Kpopalypse Nugu Alert Episode 59 – Azer-Blossom, B.L.E, Rhea

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It’s time for another episode of Kpopalypse Nugu Alert!  Let’s check out some more nugus!

November has always been a bit of a problem, culturally.  It’s a month of the year that tends to always get attached to silly causes and nonsense.

  • Black Friday – do you Americans really need a special day to be even more consumerist and wasteful than you already are
  • No-nut November – how moronic, everyone knows that nuts are healthy and should be consumed every month of the year
  • Movember – yes prostate health is a good cause but is making your face as hairy as your genitals for an entire month really the best way to raise awareness

Maybe it’s the proximity of Christmas to the month of November that turns everyone crazy and willing to do insane weird stuff to distract themselves from the fact they haven’t got their presents yet.  So in order to restore November to something actually approaching useful and sane, I am now officially rebranding November (please alert your local governments thank you).  All Novembers from now on are officially Nugu Alert Novembers, and you can expect Kpopalypse Nugu Alerts during this time.  Let’s kick off Nugu Alert November with a look at some of the year’s more nugu girl group offerings!

Usual rules apply:

  • Less than 20,000 views on official channels
  • Probably not coming to an international arena tour or online concert event near you
  • Relevant to Kpopalypse

Let’s go!

 

Azer-Blossom – Focus On Me

Apparently the sister group of a somewhat less-nugu group called Azer who are getting to the 900k view mark at the time of writing, I’m not sure why Azer-Blossom’s YouTube fortunes haven’t taken off quite so well.  They’re both project groups created by a University music department, they both have a fondness for dark colours and flourescent lighting tubes strewn about in odd symmetrical patterns, and at least Azer-Blossom’s song isn’t some cringe “Latin” bullshit.  I mean this song isn’t great either, but since when has that been a barrier to k-pop success.  Anyway I hope that I see more University-funded groups in the future, which honestly is a better idea than having some shitty startup company do it, because at least Universities have OH&S rules, let’s just hope they can keep the bullying under control… oh who am I kidding, this is Korea, they love bullying.  I wonder which one in this group is the “bread shuttle”.

Youtube views at the time of writing: 15664

Notable attribute: special caonima award to the girl at 0:57 who just couldn’t be bothered even pretending to sing that high note

Nugu Alert rating: average

 

B.L.E – Jump It Up

 

If you want something that goes just a little harder, “Jump It Up” is reminiscent of 2NE1’s more uptempo songs, even stealing some of the vocal meters and lyrical motifs from their more well-known classics, which fans of that group will pick up on straight away.  The results aren’t really that great, with some pretty lame chorus melodies not to mention awkwardly dry vocals shoved to the front of the mix, but it’s just good to see new groups going for this type of sound which has largely been forgotten by everybody in 2021.  Where B.L.E look significantly more out of place is in the visual department, with the girls seemingly given conflicting instructions in different scenes on how much they’re allowed to look like they’re enjoying themselves.  There’s definitely a feeling of “I want to do this exactly the right way so I don’t get screamed at by the choreographer, so I’d better not go too overboard” that seems to permeate the proceedings, these girls all look super-uncomfortable and we can only hope that it’s just the result of their own nerves and not some kind of behind the scenes psychological torture.

Youtube views at the time of writing: 4701

Notable attribute: if that mystery object on the left of the lighting rig is what’s producing the sound, no wonder they seem a bit flat, they can probably hardly hear anything

Nugu Alert rating: very high

 

Rhea – Time Travel

 
So when Rhea’s “Time Travel” was submitted in a Kpopalypse roundup list, it came with the video above (the actual song starts at 0:46 – unsure why there’s a stupid preamble chorus bit at the start, video companies are dumb I guess).  However looking it, it was pretty obviously just a tourism advertisement or something.
 
 
Well okay, maybe not that obvious, if the channel themselves feel the need to point this out to random commenters flexing their supposed “k-pop business knowledge”.  So excited by the potential for a nugu “mythology concept”, I went hunting for an official MV, and apparently here it is:
 
 
Still this doesn’t look significantly less like an ad for tourism than the other video, so I’m actually even more confused now.  I guess “mythology” means “we’re in Hanbok and that’s it”, there certainly seems to be little other effort to create a period piece, especially judging by the onlookers in the background waving their mobile phone cameras at the action.  The girls even get in on the action themselves later on in the video with some selfie-taking shenanigans, so I guess it’s like a Game Of Thrones set and nobody cares.  At least the music here isn’t actually too bad, so we should be thankful that they didn’t go too retro I guess. 
 

Youtube views at the time of writing: 3666 + 422

Notable attribute: short-haired girl ostracised repeatedly in the Hanbok video, and also given the worst clothes, where can we write to her to tell her we stan and hopefully improve her mood

Nugu Alert rating: very high

That’s all for this episode of Kpopalypse Nugu Alert!  As it’s Nugu Alert November, you can expect more Nugu Alert soon!

2 thoughts on “Kpopalypse Nugu Alert Episode 59 – Azer-Blossom, B.L.E, Rhea”

  1. Rhea’s song is actually pretty good, maybe the best nugu alert song this year so far. Not even close to being as good as the legendary nugu alert songs of the past but it’s still something

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