Sometimes K-pop acts should really leave off the English lyrics. A slip-up list.
“’Cause when we jumping and popping / We jopping”: A short list of the worst slip-ups.
1. SuperM – “Jopping”
The band SuperM is the production company SM Entertainment’s attempt to launch a kind of K-pop supergroup that primarily works in the US market. The members come from bands like Shinee, Exo, NCT 127 and WayV and debuted with the song “Jopping”. A damn hit that is stylistically as wonderfully over-the-top as K-Pop could ever hope for. The mostly English lyrics are actually quite chatty throughout, but with the neologism “Jopping” they belong at the top of this list. The SM boss himself came up with it, as he once revealed in a video. What does “Jopping” mean? It’s completely clear: “‘Cause when we jumping and popping / We jopping”. Uh… Well. Is this super nonsense or brilliant? We are still discussing…
2. Momoland x Chromance – “Wrap Me In Plastic”
Everything, absolutely everything, that is wrong and problematic about the image of women conveyed in some K-pop girl groups is contained in this song by the band Momoland, founded in 2016. In “Wrap Me In Plastic,” which was once again very successfully remixed by hit producer Chromance, the Momoland members sing mostly in English about a misogynistic male fantasy and offer themselves as “dolls.” For example, it says: “So, wrap me in plastic and make me shine / We can make a dollhouse, follow your design / Let’s build a dog out of sticks and twine / I can call you master, you can call me mine. “Especially in connection with words that are also used in various fetishes, you really wonder what kind of people waved through this number. A look at the lyric credits is also informative. There are the following names: “Marcus Layton / Johannes Becker / Daniel Stanfill”. Great MarcusJohannesDaniel – really great!
3. Monsta X – “Gambler”
Founded in 2015, Monsta Their choreographies are often aggressive and you can see that all members do their own. I find the body pretty cool. They set this to music in a particularly awkward and ambiguous way in the song “Gambler”. Here, in a rap part, it actually says: “My suit is black, my suit is fresh / Open my pack, let me show you how I bang.” Um… no, guys, better put that away.
4. Shinee – “Ring Ding Dong”
Shinee has been around for a while: they were founded in 2009 and, for example, produced the highly talented Taemin, who is also on board with SuperM. At the beginning of the year they even attempted a very successful comeback, which is currently on hold because Taemin is completing his mandatory military service. In 2009, Shinee gave us a song called “Ring Ding Dong,” which repeatedly appears in lists like “The most cringy k-pop songs.” You could almost see “Ring Ding Dong” as a Dadaist work of art, if only you had the feeling that it was meant to be ironic. But he isn’t. The boys sing here with the typical K-pop performer seriousness: “We wanna go rocka rocka rocka rocka rocka / (So fantastic) / Go rocka rocka rocka rocka rocka / (So elastic) / Fantastic fantastic fantastic fantastic / Elastic elastic elastic elastic / Ring ding dong ring ding dong / Ring diggy ding diggy ding ding ding.” Your brain and ears are really ringing.
5. NCT 127 – “Simon Says”
The subgroup of the band NCT brought joy to many of their fans with “Simon Says”. But probably not in the way they thought. Many K-pop songs mix Korean and English and use the English parts as if they wanted to give English-speaking fans a little support so that they know roughly what it’s about. But the songwriters often get it wrong. For example, in the last third of “Simon Says”, where it says: “Bless me, achoo / Simon says ‘be cool’ / ‘Don’t be such a fool’ (nah).” The “achoo” in particular is amusing the fans sustainably and provided one or two “supercuts”. Why? Well, “achoo” is the Americans’ “Hatschi” – and that only really makes sense if Simon had said “health”…