Well, the day has finally come. We have our first completely AI-generated music video for a K-pop act. I suppose we should be thankful that the agency isn’t trying to hide this fact — even billing it as an exciting promo tactic. However, the cynic in me believes this technique will become commonplace in the coming years. In fact, given K-pop’s terrible track record of late, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that AI had been used in some of the music production as well. Certain K-pop templates have become so predictable that a computer could easily replicate them. The only aspect helping Double Down avoid these accusations is that the song was originally released in… 2024.

Of course, this blog is not usually concerned with the visual aspect of K-pop, so I have the luxury of ignoring the “video” for Double Down and focusing on the music. But even here, my eyes glaze over. Actually, is it possible for your ears to glaze over? There’s nothing horribly wrong with Double Down, but I can’t overstate how exhausted I am of its muted sound palette. The fact that we’re still in this sonic space years after the song was originally released is depressing. I swear, K-pop producers have access to only one sample pack that they’ve used over and over and over and over again since mid-2022. They also seem to have a limited concept of theme, framing the majority of new songs around the same sloganeering “empowerment” message that has every group boasting variations of “Aren’t I so cool?“. I need them to understand that there are other concepts worth exploring. This overreliance on one trite message makes K-pop look incredibly shallow.

In short, Double Down is one of those “absolutely fine” songs that is unlucky enough to bear the brunt of many of my frustrations with the industry today. The song is too innocuous to warrant much criticism at all. I mean… if the creators aren’t going to put in effort, why should we?

Grade: C-