I understand your decision to keep listening. Everyone needs music to help them cope with their emotions. As long as we are aware and don’t let the lyrics and symbols affect the way we act in real life, it shouldn’t be too harmful. But in case anyone is interested, I have some recommendations of music that sounds good (at least in my opinion) and is pure. Take it as you will-I won’t force it on anyone. But as someone who used to be addicted to both American and Korean pop music, I would just like to share how I personally have tried to improve my mental state.
As someone who has been playing piano and violin competitively for almost my whole life, I basically thrive on classical music. Even though some may say it’s boring, I think pieces like Lalo Rhapsodie Espagnole, Liszt Spanish Rhapsody, Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3, Grieg Piano Concerto, Paganini Caprice No. 5, Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, Kabalevsky violin concerto, and Tchaikovsky violin concerto are very interesting, with a wide scope of changes in emotion and great virtuosity. And as a replacement for Kdramas, there is a Youtube channel called Twosetviolin that has skits and other funny classical music related things-many people who don’t even play an instrument became interested in classical music after watching them! For starters, I have made a playlist of my favorites:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVRhXh0mPiP6LRclJdHUo6SU8DPqe8m3p
I also listen to some traditional Christian worship songs (like Because He Lives, Amazing Grace, and As the Deer), and there is a youtuber named Jennifer Jeon who does wonderful violin covers of worship songs. They are obviously not super upbeat, but they are still beautiful and good for relaxation. I don’t pay much attention to contemporary worship music because some of it may have questionable lyrics, but I do like Tori Kelly’s album Hiding Place, and the song Even Louder by Steven Malcolm.
In addition, I enjoy some Chinese songs, like the ones I have saved in this playlist. They are not very fast, but they have very touching melodies:
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
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I basically avoid pop unless I’m in a car with someone who is playing it on the radio. But if anyone still wants to listen to kpop, I would recommend two underrated girl groups, Elris and April. Their songs are very high quality, in particular, Elris‘s Jackpot, Miracle, and Summer Dream. Their concepts seem relatively pure, and they don’t seem to be pushing any bad messages-I don’t really notice any bad symbols, but if there happens to be any, it definitely isn’t too blatant.
As I‘ve said, these are just suggestions, and if you are able to listen to Kpop and not feel any negative effects, that is completely fine! But I hope I can help you find something else you like as well