2ne1 vs SNSD (Days of Future Past)

Let's get ready to rumble!

No, but seriously...

Well Said!

So I said I would talk about this and I am going to be as fair and level headed as I always am (ha!) and give you a rational, yet completely biased assessment of MY thoughts of both albums. From the title of this blog, you can see I made an X-Men reference and that is for two reasons. First, I think both of these groups are like superheros in that they embody feminine ideals in ways the average woman just can't without a team of professional makeup, hair and clothing coordinators and choreographers and they have insane amounts of personal charms and charisma. Secondly, in hearing both albums, there is a strange dichotomy here that can't be ignored in that each one seems to represent their own time and space, apart from the world the other album has created. Now here is my quick and dirty impression of each offering starting with SNSD's Mr. Mr.:

First Impression:

CUTE!

The concept art for the album is cute with the kind of naughty nurse theme and the classic beauty looks each lady is displaying here. I find their hair and makeup wearable and age appropriate (because the girls aren't really girls anymore) and just overall, very sophisticated.

Now the music...once again, CUTE! I can't lie and say it was as game changing as I Got a Boy, but it was also not as audibly jarring as IGAB was the first time I heard it. The sounds were very familiar, kind of retro sounds from the Euro-pop of Europa to the very early 2000's sound of Mr. Mr. and the candy coated bouncy sound of Goodbye and Wait a Minute. Back Hug seems ideally suited for a Kdrama love scene and Soul was probably the most up beat of the songs with a lot of hard hitting moments that really sounded like a TVXQ song  to me in many ways.

In general, this was a solid mini-album but where I found it lacking was in the failure to grow the sound of the group. If anything, I felt like this album was a call back to the early days of k-pop when groups wore matching ensembles and played up their quirky aegyo. And while the girls more than pull off the sound with everyone sounding great, I can't help but think that this album sounds like a 2011 release more than a 2014 release. There is a lot of nostalgia here for me, but not a lot of progress. Still, this is a great listen and I think most SONEs and even casual fans should enjoy it. It is a reminder of the more niche kpop experience that a lot of us older fans really miss and don't often see in the new groups coming on the scene. Except Crayon Pop. They are adorable.

Now, onto 2ne1 with Crush:

First Impression:

OH YEAH!

The concept art for this album is not new for the group and really doesn't add anything to the last few looks the group has had, but there is something to be said for consistency and they wrote the book on that. There is the continued collaboration with Jeremy Scott and the overall dark, street fashionista clothes and makeup even though Park Bom with black hair...Bout frickin time.

Onto the music. Dancing for days! YG really has a signature sound with their in-house producers that even guest producers seem to fall in line with and on each song, you can kind of run through the YG catalog and find its audio counterpart on a GD, Big Bang or past 2ne1 album. But what really stood out for me here was an upping of YG's unofficial statement that they are the urban label of Korea. This album's western influences are apparent right away and with english lyrics, I could imagine hearing any one of these songs on U.S. radio right now so if that was what they were striving for, they did it. Blackjacks must be proud and this would make a great album to play for those not familiar with kpop just to get them used to listening to the foreign language against a very familiar backing sound.

This leads me to my overall thought about the album. It is wonderful but brings with it a lot of questions about the future of Kpop. For a long time, the idea of western crossover has been floating amongst groups and it seems like a lot of new groups are taking a page from the YG playbook and crafting songs that mirror the trends outside of Korea. And I respect the decision but there is a element of kpop that is lost when trying to go too western. Which is were the conflict arises when listening to this album in a kpop context. To me, this is not a kpop album. This is just as much an international pop album as Rhianna or 1D or Imagine Dragons. Not to say that sonically, it is the same style, but more that this album has a sound without genre and as such keeps it in line with the future of all music, which is borderless.

So really, this is not as much a 2ne1 vs SNSD discussion as it is a directional conflict. What direction will kpop go and who will carry that banner? Please share your thoughts, but please be respectful because you are better than petty squabbling.

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SheyGamit9 #1
The two different groups have the same roots, no matter what others say it's a Kpop thing, SNSD and 2ne1 are the Queens/Empresses of Kpop, very different genres, different styles, different groups but they only live in one country. I don't even get why Sones and Blackjacks fight because of the clash while if you look at both sides....... they were both Kpoppers.


And, wow, you really made "TVXQ" sound so old. Not being rude or anything just sharing my thoughts.
ElleJacobs #2
I completely agree with you. It's about time SM allows SNSD to grow up. I know they want to keep it safe and appeal to a broader audience, but the truth of the matter is that that's what the new generation of idols is for. That's what F(x) is for, and for the next female idol group they decide to debut. Rather than showing their colors now, SM just continues to try and emulate the same success they acquired with GEE. But they're not the same girls anymore. SM doesn't understand that the girls can still maintain their very feminine appeal while still allowing their music to mature along with them.

On the other hand, YG is a company that has always gotten this. They've never been much to care about what the general public thinks, nor have they been one to conform to anyones standards or expectations. Otherwise groups like BigBang and 2NE1 wouldn't be what they are today: two groups highly admired and respected by their peers in the industry. They do what they feel is right and allow their idols the room to grow and become artists. With this album, I felt that they did right by 2NE1 one and not only allowed them to show their maturity as woman, but their growth and evolution as amazing vocalists and talented artists.

As a person who has been into Kpop since 2004, I think Kpop is still very much Kpop, but of course there are people who are always going to want to go beyond that, and it's something I can personally get behind. Why limit themselves to only Kpop, or Korea, or Asia? Why not branch out into the world and show that you're just as capable as being just as innovative as everyone else? With that being said, YG hits it on the head time and time again. They have the ability to perfectly fuse Kpop and Western music and mold it to fit it's artists.
WhiteCurse21 #3
Both albums are great, but CRUSH is more appealing for me. Gosh every song hits a spot inside my gall bladder! XD lol

Snsd and 2ne1 will always be the top Girl Groups of Korea :) Hwaiting^^
Isadora_Quagmire #4
True true and true, but the thing of it is--comparing 2NE1 with SNSD is like comparing apples and oranges. Mainly because SM is not YG and vice versa. Also their "images" are polar opposites in that Gilrs' Generation, like the name suggests will always have a bigger target audience in younger /girls/. They're the fluffy pink unicorn band that appeals to kids from say 12-16??

Whereas 2NE1 has always been super mature (I Love You was uncannily S.E.S. in style). So to compare girls "coming of age" to women who are free with their uality is... difficult. And so I'll just stop here and say "WOW" and run bye
kittykat407655 #5
I agree with everything you said, its right on the money. Especially what you said about 2ne1 in terms of music, I can pop 2ne1 right in with my nineteen year old brother without having to worry of him saying to shut it off, whereas with SNSD he probably wouldn't like the cute and fruitiness of it. I believe it all comes down to the particular flavor of every individual's taste buds or a person's up-bringing, or perhaps a better word, environment.

I can with full confidence that I believe that SNSD'S song MR.MR will do exceptionally well in Korea and in other Asian countries perhaps even in Europe and I am sure that will see much the same success in the US. However 2ne1's album has the mainstream feel to it, with their classic punk vibe mixed in with a bit of reggae and urban feels, I believe It would open a lot more doors for people who were previously unaware of it to give it a look. That is what happened with Gangnam Style also, people who never even heard of K-pop were suddenly giving it a look-see and plenty if not all of them started to like k-pop, adding to its already large fanbase.

SNDS'S mini is very good but for drawing people in I would have to say 2ne1 put more thought into their album, they made a real try to appeal to everyone's musical tastes as much as possible, while unfortunately SNSD seemed not to put to much effort into changing their sound to much and in the long it could hurt them a bit.

But in the end they both have remarkable music and like I said, it all comes down to the individual's unique and vastly polar taste buds.
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