K-Pop Demon Hunters and Song Recommendations: “Free”
If you’ve watched the “K-Pop Demon Hunters” movie on Netflix recently, you might still have some of the songs from the movie stuck in your head. While the songs on the whole had a bit more English than the majority of K-pop songs do (though there are certainly K-pop artists who have done songs or even entire albums in English), they were all pretty representative of the genre. If you’re interested in finding more K-pop songs with a similar vibe, I’ve got recommendations.
This week, I’m talking about “Free,” the ballad duet between Rumi and Jinu. This is a tricky one for recommendations, because I don’t often listen to ballads duets that have a male and female performer. I think these are more common collaborations for OSTs (original soundtracks), which I don’t really listen to. And the ballads I know otherwise are often either by a group of members who are all male or female or by soloists.
That being said, Rumi’s soulful vocals in this song reminded me quite a bit of Alexa/Kim Seri, who I mentioned previously on my post about “How It’s Done.” And, in fact, Alexa covered “Free” with Junhee from A.C.E, which is a fantastic cover. I’m not necessarily a fan of A.C.E (a five-member boy group that debuted in 2017 and is still active), but Junhee’s vocals also really suit this song!
However, the song that the recommendation video gives first is “Butterfly” by BTS, which is VERY similar in terms of the melody, to the point that when I initially heard the song switch from “Free” to “Butterfly” in the recommendation video, I didn’t actually realize it had switched songs!
Another song in the recommendation video is “Runaway” by Tiffany Young and Babyface. Tiffany Young is a Korean woman who was born and raised in the United States and was a member of Girls Generation, and Babyface is an American R&B singer. Their duet has a lot in common with “Free” as well.
If you really like the vocals on “Free,” some other K-pop artists I’d recommend checking out are:
- Seulgi: A member of Red Velvet (a five-member girl group that is currently inactive) with amazing vocal talents. Check out “Uncover,” which is just Seulgi, or her group’s song “Automatic.”
- Rosé: A member of BLACKPINK (a four-member girl group), who is a native English speaker (from New Zealand) and also super talented. Check out “Number One Girl” for a similar soulful vibe.
- Minkyun: A member of ONF (a six-member boy group) with a very wide vocal range. He has his own cover of “Free,” singing both parts of the song. I also really like his group’s song “Moscow Moscow.”
Next up, I’ll have more about songs like “Your Idol” by the Saja Boys!
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