What K-Pop Lyrics Express: Four Recent Trends
Park Sehee
Reporter
Munhwa Ilbo
What is K-pop? The question usually brings to mind three things: a penetrating melody, extravagant visual performance, and perfectly synchronized group dance. How about the lyrics? Few seem to pay much attention to them, probably putting them aside as meaningless lines. Verses traditionally carry a song’s meaning but this serious responsibility of K-pop lyrics seems undervalued. The following paragraphs introduce four keywords to help listeners better appreciate K-pop lyrics.
Straightforward: “It’s not a game since we’ve never lost / Bark because the leash on your neck is mine / Pull down the shutter, lock the door, shut down.” These hard-hitting lines from “Shut Down,” the title song of the second studio album by the girl group BLACKPINK, deliver the strong confidence and charisma of the group’s members who command intense global popularity by conveying their message through a powerful performance. Among the eight songs on the album, “Typa Girl,” “Hard to Love,” and “Tally” are rated as suitable for people aged 19 or over for their explicit lines, which is unusual for an album by a K-pop girl group.
Another leading girl group, IVE, also thrives on powerful lyrics. “Love Dive” says that if one has the courage to love someone, one should dare to dive into loving anytime. “After Like” emphasizes self-confidence based on self-love and urges to act out love; the following lyrics are from the song: “You know what my strength is? It’s that I’m honest / Don’t try to doubt what I just said.”
Independent: Coming after BLACKPINK, which explicitly promotes self-confidence and charisma, (G)I-DLE takes even bolder steps. Released in October last year, the song “Nxde” overturns preconceptions of “nude” and begins with the question “Why do you think that ‘bout nude?” It later adds “If you were expecting some rated R show / that’s not what we’re showing / Get a refund there” and launches one last remark, “You’ve got a dirty mind.” The group shatters male-created images of female innocence and sexiness and suggests the notion of a confident and independent woman. Group leader Jeon So-yeon, who wrote the song’s lyrics, said, “Music has no sex. We will make music that breaks down prejudice against and limits on girl groups.”
Conceptual: A key characteristic of K-pop lyrics is the overriding theme of a worldview. More than a few acts express their perspectives of the world. The girl group NMIXX embarks on an adventurous trip to utopia, and the boy bands ENHYPHEN and &TEAM are connected as the former views the world through the eyes of a vampire and the latter through those of a werewolf. Groups holding strong worldviews tend to have more conceptual verses in delivering their opinions. The girl group æspa sings the following lyrics in “Next Level”: I follow the absolute rules / Don’t let go of my hand / Unity is my weapon / I walk to Kwangya. The song narrates the group’s worldview that they, along with their avatars, will beat villains in the amorphous and ruleless virtual space Kwangya.
Personal: An element that differentiates K-pop’s conceptual quality is naturalness. The verses are natural as they talk about the singers, a tendency that has grown in quality as more K-pop acts write their own lyrics. BTS is K-pop’s leader in this trend as its members since the beginning of their careers have discussed themselves through their “school trilogy” and “Hwayangyeonhwa” (The Most Beautiful Moment in Life) series. The group’s recent song “Yet to Come (The Most Beautiful Moment)” is no exception, as Suga and J-hope express their thoughts through lines like “That uncomfortable title that we were given one day / We are still abashed by being called the best / You know, I, I just love music.” BTS members have also displayed their personal feelings in each member’s solo works. In his new song “Wild Flower,” RM sings “Paused and turned out to be gloriously barefooted / Nothing was ever meant to be mine / Yeah, my start was poetry / My one and only strength and dream that protected me so far.” The song is featured in his album “Indigo,” which is like a diary expressing his thoughts and agony.
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