One of the best things about KCON is the exposure to many artists. When I go to KCON, I try to attend as many different artist stages as possible. Four of new artists that I was the most interested in seeing this year was: ONE PACT, KEYVITUP, RESCENE, and JO1. After seeing their stages, here are the songs I recommend.
1.) ONE PACT – Must Be Nice (좋겠다)
I have been obsessed with this song. It has a catchy chorus, beautiful vocals, and it was a super easy song to instantly listen to and like. Since I saw ONE PACT perform this song at the artist stage on Day 1 of KCON, I have been obsessed with it and listening to it nonstop. I just recently looked up the english lyrics to this song and it was super different from how I imagined the song to be. The song was titled “좋겠다” which means “Must Be Nice”. So originally I thought the song was about how it must be nice for a girl to get over a guy so quickly. But when I read the english lyrics, I was so surprised at how deep and specific the lyrics were. The song is from the perspective of the boyfriend. It seems like the boyfriend likes the girlfriend more. They try their best to please their girlfriend and she just doesn’t seem satisfied about anything that the boyfriend does. Some lines that stick out is about how the boyfriend is jealous because the girlfriend is always right and everything will always go her way. And the last two lines summed up the song really well, “I’m really jealous of you because you can change me however you want”. I think a lot of people who has been in a relationship before can relate to the lyrics.
2. KEYVITUP – Polaroid
The second song I recommend is Polaroid by KEYVITUP. I have always been a sucker for B side pop ballad tracks. This song is so beautiful. I don’t recall if they performed this song at KCON but I really like this song. The english translated lyrics can be found here: https://genius.com/Genius-english-translations-keyvitup-polaroid-english-translation-lyrics
3. RESCENE – LOVE ATTACK
I hate to recommend a song that is well-known but I really like this song. I don’t think enough people appreciate how good this song is! The chorus is so so so beautiful. I can’t believe I never heard of this beautiful song until they started hitting it big with their viral YouTube videos.
4. JO1 – WHATCHA DOIN’
I saw JO1 for the first time last year! But they didn’t really catch my attention. I took a few photos of them during their M Countdown stage and their fans thanked me for taking photos of the band. Since then, I became curious about them and this year, I made sure I attended their artist stage as well as watch their performance at the M Countdown Stage again. Their artist stage was so so so fun! They have so many great songs and was so good at performing! I went into the festival only knowing their song “BE CLASSIC”. However, after their performance, I started really liking “Sakura”, “Whatcha doin’”, and “Handz in My Pocket”. I thought about what song I should recommend from them. And the song that I think would be a good introduction is “WHATCHA DOIN’”. It is one of their newer song and it is a little easier to listen to for the first time compared to “Sakura”. “Sakura” is a great song to listen to and see live, however, I think it may be shocking and hard to listen to for people who have not listened to songs like it before. So enjoy “WHATCHA DOIN’” and eventually venture to their other songs.
5. TXT – Deja Vu
The last song is TXT’s “Deja Vu”. This is a pretty famous song and artist but seeing them perform this song at the M COUNTDOWN stage reminded me again of how good this song is! I haven’t really been listening to TXT because I have been listening a lot to some of the more recent artists that I have worked with/was going to attend their concerts. And being able to see them again at KCON made me start listening to all of my favorite TXT songs again! “Deja Vu” is seriously such a great song. The song is catch, the music and instruments are awesome, the hook is amazing… Seriously, just a master pience.
There were so many artists that I want to see but missed out on. I wish I was able to attend MODYSSEY’s stage, ZB1, NEXZ, cosmosy, etc. But I could only be at 1 place at a time. Maybe they will go on tour in the US next year!
Did you attend KCON? Please recommend us some songs/artists to listen to in the comments below!