'I'm under arrest' blowing the whistle, 'Bad' twisting the pronunciation... K-pop you have to hear to hear it

‘Killing Part’, with its anomalous sound, has emerged as a K-pop hit formula this fall.

Instead of easy-listening music, it is a strategy to leave a deep impression on listeners by offering unexpected developments such as whistle sounds or twisted pronunciation of titles and lyrics.

◇ From whistles to pronunciation variations… A unique killing part that catches your ears

Recently, in K-pop, there has been an increasing number of cases where elements that stimulate auditory curiosity are deviated from the familiar formula as the core competitiveness of the song.

‘I’m Arresting You’, released last month, evokes the mood by expressing the melody with a whistle sound in the prelude and chorus of the song. In the chorus, the first syllable of "I'm going to arrest you" was pronounced strongly so that it sounded like "I'm going to arrest you."

Cortis' 'REDRED' is an example of a song that imprinted the song's identity with the repetitive phrase "Red Red" in the refrain and rough and crude electronic sounds.

ATEEZ's 'BAD' and A2O Light's 'NEON' sought to differentiate themselves by creating an addictive sound with a uniquely twisted pronunciation.

'Bad', which became ATEEZ's signature song, changed the pronunciation of "bad" to "bat" in the chorus. A powerful synergy was created by repeating the “bat” part along with the chest pop choreography that bounced the chest.

'Nion' increases the addictiveness of the song by emphasizing the pronunciation of "Nion" throughout the song. In particular, the refrain "Neon and beyond" attracted attention by spreading into the so-called mondergreen meme (a phenomenon in which the pronunciation of a word is different from its actual sound but is heard as a different, familiar word) that sounds differently, such as "divorce and non-marriage" and "gastritis and rhinitis."

In the music industry, what these songs have in common is that they place devices that grab the listener's ears at unexpected points. Beyond simply having a good melody or being easy to sing along to, the song was designed so that people can recall the song with just a specific sound or phrase.

Lim Hee-yoon, a popular music critic, said, "There were many songs in the past that emphasized addictive choruses, but recently the intention behind including these elements seems to have changed. As short-form content becomes more and more popular, it needs to be stuck in the mind in 1 to 2 seconds, so sound effects such as whistles were used."

Critic Lim said, "It's the same with the 'Nion' chorus that appeared as a mondergreen phenomenon. If it becomes a hot topic in this way, it can quickly spread into parodies or memes. It's an effective device even in the K-pop market, where it's a race against time to survive in the short-form era."

◇ Sound experiment tailored to the artist’s personality… The formula for box office success in the short-form era

In fact, these songs are not only consumed as short-form content or dance challenges in reels, etc., but are also enjoying long-term success at the top of music charts.

As of the afternoon of the 13th, 'I'm Arresting You', 'Bad', 'Nion', and 'Red Red' were all ranked in the top 20 on the music platform Melon's 'Top 100' chart.

An official from a music agency said, "Nowadays, when selecting a song, we have no choice but to take into account the current trend of consuming short-form music," and added, "In terms of publicity and marketing, it is important to have a powerful punch that can capture the ear. Unique sound effects and variations in strong pronunciation make this more effective."

These changes are also linked to the changed K-pop production environment. The industry explains that while in the past it was important to quickly follow the latest genres and sounds popular in the pop market, recently the center of gravity has shifted to maximizing the individuality of music for differentiated competitiveness in the global market.

Producer Sikjun emphasized, "If the K-pop production trend has focused on preoccupying and implementing the latest genres in the pop market, the key now is to find 'custom fit' music that is most perfectly aligned with the artist's original identity."

This is also in line with the K-pop trend of constantly seeking new attempts. The unique ‘killing part’ is also a device that gives the song a differentiated personality and attracts the listener’s attention. However, just focusing on provocative sounds or unfamiliar pronunciations does not guarantee box office success. It is important to connect the unique sound with the artist's identity and how convincingly this is incorporated into the entire song.

Sikjun explained, “There are already many good demo songs, so the priority is to select songs with high quality. It has become important to add audio-visual ideas, such as unique sound effects or choreography that goes well with the song, to the song created by the producer to make the song different.”