Battle of the Baby Bands: 2013's Rookie Rockstars!

With the door on 2013 shut once and for all, it's time to name my 2013 Baby Bands!

        This year had an interesting show for rookies, and deciding on my final favorites has been anything but easy, in some ways. And yet, the victors are clear.

    Keep reading to find out who won and why!

        By my count, about 50 groups debuted in 2013. Perhaps 20 of them were truly notable, and 10 made some sort of real splash, but I can only choose one for my Baby Band of the year. Now the original version of this editorial was caught in the digital crossfire of a server upgrade: it vanished without a trace, tragically rendering several hours of work utterly useless. However, this is an important evaluation (either that or I just like hearing myself talk, I always get the two confused ^_~ ), so I've decided to make a go of examining my favorites and all over again explaining my reasoning for them. It took a while for any truly good groups to start coming out of their company hidey-holes, with the March 6th debut of Ladies' Code being the first to splash up well on my radar:

           Now, the reason I found these girls impressive had much less to do with them or their music than it did of who they reminded me of. Ladies Code, with their beautifully strong vocals and their vocal driven track, reminded me of SPICA. Their MV was okay, quirky and colorful and very engaging. The Choreography was fun and fun to watch, not to mention the fact that it displayed some incredible flexibility. So these girls pinged on my watchlist. Their subsequent releases have been equally impressive-but-not-incredible or particularly catching, but their still on my watchlist.

          M4M was another March release that I enjoyed, but they weren't terribly catching. History came out to play in April, and they were certainly impressive, but the tracks chosen for them were pretty sub-par and the MV was less than impressive. Odd Eye had potential in June, with their overt concept of utilizing orchestral instruments, but their tracks were just so tragically boring and under-produced.

           Then there was Bangtan Boys in June. Their debut was utterly underwhelming and I almost scratched them from my tracking roster. No More Dream is really not that good at all. It's just meh, the bad boy thing was so over done and fake-looking it was almost embarrassing; but the members' skill and potential were totally apparent and that won them major points. Their follow-up track though . . . now that was impressive. Released on July 16th, it was a fantastic game changer. Had they debuted with it, they'd have had rookies of the year in the bag by my reckoning. Since then their skills have only been honed to clear an even tighter par of excellence.

            Bangtan Boys impressed me in no small measure with their concept trailer for N.O., and then proceeded to dazzle me beyond my expectations. And while I have some major remarks about their latest message (mainly how I absolutely abhor it), Boy in Luv still shows off the amazing growth they've already gone through and puts their ever-improving skills at center-stage and leaves the rest in the dust as we stand awed, just gaping at their epic swag.
            June continued with 2EYES' unimpressive debut. That was followed closely by Boys' Republic debuting Party Rock which was odd and fun and colorful and really shiny and just very odd. I enjoyed it tremendously, but it gave almost no accounting for skill, as there was autotune up to the members' eyeballs. The Choreography was fantastic fun, though nothing incredible enough to write home about. They felt like B1A4 without the panache, and with a little twist of Boyfriend in there for good measure. They made my watchlist, but not my Top 5.

          July 12th brought BESTie to the front of the stage with their sweet and sassy Pitapat. I found it to be an all around fabulous release, and more than an adequate debut. I loved it and these girls found their way to the shortlist of my favorite Femmes. Beyond their status as one of the best Rookie groups of 2013, these girls made it onto my regularly circulating playlist and haven't been rotated out to date. Their Love Options release was just as fabulous and it made me completely sure of my decision to stick them in as my 2013 Female Baby Band front-runner.

             July was a month crowded with Rookies, but few really stood out, especially with BESTie's impression on me and Bangtan Boy's premier of their impressive follow-up. August saw M.Pire's debut, which disapointed me in no small measure. I'd seen a lot of their BTS footage and they are way more talented than their release would suggest. July also saw Wa$$up join the show, playing off a cultural trope with style. I'm not a huge fan, but I can respect their marketing strategies. Then Royal Pirates made their stab at a release of original work and it didn't strike me as anything much to be impressed with. Their covers are spectacular and I still have hope for them, but they have a lot yet to learn. 5urprise came next, and managed to keep in line with the trend of 'I know you have talent but this MV really belies that fact' that the others of August carried. NOM and Demion debuted in September, also in keeping with the unimpressiveness trend. And then came October, and the debut of Topp Dogg. They were a dark horse entering the rookie race without any sort of warning at all and they absolutely killed it:

               Their debut blew me away. I loved every second of it and thought that there was no way in hell I could have been any more impressed. The styling is gorgeous and clever. The Choreo is beyond epic, with some of the coolest moves I've ever seen worked in with a flair of finesse that borders on obnoxiously chill. It really is an incredible debut. They would have beaten out all the other candidates with ease, but they took forever in releasing a follow-up, and it had nothing to do with the sub-groups they'd teased, and worse yet, it was mediocre. Okay, so Cigarette was actually pretty good, but they'd set the bar at spectacular and they didn't make the leap to get over it. 'Good' wasn't good enough, though it was a good show of flexibility. 

                Likewise, Open the Door was a little step down for them, it was good but that isn't quite enough. It shouldn't really go into an evaluation of them as 2013 Rookies, but since I have to redo this whole post, I can't completely ignore it. I'm seriously in love with their MV for Arario though, that's easily the best song off the new mini album, and I sorely wish it had been the one they came back with. I critiqued it pretty harshly, but tough love hurts the most when you're a special favorite.
               After that the only notable debut was AlphaBat. They've got talent but their marketing crew is insane if they really thought that they'd be able to win a massive fan-base with the concept they used.

The 2013 Rookie Royals:

My boys-side Baby Band of 2013 is:
Bangtan Boys.
They've really impressed me, and they stand ready to continue to exceed my expectations.

My girls-side Baby Band of 2013 is:
BESTie.
They've done a great job with every promotion they've touched so far and I see nothing in their way for a future of epic releases.

Here's to an even better 2014!