7 K-Pop songs with questionable lyrics

[goshipgurl]

While browsing Youtube late at night I came across a video by user SinB Ssi, which listed several songs by various artists with more than questionable lyrics, such as sexism, body shaming or cheating. I'm re-posting some of the songs mentioned in the video, more are at the source. This post should be a friendly reminder to not blindly sing along to

Comments

[jasmineakaiumi]

I always say that I enjoyed kpop a lot more before I learned Korean lmao

[nana_the_dwarf]

EXO's Monster has some rapey lyrics: I’ll flip you over, break you down and swallow you up I’ll steal you and indulge in you I’m gonna mess you up/Accept me for who I am, put away your fearful worries, enjoy the pain that you’re able to endure, all deeper inside. I couldn't enjoy the song as much after reading the translation; same with a few words of Moon: I'm gonna do what I want, even if you say no. Since the song is quite sexual, it didn't sit well with me.

f(x)'s Shadow is also hella stalkery.

[rand0m0ne]

I rarely look up lyrics, but I just looked up Monster and damn... not remotely subtle. Those lyrics are really... something.

[nana_the_dwarf]

The title is very appropiate. It's a shame because the song grew on me.

[maknaeroli]

Oh my god those lyrics are awful

[dior_chic]

I just watched this video this morning! I really liked it, I knew most of these were problematic but I didn’t know that DIA song existed, yikes. And I’m not innocent, I like Your Body despite knowing the lyrics and the MV are not ok. I haven’t listened to the song in a long time though, so that might show it’s not aging well.

I overall agree the majority of the scrutinity should be directed to the companies and the songwriters, which is majority men. But this does show why I’m not really keen on listening to Boy groups/male artists as a whole and don’t want to give them money typically, as if I listen to a song I like, I look up the lyrics and hope they’re not degrading or objectifying my gender. And tbh I don’t want to give the artists the benefit of the doubt that they don’t believe some of these misogynistic messages as it’s so ingrained in their society. Can only hope they rise above it...

[sub_divided]

One thing I really like about Nice Body is how she uses the tape measurer as a prop in her dance... it's not a good message and it's a fairly tragic choice for a first solo song, like, is this how you want to define yourself as an artist? But I bet it's accurate to her experiences.

[dior_chic]

I thought the dance with the tape was so cool when I was younger 😅 now it just adds another level of ‘oh, sweetie...’

[mortkero]

I think the song lyrics are meant to be highlighting that this is an issue, and meant to be poking at the idea of what idols go through but then coupled with the actual dance and MV it ends up being hypocritical/literal

[ashdevilrun23]

Only look at me was such a jam then I saw the lyrics and was like whom the fuck does this guy think he is hah

[sub_divided]

Big Bang were called out for their "poisoning" lyrics at the time, I remember Kim Shin-young calling GD out on her radio show back then ha.

A lot of their early relationship songwriting is twisted and manipulative, including many of the songs they became famous for... over time the lyrics became less personal and more generic in their depictions of love, romance and sex.

[ashdevilrun23]

Poisonous is a great way to describe those lyrics. lol
Gd's lyrics early on were so personal he really did tone it down a lot as time went by..

[dior_chic]

Oh I have one, it’s not in the severity of some of the topics above but it’s damn well questionable

Oh My Girl - Banana Allergy Monkey. All about liking bananas...and banana milk. C’mon. I mean c’mon.

[goshipgurl]

If you think about it - the girls sing about a monkey who is allergic to bananas, and that it's crazy and weird. So they're basically saying that girls who don't like men's bananas are weird... Their lesbian fans must be in joy

[dior_chic]

Oh god that’s right 😩 that release was a big fuck up imo, I’ve regularly enjoyed OMG’s content and love their energy on stage, but this release was very off putting and I lost some interest because of it

[myrrhcat]

i'm a lesbian fan and i thought the banana/dick connection was a total reach. it never even occurred to me until some commenters came up with it. i mean come on it's an advertisement for lotte's banana milk, can no one ever sing a children's song about monkeys liking bananas again without someone reading perversion into it?

(also i'm sure this wasn't your intent but equating lesbianism with not liking dick erases both trans and trans-friendly lesbians)