Kpopalypse Nugu Alert Episode 79 – Chuurry, Siren, Rawon ft. Jasn Purp, Unh
It’s time for another episode of Kpopalypse Nugu Alert! Let’s take a look at some more nugus!
Hey dear readers, it’s getting towards the end of the year and you know what that means, it means I have to catch up and review a bunch of shit that I should have probably looked at earlier this year but didn’t, so it doesn’t miss out on possible end of year shortlisting. Kpopalypse Nugu Alert is always a good place for that, because the nugu submissions build up over time, so now it’s time to release the nugus!
This particular episode has a theme, which is female soloists. As someone who has worked heavily within the nugu realm in my own country, I can confirm that nugu female soloists in the pop realm are extremely common. No matter where you live in the world, there’s probably some woman in your neighbourhood who has her song on YouTube and you don’t know about it. I remember an artist from my area selling her CDs at the local Blockbuster Video where she worked, and that was the only place you could get them because she didn’t have a label or any distribution or anything. What I’m saying is that times are always tough for female soloists so let’s take a look at some and spread the nugu love!
Usual rules apply:
- Less than 20,000 views on official channels
- Not on your Spotify playlist right now 99.99% guaranteed
- Relevant to Kpopalypse
Let’s go!
Chuurry – Funky Night
Never mind Chuu, here’s Chuurry, and Funky Night is a pretty damn impressive effort given that she did all the music herself as well as most of the visuals, with the only outside help she received being a choreographer and someone to hold the camera whenever her selfie stick arm got tired. Having said that, “impressive” doesn’t always mean “good”, and “100% self directed” doesn’t always mean “better than what a pro could do”. The parts of this package where Chuury had some hired help are actually really well done, but the music and audio production that she was solely responsible for is far less so. Chuury could have probably used a little bit more assistance with things like the vocal arrangement, just to make the song sound less like a generic R&B improvisation session and more of an actual tune. Oh well, it’s still a good try and I hope she sticks with making music longer than she sticks with that flip-phone at the start of the video.
Youtube views at the time of writing: 4840
Notable attribute: Chuurry’s white bishop knocks over the black king at 0:44 in a situation where black has at least two viable escape routes to a bishop attack from any direction
Nugu Alert rating: high
Siren – Betty
Siren’s music is definitely a lot more my speed, or at least the dark, moody backing track is anyway. The vocals on top aren’t quite so successful as they don’t really quite fit the mood, especially in the second verse when she starts going down major scales like a nursery rhyme. Also I wish she just stuck to Korean for the words because the English use is kind of awkward, I get what she’s trying to say but it just doesn’t come across that well when the usage is so broken. At least the visuals are great, with wacky henna tattoos, some cool fashions on display that are definitely worth an episode of Kpopalypse Fashion Class, plus one of the best fake graffiti backdrops I’ve ever seen. You’ve got to hand it to someone when they put “fuck” right there in the center and on the video thumbnail as well. I feel like if I met Siren she’d be pretty cool and we’d get along just fine.
Youtube views at the time of writing: 2480
Notable attribute: the graffiti that reads “graffiti” definitely broke my fourth wall
Nugu Alert rating: very high
Rawon ft. Jasn Purp – I Wanna Know You All
Rawon’s song isn’t too bad actually, and yes it has the plink plinks but I think we’re far enough away from the horrid tropical house trend to the point where a bit of xylophone or whatever the hell it is actually sounds a bit pleasant and nice and not like something that’s done 39 times each week. It’s not the ‘correct’ tropical house beat anyway, this song has a slower vibe and comes across more like Hyomin’s “Mango” if it wasn’t a complete failure. Jasn Prup may as well not have turned up though, as his musical contribution doesn’t really add anything interesting, which is a shame. Assuming that’s him with the paper bag over his head, Rawon seems to manage to punish him appropriately by handcuffing him to a chair and torturing him with some $2 supermarket scissors in a weird turn of events from the very aegyo teddy-hugging opening, so at least she get her revenge. If only that could happen to all male guests who warble over female soloist tracks unnecessarily.
Youtube views at the time of writing: 1245
Notable attribute: Rawon got the stock computer images from here, let’s hope she signed up for the free 7-day trial and not the $99 plan
Nugu Alert rating: extreme
Unh – Shower
Unh’s “Shower” isn’t much to get excited about musically, but the video is sure visually interesting. Firstly it’s quite arresting because she’s obviously one of those “pink girls”, and has just gone all-out. You know the type, everyone knows or has met someone like this – the kind of girls who just like everything and I mean everything they own to be pink. However the more I watched this, the more I realised something even more interesting, which is that perhaps Unh doesn’t know what a shower actually is. I don’t mean this in a “Bobby from iKON/Gowon” hip-hop kind of way, I just mean that she’s sitting in a bathtub and there’s no shower head anywhere in sight, and later on she’s using hand sanitiser, it seems she wants to clean herself in any possible way except the shower. The confusion continues with her album “Shower Booth” where the front cover picture depicts a kitchen sink instead (in pink, of course), so I think something was definitely lost in translation here. Anyway hopefully she’s keeping it clean and making enough money so she doesn’t have to eBay her original edition Care Bear collection.
Youtube views at the time of writing: 804
Notable attribute: if you want to be non-hip-hop and keep it clean like Unh her favourite shampoo variety is here
Nugu Alert rating: extreme
That’s all for this episode! Kpopalypse Nugu Alert will return!
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