iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Wings’ “Hair Short” is having something of a minor moment after a TikTok post on a k-pop meme page featured one of their stages from Show Champion (It has been enough of a thing that one of the duo's former member Nayoing addressed it and all of the messages she received on her Instagram)

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

All summer during my Friday commute I am listening to a different album from my collection. For the final Friday, I ended up back where I started

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

All summer during my Friday commute I am listening to a different album from my collection. This week’s pick is a deep cut:

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

All summer during my Friday commute I am listening to a different album from my collection. This week’s pick is Orange Caramel’s debut Japanese album:

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

All summer during my Friday commute I am listening to a different album from my collection. This week, for the last Friday in August I went with another KARA album (I have a good reason!)

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

All summer during my Friday commute I am listening to a different album from my collection. This week is one of my all time favorites (with a bonus view)

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

All summer during my Friday commute I am listening to a different album from my collection. This week is from my favorite (former Secret member):

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Technically this version of the album doesn’t come with a CD. Instead you have to download an app and use the plastic CD to access the music

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

All summer during my Friday commute I am listening to a different album from my collection. This week's pick is a quintessential summer pick in honor of the last day in July—Joy's From Joy, With Love

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

All summer during my Friday commute I am listening to a different album from my collection. This week's pick, about 10 days shy of its 11 year anniversary, is Wonder Girls' Reboot

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Happy birthday to this masterpiece of an album! (17 years young!!)

Cover of Brown Eyed Girls album, Sound G, album

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

All summer during my Friday commute I am listening to a different album from my collection. This week's pick is in honor of my fellow KARA fans RESCENE and their first music show win (and pink gloves because iykyk):

KARA’s Pretty Girl mini album next to a pair of pink rubber gloves decorated with small sparkly stickers

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

All summer during my Friday commute I am listening to a different album from my collection. This week’s pick is from Sunny Hill:

Sunny Hill’s mini-album Young Folk on top of various postcards and pictures of the group

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

All summer during my Friday commute (although this week because of the holiday, technically it is from my Thursday commute) I am listening to a different k-pop album from my collection. This week is KARA's second (and most successful) JP album Super Girl

KARA's Super Girl album laying against a background of black and white text

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

All summer during my Friday commute i am listening to a different k-pop album from my collection and I thought this would be the perfect album to start this project with

K-pop girl group Red Velvet’s Summer Magic album with CD peeking it out against a blue background. Part of a yellow cup is partially visible in the left hand corner.

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Taeyeon releasing a remake of tuki.’s “Bansanka" (let's gooooo)

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Exhibit E. Aespa doing an interview with Crunchyroll News www.crunchyroll.com/news/intervi...

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Last month had everything— 2 groups formed by survival shows, one group formed from participants who did not win a survival show, and a virtual group created to promote an “AI Powered Animation Studio” (aka I made my May update to my 2026 Rookie Groups list): blog.mjohnso.com/2026rookiegr...

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

trying out the bsky update (option C)

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

trying out the bsky update (option B)

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

trying out the bsky update (option A)

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Also on this note, I also updated my 2026 Rookie Groups debut list for April: blog.mjohnso.com/2026rookiegr...

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

K-Pop x Anime collaboration going strong in new QWER music video (+5 points for the meta Truck-kun reference)

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

If we don’t get a comeback for their 20th anniversary this year I am going to be so mad

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Last month had everything— a group formed by a survival show, a virtual boy group composed of former idols who have returned as spirits after a mysterious accident, and not one but two bands (aka I made my first update to my 2026 Rookie Group debuts list): blog.mjohnso.com/2026rookiegr...

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

(Something I desperately wanted to work into this post, but had no place, is that a young Lee Soo Man hosted the Campus Song Festival a number of times.)

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

(While I admire the gumption, this feels very 2007 Summer SMTOWN, where the album was enclosed in a plastic cover, full of a blue gel to simulate water that did not age well)

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Okay, who is going to buy the KiiKii slime?

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Shout-out to KiiiKiii and their new website for their continued commitment to emulating the bad graphic design trends of the late '90s/early '00s web, this time with actual GIFs and a 7-second load time

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 23/11/2025

Hard to believe its been 6 years already. We miss you.🤍

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

I think this does jive with what I have been observing, where as k-pop has expanded globally, much less attention has been paid to its place in Japan, even though k-pop groups are very active there. I mean, these were the releases just from October

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

These two images have the same energy

Quote from Lee Soo-Man: “But Lee resists the media’s focus on K-pop’s problems. “Should we always weigh the dark side equally with the bright side, the future?” He asked. “Media should consider whether K-pop represents more future or more past that holds us back. Rather than just discussing the dark side and dragging us down by clinging to the past, shouldn’t we talk more about the future?”

Comedian Tim Robinson dressed in a hot dog costume gestures while people watch him with skeptical expressions. The text reads "We're all trying to find the guy who did this."

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Have been kicking around thoughts about Japanese pop culture/visual styles making their way into k-pop only for nugu rookie group Tomatomat to drop these teasers

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Miss those days when we came by our nonsensical signage in k-pop music videos honestly

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

FC ENM Entertainment holding auditions for members for a group they plan to debut this year, just further proves my point that the way we think of how groups are formed ( audition, train for years & agencies select from their trainee pool when making a group) is wrong, or at the very least dated

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Related: people searching up ablume's debut single on Spotify and Apple Music get to choose between ablume (actual k-pop group) or Ablume (maybe-probably AI slop) that conveniently also has three members but are cursed with those telltale AI hands

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

As a survival show cynic, I'm not surprised that companies have dispensed with the illusion that the purpose of the genre is to help aspiring idols, but I am a little surprised about the names they have gotten to sign on to it

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Uncharacteristically on top of updating my 2025 Rookie Groups list this month: blog.mjohnso.com/2025rookiegr...

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Like this is Lee Soo Young's website from the 2000s, which is remarkable for just the sheer amount of pixel art but also that the archived copy mostly still works (a lot of groups from that time used Flash, which means a lot of the archived versions of them are broken/completely unnavigable)

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

This is wild (and is somehow not the craziest k-pop group website I have ever seen)

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

There were 28 photo cards released in total: 2 cards per a member + 10 group/unit cards, with the cards with the limited edition “white borders” cards only available if you bought the first press release

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Happy 15th anniversary to the album that started it all by which I mean photo cards

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Here is a sneak peek of how the numbers for rookie groups in 2024 shook out:

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

I finished crunching the numbers & Periodic Rookie Groups Report No. 24 is out: blog.mjohnso.com/post/7727833...

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

Something the SBS 'Body Documentary' clued me into is former Bob Girls member Heo Yu-jeong's post-idol career. She is the CEO of a cultural arts planning company, serves as secretary of the Korea Entertainment Law Association, & works for reforms to improve trainee and artists' rights

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melissa johnson @mjohnso.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Especially as it is still fairly common for media/fans to praise and highlight idols for looking like real-life dolls or Barbie dolls. I mean I have been at this long enough to remember what a big deal the picture of G.NA next to a mannequin was

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