Track Spotlight – Jelly Pop (Zhanghao et al.)

deforestedmusic

Aug 2

Why can't we have more of this?

Let's see what we have here!

Last time I got addicted to a song, I couldn't get my head over it. I want all attention to this song, I want everyone to hear it, to feel it, to experience it. Jelly Pop in just a matter of 2 days will get 100 streams from me, and I'm writing this on my 82nd stream. I wasn't suppose to write anything especially when this song was released at a time where the world seemed to sidestep the death of Moonbin. I just could not fathom being happy, as the world turned into ablaze. I guess in capitalism, we are trained that death is just a statistic and the show must go on. I guess this song might be deeper than what it is.

It was obviously gloomy, especially the atmosphere at Jamsil Arena. However, that did not deter the producers, artists, Planet Masters, and the audience from enjoying Jelly Pop. I guess K-Pop has become a sort of escapism for us, in the era of accelerationism and post-truth.

Jelly Pop's lyrics are quite interesting for a couple of reasons. It's literally the boy group version of NewJeans' Cookie, except its about sweets. The song definitely engages and plays into consumerism, self-indulgence, and double entendres. Obviously, this is more complicated as the lost in translation factor has many layers to it. Nonetheless, as a self-conscious linguist, I contend that the song is definitely metamodern. It transforms itself, to whatever the perceived normative status quo that is dominant in the narrative is. The song in the metaphorical Western lense seems to be a phantasmagoria of sex, and at the same time it calls out the multiplicity of the person as a dynamic being (as in having lots of flavors).

Anyway, according to Koreans, the song is basically a metaphor when someone eats jelly, which is definitely a sort of song about the narrative in consumerism, and rose-tinted glasses. Semantically, the way the song is written is definitely theatrical, and creative. This is in the sense that there is little repetition and the structure of the song shifts tremendously on the time component and the narrative component of their theme. It's basically a song for a musical. I guess that's why Jelly Pop is a lot more than whatever narrative it can be dominantly carry.

On other areas, this song reminds me of the time producers had an ideology and a strong direction in formulating songs. A K-Pop song's strength rely on its melody, technical exceptionalism, vocal prowess, and acclimating styles. Many of which have been superseded in favor of Western songwriting (which I could argue is not much of a deviation since Nordic producers did most of K-Pop's early work), and worse is neo-culture (which is the fault of SM and why 17491649816349811084108740 groups have the NCT sound). Jelly Pop is just everything I love about pop music, and so distant from the dominant sounds of angsty boy group noise.

Jelly Pop relies on traditional formulae, idealizes a grand narrative through its themes, deconstructs the narrative using songwriting (this could be debatable), and builds a song culminating the previous three assemblies. Very metamodern it is. This song is also gay as hell (like gay as in happy), I really feel somewhat comforted by this song and it feels like a warm abode.

Anyway, that's Jelly Pop, my vote for this year's Record and Song of the Year. BYE.