HYBE’s empire continues to grow with the debut of new girl group ILLIT. They’re under subsidiary Belift Lab and formed through the series R U Next?. They’re the first of a few new girl groups emerging this week, and their debut single Magnetic feels perfectly in line with current trends. HYBE (and specifically, NewJeans) have almost single-handedly re-written K-pop’s girl group sound, and your experience with Magnetic will likely hinge on how you feel about that.
The song opens with the soft electronic atmosphere that has come to define this new era, but quickly grows into something more sprightly. Magnetic is at its best when pulsing along this brisk energy, offering a pleasant burst of lightweight pop sweetness. It’s not the most dynamic of arrangements, making it feel more like the soundtrack of a video game than a fully fleshed out title track.
This extends to Magnetic‘s chorus — a stuttering hook that works as a production showcase but tells us little about the girls themselves. Like the rest of the track, it’s featherlight and pleasing but tends to evaporate as soon as it’s finished. This sense of weightlessness will no doubt serve ILLIT well in the streaming age, where mood and vibe reign supreme. However, I’m craving something gutsy and bold from these new-gen groups.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 8 |
Grade: B-
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Pretty good.
Very similar to NewJeans and TripleS.
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Honestly, I think their styling is super similar to Newjeans (5 members with fresh faces, long black hair, and natural makeup), but their sound is more like fromis_9 and tripleS
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I really like this since they released those snippets. nothing groundbreaking here but the production and writing are solid enough. despite people comparing them to NewJeans, I actually hear touches of f(x) and LOONA/ODD EYE CIRCLE.
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I agree, very big LOONA vibes
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i had low expectations but this is kinda intresting
7.75/10 for me
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The NewJeans sound done in a cute and lively, and almost arcade-y way. I had no expectations, given HYBE’s girl groups (LSF and NJ to be precise, cause fromis doesn’t exist to them and menow also doesn’t sound like the forementioned groups) are pursuing the same subdued, soft sound.
But hey, it’s cute and somehow has some lively spirit to it. Wish it had more oomph to it, cause it all sounds airy and too pleasant. But hey, expectations were low anyways.
Rating is the same.
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I feel like I have this song again, also.
Also, noting again, WTF with debuting minors? two of the young ladies here are 16 years old.
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LOL hyein was literally 14 when she debuted
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The chorus here reminds me of Fromis 9’s attitude but as a song it’s far less full and dynamic. Ngl this is tik tok fare and there’s no payoff but the hook does it’s job well. I’ll give it a 7.5
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nick this isnt anything against u but the day ppl stop comparing anything in kpop slightly club inspired/downbeat to newjeans is the day i will finally know peace…..all of their music has been baltimore club/garage/house inspired meanwhile this song is heavily pluggnb (a visibly different genre) more than anything else….kpop fans learn what different electronic subgenres are challenge
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Songs can be in a different genre and sound alike. Also both newjeans and illit make pop music first and foremost, this song is pluggnb inspired pop it’s not pluggnb bc that’s a trap subgenre and the trap beat in this song shows up for like 5 seconds. They just take elements of plugg to rework into pop music just like newjeans does with jersey club, garage, dnb etc. Newjeans and illit are still comparable even if illit is more than the cut copy and paste of newjeans people are pretending they are. The influence is still very obviously there idk what people get out of denying that.
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Yeah the comparison is more about vibe than specific genre. NewJeans being so big and leading the trends so heavily at the moment invites comparisons, even if the exact sound/sub-genre may be different. I understand why it’s frustrating, though. Maybe if K-pop as a whole was delivering a more ambitious variety of tones we wouldn’t be comparing as much.
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This is definitely better than “Butter Up” and “Sheesh”, even if I hadnt heard the last song
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lol “Butter up”
(not sure if that was a typo but I like it)
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I didn’t have expectations for ILLIT, especially after how controversial the show was, but I’m impressed they created an album that feels sonically cohesive – very light, fluid, dreamy and bubbly. All the songs have a feeling of flying through clouds. The songs definitely sound like what current trends sound like, and it fits their voices. Magnetic is a pretty good and safe debut song, I hope they continue this musical direction in the future.
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I like a dreamy vibe, and a video game OST vibe, so I’m on board with this. It tickles the same part of my brain that loves f(x)’s 4 Walls and Miss A’s “Come Tonight.” I would love it if one of the groups that does these dreamy/vibe-y songs leaned a bit harder into it and crossed into slightly weird territory to give me something like my favorite girl group b-side, Fiestar’s “A sip of lips.”
That said, I absolutely do not like groups with existing signature sounds ditching what they have going on to mimic this sound, unless it’s for an occasional b-side. I feel like we just escaped the era of 80% of boy groups sounding like clones and I don’t want that for the girl groups!
On the other hand, better this than the catchphrase chorus in my book!
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i went in with no expectations and was very positively surprised , it’s light fun and quirky pop and that’s very ok with me
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I really like this type of beat, I do agree with Kpop not offering much sonic variety lately, so this is probably the “poppiest” sounding kpop song I’ve liked recently.
At the same time, while I do recognize that NewJeans and their team didn’t invent anyhting, you can really see the influence-inspiration in different girl groups, and this is clearly something that I think was made with the aestethic and sounds NewJeans has been giving.
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Good production but ruined with boring and repetitive chorus plus the spam post chorus though?
6 / 10
Unexpected that there’s a lot of people loving it?
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they played OMG, DITTO and ETA to the producers and said do the same but cuter! It’s a good song but everything is so familiar in it it’s almost distracting. Worst being the music video very first NewJeans EP coded, so many OMG video rips off. Frustrating because it’s a decent song but where do you go from that as band identity?
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tripleS ot24 coming to end their careers
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I was sold on the chorus once I saw the accompanying choreography. I might watch r u next now
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t
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Its inevitable that girl groups(especially from the big 3) debut and pioneer a sound that sets a trend for subsequent groups to follow. Like ITZY with their teen crush, Aespa with their genre mixes, etc. While its fine if established groups explore these trends for their comebacks, it feels uninspired when new groups adopt them right from their debut. I felt the same way with NMIXX with O.O being a mash of genres when Next Level was a huge success. Still, I love O.O to pieces(each of its different musical pieces literally) and Magnetic sounds easy and lovely to listen to. It’s not about the pressure to innovate and change the industry(they can always do that in the future), but as a fan it does diminish the excitement of anticipating a new group when they simply just follow the current trend.
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**By Big 3, I mean HYBE, JYPE, and SM xd
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When I first heard ‘Magnetic’, I immediately thought of Red Velvet’s ‘Russian Roulette’, which is by far my favorite RV track. So I knew I was gonna love this one.
After going through the rollercoaster ride of “R U Next?”, I was a little scared for ILLIT since the entire thing wasn’t well received, especially with many people’s faves getting out, which is understandable, but why be vicious towards girls chasing their dreams.
But it seems BELIFT LAB/HYBE has done well to give them a great debut album. This is a damn good start, and I hope they’re a group that continues delivering.
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I’m 100% with you on this one. Russian Roulette is also my favorite Red Velvet title track and I never thought about Magnetic being related to that song.
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Much like a lot of Newjeans’s songs, they’re not really for me but I also get why people like it. It’s good if a bit inoffensive.
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