It’s hard to come into Kiss Of Life’s new digital single Live, Love, Laugh without the impact of their severely misguided livestream rattling around in your head. That event, filmed and released a few weeks ago, left a bad taste in my mouth and makes even the title “Live, Love, Laugh” feel patronizing and tone deaf. I’m not a fan of “cancel culture” and believe everyone deserves the chance to make amends for past mistakes, but there are some things that are hard to un-see.
It would certainly help if Live, Love, Laugh was a better song. As usual, the girls perform it well. Their virtuosic vocal delivery reminds me of the powerhouse R&B of the late 90’s. It would be nice to hear that approach driving an equally engaging song. Instead, Live, Love, Laugh is a whole bunch of nothing. Judging from its collage-like video, this is essentially the album-ending fan song that often gets chucked onto idol releases. These can be enjoyable — especially if you’re a big fan of the artist — but more often feel extraneous. In these circumstances, it just feels like an odd choice.
With that said, Live, Love, Laugh would likely function better at the end of a very strong album. On its own, I can’t find much reason to return to it. And, I fear that the same might be said about the group themselves unless there’s some kind of evolution in both their music and their awareness.
| Hooks | 7 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 7.25 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Look, South Korea is an ethnically homogeneous country, with little racial diversity until recently, which can contribute to a lack of direct contact with black cultures and, consequently, the perpetuation of stereotypes imported from Western media. I think there are so many irreparable cases of racism in K-pop that it’s hard to talk about. Many have stereotypes about Asian people and many have stereotypes about black people, it’s a crazy question of vice versa.
I focus on music because that’s my core, it’s not for me, but okay.
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yeah, it’s odd how this review suggests that their cultural insensitivity has something to do with the unremarkableness of this song.
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it’s not weird at all. Nick said it pretty clearly
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Going to go out on a limb here and say that this argument would only really work if we choose to ignore the fact that two of the members spent several years of their lives growing up in the U.S, and I’m not quite sure why we would do that.
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I understand your point, but I don’t think that living in the US automatically cancels out a possible disconnection with certain cultural references. Growing up in another country can offer a diverse background, but that doesn’t guarantee cultural sensitivity or a deep understanding of all the nuances, especially when it comes to appropriation or artistic representation. It’s also important to consider how these influences are translated into the work, and whether this is done consciously or merely aesthetically.
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Prior to the livestream, Belle literally told kissys “not to unstan them because of the livestream.” If they weren’t aware of how offensive the livestream was going to be to black and Latina women, there’s no reason why she would’ve said that. They knew exactly what they were doing because again, two out of four members are from the US, their music/concept is heavily inspired by African-American music/culture, so they along with the company have done their research, and the internet exists. They’re not dumb. And if Nick really graded the song based off of the scandal, he probably would’ve gave it a F or wouldn’t have reviewed it at all.
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I completely understand the frustration and disappointment caused by Kiss Of Life’s situation, especially considering the cultural context involved and the responsibility that they have as artists in drawing inspiration from other cultures. At the same time, I believe it is important to continue demanding accountability through constructive dialogue, while also considering possible lessons learned and future developments on the part of the group and the company. We will continue to be vigilant and critical, as we should be. Like Nick, I have never supported cancel culture and I continue to believe that each person needs time to evolve and mature. The internet is an intense environment, but that does not mean that I am justifying their ignorant attitudes, and that is definitely not the message I want to convey given the fact that I’m Latino too.
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literally tried defining them in your first comment. Also black and Latino are two different things. Latinos have a history of antiblack racism aswell
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They knew exactly what they were doing.
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If people can be disconnected growing up in the US then why even bring up the “Korea is homogenous” argument at all? I think it’s condescending to say that people in South Korea broadly don’t know better either. I think it is fair to ask for more from people. Kpop stars want very badly to have a global audience, and that means they have to take responsibility for it.
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Regardless of their controversy, this song isn’t much to write home about.
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2. Song sounds like fan service.
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Weird 2nd verse switchup.
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It should have been Young Posse doing that livestream instead. Anyways, song’s fine.
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I can’t lie… That’s funny
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Poor Kiof! They are literally young workers, they are one of a few bands to actually develop an esthetic, they do a pretty song for their fans and to calm things down, but they are still bashed for “racism & cultural appropriation” by western countries that are built up on colonialism & imperialism and that make a business everything they find “exotic”
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So that makes it OK to mock/make a caricature out of groups that have a history of being forced into slavery by and/or systemically oppressed by Western countries?
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My point exactly! KioF seem to have used some “afrodescendant hip-hop” stereotypes — like so many pop artists all over the world do the same about so many cultures. But in my opinion, this is the western petite bourgeoisie that turned it controversial since they are struggling with unsolved post-colonial/national questions.
I live in France and even this is not as touchy as in the USA, we became pretty quick to cancel people in order to avoid radical criticism of our society.
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Well, that livestream made me very uncomfortable and I’m not even the group/culture that was targeted.
As I stated in the review, I don’t believe in cancel culture and would love for this to turn into a learning experience where everyone comes out more enriched, but no one is allowed to dictate what makes someone else uncomfortable and given the K-pop industry’s self-cultivated idolatry, a sort of mutual trust between artist and fan is built into the stew we’re being fed. We can’t be surprised when fans go elsewhere if an idol’s behavior makes them uncomfortable.
Would love more nuanced reactions to these types of issues, though — like this measured approach from20 took in response to a far less glaring case of appropriation:
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If that’s all you have left to defend them with I’m afraid they’re toast.
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Looks like they live laugh loved a little too close to the sun
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yeah I’m tired of the people trying to defend kiss of life…. We get it you’re not an ally and don’t have significant relationships with black people to care. Keep in mind that your defenses often infantilize both black and Asian people
cancel culture isn’t real…. Unless you don’t have great music (look at da baby). I think kiss of life have enough promise in the eyes of most listeners (some in the group I mentioned in the beginning) and people will eventually move on as they always do. I’m just so tired of this sort of thing and wonder if I’ll see the day where these incidents don’t exist (unlikely I know)
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Stop being offended on behalf of other people. Professional victims.
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Just say you don’t care/ can’t empathize instead of acting like anyone else is the problem
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I don’t care. It’s other people’s problems. Everytime I see other people dressing up like a stereotypical gopnik kurwa cyka blyat and do a hard bass dance I can CHOOSE to be offended. But why should I? It’s just a funny meme, an over-exaggerating of things that used to be at one point in time, but now became a distant memory and something to ridicule and make fun of because — guess what — it was stupid and ridiculous.
Do you want to say that the stereotypical “black rapper from the 90s” image is based on thin air? That people didn’t act like that? It’s all giggles when GTA SA does it, when comedy movies do but when it’s 4 asian women they’re immediately literally hitlers (I’m shaking btw). Not even mentioning that these women confessed love and respect for black people’s culture multiple times.
Just admit that you get high on cancelling other people and getting brownie points.
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Other people doing bad things and getting away it doesn’t make it okay. A murder wouldn’t be let off the hook just because others evaded prosecution. Also those are very different contexts and trying to tie that all in just leads to a overly complex conversation that can’t be productive
“Just admit that you get high on cancelling other people and getting brownie points”
I’m not cancelling anyone, and how am I getting brownie points? Do you see me doing this on my socials? It was offensive and wrong what they did and I wish people would stop trying to make the issue pass as quickly as possible. I don’t believe in cancelling, but if you do something wrong in public you need to attone for it in public and put in the work to ensure it doesn’t happen again. All that was done in response to the controversy was very clearly to protect the group not an actually sincere apology addressing the specifics. And they can continue you do that because people like you care more about them than the well being of black people. I want you to actual think of your relationship to the black community and evaluate how your own lack of exposure allows you to be so dismissive of the issue to the point in which you’ll claim none exists at all. You’re not being edgy, you’re gonna gaslight anyone into believing that false reality, you’re just being insensitive and lacking empathy and introspection. I get that you may honestly believe all this, but have some compassion because people genuinely were hurt by this. If you don’t get it think about why you don’t.
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First of all, yes, I genuinely believe in what I say, I’m not being edgy, I’m not being a /poltard/ contrarian, I’m a middle aged man, how many people here are.
If I were to reply to every major thing in your response it would have been a very long post (it already will be long) and quite frankly this is not the right place for it I guess.
The thing that I’m talking about since the very first post is that the girls should not have apologized because they did not do anything wrong in the first place. SOME people decided to interpret it as something bad. For Christ’s sake, people say they are offended by the little Taco Belle. Really? Really? Would your woman be offended if you’ve called her that?
When that stream dropped the first thing I thought was “God, I hope they won’t issue an apology and will stand their ground”. There’s a very big difference between Julie saying ninja which you should not say as a public person and girls having fun larping as the 90’s rappers. Remeber that famous scene the black hood in the beginning of Die Hard 3? This is how people act the girls have been. Then again, people are being offended by wide peepo or kpop idols having cornrows or dreadlocks. Should we be outraged by poc with straigtened/blond hair or light colored eye contacts? That would’ve been silly tho, right? Maybe some terminally online people who spend too much time on xitter should stop being a shariah police and you know just chill for a fucking second.
https://prod.cloud.rockstargames.com/crews/sc/9349/196691/publish/emblem/emblem_512.png
And about my awareness, thank you, but I’m not poc and I’m not a hypocrite. You should think about everyone around not just some specific people. Every single nation alive suffered, every single one. Statistically, most people in the world are descendants of common people — slaves and serves. Black community has zero monopoly on opression and suffering and the world is much bigger than just the US and some w Europe countries. Also instead of adressing the roots, the real issues like poc environment, education, prison correctional system etc. people just sugarcoat it with virtue signalling, DEI and attacking other people just like this case with kiss of life (and I’m not even their fan btw I like some of the promoted songs that’s it). As a person who is invested into it, as I understand, do you really think this will help the cause or it will just push the common “normie” people away?
So just as I said in my very first post — stop being offended on behalf of other people and I should add stop being offended by everything there’s enough of shit going on in the world already.
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Just skimming through your response. It lacks nuance and it’s the same flimsy argument I’ve seen conservatives do. Clearly you’re from an environment that made you ignorant and unempathetic. Even if I could change your mind you would return to your ignorant bubble. I’m gonna protect my peace and let you be here alone, talking to yourself.
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“I’m not POC” “I’m a middle aged man” why are you saying this shit like we didn’t already know. You have the MAJORITY OPINION, you are not being a brave freedom fighter, stop lecturing people of color on the internet, take care of your kids
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> stop lecturing people… on the internet
Works both ways, m8.
>maybe you wanna just ban this guy
OH NO NOT THE DIFFERENT OPINIONS I’M MELTIIIIING
K, bro. Don’t be surprised that people don’t like woke warriors then.
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@Nick actually, maybe you wanna just ban this guy? The racialized antagonism is too much
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I still love this group, and I’m looking forward to their comeback next month.
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