My Life in the Past Months through K-Pop

This playlist is constantly changing.

Go ahead, judge me now base on this playlist.😄

I've been listening constantly to this playlist in the past months (I having a Hallyu/Kpop phase), but it was only the other day that I've given a thought on how the arrangement of the songs came to be. So here I am, analyzing myself, and my life while looking back at what happened in the past months. (Even I myself couldn't get away from my own overanalyzing/overthinking of random things lately.)

When I decided to create a playlist for K-Pop, the very first song I added was EXO's "Monster", which in CD era-speak is gasgas na gasgas sa kaka-play ko. It was probably the first familiar song I saw when I was searching Spotify for songs to add to the playlist. I do like EXO. I was instantly captured when I saw their music video for "Growl". A group of young pretty boys with bright hair colours, in suit and sneakers singing and dancing. What cuties. ❤❤ I said to myself I had to see this group perform live; it doesn't matter if I don't understand what they were singing. Well, they've been to the Philippines a couple of times already, and they've been reduced from 12 members to 9/8 and I still haven't seen them live. I need to up my game, really.

The next song "Run Devil Run" by Girl's Generation is another favorite of mine. I was also captured when I saw the music video. Back then I was only familiar with Wonder Girls (because their song, "Nobody", was a big hit in the Philippines few years back), so I was quite surprised when I saw this group of 12 tall and slim girls singing and dancing synchronically. I knew about Super Junior having a lot of members, but I didn't know K-Pop is also doing the same thing with the girls. But then because the choreography was executed very well, them crowding the stage was rather beautiful. When I came home from my the sleepover at a friend's house (a guy friend made me watch the video because he also like Girl's Generation), I immediately looked the group up on internet and downloaded a couple of their songs.

And of course, 2ne1, which is among the most popular K-Pop acts. I like their music, too. They even found extra fandom in the Philippines because Sandara Park was a celebrity here first before becoming a K-Pop artist.

For a long time, there were only 6 songs in the playlist because I opted to just stream the playlists suggested by Spotify whenever I felt like listening to K-Pop, which is usually when I walk to the office because I like to listen to upbeat songs to wake me up. At the same time, K-Pop works for me because I don't understand the lyrics so it becomes just a background music so my mind is left blank before facing another day's work.

Then "Descendants of the Sun" happened. I loved this drama so much I had to download their entire OST. After seeing the drama, its OST was was on loop for days. Nagsawa din naman ako eventually. Araw-araw, gabi-gabi ba naman pinapatugtog. I picked the songs I liked from the soundtracks and added to this playlist, and deleted the separate OST playlist. Probably because I had too much of mellow Korean music, I craved for the usual upbeat K-Pop so I went back to adding lively songs that catch my attention when I stream random playlists.

Of course, Super Junior and Brown Eyed Girls have to be here. SuJu was also a breakout group. "Sorry Sorry" was their only song that I knew but they were popular enough in the Philippines to hold a concert few years back. I remember telling a friend if someone would give me a free tickets to see Super Junior, I'd go even if I'm alone just so I can cross out an item in my bucket list--that is to see a K-Pop group act live. (Ito yung mga panahon na marami pang nagbibigay ng free tickets to concerts.)

In one of my former work's Christmas parties, we danced to Brown Eyed Girls' "Abracadabra. Yep, had to learn the same dance steps. These groups, among others, were what the Filipino fans who were into K-Pop earlier listened to. Kaya sasabihin din ng mga ate/kuya mas magaganda yung mga dati.

And then came the time I was hooked into Korean drama. My gateway drugs were "Legend of the Blue Sea" and "Goblin". The latter has a great set of soundtracks. The opening song instantly captured me so I googled the songs used in the first few episodes of the series, but back then, there were very limited information about the songs. The addiction to Kdrama that ensued is apparent in the addition of soundtracks from various dramas. This phase then lead to the K-Pop phase. Because some of the actors/actresses in the dramas are also members of pop groups, I started to consciously discover K-Pop by looking up and listening to their music. It surprises me every time I learn that a certain actor/actress is actually a K-Pop artist first before taking on acting projects. Minsan parang wala sa hitsura at dating eh. Korean entertainment industry is really no joke. Sabi nga ng former officemate ko, hindi pwede ang puchu-puchu sa kanila. Having good looks (or visuals, as they call it) is not enough, you have to have more to offer.

The playlist grew, and it became my main playlist whenever I study. It is convenient because it is not really distracting since I don't understand the lyrics. So it works just like the instrumental that I usually play in the background when studying.

Cheese in the Trap! soundtrack added a different texture to the playlist because the songs have that indie sound which is absent in the mainstream pop.

So now there you go. I can now name other groups aside from EXO, Girl's Generation or Super Junior, haha, and kaya ko na silang ma-identify/differentiate. Before, when I used to watch the K-Pop segment of MTV, I couldn't really tell the differences of each group's music because they all sounded the same--upbeat, dance music.

I had fun looking through my life in the past months and remembering what happened just through this playlist.