ILLIT’s music has always been good at capturing the K-pop zeitgeist of the moment, resulting in a very trendy — but often uneven — discography. My favorite ILLIT tracks have gone against the grain to carve out a niche that feels more unique to them. With new single It’s Me, the group has tried on the “let’s all talk over a techno beat” trend sweeping the industry this year. As expected, the result is fun but way too hollow.
At its best, It’s Me has a madcap energy reminiscent of some of K-pop’s more gimmicky acts of the early-2010s. It’s nice to see humor make its way back to the forefront alongside the pulsing dance beats that drive songs like this. It’s Me is incredibly referential to K-pop fandom, framing its hook around repeated “Who’s you’re bias?” taunts. However, the song has about three ideas and they get old pretty fast. This isn’t a long piece of music (2:19, to be exact), but even this brief runtime feels padded with constant repetitions of the hook and central beat drop. It’s Me would be more successful if it added competing elements to its structure, giving us room between all the shouting and yapping so that those moments held more weight when they come around.
As it stands, It’s Me is meme music, similar to what fellow HYBE girl groups Katseye and LE SSERAFIM have been doling out lately. This works for quick engagement in shortform content, but tends to result in a thin discography that struggles to stand the test of time. It’s Me may be a party, but it’s yet another indication that K-pop is moving away from songs in favor of exercises in branding and shameless bids for SNS domination.
| Hooks | 6 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 7.25 |
Grade: C
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Well the sung part of the prechorus is kind of pretty ig
The producer Hitchhiker and his teenage daughter Zin Choi started a new talk show/podcast called Music In My Business. Yunah and Minju from ILLIT were their first guests. During the episode, Hitchhiker brings up how songs are getting shorter and shorter these days because of streaming and short-form content. Minju said she loves bridges, many of ILLIT’s songs don’t have them, and she hopes they come back. Yunah mentioned that ILLIT’s shortest song is in the 1 minute range, and their songs rarely exceed 3 minutes. She said “for me, I think songs these days are too short…like Minju said, I wish they’d include more bridge sections, and for songs with great intros and outros, I wish they’d include those too.” So even the ILLIT girls themselves indirectly said that they wish their own songs were longer and had bridges. 😭 I kind of feel bad for those who chose to become idols because of their love for music and desire to be a performing artist and then they end up with a company that gives them incomplete TikTok songs like this. But anyway, the episode is very enjoyable, and it’s fascinating to hear Hitchhiker’s perspective on industry trends as a producer. I recommend watching the whole thing when/if y’all have time. Here’s the interview. They start talking about short songs around the 11:45 minute mark: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fBuG805T3co&pp=ygUgTXVzaWMgaW4gbXkgYnVzaW5lc3MgeXVuYWggbWluanU%3D&ra=m
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I wouldn’t get why there’s some artistary freedom for Kpop groups, I get that it’s a group and not every wish of every member should be accepted, but at least let their opinion be heard and have them take some part in the creative process.
IMO BTS and in return Big Hit found success because the guys took part in producing, writing and having visions for their music.
I know pop is a business, I’m not naive, but I want the art of it to also be respected
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It’s good to know that even the girls themselves are tired of bridges being eradicated. Out of all the musical trends that’ve terrorized us, this one has hurt the most. I’ll take empty choruses and “noisy music” over this
Also Hitchhiker is one of my favorite producers! I had no idea they even had a podcast. Thanks for sharing this 🙏🏾
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I completely agree; it’s the worst trend ever. 😭 How dare they deprive us of the best part of the song?! I think Belift is one of the worst offenders when it comes to this, bc we haven’t had a bridge in an Enhypen title track since Sweet Venom in 2023.
The podcast just came out last week and I was so excited when I discovered it! When you get a chance to watch the episode, I’m sure you’ll find what Hitchhiker has to say about bridges very interesting. I’m really looking forward to seeing what they’ll talk about in future episodes.
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This isnt an ILLIT only thing. TXT have mentioned time and time again that they miss longer songs. HYBE is becoming such a bich
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It’s Me and the many songs with similar issues, like Celebration, made me do some serious thinking. It’s true that the main purpose of having a barebones song structure is to make the songs shorter and more conducive to repeated streaming and my generation’s attention span, but I speculate that there is more to it than just that. I’m going to use You, You by TWS to explain what I’m talking about, but this applies to It’s Me, Celebration, and many other songs as well.
You, You is a great song, but I am unsatisfied when I listen to it bc it lacks key parts that are needed to make it feel complete. This feeling urges me to do one of two things. Either A, give up on the song entirely out of frustration, or B, compulsively replay it innumerable times in a mindless attempt to achieve the satisfaction and sense of finality that I desire. I think whoever does all the market research to figure out what makes certain songs so addictive knows that our brains (or at least mine) are wired to do that. Companies have cracked the code and figured out that making a song that disappointingly fails to realize its full potential is often more profitable than making it good. You can walk away from a complete song feeling satisfied and at peace, but the little dopamine hit your brain gets from an incomplete song is just enough to make you crave that chemical release so much that you’ll play the song to death in search of it again. So when people release painfully short or incomplete songs, they’re taking a gamble that you’ll do B instead of A.
There are sooooo many songs that make me experience this phenomenon, and they’re usually from HYBE groups. It’s Me is a textbook example. It has a couple of repetitive, obnoxious earworm hooks (Who’s your bias? I’m your bias) that make you unable to forget about the song and move on, along with some very short pretty parts (Yunah and Minju’s prechoruses) that make you want to hear them again. So I fall into the trap of listening to the song a lot more than I intended to, even though I don’t walk away from it with a good feeling.
The music industry is just like the fast food industry (or any industry.) Songs like It’s Me have the intense hyperpalatability of processed junk food without providing the nourishment and satiety of a real meal, so you have to keep coming back for more. Just as many people constantly talk about how they should be eating healthier or they’re going to start that diet tomorrow, there’s no way companies don’t see so many of us constantly complaining about short songs, but they know that ultimately some of us will hypocritically stream them anyway. The numbers and statistics don’t lie.
The only way I see this ever changing in the foreseeable future is if streaming platforms randomly decide to start paying artists by minutes listened instead of by streams.
Maybe all of this was already common knowledge and I’m just late to the party, but it’s kind of a revelation to me bc I had never looked past the surface level reasons for the prevalence of short songs.
What some artists don’t seem to realize is that an even better way to get me to stream a song — the very most effective way, in fact — is to make it full, satisfying, and complete, no matter the length! Even though it would be ideal for most songs to have over three minutes to fully develop, Eye-Poppin’, Boom Boom Bass, and After Like are just a few of the many songs that make the most of every second and manage to have all the necessary components of a great song in under three minutes. It can be done!
Lastly, this is kind of off topic but all this talk about three minute songs and such made me think of 3 Minutes by NCT Wish, which is a song I love but the lyrics and message lowkey offend me 💀😂 (jokingly) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GTFqQDZ6jec&ra=m
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Back when, 2nd gen 3rd gen, kpop was closer to fast fashion. Your concept that is it now fast food is apt. I might say junk food, the I don’t know why I am eating this anymore junk food. The full bag of Takis junk food, the blue ones. My teenage son asked me the other day “what are Takis made out of anyway”, and I said “Um, Corn?”. Then he opted for a bag of the ordinary BBQ potato chips instead.
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Exactly! The way you described it is spot on. It’s like when I get home from work or whatever else I’ve been running around doing that day and there are no leftovers in the fridge. I’m lazy, tired, and hangry so I procrastinate cooking and instead absentmindedly polish off the stale bag of dill pickle flaming hot Cheetos that my dad left in the pantry for a month. 😭 It’s bad for me, not even enjoyable, and I’m still hungry afterward so I’ll have to cook anyway eventually.
Some K-pop groups (and pop in general) have been feeding us the music version of that lately with all these junk food songs.
(Ah yes, Takis. My little brother and I, probably around your son’s age or not much older, are mostly undeterred by their intimidating ingredients list, which we jovially read and discuss together. 🥀 Back in middle school my band director used to tell us if the power went out we could strike a Taki against the wall like a match because they have such a high oil content and very flammable seasonings. 💀 I have no idea if that’s true or not. Most likely she was just trying to scare us because she was tired of seeing greasy red fingerprints all over our instruments. I don’t think it worked.)
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Beat’s good, the song is not, and yawn, I wish Gnarly never blew up
6.75 (6, 8, 6, 7) for me
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i apologize for treating debut so harshly now that katseye is releasing literal shit
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Debut is def my fave single of theirs as generic and as short as it was, but yeah, I wish the girls are given more songs like Tonight I Might or M.I.A over slop like eating zucchini or shaking ass in the parking lot 😭
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fr like stop giving them skibidi toilet music even the girls are sick of it
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Frankly, I haven’t liked anything they’ve released. As a matter of fact, I actually prefer everything Cortis released more.
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i dont rlly like anything they released, either, but at least during their SIS era they weren releasing garbage
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Also, shit sounds like something a Super Junior unit (ahem, LSS) would release (derogatory)
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The beat is good, I just wish they went further lyrically than “I’m your bias, it’s me, me, me!”
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please oh my god can we get 3+ minutes and a fleshed out song structure???
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I really like it. The hard trance sound is very welcome. The whole thing reminds me a bit of what BP tried to do recently, but with an attractive attitude. I find kpop slang/meta stuff cringe usually, but to me this chorus just sounds fun and silly, especially with the repetition and effects making it all sound kinda incoherent. Lots of Korean here. It meshes with their old concept very well. It’s short and sweet. I doubted myself with KNIFE in being too short and repetitive but, I’m going all in here: 8.5
The whole EP is excellent too. Oh and the choreo is so fun. I love the big athletic movements they make. Jellyous stood out for this too.
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This song is so annoying. Why couldn’t Mamihlapinatapai have been the title track, especially since the mini album is named after it?
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Do ALL the HYBE girl groups have to release rave music around the same time? I know groups doing similar genres/styles under the same company isnt unusual but when they’re all mid-tier songs (Pinky Up, CELEBRATION, It’s Me) it gets kind of tiring
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Everything wrong with Celebration applies here, rest of the album is good though.
Same rating as Nick
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I absolutely hate this song, the Gangnam Style choreo, the Bias phrase repeated 50 times, the poor and clunky Robert Miles sample. At least Celebration is first degree eurotrance. This is just a mess. Luckily the EP is good and Mamihlapinatapai is actually a great track but what a bad title track.
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Not even Illit could save this, but in the hands of a lesser group this would prob be in the 6 range.
Don’t like the centerpiece but I’m alright with the other parts. I’d say 7,8,7,7 = 7.25
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Bad.
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god i hate it when kpop songs have these fast paced, cunty dance beats and then just waste them on lame hooks and choruses, when will the memeification of kpop end? 😩
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I like it but you can tell that this song and some of the sings on this EP are meant for TikTok/Douyin to latch on and the song viral . It will probably blow up in the future.
So mad that Mamihlapinatapai is not the title track. It would have been the most unique we would have heard from KPOP this year because it’s actually so good . It has that The 1975 influence in it , which I like because I like The 1975 music . I cannot believe they missed this opportunity to do something different rather than following the crowd . I hope they promote it.
With the way things are going , I wonder how end-of-year shows/award season is going to be with performances feeling and sounding the same but in a different font .
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*songs
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Honestly. I salute them. They actually make this work. The concept, the song, the performance, the mv, the acting it actually all genuinely meshes well together. If i heard this song alone, I would have probably laughed, but its somewhat an earworm?!
I do think its very good but not sure how it will hold up in the long run. I also like that this is one of the recent songs from the bunch (pinky up, celebration, etc) that doesnt actually take itself seriously.
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idk why ppl r hating but i love this so much, it’s fun and quirky and new to me
also i really recommend paw, paw! on the album, it’s weirdly good and catchy, will you do a review on it?
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HYBE are kinda pathetic
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That hook and vocal delivery is grating jesus. At least the beat’s fine? I guess?
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