Things Kpopalypse dislikes in music: k-pop ballads

It's well known that Kpopalypse doesn't like k-pop ballads, but why?  What is it about ballads that makes them suck so much?  Are there any good ballads?  If so, what makes a good ballad good, and a bad ballad bad?  Can ballads be bad meaning good?  Read on as Kpopalypse explores the trufax about k-pop ballads!

Kpopalypse language class - The Korean alphabet

It's a constant source of embarrassment to me that I DJ a k-pop radio show yet I can't speak a word of Korean.  I've got no plans to go to Korea or anything like that, but it sure would be nice to be able to read CD album liner notes and pronounce track titles correctly.  Also, it'd be great not having to rely on shady Netizenbuzz articles with creepy anti T-ara editorialising from NB herself in them for my netizen translations - it'd be especially nice to cut that particular umbilical cord.  Learning Korean language has been on my to-do list for a while now, but the trick is - how to get motivated to learn this shit as well as fit it into the rest of my busy schedule?  So I thought I'd make myself a blog post about it.

I always find that I memorise things much better if I'm forced to write down or type out the stuff, so by making this little alphabet post, it'll (theoretically) help me to remember the Korean characters and how they sound.  So this affair isn't one-sided and you the reader also get some value out of this even if you don't necessarily give a shit about learning Korean yourself, I'll use each letter as an excuse to extrapolate a bit on some things that are Kpopalypse-related that I've been asked about or that may be of interest to readers (or not).

Note: your browser/computer obviously needs to support Korean text reproduction or you ain't gonna see shit.