u/yebinkek

For context, fromis_9 is a pretty popular group in the military. They ranked like second or third in a recent military survey right below IU and aespa.

In a recent radio interview, Dongjun basically revealed that one of his seniors was a big fromis_9 fan. He wanted to make his life in the military easier so he basically lied to his senior that he was close to the fromis_9 girls and could get him on call someday. Keep in mind, the only reason Dongjun's lie was credible enough was because he filmed a content with them before lol. (I haven't found out what they specifically recorded yet but it might've been a long time ago).

Dongjun then confessed to the senior that he lied right before his discharge and that he did it to make his military life easier. I feel a lil bad for the senior here because the dude told Dongjun that he was excited the entire year to call fromis_9. Dongjun ended up righting it at the end by passing the message along to fromis_9 that his senior was a big fan, I dunno if they ever ended up talking though.

I also remembered when BTOB's Minhyuk got fromis_9's Jiwon's autograph for his military senior, his military life became a bit easier. He called her the saviour of his military life.

I'm not gonna lie, the fact that these dudes have to get in contact with female idols to make their military life easier does feel sad. I feel like there's a lot that goes on in the Korean military that we don't know about (and let's not get into the disturbing stories that many other male idols have shared about their time in the military).

As a non stan, I am so lost about the drama lol. All I got was that Korean fans wanted him out of the group after their awkward OT10 concert and he wasn’t involved with their lawsuit. What happened between them?

I have no idea why everyone all over social media (RateYourMusic, Tiktok, Album Of The Year, etc.) keeps saying this album is pop rock and that ASND is ruining their discography.

Seeing people describe this album as “pop rock” in a way to criticize it grind my gears. I don’t care about criticism but only two of the songs can be considered pop rock (Day 1 & Why Do I Cry) and the album is very varied with synthpop, afrobeats and Latin influences lol.

Half of the songs here could’ve been released during their HYBE era (Teacher, Pocket Treat, Eternal) and no one would’ve said anything. It feels disingenuous that everyone just keeps saying the same inaccurate thing about this album.

Even if you’re judging the album solely by the title track, Vitamin Me is NOT pop rock. It’s a summer song with Latin influences. People hear a bassline on a fromis song nowadays and assume it’s pop rock lol.

Just today, fromis_9 officially sold 105k copies in the first week for their second full album, "Glow Me", which is seriously impressive. Most group's sales are carried by international fans so I wasn't ever expect fromis to do those numbers after leaving HYBE (which I consider to be their peak international popularity).

Not to mention, this already outdid the first week sales of Supersonic (their last album to sell over 100k) and Midnight Guest (their first album to sell over 100k). This would put Glow Me as the third highest first week sales for fromis_9 (below From Our Memento Box and Unlock My World, which were sale anomalies in their discography).

I hope they manage to break their own first week records next comeback! I'm seriously excited to see their growth.

Last time I remembered, they sued BPM and left. I actually went looking for any updates on the group but it seems there’s nothing? Has the members given any hints on their next step going forward?

No matter what you think of them after the controversy, we can all agree the way their fandom handled it was stupid. Almost every week, you get a tweet or post from their fan accounts on how “OMG CORTIS/ADP GOT AWAY WITH IT WHY NOT KIOF??”

Like, I’m sorry. Besides the fact that the people dropping Kiss Of Life aren’t even the same people stanning those groups, it’s like their fandom have an addiction to victimizing themselves. You don’t see Giselle/aespa stans bringing up her controversy every week, they moved on and it was mostly forgotten.

Mamamoo stans were also not bringing Hwasa’s n word/the blackface controversy up every week talking about how unfair it was. Oh My Girl stans weren’t going on and on about their faves’s whole controversies.

Get what I mean here? Their scandals are forgotten by newgen stans after a while. But Kiss Of Life stans just have to bring it up over and over and over again. Always pitting their faves against rookie boy groups and girl groups. It’s no wonder people keep mocking their faves, their fandom is almost desperate for people to love Kiss Of Life again.

Every few months, this song makes a return to my timeline and I'm curious about r/popheads thoughts on it. I found the song to be super harsh but somewhat needed in its time.

>What happened to the dream of a girl president
She's dancing in the video next to 50 cent
They travel in packs of two and three
With their itsy-bitsy doggies and their teeny-weeny tees

The music video was also pretty funny but the Paris Hilton sex tape parody hasn't aged well. I really love the Jessica Simpson shade though. Does popheads think "Stupid Girls" was reasonable for its time? Or was it too harsh towards the other pop girls?

https://preview.redd.it/2zrx0syuxtbh1.jpg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ebea0fa07f38761c76647f3e2103fc587cf10e2b

After the success of her sophomore album, One In A Million and soundtrack single, Are You That Somebody, Aaliyah was already in the studio working on her third album and planned to release it on February 1999. But, then it was pushed back after she was casted for her first movie role, Romeo Must Die. She had recorded plenty of songs by then, including two with Timbaland (important to note, that We Need A Resolution is not one of the two. I'll get into it later.)

Then, she was casted for the role of Queen Akasha in Queen Of The Damned and flew to Australia for the filming. Blackground Records flew her team of producers and writers (Static Major, Bud'da, Eric Seats, etc.) over to work with Aaliyah in the nights, while she was filming in the mornings.

Interestingly, Missy Elliot and Timbaland, who were major collaborators on Aaliyah's last album, weren't really involved in this album as much. I Care 4 U is Missy's only contribution on the album and it was a leftover record that didn't make it into One In A Million.

Tim Barnett, who was a former assistant of Static Majors, the biggest collaborator on this album, stated that Timbaland and Missy had issues with Aaliyah's labels. Aaliyah managed to talk Timbaland into produce a few records for her album around the last few weeks of the album's production.

Because there were doubts over Timbaland managing to meet the deadline for the album, Loose Rap was chosen as the lead single for the album with the music video scheduling already filmed. However, as history shows, Timbaland managed to submit his work in time and we got We Need a Resolution as the lead single.

With the sexy, sleek, & alternative We Need A Resolution as the lead single, it was going to pop off, right? It was the perfect sequel to Try Again, her first number one on the Hot 100! Well, it ended up peaking at #59 on the Hot 100. It was considered a major disappointment when she had two Top 40 hits just a year ago and a box office hit. There were also a few performances and promotions scheduled for We Need A Resolution that didn't end up happening for some reason.

Released on July 7, 2001, Aaliyah's self titled would debut with her highest first week sales yet, peaking at number two on the Billboard 200 just behind Alicia Keys's debut. But it sold lower and lower numbers over the next few weeks. With Aaliyah's label having just set up a distribution deal with Virgin Records America off Romeo Must Die's soundtrack success, there was a lot of pressure on the label to choose the next hot single.

Aaliyah and her team clashed a lot when it came to choosing the second single. More Than A Woman was already chosen as the second single by her label due to Timbaland being the big-name producer on the record. Aaliyah had already started performing More Than A Woman on the TV in July 2001, with her Jay Leno performance being her last officially recorded live performance.

Aaliyah even had to go back and forth with Timbaland himself because she preferred Rock The Boat as the second single. "No, it’s [Rock The Boat]. I don’t care who did what. [Rock The Boat] is the next one."

With Rock The Boat receiving a lot of radio airplay and at Aaliyah's insistence, a decision has been made. Aaliyah was going to film the music videos for both of the singles and release them back-to-back. So, on August 21, 2001, the Carribean-flavored R&B Rock The Boat was officially sent to the radios as the second single.

She would first film the music video for More Than A Woman early August 2001 and would travel to the Bahamas to film Rock The Boat a few weeks later.

Unfortunately, Aaliyah would pass away in a plane crash after traveling back from the Bahamas for Rock The Boat's shooting, passing away with the other eight members of her entourage. With the recording of the music videos still being unreleased, there were discussions behind the scenes from Blackground Records on what to do with the MVs.

Rock The Boat's music video would end up premiering on BET's Access Granted on October 9, 2001 and became one of the most popular music videos of the year. The song would go on to peak at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and become one of her most iconic songs to this day.

The mesmerising and more pop-leaning More Than A Woman would be released as the third and final single of the album in September 4, 2001. Due to Blackground Records ending their joint deal with Vrigin Records after November 2001, the music video for More Than A Woman would be in limbo with no release until January 2002, when Blackground would sign a deal with Universal.

An specially eclectic album for its time, Aaliyah would go on to be one of the 2000s' most unique and bold body of work to come from a mainstream artist, mixing R&B, rock, pop and neosoul into the 14-songs tracklist. From the techno-R&B "Loose Rap" to the Latin-pop "Read Between The Lines" to the bitter rock "What If", Aaliyah manages to keep this album sounding especially consistent and cohesive with her vocal delivery and the songwriter's storytelling.

The album would go on to peak at #1 on the Billboard 200 after Aaliyah's death, selling over 300k copies. It would go on to sell over ten million copies worldwide. Aaliyah would also receive a few Grammy nominations, but would lose 2002's Best R&B Album to Songs In A Minor by Alicia Keys. Rock The Boat would be nominated for 2002's Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, with Alicia Keys's Fallin' being the winner. More Than A Woman would be nominated for 2003's Best Female R&B Vocal Performance too.

I have to give a shoutout to Static Major, Eric Seats, Timbaland, Missy, Bud'dha and Keybeats for making this album the masterpiece that it is.

Even though Aaliyah is gone, her final album would serve as her parting gift to the world, an amazing R&B album that is a must-listen for everyone who considers themselves a pophead/RnBhead.

A few questions for r/popheads:

1. What was your first impression of the album?

2. Did you think "We Need A Resolution" was a good lead single?

3. What is your top three songs from the album?