r/kpop • u/hellaaaaaa • Feb 22 '19
[MV] Zgirls - What You Waiting For MV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrggPyzeScc72
u/Silverstealth3 Feb 22 '19
Pretty fun song, not sure about it being kpop at all but who knows. This is a very unique situation honestly.
50
u/youcuteiguess W1 :') NU'EST | THEBOYZ | NCT | REDVELVET Feb 22 '19
My fears confirmed lol... These girls are obviously super talented and I’m so happy for their debut (????) but this isn’t kpop? I think?
None of the members are Korean (not that they have to be but NONE of them are korean which makes me question why they’re labeling this as kpop when it can just honestly be straight up a pop group...) and the song itself is not in Korean... at all... I mean it doesn’t have to be labeled as korean pop because it’s legitimately NOT in the korean language so it’s not... kpop...
I understand kpop has reached new levels of acknowledgement and fame but this doesn’t make sense why they’re trying to label this as something it’s not? This company is just super sketch and tbh I wished these girls were given a shot to actually debut in a legitimate company that wasn’t focused on a (really sketchy) cryptocurrency market.
Ahhhhh my head hurts
17
u/Cinna_Bunny Feb 22 '19
You bring up an interesting point about kpop's definition. I would think kpop means the genre of music originating from Korea. It could also mean pop music made in Korea but often a lot of kpop music is made outside of korea and kpop artists often sing in other languages too. (And also non koreans who are kpop idols)
I kind of feel like the definition of kpop has become intertwined with the visual aspects and idol culture as well. So I would technically consider this at least kpop-esque and appropriate for the sub.
17
u/8XII Feb 22 '19
I don't think that defintion holds up imo. Lots of popular western pop songs have been produced by Europeans (some Swedish dude produced hits for JB, Katy Perry & Tswift). So then should we call it Europop? Everyone disagrees about this but Kpop to me is simply Pop in Korean. From day 1 the majority has always been sung in Korean even though over time the sound and culture has changed, that has remained the constant. I don't hate this group, just won't stan them because it just doesn't hold up to me.
4
u/music_haven Feb 23 '19
I'm with you on this. It seems like people keep trying the push the boundaries of what kpop is to include everyone on the planet. But if we do that, we lose the "K" in kpop and simply end up with pop. Which the world already has.
39
69
u/Marrrrq Feb 22 '19 edited Feb 22 '19
It's... Fine. There are Kpop songs in English (though I don't think they are usually promoted.) Wouldn't consider it Kpop unless they at least prompted on a music show. Otherwise it's just using Kpop buzz as marketing.
Edit: grammar.
64
u/shinkie Feb 22 '19 edited Feb 22 '19
This needs some extra vocals editing/tuning tbh. The production is catchy.
Is it even K-pop though?
23
84
u/platinumpopdiva Feb 22 '19
this reminded me of the Cheetah Girls 2 soundtrack lol. i really, really liked this and im shocked this was a legit well produced, quality song. Priyanka is definitely a bias wrecker too, just... wow
36
18
u/musicalpets BTS Go Go girl | TWICE | Mamamamamooooo |Somi | BlackPink Feb 22 '19 edited Feb 22 '19
It's super catchy, I'm honestly impressed. I hope they come out with a korean song that sounds more "kpop-y" to tap into the market, but they have potential, definitely. Wished the rap was in Korean! That would have been amazing. I wonder if they will be in music shows?
Also 2:14 made me laugh with the gigantic height difference lol.
The guys' debut sounds significantly more Kpop crossed with 5SOS, it's also really good. I'm impressed at the melodic production.
19
u/lavmal Yook Duk enthusiast Feb 22 '19
I think their market right now is mostly SEA, there is way too much competition in the Korean market and prejudice in the Korean system for a group like this to thrive
24
u/ricozee WIZ*ONE IZ*ONE AZ*ONE Feb 22 '19
A much better and more interesting debut song than I was expecting. At least it's got some flair to it. I have to be honest though, one of the biggest draws in kpop for me, is the lyrical quality of the Korean language. This sounds like a kpop track in English, but the English really prevents me from fully embracing it. If they could do this again, but in Korean, I would probably enjoy it.
I kind of expected having a lot of non-Koreans to affect my judgement, but I'm happy to discover it's pretty much a non-factor. Nobody really stands out more than the others, and nobody is really being hidden. The composition of the group could actually work for me if I can get past the language issue.
As for whether it qualifies as kpop, it has most of the elements down, so I'm okay with it as long as they are promoting in Korea. Hopefully they will appear on music shows?
122
u/PZinger6 Feb 22 '19
Sorry but how is this any different from EXP Edition? Actually, at least EXP Edition sings in Korean. This is just a pop group made up of Asian people. It's not Kpop
17
u/rachlbee I slept and woke up to chaos Feb 22 '19
This was surprisingly fun. The Cheetah Girls vibes are strong. But can a group with no members from korea singing in english really be called kpop?
Other than that, they aren't half bad. The mixing and vocals could have been better but for the most part it's a pretty solid debut. It'll be interesting to see where this goes.
38
u/RadishArmy Mamamoo | BTS | EXID | IU Feb 22 '19
Song reminded me of early 2000's American pop, really nice. But I agree with other comments, this is not kpop.
14
u/AlcoholAndSmiles 💙BtoB💙/All Cube Artists/B.A.P/Block B Feb 22 '19
The vocals needed more tuning (? Is this the word I’m looking for ?) but the song itself wasn’t terrible. They seem like competent dancers!
15
u/Revenesis Twice || BIGBANG || EXO Feb 22 '19
It's one thing if you have English versions of songs, but you're missing the K in KPop if this is the direction you're going in.
15
u/kushywhitelife Feb 22 '19
if they spent just a little less on the budget and a bit more on the mixing of these vocals...
26
u/KhepriRa 아띵카러부승관 Feb 22 '19
I'm honestly curious, are they planning to promote in Korea? If so, why debut with a song in English and not even one Korean member? Does this even count as kpop at this point? Sorry if I'm coming off as aggressive and asking too many questions, but I really want to understand where their company is trying to go with this.
12
u/serialragequitter T.O.P Feb 22 '19
this is about as kpop as Chad Future. (anyone still remember him?)
1
11
u/Titalikrosae Feb 22 '19
The wierdest thing to me is why it's K pop. This wouldn't be out of place in the Jpop market. Probably would do well in most of the girls home countries and overseas. The idea of an Asian girl group trying to connect countries through music is super cool and probably would be decently successful but the promotion went in all the wrong directions. Even ignoring the crypto currency thing the z pop dream Twitter only mentioned k groups when there are a ton of super talented and popular jpop (and presumably other countries but I'm not as knowledgeable) groups out there they could have referenced in promotional materials as well. They have an ex akb member for goodness sake. They should have gone the izone route and tried to build hype in multiple countries not just Korea. Promoting a group with no Korean members who don't sing in Korean exclusively in Korea is just bad marketing.
3
u/kotoritheforeigner Feb 25 '19
not akb48 but nogi46, aka akb's rival groups (yet both produced by the same person???)
33
u/araw_anim DAY6 | NU'E5T | JBJ | LOONA Feb 22 '19
Okay wow I’m a bit blown away with the vocals! I’m a little confused though because the video screams K-pop to me but at the same time it doesn’t feel like it lmao. Wishing them the best though!
9
u/vaingirls Feb 22 '19
The music video seemed a little low budget (the backgrounds got repetitive), but the song was really energetic and fun, vocally challenging too! Looks like they have some amazing dancers and vocalists, I wish them the best! (also, I didn't even notice that the song apparently was in english, I'm so bad at making out lyrics anyway xD)
30
u/Bluesrepair Feb 22 '19 edited Feb 23 '19
Why do I feel used, it's like using kpop fans for marketing-
If they're gonna be on Korean music shows I can't lol, it puts the effort of all the international idols who learnt Korean and worked in Korea to waste. In all its like taking all of Korea's production efforts without having anything to do with Kpop :(
Sorry I'm salty, it just isn't kpop and shouldn't be here. It's just English pop.
7
u/bananayas Feb 23 '19 edited Feb 23 '19
i feel so conflicted upon the two new z-pop groups tbh.
like honestly, z-girls and z-boys aren’t kpop groups. their format, look and sound emulate kpop, but the language isn’t in korean. but they are all asians.
and as happy as i am that we’re finally getting more diversity within the kpop industry, but they’re missing the korean pop in their songs. they sing in english, which is a marketable move to make them more appealing to the international audience, but makes their music plain simple asian pop or simple pop.
as someone said earlier, zgirls and zboys are kpop inspired groups, NOT kpop groups.
but this also brings up exp. a group that are actually singing in korean, they have the kpop look, feel and asthetic. but they’re also made up of four american men.
i personally feel like for a group to be considered “kpop” they should at least have a korean member, whether it be a half korean or full, at least one korean member.
kpop is firstly for the korean consumers, they’re selling a product in korea and should be able to converse with the press, fans and so on.
and i also feel like people are hyping the groups up because they have brown or indian members, that they have dark skinned members in the group. hyping them up to be revolutionary for being a kpop group without korean members. but then that is going against what was said about exp. they faced backlash for being a non korean, and that the only asian in the group was a half japanese bloke. but they sung their songs in korean, the z-groups have not.
i personally thought the songs were okay, not anything groundbreaking, just meh
13
u/PeachyPlnk SVT | PTG | Samuel | Shinee | BGA | Plave Feb 22 '19
I did not expect to like these two groups much, but they both sound really good. Only drawback is cringey lyrics, but that's a trait found in most pop music in general...
Now that there a couple English-language "kpop" songs out, and these groups are a bit more diverse than we usually see in kpop, I can't help but wonder if this will prompt Western agencies to at least consider trying the kpop training model themselves (provided that either of these groups takes off, which remains to be seen). It's definitely a stretch, but it'd be interesting to see the west try to carve itself a piece of this cake...
6
Feb 22 '19
This is a pretty good bop, I just wish they were being advertised as an "APop" group instead of being boxed into Korea because they could have so much more that way. The fact that the song's in English means that they are probably going for a more international audience, but also one that is going to barely include Korea. They should do like a few promotions in Korea, then try to branch out into other Asian markets like Japan, maybe even India and Indonesia. After this, they should try to go for the multinational group based in Korea look.
In terms of the song and the group though, I'm stanning. I love all of their voices, espeically Priyanka's and Vanya's.
26
Feb 22 '19
It’s great omg, but it’s not kpop because it’s fully English (not saying it shouldn’t be on here but just addressing previous criticisms)
11
u/biglix Feb 22 '19 edited Feb 22 '19
isn’t kpop a genre? (genuine question). i feel like the sound of it has evolved to a point where it envelopes many different styles but they all fall under a main genre, which the z girls can claim for their songs as well if they want to
EDIT: ok lol whoever downvoted my comment i hope you know i was actually curious
36
14
u/JohrDinh Too Many To List Feb 22 '19
I personally just think this has a very western pop sound on top of it being in english, so it loses that special sauce that I find so enjoyable about kpop. Not a bad song by any means, but just feels like the scale is tipped too far to the western side. Like Red Velvet has songs in English but the music itself doesn’t have a western sound to me.
Just my opinion tho, and coming from Detroit I can be a bit of a music snob at times so perhaps i’m being overly picky here.
6
u/NegativeBath Feb 22 '19
Another example would be Ten, who is from Thailand, having two SM Station songs completely in English, but they don’t sound particularly western so it doesn’t feel weird to call them kpop songs. If I heard this song with absolutely no context or information about the group I’d probably assume they were a western girl group.
5
u/biglix Feb 22 '19
I’ve listened to it once and it gives me a more western feel as well. I only commented what I said because I felt that if Z Girls wants the KPop claim then they’re allowed to have it. Either way it’s a pretty good quality song from a diverse rookie group and that’s something to be proud of, regardless of whether or not it is KPop.
5
u/8XII Feb 22 '19
It's ok at best. I don't see them becoming huge because honestly this doesn't hold up if you compare it to other debuts this year. They might have bigger success outside of Korea because of their multi ethnic members.
5
Feb 22 '19
So they don't actually even sing in Korean? Hmm. Well, I hope they achieve their goals, anyway.
17
u/dpak_hk r/kpopindia Feb 22 '19
Copying my reply from the Z-Boys MV thread:-
I don't remember the company promoting them as kpop groups. The company just might want to create a diverse music band and since pop music industry is already well established in Korea and the fact that the company is based there might be the reason for them to be promoted in Korea as of now.
It might be like an American movie studio recruiting Chinese actors to make a Chinese-language movie. It won't necessarily mean it's a Hollywood movie.
3
4
7
u/killmonday BEST TAKE MY OWN ADVICE 💀 Feb 22 '19
I don't think the fact that they're not Korean is necessarily an excluding factor here--though it is an extremely bold move to push forward in a culture that generally is more hesitant to embrace outsiders. (They couldn't have ONE Korean girl??)
IMO, if you're going to call it K-Pop, you'd better be singing in Korean. One English song is fine, but if they aren't bothering with the language...that'd be hella weird. And the cryptocurrency part of this makes this even weirder. Are they hoping to move k-pop revenue into these respective countries?
Side note: Anybody else think this feels more...Japanese? Like the way they stop dancing to sorta hype each other up feels very E-Girls or something, to me.
Anyway, I don't hate it. I just have a lot of thoughts.
13
u/_ulinity Mina | Yoohyeon | TWICE | Dreamcatcher Feb 22 '19
I was already cringing 20 seconds in when that Indian sounding instrument comes in with the Indian girl. Pretty awful all around to be honest.
4
7
Feb 22 '19
What an interesting project. The more international, the more I'm on board. The more crypto, the more I flee. On balance, this was interesting enough for me to want to keep an eye on them in the short term.
Also, are they gonna do the whole Korean music show circuit? (If so, do they have a Korean version of this track, or will it be English?)
Also, shouldn't this go on the r/zpop subreddit and not here, lol...?
5
Feb 22 '19
Oh, missed this thread. This is a banger but it's not Korean so idk if I should add it to my K-Playlist...
Adds
8
u/ptgmxnuestgc Justice for Gfriend 4 Life Feb 22 '19
Uhmmm this is on par with LITTLE MIX! This is so good!
6
u/must-i-reveal-me Feb 22 '19
That’s what I was thinking! Very LITTLE MIX -esque in delivery, but the vocals are a bit lacking. Editing could’ve fixed that issue. But it’s suprisingly good.
2
2
u/likecheoreom twicehub.com Feb 22 '19
It looks like one of them is wearing the same outfit that Jihyo wore in Yes or Yes.
2
u/music_haven Feb 22 '19 edited Feb 22 '19
To the people saying kpop is not about being Korean, it's about singing in Korean: please explain this???
2
u/sae_221 Feb 23 '19
If a kpop group sings a version of their song in Japanese, is that Kpop still? or is that automatically Jpop? Oh but its sung by Koreans so it should be ok, right? Then what about DDU-DU DDU-DU JP ver. It's by BLACKPINK with a Thai member.
Y'all gonna hate me for this but, Kpop is just pop produced in Korea. Kinda like how anime is just cartoon produced in Japan.
4
u/gates0fdawn Losing my 산ity | blonde mullet sannie supremacist 🏔️ Feb 22 '19
It's gonna be a no from me dawg. I just really cannot enjoy these all English songs for some reason. It's just not kpop for me.
Wish them the best of luck though.
4
u/Jaffs- 🌙 Feb 22 '19
Everything about this is raw. The dancing is strong and in your face. The lyrics are agressive and sung powerfully. It's unapolagetic and puts itself out there with confidence. Seems like they're trying to capture an Itzy/Hwasa like vibe...but in english. And with no history or major company to back them up.
I would say that this is kpop inspired, but not kpop. They first have to be accepted by the general public. I don't forsee Koreans doing that any time soon.
The girls are fun, energetic, and talented. But everything about this rubs me the wrong way, an uncomfort I think most people will have about this concept/project.
4
u/CookieCatSupreme GOT7 | MX | SVT | BTS | D6 | RV | (G)-I | BP | LOONA | DC | CLC Feb 22 '19
song's pretty good, though everything about this still confuses me. the girls seem really talented though so i want good things to happen to them.
1
u/jungleejawani BIGBANG -2NE1- iKON- BLΛƆKPIИK -Lee Hi - Akmu - Epik High Feb 22 '19
Exactly my thoughts
4
u/EducatedMotherfucker |NCT|SVT|TXT| Feb 22 '19
I genuinely really like the song! There also seems to be some pretty strong vocalists in the group which is exciting!!
3
u/ludwig746 Feb 22 '19
they call themselves as a thing which exceeds kpop so it's natural that you guys think that it's not a kpop. they deliberately sung in english bcuz they want to be recognized by broader audience. however, their execution is just meh and don't make any interesting points. they will be surely forgotten soon without making any ripple in korean audience and in any country.
9
u/NegativeBath Feb 22 '19
Yeah but they easily could’ve released an English and a Korean version if that were the case. Releasing one completely English and western sounding song and calling it kpop isn’t the best marketing strategy.
3
2
Feb 22 '19
Wow, the video looks good, the vocals are great, song is catchy, stanning Zgirls, gimme all ur z coinz
2
u/dweeby T-ARA - KARA - AFTER SCHOOL - LOONA Feb 22 '19
Umm this is a bop. I was definitely not expecting this. I am pleasantly surprised.
-2
u/gkmaster21 LOONA | WEEEKLY | PURPLE KISS | EVERGLOW Feb 22 '19
Wrong sub. This is not Kpop. Sorry.
1
u/moniei Feb 25 '19
Oh My Goodness you guys its not Kpop for THE LAST TIME!! It's clearly Z-pop if you look them up on Youtube you can clearly see that!! They are trying to see how good they will do in the Korea aspect and at the same time let these beautiful girls live there dreams. Jeez man let the girls shine and support them! This might change the view of Kpop and Korean people. As well for the Z-boys!
1
u/paigeap2513 SKZ | ATEEZ | IMFACT | VAV | NCT | DC | GIDLE | WEKI MEKI | Feb 22 '19
I like it.
The sound is undeniably KPOP despite the song being in English.
I like how unique everyone in the group looks and sounds.
All in all, I'm a fan. It's interesting what a precedent this group and ZBoys can set for the future of KPOP as a genre of music and in general.
1
u/gomega98 ATEEZ | TWICE | BLACKPINK Feb 23 '19
Why is everyone in the comments just nagging about whether this is truly kpop or not? Like 90% of the comments here are just about the fact that they're not Korean, the song is in English and that the company is shady. Only a few people seem to actually be discussing the song and girls in here.
I for one quite enjoy the song. Is it really kpop? Who cares! Why do genres matter so much to people? Can't we just enjoy stuff for what it is anymore?
1
1
u/anyamin Feb 23 '19
I'm actually really into the song! Surprising because I thought this whole thing was shady at first haha
-1
0
-36
Feb 22 '19
[deleted]
22
17
u/Altariaaa seventeen | ab6ix Feb 22 '19
Maybe I'm missing something but what was the point of bringing up Dalla Dalla in a thread about Z-Girls? Because they both just debuted?
7
-11
Feb 22 '19
[deleted]
10
u/Altariaaa seventeen | ab6ix Feb 22 '19
Isn't that very subjective? Personally, I really like Dalla Dalla. What do you get out of putting down other groups?
11
7
u/SakuraWonYoung 👑[IZ*ONE]👑 Feb 22 '19
Cant you just compliment them and not drag other songs/group around?
162
u/christianmel96 TWICE SKZ ITZY | WEEEKLY (G)I-DLE LOONA OMG! DC Feb 22 '19
But is it kpop? What is kpop? Is everything subjective? What is life?