Hello Arcadians! I’m Carrie Moon, founder of Kpop Ireland – the largest community of Kpop fans in Ireland.
I’ll tell you a little bit about us, but first, I want to say thanks to The Arcade for letting us come aboard! It’s wonderful to be able to join up with an already awesome community!
Kpop Ireland started in 2010 (way before PSY was a household name!). We started with less than 20 members, and now we’ve blossomed into a huge group with over 1,400 members! In the past we’ve done flashmobs and performances, and we also have monthly meetups where we try to do Korean related things, but mostly the meetups involve eating yummy Korean food at Hophouse/Kimchi.
Our next meetup is on July 25th and you are welcome to join us!
To celebrate Kpop Ireland joining up with The Arcade, I thought I would share my top 5 Kpop songs with everyone. I’ve been listening to Kpop since 2007, so choosing only 5 is such a hard task! So I’ve decided on these, and I can guarantee at least one of them will be stuck in your head for the day!
I’ll start with Super Junior. They were the first Kpop group I ever listened to. I actually found them because they have a movie, called “Attack on the Pinup Boys”, a bizarre tale of the “popular” boys in a Korean highschool getting hit with bags of poop. Yep, that’s right you heard me. Poop. That should give you an idea of the dorks they really are, but when it comes to music and dancing, they will knock your socks off. This song came out in 2009 and has never lost its popularity.
Next up is the King of Kpop himself, Rain. He was one of the first Kpop artists to become super popular outside of Korea/Asia, even topping the TIME 100 Most Influential People poll two or three times (leading to a hilarious dance-off with Stephen Colbert!) He’s also an actor, you might recognise him as Raizo from Ninja Assassin. This is one of his more recent songs, but I really recommend checking out his older stuff, he is considered a legend in Kpop!
Ayyy sexy lady! Next on the list is Hyuna, one of my favourite ladies in Kpop. She was in PSY’s ‘Gangnam Style’ video, and also released her own version of it. But don’t worry, I won’t make you listen to that today! This is a collaboration of hers with Jang Hyunseung (from another Kpop group called BEAST). Hyuna gets a lot of hassle for being “too sexy” but I really fail to see how that is a flaw…
This next song absolutely blew me away the first time I heard it. It’s been described as one of the best rookie debut songs, and I definitely agree. I am a huge fan of B.A.P. (stands for Best Absolute Perfect). They are a fantastic combination of singers, rappers and dancers, as well as songwriters and composers, so I highly recommend them!
If this one doesn’t get you dancing, I don’t know what will. This is Orange Caramel, a subgroup of a larger group called After School. They are ridiculously cute, with easy to learn to dances. In Kpop, it’s pretty common for groups to split into subgroups with just two or three of their members. If you are a fan of cute Jpop groups, I’m sure this will also be very appealing!
So there you have some of our personal favourites! What are some of yours? Let us know in the comments! Also tell us what else you would like myself and the Kpop Ireland admins to post about, we’re all ears!
