#mama14

It's a shame about Black Pearl b/c the choreo in that song isn't SO taxing that it would be impossible to do it with MR and mics on (I think no MR is too ambitious for me to wish for right now haha); I do think Jongdae's mic was on for his high note b/c I heard 2 distinct sounds

It's a little hard to tell b/c of the loud MR, but I'm pretty sure vocal line nailed Tell Me What is Love - there were clearly 2 distinct voices during the song, which means their mics were on; there were no glaring slip ups/cracks, which is A+. I do think that BaekSoo's voices are more suited to this style of song compared to Jongdae's; JD's voice really suits songs like his OST song and even Kyungsoo's OST song, whereas I think Soo sounds better than any of them on the more R&B/slow jam tunes b/c his voice was literally MADE for those. 

Dancing/Choreo

It has legitimately been a while since I've seen the kind of commitment to the choreo from EXO as a group as I saw during this performance - basically it was great. Relatively clean and not lazy all across the board.

I think EXO themselves knew that this, being one of the few large-scale public performances they had after Kris/Baek/Luhan, it was important to bring their A+++++ game to show the public that they're hard-working and put-together - public sentiment is important, regardless of the size/passion of their fan group.

I think I've said this before but man, M just looks so much better than K when it comes to choreo as a group, and it shows so clearly in Overdose. As a whole, there is less of a difference in skill level between the M guys compared to the K guys, and their movements are just so much more synchronized. In K, I am so sorry to say this b/c it's not his fault but Chanyeol's limbs are just so long that nearly everything he does looks messy b/c he doesn't have the same amount of control that SeKaiTao have. Also the thing about Jongin is that he is a dancer on a completely different level from the rest of EXO and it shows b/c he kinda grooves to his own beat and while it looks lovely and he clearly enjoyed himself massively in this performance, it's not always together with the rest of the group. Like during the Overdose K+M hip thrust part, his movements are just so much more rubato (SORRY MUSIC TERM BUT IT DESCRIBES WHAT THE FEEL SO WELL) and while it looks really good, it's not exactly on with everyone else and so it looks messy. (At this point I'd also like to add that Yixing is as much of a good dancer as Jongin is, but I think he's more disciplined when it comes to group choreo and he's also not as likely to add his own colour to the choreo compared to Jongin, and so it looks really uniform and GOOD when he dances with M.)

TAOZI'S FLIP AT THE END THOUGH. It was perfect.

Also the camera work was surprisingly good this year! 

Awards

Best Style - LOL I have nothing to say for this one and it doesn't even really matter so yeah

Best Male Group - looking at the nominees and who came to the MAMA (b/c we all know that only groups who come get awards, with very few exceptions like CNBLUE and rock group of the year), this made sense; I think BTS and Infinite were both good candidates but their sales didn't even come close to touching EXO's in both digital and physical I believe (correct me if I am wrong!); I am rather surprised at 2PM's relative lack of success this year though - I don't think Let's Go Crazy won a single music show award, and that was very unexpected for me personally b/c they're a veteran group (omg I'm old I watched them debut) with a fairly strong fanbase; tbh Winner is too rookie to win this year, but they have a good chance next year

Artist of the Year - this is the one award that EXO got that I think could have been better given to someone else. First of all, it's not super common for artists to get two daesangs in a single award show - but I think this speaks more to 1) the quality of releases in 2014 and 2) the fact that many groups chose not to go to the MAMA. It's not a matter of deserving or not deserving this award, b/c I don't think it's for us to say that one hard-working, passionate group deserves this award over another hard-working, passionate group - it's more like there were possibly better candidates. Out of the people who attended MAMA, I think IU would have been a good choice for this award - she had a really successful year with her releases and has been gracefully transitioning away from her idol image to a more artist/vocalist image, and it's a really good thing for her b/c it will help with longevity in the Korean music industry, where idol groups/singers get replaced literally every 18 months or so. I'm going to suggest that Epik High and Ailee were both good (maybe better!?) candidates as well. 

Album of the Year - I think EXO was the better choice for this one, and I will fight anyone who disagrees with me on this point (reminder: the nominees were BEAST, SJ, SNSD, and Infinite). Just because Overdose was a mini-album doesn't make it any less worthy of this award imo - it was a strong mini that showed growth and more maturity compared to XOXO, and ofc it sold extremely well too.

I'm glad that Taeyang got Song of the Year b/c Eyes Nose Lips clearly slayed Korea more than Overdose did (I honestly would have side-eyed the judges massively if Overdose won Song of the Year lol). Will EXO ever have another hit like Growl? I don't know. SNSD never had another Gee, SJ never had another Sorry Sorry, KARA never had another Mister, Apink hasn't topped No No No yet, and I honestly think 2NE1 peaked with I am the Best. The point is, some songs are just epic and hard to beat, but it doesn't make subsequent releases bad. 

I think that there may still be a sort of glass ceiling with respect to awards in the KPOP industry - a quick Wiki search into the main music award shows in Korea reveals overrepresentation of male groups/solo acts in the award winners lists; in recent memory, only SNSD, 2NE1, and Miss A have won daesangs.