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Unless you've been living without wifi, television, or any access to the world at large for the past several years, you probably have at least dabbled in the world of K-Pop by now.
K-Pop, simply put, is Korean pop music. But in reality, it's so much more than that. It's an art form, a spectacle, a phenomenon, and a multi-billion dollar industry. K-Pop groups eat, sleep, and breathe their craft, dancing more skillfully than just about any western group and releasing pop songs so catchy that you don't need to speak Korean to get the words stuck in your head. But with so many K-Pop groups out there, is it possible to say which group is the absolute best? Well, we'll leave that up to you. Vote below for your favorite K-Pop group!
EXO
EXO is made up of nine members: Xiumin, Suho, Lay, Baekhyun, Chen, Chanyeol, D.O., Kai and Sehun. SM Entertainment formed EXO in 2011 and debuted in 2012. Their music is a mix of hip-hop, rap, EDM, and R&B, and they release music in Korean, Mandarin, and Japanese.
BLACKPINK
This incredible South Korean girl group was formed by YG Entertainment, debuting in 2016 with single album Square One, which included "Whistle," their first number one hit. The group is comprised of Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa.
BTS
Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook form perhaps the most popular K-Pop group: Bangtan Boys AKA BTS. This 7 member group formed in Seoul in 2013, and have since gone on to help popularize K-Pop across the world.
MONSTA X
MONSTA X is composed of seven members: Shownu, Wonho, Minhyuk, Kihyun, Hyungwon, Joohoney[2], and I.M.
From South Korea and assembled by Starship Entertainment, the boy band was formed through the 2015 reality show No.Mercy.
TWICE
This group of talented musicians was formed in South Korea by JYP Entertainment through the 2015 reality show Sixteen. The nine members of the group are Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung, and Tzuyu. The group debuted on October 20, 2015, with The Story Begins.
TVXQ (DBSK)
This duo, whose name stands for Tong Vfang Xien Qi, is comprised of U-Know Yunho and Max Changmin. They offer a wide multicultural appeal, releasing songs in many different languages. They are known as Tohoshinki for their Japanese releases, and are sometimes referred to as DBSK, an abbreviation of their Korean name Dong Bang Shin Ki which roughly translates to "Rising Gods of the East."
GOT7
Got7 is a South Korean boy band formed by JYP Entertainment, composed of JB, Mark, Jackson, Jinyoung, Youngjae, BamBam, and Yugyeom. They've been around since January 2014 when they released their first EP, Got It? They're known for their incredible stage performances which incorporate martial arts.
SEVENTEEN
Members of this boy band—which debuted in 2015 with Pledis Entertainment—are Woozi, Wonwoo, Vernon, Mingyu, Jun, Hoshi, The8, Joshua, Jeonghan, Dino, S.Coups, and Seungkwan. This group is known for self-producing, as many of the members are actively involved in songwriting, choreographing, and producing their own work.
TXT
Tomorrow X Together (TXT) is a South Korean boy band formed by Big Hit Entertainment. The group consists of 5 members: Yeonjun, Soobin, Beomgyu, Taehyun, and Huening Kai.
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Music Features
On This Day: Shakira Liberated Everyone's “She Wolf”
"I was in the studio in a bad mood that day, then I got inspired and went to a corner and I wrote the lyrics and the melody in 10 minutes. The image of the she wolf just came to my head, and when I least expected it I was howling and panting," Shakira said.
07.10.2020
By Fabio Alexx
11 years ago, on July 10th, 2009, Colombian singer Shakira released the first single off her third studio album.
"She Wolf" is a synth-pop banger built on a B minor progression. It was, in many ways, an insane song, born out of the singer's own frustration and ennui.
"I was in the studio in a bad mood that day, then I got inspired and went to a corner and I wrote the lyrics and the melody in 10 minutes. The image of the she wolf just came to my head, and when I least expected it I was howling and panting," Shakira said.
Though the music was composed by John Hill and Sam Endicott, lead singer of post-punk band The Bravery, the lyrics were all Shakira's own. "[Shakira] contacted him (Hill), asking if he had any stuff," said Endicott. "We never had her in mind. We just made the thing independently of her, and then she liked it a lot, and she sang over it. She used some of the melodies we put in there and then wrote these crazy lyrics about being a werewolf. And that's how it happened."
Shakira - She Wolf www.youtube.com
<p><em>It </em>could mean a lot of things. "She Wolf" is deeply campy and a bit weird. It features, among other strange lines, the lyric, "I'm starting to feel just a little abused, like a coffee machine in an office."</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p>Its accompanying music video added another, fiercer dimension to the song. Featuring iconic images of Shakira dancing in a nude bodysuit in gold cages and various locations, it's actually a glorious protest and a celebration of Shakira's internal wild sexuality, completely on her terms.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0ODcwNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNjY1NzExNH0.mNZFXf4auVzoxi8TILV26idVgkkbuD4OQ5DvN0azdog/img.jpg?width=980" id="65914" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="58f318c66e52d02a98e1a7e256b60b71" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Shakira">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Shakira </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit..."><a href="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nVnp-B4EynQ/maxresdefault.jpg" target="_blank">YouTube</a></small></p><p>But the song also touches on a deeper archetype: the inner wolf, an archetypal symbol of the internal "wild woman," the ancient, liberated and divine feminine source that appears over and over again in folklore across the world.<br></p><p><strong>With "She Wolf," Shakira asked her listeners to embrace their desire to be free from a boring male partner—but she also asked listeners to embrace their animal sexualities and desires. </strong>Even deeper than that, she asked listeners to tap into their deeper wild she-wolf.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p>The book <em>Women Who Run With the Wolves </em>by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/901977.Clarissa_Pinkola_Est_s" target="_blank">Clarissa Pinkola Estes</a> explores the wild woman/wolf archetype beautifully, threading myth with modern anxieties, advising women to tap deeper into their true longings and spirits. </p><p>"The old one, the One Who Knows, is within us. She thrives in the deepest soul-psyche of women, the ancient and vital wild Self," Estes writes. "Her home is that place in time where the spirit of women and the spirit of wolf meet- the place where the mind and instincts mingle, where a woman's deep life funds her mundane life. It is the point where the I and the Thou kiss, the place where, in all spirit, women run with the wolves."</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0ODY5NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODI0NzM2NH0.2uPF1Y2XGHLzVNLLO0T5pAMIwj95BGQC1oQ6FvDJpqk/img.jpg?width=980" id="d7b11" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4e8d53ee70128dd8dea77b2c9dbcbcc0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit..."><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jaSsORXP_E4/VvKp4i6vUlI/AAAAAAAAXyE/QIAc6SIZC5Q0x_8vlkyAKQ-0eCGTlnm8g/s1600/women%2Bwho%2Brun%2Bwith%2Bthe%2Bwolves.jpg" target="_blank">Frommoontomoon.blogspot.com</a></small></p><p>The Spanish-language version of Shakira's "She Wolf" is called "Loba"—a term that is also the title of a book of poetry by <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/diane-di-prima" target="_blank">Diane DiPrima</a>, a Beat poet who dedicated herself to reintegrating the wild into the feminine.<br></p><p>Sometimes viewed as the female counterpart to Allen Ginsberg's <em>Howl, </em>like Shakira's "She Wolf," DiPrima's poetry is about the reclamation of internal wildness. It "explores the wilderness at the heart of experience, through the archetype of the wolf goddess, elemental symbol of complete self-acceptance," its liner notes read. <strong>Loba, DiPrima writes, is "the wolf / is taboo, w/ the bear / the birch, the owl because / because it forces / to see / bring the eye / to a focus of the semi- / or in- / visible."</strong></p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0ODY5OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNjM2NTM4MX0.4aUfq-Hz6wfGgrjNvzKsI9M1CpFw8iZTuwS8Y8K6MnY/img.jpg?width=980" id="150f9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2af82ce1d397d2f6334de25a1e8f5382" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Diane DiPrima">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Loba</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit..."><a href="https://pictures.abebooks.com/BOOJUM/22732782806_2.jpg" target="_blank">Abebooks</a></small></p><p>So Shakira's "She Wolf" entered into a tradition of female liberation in an era before #MeToo and modern intersectional feminism took flight. When Shakira sings, "There's a she wolf in the closet," she may have been talking about the ancient wolf archetype, or she may have been talking about internalized queerness or another deep secret held below the threshold of conventionality.<br></p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><h2></h2><p>Either way, on this day 11 years ago, Shakira called a whole generation of wild women out of the closet, and we have no choice but to stan.</p>
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Last month we showed you TC Chandler's annual independent critics' list of 2013's most beautiful faces, which we were happy to see was filled with some major K-pop divas. Although French beauty Marion Cotillard took the top spot, After School's Nana followed in second place, while Girls' Generation's Taeyeon and miss A's Suzy made the top twenty.
Now the male equivalent --2013's most handsome faces-- is out, and it's pretty much the same deal. Super Junior star Choi Siwon was the highest-ranked K-popper star on the list at No. 7, followed by 2PM's Taecyeon at No. 13, BIGBANG's Taeyang at No. 33, and the hunky Rain at No. 46.
At No. 3 was Ryan Gosling (of course), because no list ranking men on their physical appearance is complete without an appearance from the ridiculously handsome actor. However, it was Michael Fassbender who took out first place, although we're not exactly sure if he made it so high because of his face or for what's down his pants.
