Kpop Music Mondays

Wow! Totally didn’t expect this video to make it to the top of the KpopCharts. We’re totally surprised. MAX-STEP! If you haven’t seen Younique Unit’s “Maxstep,” check it out below:

Side note: if you have no idea why we’re saying “MAXSTEP” in whispers, you should check out our review of TVXQ’s “Keep Your Head Down”. That’ll explain things a bit more. You know, we really need to make a glossary of Eatyourkimchi inside jokes, so that we can initiate the uninitiated. Well, we’ve got a new version of our site about to go live in a few days, totally redesigned and less buggy, so hopefully we can add a glossary there, once it’s all good to go!

Anyhow, we didn’t really like this song. Our theory is that it’s not really meant to be a big SM song release, and more just background music to their dancing, as well as promotion for Hyundai, so we’re not really considering this a big release. Or…are we wrong? Are we gonna see more Younique Unit, like we’re supposed to see more Taetiseo (pronounced “TITTAYS” if you’re unaware)?

There’s an image issue we found with this video that we were a bit uncomfortable with. Mixed in with the dancing, there are shots of everyone looking just unhappy, angry and aggressive, punching at the screen, being pissed off, and breaking glass. There’s nothing really subtle or inviting about it. It’s meant to convey anger and power, meant to be like “we’re bloody awesome, I don’t give a fudge what you think” and that’s not the SM that I like. I’m more fond of happy and seductive SM rather than I’m gonna kick your puppy because I feel like it SM. You know?

Ok, enough about the song; let’s talk about the dancing. Now, we’re by no means experts in dancing. Nor are we novices in dancing. We’re barely even competent in dancing. Walking’s tough enough as is. But we did look at this video frame by frame to try to see how everyone was dancing. What we noticed is that Taemin looks like the best dancer in the group. Like, overwhelmingly so. He jumps higher, bends his knees more, his movements snap. He looks like he’s always in perfect form, while everyone else looks like they’re just doing the movements. Are we wrong here? Maybe he’s the worst dancer, and he’s too exaggerated and should look more lax like the other members? This is where our lack of knowledge of dancing is apparent. From our perspective, though, it just seems like there’s a lot more movement in Taemin’s movement, and that looks like better dancing, to us.

Yeah! That’s it for this week’s Kpop Music Monday. Let us know if you agree with what we’re saying or not. Also, some news: tomorrow we’re gonna be posting the Block B interview. Finally! So check in tomorrow afternoon, Korean time! Also, we’ll be studio hunting tomorrow afternoon as well. Saw some cool places in Hongdae and we’re really hopeful! This might be the Nasty Studio! And, lastly check out this week’s blooper reel, which felt like they were longer than our actual Music Monday itself. Probably because we had so many skits :D

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