I hope that they do what Black Pink tends to do and just release a choreo to My Bag and perform it in tandem with Tomboy.
Why do I wish that My Bag was the title, a question you don’t ask yourself but I force you to read the answers to, anyways?
Well because My Bag is timeless. It will forever be relevant in music as a hard launch into hip hop music (think LE from EXID rather than say BlackPink which I would lump more in with Doja Cat rap, which is still rap just a different genre) which kpop tends to do a soft launch into. I like the idea of mainstream artists in kpop venturing into this genre more comfortably and less forced alongside pop, because that pop aspect honestly waters down the affect of the music. When Yeri and Irene are rapping it’s so…. Cute??? Which flows well with Joy, Wendy and Seulgi singing in a pop song with a rap bridge or whatever, but in a true to form rap song with a talented rapper (and I guess I learned that Shuhua also is a talented rapper) it almost takes away from their performance when the next line is sugar pop, unless that’s explicitly the point of the song, the dichotomy feels so foreign and harder to listen to.
An example of “soft launch” rap for me would be Savage by AESPA. They’re sing rapping the entire time because the point of this group is to be sweet and cute while still having a strong image, but they still sort of read as childish and so the strong image is watered down.
At no point in My Bag do I really feel like anyone in the group strays away from the concept of being a strong group, with a strong image, and I feel like this would be a jumpstart to kpop. Tomboy is good, but Olivia Rodrigo, Avril Lavigne, P!nk, they’ve all kind of proven that it’s fine, it just kind of gets repetitive and only is relevant momentarily. (The only person who had a longer career out of these women is P!nk and arguably that’s because she’s kind of a pop star in between her “tomboy” concepts.) even Miley Cyrus really can’t properly pull off this concept because it’s kind of a trend, it’s like solely based on a fashion trend.
The message of Tomboy being that it’s about a stronger woman who you should be cautious with because she can essentially handle herself is obviously relevant forever, equality of the sexes obv, but like the rock aspect of Tomboy is such a trend I’m like…. Positive it will fade away after the initial excitement.
That being said it’s still a very enjoyable song and I do love the concept and love the visuals, instrumental and lyrics. I literally love all of it, I just think the lasting power of a song like My Bag, which is more based in confidence and is less gimmicky in instrumental, would have been a larger impact.
Idk I’m not Cube Management so you can either read this and leave or disagree with me or what have you. Sometimes I just like to smoke a bowl, listen to new Korean releases and then write a Mini opinion piece.
Any suggestions on song reviews I guess?
