Special thank you to sponsors Amateur Intellectuals and The Retro Video Store Podcast for supporting todays episode! Please visit the links below to hear their great shows and show your support.

Amatuer Intellectuals: https://amateurintellectuals.captivate.fm/ 

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KEY POINTS

0:00  Disclaimer

0:19 What's up this episode?

1:05 #Kpop4ClimateCrisis

2:32 Brave Woman Kahi

5:54  Episode sponsors

6:56  The debut album

7:54  The A3Day ranking

An Album a Day is my exploration into the Korean music scene. This podcast will cover mainstream, indie and some underground artists within the scene and provide both factual and opinionated commentary. The biggest benefit to sharing my thoughts this way is that it will hopefully expose you to more great music and exploration of your own.

One random afternoon in 2012, a YouTube thumbnail of several women standing in black dresses and high heels popped up in my feed. I clicked the video and was blown away by seeing ladies stomp the floor with charisma and energy that seemed more confident than some of the other girl groups I knew of. Its still one of fondest memories from my first few months as a K-pop fan, when everything is shiny and engaging. The women who captivated me were After School, and this has been a long-awaited dive into their music catalog. Lets begin, right after the drop.

Youre tuned into An Album a Day. Show start.

Hey yall, Were in sketchy audio spaces again but the show must go on. I want to talk about global duty before music catalogs. 

Have you heard about Kpop4ClimateCrisis? The climate crisis is racing further towards us with every passing day. Every year, temperature records are being broken, the arctic is melting, the oceans are warming, natural disasters are more volatile and drought and famine is increasing.This problem affects us all and one K-pop fan of over eight years is working to bring the community together to help save our planet. On Friday, September 4, 2020, we hope to show support by trending #Kpop4ClimateCrisis and sharing our commitment to do something eco-friendly in celebration of a bias, favorite group or solo artist. Vowing to stop buying disposable water bottles, picking up litter, or even donating to climate change charities are some of the ways you can show your support. The Giving MACGoalas, the philanthropic side of my supportive audience, are doing our part for animal conservation efforts in Australia, as we recently adopted a koala named CW for a year. We hope youre inspired and motivated to share your efforts online and please look for my hashtag contributions on Friday. A big thank you to Poppy and the Kpop4Climate Twitter account for sharing this information.

This week weve opened the K-pop vault to dig through the crates of After School. This is a moment I was excited about for some time because I simply dont know enough about them. What I do know, however, is that they were a solid performing group, had enjoyable sub-units, and Nana, the lone member at this point, is my favorite. 

After School is a girl group under management with Pledis Entertainment in Korea (they had a solid following in Japan but again, this is focused on Korean discographies) and had a unique on-boarding system, if you will. Members had an admission process and after x-amount of time, would graduate from the group. I actually dig this -- you apply to get in (aka training), youre admitted (aka debut), you do your work and then you move on with your entertainment career or whatever else you aspired to