25 Days Of Christmas Countdown Day #20: Top Western Songs 2015

The Western pop scene doesn't get enough love from K-pop or J-pop fans. I will never understand why some of those fans (K-pop fans in particular) rave about other countries' pop music being SO much better than American stuff when it's pretty much exactly the same thing. Just with more groups instead of solo singers. There's nothing wrong with preferring one over the other, but to say that there's this vast difference in musical style & quality is wrong. There's crap music in K-pop, J-pop, and American pop, just like there's good music in all three. This list was also really incredibly difficult because of the sheer amount of artists this covers. I'm going to need to have a better solution next year lol. Spotify playlist at the bottom this time instead of YT videos.

#10: The Weeknd - In The Night

#9: Demi Lovato - Kingdom Come (ft. Iggy Azalea)

#8: Colette Carr - Three Percent

#7: Zedd - I Want You To Know (ft. Selena Gomez)

#6: Ellie Goulding - On My Mind

#5: Adam Lambert - Evil In The Night

#4: Walk The Moon - Work This Body

#3: Fall Out Boy - Fourth Of July

#2: Melanie Martinez - Pity Party

#1: Pentatonix - Ref

Enjoy! What are some of your favorite Western tracks of the year?

New Music Thursdays (August 13, 2015)

Track #1: Kobushi Factory - Nen ni wa Nen

Kobushi Factory is one of the newer Hello! Project groups. They are comprised of Rio Fujii, Ayaka Hirose, Minami Nomura, Rena Ogawa, Ayano Hamaura, Sakurako Wada, Natsumi Taguchi, and Rei Inoue; all from Hello Pro Kenshuusei. I'm still not certain that I'm sold on Kobushi's music style as I haven't really cared too much for pop rock stuff in a couple years, but I do really like this one. It's incredibly catchy and different than what the rest of H!P has to offer. This is the final A-side of their first single, Dosukoi! Kenkyo ni Daitai/Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san no Uta/Nen ni wa Nen, which will be released on September 2nd.

Track #2: One Black Night - Wonder Girls

I suppose it's a little unfair to put another song from their album this week when I featured their lead track last week, but this song is so incredible that it deserves the spot. It's less 80s than their lead track and reminds me a lot of Blank Space & Bad Blood from Taylor Swift's 1989. Their new album, Reboot, released August 3rd.

Track #3: Colette Carr - Three Percent

I adore Colette Carr. I'm not sure how many people have really heard of her, but this song is from her new EP that released July 17th. This song (and the EP as a whole) is a major departure from her first album which was a hip-pop/rap pop kind of thing. It had electro elements, but it seems that she's going for a straightforward electropop/synthpop style this time around. Which is perfectly fine for me.

Enjoy!

Song Recommendations (June 25, 2015 Edition)

I've been too busy this past week to write anything up, so I figured that I would do another recommendation post since they are quick & easy.

Angerme - Nana Korobi Ya Oki

I never believed that they'd be able to surpass Chikyuu for me, but this is coming really close. Angerme has just been the star of H!P for 2015.

Infinite - Dilemma

Dear K-pop companies, you can have your artists release stuff like this in Japan but not Korea? This is quality right here.

So Yumi - Shake Me Up

I find it funny how the Kpop/trot songs are the ones I'm liking from Kpop this year. More of this style please and less of whatever Kpop thinks it's trying to do.

Colette Carr - Static

I love her music so much. This is stylistically different than the Skitzo album, but I really love this. So happy to finally have new music from her. It's also free on iTunes this week! Pick it up for the low price of free if you enjoy! (And check out her other stuff too :))

Enjoy!