As I'm struggling to find new albums/mini-albums to review, I thought I'd review another one of my favourite albums from 2011. I'll be reviewing After School's first full length album Virgin and hopefully explain what it is about this album that I love so much.

So, for my full track-by-track album review, click on the "Read More" link now!

I am currently watching Dream High 2 and I'm absolutely loving it. I will confess, I never saw the first series of Dream High. But, so far, this series has grabbed me so much that I'll be hoping to watch the first series very soon.

I was attracted to seeing Dream High 2 because of Jiyeon from T-ARA. I'm a fan of T-ARA and Jiyeon is by far my favourite member so when I found out she'd be starring in this new series, I was so intrigued. So I started, and I was not dissapointed at all. Dream High 2 may be set at an arts school but it's completely opposite to the usual sterotypes that are attached with the 'art's school' programmes on TV. This series doesn't heavily feature annoying brats who want to be famous and they aren't any cheesey show numbers. It's as far away from High School Musical as possible.

Most of the cast is young and features stars from K-Pop Idol groups (Jiyeon from T-ARA, Jinwoon from 2am and Hyorin from SISTAR) but as well as great vocalists, they're also pretty good actors. Especially Jinwoon from 2am who is probably my favourite character. He's so cool and doesn't show his feelings often but I feel like he wants to. JB is another great character, although he is rather cold-hearted at points.

The series is a mixture of emotional highs and lows. It can be so funny at points (mainly due to former After School member So-Young's character Soon-Dong who makes me laugh with her crazy facial expressions and mannerisms). It can also be highly emotional (Kang Sora's character has such a hard time and I really feel for her).

Although it may have a few clichés and it can be over-the-top in some places, I still find it a fantastic show where the characters are so relatable. I don't want the series to end!


What do you think of Dream High 2? Better or worse than the first series?

I've already posted about After School and I've already mentioned Korean music venturing into the Japanese marktet. Now how about combining both of these topics? After School in Japan!


Yes, After School are one of the many Korean groups entering the Japanese music market. In fact, they've already recieved some love from Japan with their two first single "Bang!" (Japan, #7) and "Diva" (Japan, #11), which were both remakes of their previous Korean hits.


But for their third single, they are doing something brand new - a new song tailor-made for Japan. The song is "Rambling Girls". A short version of the music video can be seen above!

I, for one, think that "Rambling Girls" sounds fantastic! It's actually really different from their Korean material. I have a feeling that this song is going to be a huge hit - it's very unique and it's hook is extremely addictive. I think that what makes Japanese and Korean music so fascinating is that they concentrate so much on the melody. That way, almost every song is distinct and memorable - and that is exactly what "Rambling Girls" sounds like!

The song itself will be released in January and then in March, After School will be releasing their debut Japanese album - "Playgirlz". And I cannot wait.

I am a HUGE fan of K-Pop girl group After School. They've been billed as Korea's version of the Pussycat Dolls but they couldn't be further from that at all. Maybe at the beginning of the career, but with songs like "Bang!", "Diva" and "Shampoo" (especially), they've established themselves to be a Korean pop force!

Their record label - PLEDIS - is also home to 손담비 (Son Dambi, solo singer) and together they have released a song for the festive season - entitled "Love Letter". It also features the upcoming Pledis boy band in the video, and I just love it. It's a fantastically warm and festive song and the video is equally happy and joyful too. Whether you are religious or follow the Western Christmas traditions or not, this is a very heart warming song! Please enjoy!

(It also has similarities with Wham's "Last Christmas" if you ask me... ^_^)