The "Cheating is Okay" Era of K-Pop

A couple of weeks ago I started this site on the back of a conversation that I had with my personal trainer about how the nostalgia of K-Pop can be affected by actually (and finally) fully understanding the lyrics of songs from the past. I took a dive into this by looking at some of the songs from my favourite girl groups, particularly focusing on Girls Generation’s “Oh!” as a prime example of songs specifically tailored to the male gaze to drive sales and devotion to the fandom. Back then, it was a very clear divide of girl groups were for male fans and boy groups were for girls (something that took me a long while to wrap my head around as it is quite different in the west, if not completely the opposite)

But hey, if the girl groups had lyrics specifically tailored to male fans to appeal to and praise them for their devotion, then the same must be true for the boy groups and their female fans right?

… right?

Well, yes and no. And for different reasons.

Of course you had your SHINee “Replay”, a song declaring that their favourite “noona” ('누나' the Korean term for ‘older sister’ used by men/boys, often used as a term of endearment for someone who is not a blood relative) is pretty. Their debut single is iconic still to this day and I still have the picture in my head of Taemin, the youngest member, as this adorable, fresh faced 15 year old even though now he is a grown man in his early 30s. But there is a subsection of K-Pop songs that are quite nefarious in its message and intention, despite the target audience that it has. 

I will call these the ‘Cheating is Okay!’ songs.

My examples of this (and probably the two most famous) are TEEN TOP’s “No More Perfume On You” and B1A4’s “Baby Goodnight”. For TEEN TOP, the main crux of the song is that the singer is asking the girl that he is seeing on the side to not wear perfume anymore when they go out on dates because they are worried the smell of it may stay on them after they leave and they don’t want to arouse the suspicion of their actual girlfriend. No room for arguments either as the lyrics include, “do as I say” so the affair partner has no choice but to comply. Nevertheless, they praise the ‘noona’ for their sexy figure and the sparkly clothes that they wear and comment that they feel like a man whenever they are around her. As if that makes it better. Well, maybe it did back in 2011?

Another affair anthem that was released in 2012 (what is it with the early 2010s and groups having mainstream songs about cheating?) was by my bias group at the time, B1A4. This group is one of my all time favourites and their ‘Who Am I’ mini album is probably my favourite K-Pop album of all time. But I was certainly sheltered by my lack of Korean with the lyrics that featured in their songs. Especially the incredibly up-tempo dance track “Baby Goodnight”. The singer here is the paragon of what a great boyfriend should be (not!) and is telling his girlfriend to go to sleep early because he is going out late and doesn’t know when he will be back but he is going to have fun and knows that he will mess about. But that’s okay because the girlfriend knows that is in his nature so even if she is mad, she should accept it because that is how their relationship is. It is not outright explicit saying that he is cheating like in “No More Perfume On You” but it is insinuated with the singer calling themselves a “bad boy”.

There are a few more examples of these ‘Cheating is Okay’ in Gen 2 and early Gen 3 K-Pop songs. Big Bang Taeyang’s “Only Look At Me” is quite a horrific example, claiming that he can go and mess around with whomever he likes but his girlfriend cannot do the same. A song that I am sure he regrets (or at the very least I hope he does!) now that he is happily married with a child. Also it did take me a while to remember this but Monsta X’s ‘All About Luv’, their debut into the English language market, had a few songs about the positives of cheating such as “Got My Number”. Although for that one it could be argued that they are asking the girl to leave their partner to find someone else who could treat them better. I’m not convinced though; to me it's all about having a sneaky link whilst someone is in a different area code because they are bored of being alone.

I will say that it’s an era of music that has certainly died out in recent years though- with the prominence of K-Pop around the world and more people understanding Korean lyrics due to translator apps such as Papago and Google Translate or even just learning Korean for fun, if a group like BOYNEXTDOOR or CORTIS released something similar now, there would certainly be an uproar from fans for overt misogyny. I would not be surprised if this is a reason why some of these songs have purposely been left to be swept away by the sands of time to be forgotten about as a blip in the era of when K-Pop was finding its footing in the world.

I am interested to see if TEEN TOP will include “No More Perfume On You” in their New Years Eve concert here in Seoul, aptly named “TEEN TOP WE GONNA ROCK IT DROP IT TOP IT HEY DON'T STOP IT POP IT TEEN TOP WE GONNA ROCK IT DROP IT TOP IT HEY DON'T STOP IT POP IT LIVE”. I want to go just for the name alone because WHAT. It’s so iconic and the song it is from (Rocking) has one of the best, and most difficult, choreographies of all time. Plus, despite their affair anthem, they were definitely one of the household names in the 2nd Gen.

Unfortunately, it makes me wish I didn’t understand Korean as much as I do now because I can’t enjoy those songs as much as I did in the past. At least, this isn’t an issue now with current releases.

… Or is it?

Hmm… time to have a deep dive into the world of the 5th Gen, methinks.