This blog will have a lot of music reviews–specifically, a lot of K-pop reviews. I like to review songs in a specific way and give them specific grades. Here’s how I’ll review them:

I review each song based on 4 categories:

1. Concept/Message
2. Visual Elements
3. Lyrics
4. Music

I’ll give each song a score out of 5 for each category. Then, I’ll add a song’s score from each category and average it: that becomes my final grade for the song.

Here’s my breakdown of each category:

1) Concept/Message

A lot of times, K-pop will package their songs in a “concept”–a specific vibe or thematic palette. For instance, a lot of girl groups use the “girl crush,” “cute girl,” or “elegant girl” concepts. Sometimes, groups’ usage of these concepts will be highly effective, and will create a familiar yet compelling and original mood. Other times, groups may be less successful, and their usage of concepts may feel like a recycled marketing strategy.

My favorite K-pop songs, however, will go beyond the concept and will either use their concept or ditch concepts entirely to create a message. The message is the central theme of the song. What is the song about? What is the song trying to say? Is this message fresh and original, or even…a little political?

Personally, I love messages that are a little political. I don’t mean “political” as in advocating for a particular candidate or promoting a particular ideology…I mean “political” as in purposeful. Messages that try to convince people, that try to move people, that try to change people’s minds. Messages that realize that art isn’t just about entertaining people–it’s about speaking and discussing with people and making social commentary too.

Here’s a breakdown of the 5 points in this category, along with some examples:

5	Literally what the world needs to hear right now: NewJeans “Ditto” On the surface, this is a soft and quiet song. But under its innocent appearance, this song holds so many arguments and messages…it’s about the challenges of girlhood, about being yourself, about friendship, about loneliness, and, on its deepest level, about the relationship between a K-pop idol and their fans…all at once. There is so much to this song, and it’s so seamlessly woven together too.
4	Solid and compelling: TWS “Last Festival” I almost cried when I first came across this song. This song is about graduation, an experience that I will have to go through very soon… (I’m honestly so scared to leave everyone behind… 😦  ). Graduation is a very timely topic, but you don’t see a lot of songs about it– “Last Festival” has both a relevant and original theme.
3	Your average universal theme: BLACKPINK “How You Like That” I mean, this is really just a “I’m so cool/ I’m better than you” girl-crush message. But it’s girl-crush done well. It’s BLACKPINK, after all.
2	Recycle, Repackage, Regurgitate: BABYMONSTER “Batter Up” This is a universal theme done poorly. This is just “girl crush” again (as expected of YG), but with such empty bravado and contrived confidence that all the supposed empowerment of “girl crush” is lost.
1	Literal hate crime: MEOVV “MEOW” Look. I’m not saying this is a hate crime to the audience–there’s nothing offensive in this song, nothing like that. But this song is a literal hate crime to the girls of MEOVV. YG, you cannot tell me that your creative execs up there swimming in your Big 4 money could come up with nothing better than the flattest, most boring rendition of “I’m so rich / I’m so cool” in the history of K-pop “girl crush”-ism. You are doing the talented girls of MEOVV such a big disservice.

2) Visual Elements

I feel like one of the defining elements of K-pop is how much effort and detail K-pop puts into its M/Vs. Honestly, sometimes I feel like a K-pop song is like a visual-audio package, with equal, if not more, of the song’s story stored in the visual elements.

When I review this category, I’ll take the whole visual package into consideration: I’ll definitely talk about the M/V, but might sprinkle in some commentary on the choreography, album covers, or even outfits in my review.

My favorite K–pop M/Vs have two distinctive elements: symbolism and storytelling. They convey a message with the objects and props they choose to use. They have characters, a plot, and a conflict & resolution. I also really love M/Vs that clearly aim to have a distinct color palette: I think it really helps them set themselves apart from all the M/Vs out there.

One caveat with this category, however: I won’t give a song a score in this category if it doesn’t have a M/V (like if it’s a b-side). I just don’t think it’s fair to give a song a visual score if it doesn’t have the biggest chunk of the visual package. But I might still comment on the other things in the package (if they’re present)!

Here’s my rubric and breakdown:

5	A feast for the eyes: BTS “Spring Day” First of all, look at how long this video is. Second of all, the amount of storytelling and symbolism in this video…oh my God. I feel like you could write an entire thesis on just analyzing this video.
4	A solid piece of art: TWICE “Feel Special” Tells a touching story of the girls supporting each other–also really pretty scenes and outfits.
3	An acceptable piece of art: IVE “Attitude” The palette and concept are interesting, but there isn’t really a cohesive story…it creates a compelling mood but doesn’t go for the greatest potential of a M/V.
2	A questionable work in progress: ITZY “Gold” “Gold” has lots of elements strung together, but the whole package doesn’t really have a clear direction or theme (much less a story). Also: why is this song called “Gold” if there’s so little gold in the M/V and literally 0 gold in the album cover???
1	An attacker of the eyes 😦 : ARTMS “Virtual Angel” Look, guys: I know it probably made sense in the context of their theme or concept to make the video like this, but I honestly can’t watch more than 10 seconds of this video…. 😦 it just hurts my eyes too much.

3) Lyrics

Well, we’ve come to the most awkward category for an international fan…like, I don’t know any Korean. 0. None.  

But I am bilingual. So I know how unreliable translations can be. I know how the prettiest sentence in its original language can turn into the most unidiomatic, grammatically convoluted sentence in English after getting “translated.” Honestly, I am of the opinion that you lose at least 50% of the original meaning whenever you translate anything, from any language to any other language, no matter how professional or skilled the translator is.

That’s why I think it’d be crazily unfair for me to judge a K-pop song’s lyrics through its translated English version. Therefore, I won’t give a song a score in this category–unless the song uses a substantial amount of English in it.

I’d say “substantial” would have to be around 25% of the song being in English. And that bar is pretty low–I feel like more and more groups are turning to English and writing line after line, stanza after stanza, in English. And it’s really fun and interesting to see what they can do with my native tongue.

Just to be clear: I’ll still comment on the lyrics of fully-Korean songs–I just won’t give them a score. I always look at English translations when listening to songs. And sometimes, I might have a thing or two to say about the content of the lyrics (but never the specific language used, if it’s in Korean).

5	A work of poetry: Rosé “too bad for us” No one can beat our Rosie…she’s got metaphors, imagery, the whole schabang going on in here…honestly, I feel like this song could be taken out and analyzed as a poem.
4	I will sing along to this: TWICE “The Feels” These lyrics feel so idiomatic and genuine. They’re simple but effective, achieving the exact kind of bubbly message it intends to deliver. And the fact that it comes from a group with basically no English-speaking members (can Mina count?) makes it even more impressive.
3	The typical words and phrases: Jennie “like JENNIE” Damn–there’s so much audacity to these lyrics. It’s a good chant, with a lot of energy and empowerment–but that’s to be expected with Jennie title track.
2	In need of a round of editing: LE SSERAFIM “Perfect Night” Um–I will eat my hat if my girl Yunjin wasn’t cringing when she had to sing these lyrics. They are just so mid. They read like some middle schooler’s attempt at songwriting. So flat, so little English skill.
1	Absolute butchery of the English language: BABYMONSTER “Clik-Clak” “Click-clack, heels tap Walkin’ with my hips back Money, click-clack Click-clack, click-clack, click-clack.” Cue the internal crying. Cue the deep, heaving sighing. This is literal kindergarten level rhyming skills. You could think of nothing but “click-clack, click-clack, click-clack” to fill an entire line??? Also, in the third line, what the fjfkld;sakfj does “money” have to do with “click-clack”ing??? You do not randomly drop in words just to fit a syllabic meter. You do not resort to the most meaningless, empty onomatopoeia to fill up your lyrics. You do not treat my native language with so little care and effort. Like, I literally get angry reading these lyrics.

4) Music

I’m actually a classical musician by trade…I played classical piano for seven years. It’s honestly quite interesting to review pop music from a classical music perspective. In instrumental classical music (which is what I played), there is literally nothing but music. It is literally nothing but sound. There are no words, no images. There is basically no capacity to make social or political commentary.

But in pop music…so much more can be said. A truly specific, articulate message can be conveyed. The music, therefore, becomes secondary. I think of it as a vessel through which the most important element–the concept or message–is conveyed. 

That’s why, as weird as it is to not care as much about the actual sound of the music in a music review blog, I’ve put music as the last category that I review. The way a song sounds is still important to me, though. After all, you can’t expect people to listen for a concept or a message if the notes aren’t constructed well in the first place.

The pop songs I love most sound full of heart and oh-so-human. I love natural, powerful, skillful singing. I love songs that focus on melody. I love tracks that emphasize singing–and not so much talking or chanting. 

One more thing: I have a massive pet-peeve for autotune. I cannot stand it. The thing I love most about pop songs is its emphasis on the human voice. Why take away from that voice by adulterating it with robotic-sounding, computer-generated noise?

5	My heart is soaring: IU “Good Day” No one can beat my queen IU. Need I say more?
4	Music to my ears: RIIZE “Get a Guitar” So groovy, so cool, puts a smile on my face, warms my heart.
3	The average playlist line-up: Kep1er “Giddy” If this comes up in my playlist, I will listen to it, but I probably won’t remember what it sounds like…sorry Kep1er.
2	50/50 shot of getting skipped: Stray Kids “Double Knot” Okay, my number one pet peeve in songs is auto-tune. Yes, this song doesn’t use a lot of it, but it’s still pretty substantial in there–it just doesn’t really sit well in my ears.
1	My ears are begging for mercy: ILLIT “Tick-Tack” The weird electric computer sounds, the massive infusion of auto-tune, the repeated syllables over, and over, and over again…no, guys. Have mercy on my ears.