That Side of K-pop #2: Born to Be
The newsletter pivots to K-pop to discuss the new Itzy album, the songs of NewJeans and the Hallyu Wave exhibit at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, plus great singles from the year
Hi! Welcome to That Side of K-pop, a newsletter on K-pop music, new and old. You can check out previous issues here.
To kick off this issue, we have guest writer Kayla Beardslee reporting from Museum of Fine Arts Boston and its new exhibit on the Hallyu Wave! You can also find her writing on The Singles Jukebox as well as her blog Pop Excellence, where I’ve previously contributed blurbs about K-pop. Enjoy!
Last weekend, I went to the just-opened Hallyu Wave exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It’s a decent-sized exhibit with sections on Korean history, cinema, K-dramas, beauty, and fashion, but since this is a music newsletter, I wanted to report specifically on the section about Korean music and K-pop. This exhibit first opened in London in mid-2022, so the content cuts off around that time.
The exhibit begins with a “GANGNAM STYLE” feature wall, a reminder of what was likely the first major exposure to Korean pop culture for many of the visitors. Clips from it play on several screens in the entry space, and one of PSY’s suits from the MV is displayed as you turn the corner. From there, the first area within the actual gallery is dedicated to an overview of Korean history. The exhibit space is all interconnected with no doors, which meant that while I was reading about the dictatorship enacting violence against pro-democracy student protests, part of my brain was also paying attention to the K-pop tracks playing in the next room. The bizarre cognitive dissonance from reading about serious topics like the Japanese occupation of Korea while listening to the breakdown from BLACKPINK’s “DDU-DU DDU-DU” made the first part of the exhibit a strange experience tonally, but it also unintentionally spoke to some of the more charged, complicated dynamics of the international soft power of pop culture.
The K-pop room is in the center of the gallery space, with spokes focused on fashion, cinema, etc, radiating out from the sides. As you walk around, the captions on the walls take you through an extremely abbreviated history of Korean music, including Seo Taiji and Boys reinventing Korean pop based on influences by Black American artists, H.O.T. becoming the first idol group, BoA breaking into the Japanese market, and the emergence of trot. (There are mentions of pre-1990s artists as well.) One case displays traditional Korean instruments, and next to it are headphones you can use to listen to Agust D’s “Daechwita” as an example of their contemporary reinterpretation. Another wall briefly discusses the influence of other genres on K-pop, including mentions of Song Ga-in from Miss Trot and producers like Yaeji, Peggy Gou, and Park Hye Jin. (I, too, can list exactly three Korean electronic artists before I run out of names.)
The music room also contains the exhibit’s visual centerpiece: a two-story cube displaying over a dozen K-pop-related outfits. It includes aespa’s white “Next Level” ensembles as well as three pieces from the K-pop fashion guy himself, G-DRAGON: outfits from the “CROOKED” and “GOOD BOY” music videos as well as a tour costume. There was also significant ATEEZ representation in this exhibit: not only were there the four outfits worn in the “Fireworks (I’m the One)” music video, but “I’m the One” was one of the songs playing over the speakers, and the fashion section had a gorgeous modern hanbok from “INCEPTION.” ATEEZ grew from an underdog group in a small company to one of the top fourth-gen boy groups by fostering a strong international fandom, and them being so present in this exhibit shows how their company continues to be savvy about getting their name out there to a Western audience in creative ways.
The K-pop songs playing over the speakers were BTS’s “IDOL,” “DDU-DU DDU-DU,” BIGBANG’s “FANTASTIC BABY,” “Next Level,” K/DA’s “POP/STARS,” NCT 127’s “KICK IT,” and “Fireworks (I’m the One).” Also in this room is a screen playing clips from music videos, which the captions explain were chosen for what they exemplify about the MV as an art form: SUPER JUNIOR’s “Sorry Sorry” for memorable choreo, EXO’s “MAMA” for lore, ORANGE CARAMEL’s “Catallena” for social commentary via production design, etc. It’s worth noting that this exhibit has a limited amount of space to cover a massive industry, so it’s very selective about what is covered and isn’t inclusive of every notable K-pop group ever.
This section also has a surprising amount of emphasis on technology and virtual idols. Above the “Next Level” outfits is a screen displaying ae-Karina—I was so unprepared to turn around and see this—and the corresponding caption notes how “aespa opened up ethical debates on the role and meaning of pop idols in a growing digital age.” Three other write-ups mention virtual idols or the intersection of K-pop and technology, and two of those reference AI girl group ETERN!TY1 (which I had never heard of before). In the two-paragraph write-up about “Idols,” the paragraph about the trainee system is shorter than the one about entertainment technology and the metaverse! The exhibition book has a chapter written by Lee Soo-man (snarky comment redacted), which I skimmed for about five seconds before I started seeing buzzwords like “metaverse” and “blockchain,” so I genuinely think the over-representation of virtual idols here is due to Lee Soo-man’s influence.
My one major critique of the music section is the discussion of K-pop fandoms falling into the usual safe, overly positive trap of Wow, look at the power of these fandoms and the neat ways they use it for good! when we all know it’s not as pleasant or simple as that most of the time. But this exhibit wouldn’t be the right place to do a deep dive on stan culture, so I would have preferred some different content in place of one or two of the fandom culture plaques instead.
The exhibit ends with a cute lightstick wall
The write-ups about the K-pop industry, idol careers, etc. are short, boilerplate, and say nothing new or spicy to people who are already K-pop fans. The interesting part is seeing the objects on display, reading about cultural history that isn’t discussed much in everyday K-pop spaces, and seeing it all put together in a national multimedia context. That includes browsing the other parts of the gallery, which have so much more than just the K-pop stuff I’ve focused on here—the fashion section is especially neat.
I am not sponsored by the MFA, but this exhibit is on display in Boston through late July, if you want to go see it! As museum exhibits go, it’s very pop culture-y, but that also means it’s accessible and fun to browse. I had a good time looking at the art, learning some new things, thinking critically about K-pop culture and the narrative choices of the exhibit, and getting jumpscared by ae-Karina. If you’re in the area and interested in Korean pop culture, I would recommend checking it out. Now, if anyone has suggestions on how to get the ten minutes of K-pop music that was playing on loop out of my head, please let me know. —Kayla
April Fools! And welcome to our second issue of That Side of K-pop, my silly joke of a newsletter covering K-pop, another love of mine, instead of Japanese music. I had a lot of fun putting together the previous one, so I thought, why not another round? A big, big thanks goes out to my friends from The Singles Jukebox, who contributed writing for each and all sections. I’ve brought on some new names, and a few others who you might recognize from previous issues. It’s a star-studded cast and it’s full of lovely writing on K-pop. Hope you enjoy!
Happy listening!
Album of the Week
BORN TO BE by ITZY [JYP]
*Recommended track: “Mr. Vampire” | Listen to it on Spotify
Something seemed to have changed behind the scenes at JYP with regards to A&R or creative direction. For several years, the company’s girl groups have been coasting on serviceable comebacks yet they’ve mostly lacked that final touch of ambition or polish to set them apart in a crowded field. But in the first few months of 2024, all these acts have suddenly started returning with some of their freshest material in ages. And since ITZY’s momentum has been especially impacted by their company’s muddled artistic choices, it’s all the more satisfying that BORN TO BE, their second full-length album, is the group’s best comeback in years.
Just like last summer’s KILL MY DOUBT, ITZY dropped three singles in the lead-up to this album, but everything about this second attempt at the NewJeans Get Up strategy is more successful than the first. Whereas the former’s singles were decent but never felt meant to work together, the BORN TO BE trio exists in the same world while still sounding distinct. “UNTOUCHABLE” applies ITZY’s signature confidence to darker production for a punchy title track that turns away from their recent lighthearted material—finally, another one for the “Voltage” enjoyers! “BORN TO BE” gets the job done as a tightly produced hype song: the bold, high-energy concert-opener is made specifically to be a performance spectacle, with its music less important than the choreo, but the vocal-driven arrangement keeps it interesting2.
Then there’s “Mr. Vampire,” a more relaxed single that tries out a new sound for the group. The texture of its squeaky, whistling drop against the smooth harp synths feels genuinely fresh among ITZY’s fourth-gen peers, and despite the production quirks, it leaves enough space for the members’ vocals to breathe. It’s dynamic yet minimalist enough to be on trend—a perfect realization of ITZY’s gradual shift toward vocals since 2021 and one of their most interesting tracks in years.
While the two full-group B-sides on BORN TO BE are decently fun and full of energy, the big story among the rest of the songs is ITZY’s first-ever solo tracks. They range from delicious pop-rock angst, to sparkly, girly pop, to possibly the most Sunmi-coded song released by someone not named Sunmi in the history of K-pop. I think Yeji is the most solo-ready out of the group, but her Galactika-produced track sounds a little too much like an ITZY demo dug out of the vaults rather than a distinct individual effort. Lia’s solo “Blossom” was a lovely surprise. I was expecting her to do a melancholy, paint-by-numbers acoustic ballad. Instead, she turned in a soft, synth-y track where she flexes her lower register that’s too often ignored in their group songs. All five are solid proof-of-concepts for potential official debuts in the future, but “Blossom” is growing into my favorite.
Itzy’s latest comeback has just about everything you could want out of a K-pop album: good singles and good b-sides, variety, bangers, and attempts at new things while still preserving their signature styles. It’s some of their best and most smartly put-together music ever, and I hope this comeback and tour reignite their momentum because they deserve it. —Kayla
Singles Club
That Side of K-pop welcomes guests from the great pop music site The Singles Jukebox! You can check out many of their blurbs on K-pop and a whole lot more there.
“TAP” by TAEYONG [SM]
Sometimes, you listen to a K-pop song going off of the bits of English lyrics, and you think to yourself, there's no way that the lyrics of this song are this literal. Also what does saucing mean, anyways? From a cursory glance at Urban Dictionary, it means to smother someone with attention, romantic or otherwise. Taeyong’s “TAP” is about any kind of attention, the attention that you can give Taeyong and the attention Taeyong can give you. It’s proof of the attention that he can pull toward himself— the kind that comes from performance and not having the most technical vocal skills. This song would be nothing without the performance or overall visual, as goofy as it is. That's the whole point. —Anna S.
TAP is out now. Listen to it on Spotify.
See also: “RU-PUM PUM” by 8TURN; “Killin’ It” by P1Harmony
“REWIND” by B1A4 [WM]
When B1A4 announced a comeback in 2020, three years after their last full project and two years after the departure of two members—including leader and lead songwriter Jinyoung—it sounded like a miracle. That album, Origine, was a hallmark of one of K-pop’s most stalwart idols: sweet, smooth and refreshingly comforting. Led by new leader and main composer, CNU, it was B1A4 without the kitsch, the sickeningly tangy pop of earlier singles like “Baby good night” or the crashing electro-ballad drama of “TRIED TO WALK.” Not that I hated any of that—I adored them all. Anyway, I’m reminiscing too much on the past. After 2020, Sandeul, the group’s best vocalist, left for the army, and I knew there would be no more music, so I turned away from the group that sustained me yet again.
But what is amazing about the three-member B1A4 that exists now is that they are content to work as artists after over 10 years in the idol business. When Sandeul arrived from the army in late 2023, a new comeback quickly came together, two years and two months after their first. It is here now in the form of “Rewind,” and I continue to be in awe of how bright it is, how it echoes in a sort of time-capsule that doesn’t actually exist. Because to go to the past would mean to go back to when they were five, and they are determinedly not five anymore, and I think I’m more at peace with that now than I have ever been.
“Rewind” is classic in the new jack swing sense: wobbling synths, loud hand claps, and a squelchy, upbeat bass line. But also classic in the B1A4 sense: the track’s most memorable phrases work as a fast-moving chant, like the line right before each chorus, or the repetition of “you are so beautiful” in the middle-eight, right after Gongchan’s flowery vocals. Every sonic element bounces with an eager touch, and the members’ voices are wide and welcoming. It’s as if during each play of the track, there’s a real performance happening, and when the last second hits, each piece quickly rewinds back to its start, endlessly anticipating its next release. As I wait for whatever B1A4 does next, I’ll do the same. —Rachel
CONNECT is out now. Listen to it on Spotify.
See also: “Youth” by ATEEZ; “FAKE LOVE” by WEi
You can find Rachel on Twitter. She also reviewed Esther Yi’s Y/N, a fiction novel about a woman obsessed with a K-pop star, which you can read here.
“Sweet Dreamz” by Hanbyeol [KDM]
Hanbyeol is one of the few artists I know of that tries to emulate the softer side of Mariah Carey’s vocals: delicate melismas breezing between octaves in a way that captures a specific state of bliss. “Sweet Dreamz” is made even sweeter by the fact that you get this gorgeous R&B song backtracked by a frenetic breakbeat. It reminds me a lot of Lisa Shaw circa her Cherry album: soul music at its core, backed by dance beats, with layered vocals threaded throughout. The song sits comfortably next to the girlish electronic/R&B stylings of NewJeans as a more grounded and mature yet still dreamy and hopeful love song. I hope more music fans come to appreciate Hanbyeol’s music—she wrote and produced this all on her own!—and we can knock her off the “artists with less than 1000 monthly listeners on Spotify” list ASAP. —Anjy
Listen to it on Spotify.
See also: “Wish” by Ash-B; “YoYo” by RESCENE
“Diamond” by TRI.BE [Universal]
Many of the best songs written and co-written by the great Shinsadong Tiger stand out not due to compositional complexity or a detailed arrangement, but due to the kind of insistent, chant-along earworm of a chorus that was one of the hallmarks of K-pop’s second generation. Of course, he’s more than capable with a subtler hand, like on BEAST’s sublime “FICTION,” the hairpin dynamics of MOMOLAND’s “BBoom BBoom” and to an extent, his defining collaboration with EXID’s Elly, “Up & Down.” But if you've ever had the bad luck to get HyunA’s “Bubble Pop!” or T-ARA’s “Roly Poly” stuck in your head, you'll understand the true scope of that insistence: yeah, it's good, but it’s been in there for three days now, and I'm losing my goddamn mind.
In the last few years, his collaboration with Elly has extended to the new girl group, TRI.BE, launched by Shinsadong Tiger’s own label in 2021. And “Diamond” is the final title track released in the producer’s lifetime, prior to his passing on February 23rd, 2024—an incalculable loss at the age of 40. TRI.BE is a talented young group, and “Diamond” is a lovely little song—somewhat muted and humble, but yes, insistently tuneful. It’s a bit of a jumble, arrangement-wise: moombahton beat, some tropical house adjacent elements, and a.. banjo riff? But it all more or less works, held together by some lovely low-tension vocals and an eminently sing-along-worthy chorus.
Call me a contrarian, but my favorites from Shinsadong Tiger are songs where softness is given space to unfurl, where the group vocals are gentle, and a vibe that’s not necessarily a big party. It remains to be seen if Elly will continue with TRI.BE, her now in the seat of main and sole producer, but “Diamond” is a very respectable valedictory release if not. —Anna L.
Diamond is out now. Listen to it on Spotify.
See also: “Voyage” by Geenius; “TWENTY TWENTY” by LIMELIGHT
You can find Anna on Twitter.
“Really Like You” by Gyubin [Warner Music Korea]
Gyubin returns in “Really Like You” with what I might introduce in my K-pop group chat as DCOM core, as in Disney Channel Original Movie—the kind of sugary power-pop that fits well into an imaginary tween film in the vibe of what was born out of the Disney Channel during the 2000s. (Think: The Lizzie McGuire Movie.) Though, the sparkling acoustic-pop here is less the post-Avril Lavigne punk-rawk of Hollywood Records than something neo-Swiftian. Because I swear with a dash of mandolin, the soloist can ride this into proper country-pop lane. The stomping chorus as well as the heart-on-sleeve lyrics already take the single halfway there. —Ryo
Listen to it on Spotify.
Admiring from a Distance: the Private Love Songs of NewJeans
From their arrival in 2022, NewJeans set themselves apart from the rest of K-pop through a visual direction that prioritized the natural. The group dressed down to appear simply as an everyday teenage girl, going away from hyper-stylized fashion for an off-day wardrobe. Their music videos obsessively focus on framing members Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein as an ordinary crew of friends, far removed from the pop star system. The audience gets to see the five at their seemingly candid often through a secondhand screen of a video chat or an iPhone recording that’s potentially filmed for an Instagram Story.
The music video for “Ditto” went all in on this concept. Much of its side A version is filmed as through a Handicam, with grainy textures and shakiness all intact in the recording. When the visuals gain clarity, the story is still seen from a secondhand perspective as if it’s over someone else’s shoulder, where it reveals a glimpse of the meta: an anonymous sixth girl presumably from their friend group is filming the Handicom footage the viewers see throughout. The documentary-like lens in which “Ditto” frames the idol group brings a deeply private atmosphere to the unfolding narrative, like the viewed clip is part of a lost tape originally meant to circulate only within the tight-knit friends.
“Ditto,” the side A version
The songs by NewJeans, too, evoke this feeling of guarded access, like their listeners are being privy to a secret passed among friends. Their best hooks reference this set distance between the idols and their subjects. “You don’t even know my name, do ya?,” they sweetly sigh in “Super Shy,” resigned from knowing their crush will forever be out of their reach yet also reveling in the joy in holding tight to info only they will have the privilege in knowing. “They keep on asking, ‘who is he?’” goes a call-and-response ad-lib in “OMG” that imitates locker-room chatter; the four pause and lean into Hyein for an answer during the choreography, like they, too, want the exclusive scoop. The swooning chorus stays quiet about his identity yet their inability to hide their grin while looking at their incoming texts only lets curiosity linger even more.
The intimate closeness offered in NewJeans songs make it easy to forget that they deal with confidential information. Forthcoming and tender as their lyrics seem, the private details in the songs aren’t supposed to be accessible to just anybody. They are kept sealed in the security of their friendship circles. And while their skittering, pillow-soft R&B presents a cool-and-casual personality that stands as a counterpart from the bombastic girl-boss anthems made by others in K-pop, NewJeans songs conceptually remain just as closed off to its listeners as, say, the us-against-them singles by LE SERRAFIM. From the shared-screen vantage point of their music videos to the hooks sung in hushed tones, the audience is being kept from NewJeans and their affairs at a certain distance at all times.
The group’s best song so far hones in on this closed-doors intimacy. “Ditto” never loses sight of the fact that all the details within are reserved strictly for the idols themselves. The idols’ confessional lyrics about their blooming crush are wrapped in such delicate, gauzy music, like any noise above a whisper can disrupt the conversation. Steeped in such teenage nostalgia, the music video reinforces this fleeting, youthful purity in their emotions—perhaps their first love but definitely a feeling they can’t ever experience again, not to this same degree. As NewJeans carefully navigate this maze so they won’t mess it up themselves, listening to the idols sing makes me feel as though I’m overhearing a precious secret by chance, bearing witness to a moment that’s already perhaps bygone. —Ryo
This Side of Japan has a Ko-Fi as a tip jar if you want to show appreciation. A subscription to This Side of Japan is free, and you don’t have to pay money to access any published content. I appreciate any form of support, but if you want to, you can buy a Coffee to show thanks.
Next issue of This Side of Japan is out in May. You can check out previous issues of the newsletter here.
Need to contact? You can find me on Twitter or reach me at thissideofjapan@gmail.com
Editor’s note: Our friend of This Side of Japan (and past contributor), Melissa Johnson has written about this group at the time of their debut in her excellent blog, The Mind Reels.
Like a better version of Seventeen’s “Super,” with which it also shares a choreographer.
Always love your K-pop editions