ILLIT “Do the Dance” Review

ILLIT is like that one kid who tries to walk up on a down escalator–while most girl groups today are steering clear of the “cute girl” concept and doing something much more mature or even fierce, ILLIT is making cuteness their sole personality. I’m not a huge fan of “cute girl”-ness, and I’ve found a lot of ILLIT’s music verging on childish…unfortunately, “Do the Dance” continues that trend.

Concept/Message: 3

To sum up “Do the Dance” in one sentence: “I have a crush on you, do you want to dance?”

That’s it. It’s just a rendition of the cute girl concept–nothing more. “Do the Dance,” therefore, gets an average score–the average K-pop song just subscribes to a concept and does not try to create a message.

Visuals: 4

I honestly like this one. It’s cute. That intro scene, with the five of them on that five-person bicycle and flying up in the air after they almost hit a cat–it’s really cute and memorable. It looks like it came out of an anime (that’s a compliment).

There’s a bit of a storyline here. They’re going to a festival to try and catch up with the guys (that they have a crush on). The grassy fields, the cotton candy, the warm glow of the ferris wheel at night…it’s fun and summery, a great palette for a summer release.

I have one gripe, though: why the escalators? Yes, them dancing while going up and down the escalators is kind of a cool scene, but I feel like it breaks the summer vibe–it’s too clunky and indoorsy to fit with the rest of the video.

Lyrics: 2

First of all, why the French influence? I’m just curious. Is Frenchness associated with cute summer vibes and festivals? Maybe that’s what it is?

But on to the usage of English…it’s really just “Do you want to dance” and “do-do-do-do” over and over again. That fits their theme wonderfully, but not my taste. It’s just not a skillful usage of English.

Music: 3

I’m lowkey torn on this one. I really like the string-heavy instrumental, the bouncy beat, and the occasional vocal runs to a high note. But I think it was executed poorly. The strings get really shrill to the point where it annoys me. And the chorus–I think I literally would have given this a 4 if it wasn’t for the chorus. Maybe I should put “repeated syllables” as my second biggest pet-peeve in my music reviews. It just pisses me off–can we be just a little more creative? Can we not waste people’s streaming minutes with pure meaninglessness?