30.html Features the Korean version of Mama (also features SISTAR ): https://starsparklex.blog...

Sorry the 2nd post is later again this week. I aim to post twice weekly, once with the Weekly Music Video on Wednesday and again with another post on Fridays or Saturdays, but am a bit behind with things again. Never mind. Hope everyone is doing well. :) Now onto the post! I've had an idea for a while to feature some videos from my J-pop and K-pop playlist on YouTube, so today I'm starting with K-pop ones. You can view the playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXt5YYJbzF8yKJPZ0T5iUWfvez11V4a7p EXO- Growl  This is one of my favourite songs by Korean/Chinese boyband EXO. It was a Weekly Music Video in 2014 which you can see here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2014/04/weekly-music-video_30.html SISTAR- Alone Girl group SISTAR disbanded in 2017 but we can still enjoy their songs! :) Alone is one of my faves and I featured it in a 2014 Girls vs Boys post: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2014/06/girls-vs-boys-k-pop.html SISTAR- Give It To Me Her...

Sorry the post is late this week, I just realised I was behind a day, since I normally do the 2nd post on a Saturday! Bit of a stressful time lately. Never mind. :) Korean boyband Monsta X (sometimes also written as MONSTA X) have just released their debut English language album, ALL ABOUT LUV. It came out on Friday (on Valentine's Day appropriately!).  The groups has released 3 Korean studio albums ,7 Korean  EPs and 2 Japanese albums  to date. I heard about their English album a while and I'm sure many English speaking fans have been looking forward to it! Although I'm (obviously) a K-pop fan, it is nice to hear songs by them in my first/native language. :) Sadly the group is down a member with Wonho leaving in October . ALL ABOUT LUV contains 11 tracks (12 on the Extended Version which includes I.M.s rap version of BESIDE YOU). As you can tell by the album title all the songs are written in caps. And as you can tell the songs are all about love! This is a good al...

BTS and MONSTA X (also written as Monsta X) are two of the most popular Korean boy bands right now, and I'm a fan of both their music. So I thought today I'd do a round-up of their videos. :) BTS Let's start with BTS. The band name is short for Bangtan Sonyeondan, which translates in English as "Bulletproof Boy Scouts" and they're also known as Bangtan Boys. Their music started out in a "harder" hip hop style but these days it's more varied. It's interesting to see how it's changed. :) BTS brought out their debut single album 2 Cool 4 Skool in 2013, and to date have released 3 Korean studio albums, Dark & Wild (2014), Wings (2016) and this year's LOVE YOURSELF: Tear; 3 Japanese, Wake Up (2014), Youth 2016) and their latest Face Yourself, and 6 EPS including O!RUL8, 2? (2013), , LOVE YOURSELF: Her (2017) and Map of the Soul: Persona which came out in April. In addition they have released 23 singles and several single album...

If you're a regular Star Sparkle reader you'll know that I'm a K-pop (Korean pop) fan! Today I'm sharing some of my fave K-pop songs. :) Lee Hyori- 10 Minutes Lee Hyori's 10 Minutes has been one of my fave Korean songs for years.* Hyori (also known as Hyolee) was originally part of the girl group Fin. K.L. but went solo in 2003. Watch the video here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2012/05/weekly-music-video.html Check out another Hyori song here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2013/10/girls-vs-boys-k-pop.html DBSK/TVXQ- Mirotic Boyband Dong Bang Shin Ki (DBSK) released Mirotic in 2008. I originally heard the Japanese version (in Japan they were Tohoshinki).  You can watch both Korean and Japanese video here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2011/12/weekly-music-video.html These days DBSK are a duo known mainly as TVXQ . BIGBANG- Bad Boy Bad Boy is one of my favourite songs by the boyband BIGBANG. It came out as a single in 2012 and is fro...

Here's my first K-pop post of the year! (We're halfway through 2018 and I just realised I hadn't done one so far, lol). These are a few of the latest releases.. :) BTS- FAKE LOVE First up this is FAKE LOVE by BTS . It was released on 18th May and is from their 3rd studio album Love Yourself: Tear.

Here is my first New Music/Videos round-up of the year! I recently did two post on new music for 2018 (see bottom of post for links) but this is my first in the New Music/Videos series. :) K-pop GIRLKIND- FANCI CHUNGHA - Rollercoaster JBJ - My Flower Red Velvet - Bad Boy The East Light- Real Man (live on Simply K-pop) VAV- Spotlight (live) SZA- The Weekend Mabel & Not3s Fine Line Jhene Aiko feat. Rae Sremmued- Sativa  Albanian Eva- Me mu Skeedi- Tradhtare * Seldi Qualliu- Thyhen Gotat Enis Bytyqi- Sikur ajo Shakira feat, Maluma- Trap (Spanish) SNH48- DON'T TOUCH (Chinese) Hadise - Sifir Tolerans (Turkish)* İdo Tatlıses- Sen (Turkish) Jennifer Lopez feat. Skrillex- US Waje feat. Yemi Alade- I'm Available (Nigerian) Aashiq Banaya Aapne from the film Hate Story IV (Bollywood) That's all for now!Hope you enjoyed the post. :) Check out my New Music for 2018 posts: http://starsparklex.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/new-music-for-2018-par...

This is the video for Korean/Chinese boyband EXO's new single Ko Ko Bop. The group has had a few changes in the past couple of years, members Kris Wu , Luhan and Z.Tao (aka Tao) have all left after filing lawsuits against their record company S.M. Entertainment . Ko Ko Bop is EXO's first ever reggae song. It's from their 4th studio album The War which was released last month. The War is currently a bestseller and Ko Ko Bop has also topped the charts. It was released on 18th July, the same day as the album. This is the Korean version: And here's the Chinese version: Also Kris Wu has a new single out called 6. You can watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXgp9yiRyMU

I've been watching more K-pop lately, so here are some of the new releases from the past month. :) MONSTA X- Beautiful Boyband MONSTA X 's latest is single Beautiful. It came out in March so it's not brand new but it's only a month old. :) It's from their latest album The Clan Pt. 2.

Two of my favourite genres are J-pop and K-pop. I started listening to J-pop (Japanese pop) about 10 years ago and got into K-pop (Korean pop) a few years ago as well. I don't listen to as much music from other Asian countries but the other month I came across a Vietnamese singer (Hồ Ngọc Ha, see below), so I thought it would be fun to explore different types. :) Note: I also like Bollywood /Hindi music but for the purposes of this post, I'm going to stick to East Asian music (apart from one crossover Bollywood song). Maybe in the future I'll do a post on South Asian music :) J-pop My favourite. :)  (Although there are actually more K-pop posts on here because I've been listening to more lately!). My fave singers are Koda Kumi and Namie Amuro and I also like Utada Hikaru (although I prefer her English languge music in general) and some Ayumi Hamasaki songs. I mostly know Japanese solo singers, so I'd like to listen to more groups. I like a few groups, suc...