random artists i stumbled upon this year. ☆ = already knew them, just explored their catalogue

• orange caramel ☆ (nana's voice is the absolute best, i swear she was made for the quirky concept. we're really lacking fun in kpop...)
• kara ☆
• snsd ☆
• akb48 (i loooooove tomochin she's such an icon! graduating with dear j was the move. i never understood why crooked teeth were the beauty standard in jp but i get it when it comes to her. it even made me wonder why i ever got braces in the 1st place lol. she's fixed her teeth now that she's older though so i guess keeping it crooked isn't ideal orthodontically speaking. i also feel very conflicted when it comes to akb - the singles i heard so far were really good but it bothers me how sexualized the early gens were. heavy rotation mv made me soooo uncomfortable and i dont know how old they were when it was filmed but i dont doubt a bunch of them were really young :/. not to mention the songs about affairs with their teachers. yikes.)
• arashi (i really like jun matsumoto! recognized their song love so sweet, never watched boys over flowers though so idk where i heard it before)
• news (one ok rock's taka former band?)
• zerobaseone