The idea of a super group in K-pop is very exciting. Anyone remember SuperM? As far as I know, this trio of HYBE acts don’t plan to promote together past this one-off single, but the combination of LE SSERAFIM, ILLIT and Katseye has the potential to maximize a joint slay to the nth degree. However, none of these acts have released their best music recently and the title Iconic By Mistake already makes me throw up in my mouth a little.
I’m at the point where I’m going to flip a table if I must hear yet another K-pop group brag about how awesome they are — let alone three groups doing so. This subject matter has been especially prevalent in the industry’s girl groups lately, often paired with “clap backs at the haters” that are just as insufferable. True badasses don’t need to incessantly tell us how badass they are, and this constant “tell rather than show” is more obnoxious than illuminating. It’s like walking through an endless discount rack of unwanted, cheap clothes with tired neon slogans printed all over them. Making matters worse, these songs rarely have musical substance to back up the bravado. Such is the case with Iconic By Mistake.
It’s telling that, when watching the music video for this song, much of the audio is covered in explosive sound effects. It’s not easy to distinguish these sound effects from the song itself, which creates a maelstrom effect where no individual moment (including the performances) stands out. The vast majority of Iconic By Mistake is comprised of the three groups talking about how great and beautiful and fierce they are and how we’re all “haters” for… some reason? Honestly, it’s not the least bit empowering. It’s just kind of pathetic. I know (assume?) the girls didn’t compose this, so this is no judgement on their own character, but the act HYBE has forced them to play flattens them to such a degree that they might as well be reduced to one of of those stupid slogan t-shirts on that discount rack.
There’s an argument to be made that a song like this is meant to be “camp,” but as a conneissour of camp I don’t see the kind of “wink, wink” joke that would make Iconic By Mistake funny. And even if we’re supposed to have our tongues firmly in our cheeks, the music itself is not remotely fun. Artists have been clapping back at fame since the onset of fame itself, and in that pantheon of rich people complaining about their woes, this is surface-level and completely unneeded.
| Hooks | 5 |
| Production | 5 |
| Longevity | 5 |
| Bias | 3 |
| RATING | 4.5 |
Grade: F
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
We could combine a few bombs, Trinity, Castle Bravo, Little Boy, Fat Man, and see if they seem more radioactive than this collaboration. I think the song needed to repeat a few more times how iconic they are. Perhaps three more verses reinforcing this would solve the problem. It went right past me
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And you mean to tell me that HYBE ruined NewJeans and wasted fromis’ potential for… this?
4.5 (4, 5, 5, 4) for me. Just a piss poor attempt at hyperpop paired with your average boring “I’m so great” slop. Worse when it’s just so plodding and doesn’t even has a single “passable” moment.
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No one is quicker than Nick 🤣🤣🤣
As soon as i heard to teaser, I immediately knew that this song is going to be shhh, and I was right.
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*the teaser
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YOU, Nick? Let’s talk about you. YOU ARE THE KAREN of commenting on ARTIST real HARDWORK.
You’re not a professional musician. Not even close. You couldn’t identify those girls’ trauma message on the line, if it hit you in the face, so you called it ‘metaphor’ like the coward you are.
You’re exactly what I mean by a hater: grading music while hiding every ounce of your own so-called ‘abilities.’ Where’s your guitar? Your voice? Your track record? Nowhere. Because you have NONE. ZERO.
I had zero respect for you from day one. You stayed in the shadows like a middle-aged gatekeeper who refuses to adapt. Gen Z left you behind, and you’re still bitter about it.
You don’t critique art. You project your own irrelevance and unprofessionalism. NICK, the KAREN.
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You couldn’t even distinguish a hater from a Kpop listener, if your logic was applied then everyone would have to like every band to exist. Of course we respect the bands crafts and what they have done for the industry but sometimes it’s not for everyone. If you were telling the truth then you would know he rated some of those groups songs pretty well.
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Hey ladies, it’s me
This song is so not gnarly
I want spaghetti
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straight up overproduced garbage. id rather listen to any single imagine dragons song than ever exprience this again. legit one of the worst songs of the year
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this was 100% a KATSEYE song and they just attached the two other groups 😭 this really could’ve been exciting but then you remember they’re under HYBE
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I guarantee Nicks grade for HYBE is going to be my grade at school. That’s not a compliment.
HYBE has fucked up big time this year, BTS had their worst album to date, all their GG’s releasing well, not so good music, their poor handling of the Heeseung departure, they keep dungeoning TXT, and of course the Cortis comeback wasn’t good outside Red Red.
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I enjoyed TXT’s album, TWS remains their most consistent group, the LE SSERAFIM album is quite good too, and I actually liked the ENHYPEN album except the title track (and the shoehorned interludes), but this is definitely their worst year music-wise (and I predict it’s about to get worse). it’s sad because they used to care about the quality, but the gradual release over the years of TikTok slop after another, then after the huge success with Gnarly, they just stuck with that.
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“they keep dungeoning TXT”
I am counting the days until TXT finally split ways from HYBE.
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Um
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Ok I find it somewhat tolerable for a diss track but I’m left with more questions than answers…
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Ehh, I kinda like that they are clapping back at haters, I’m really sick of all the girl group hate I see all the time so this is kinda nice to me. These girls don’t deserve the hate they get so this song is their f u to haters😌
8/10
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i used my own time and free will to watch and listen to this so I guess it’s on me. It’s not the worst song I’ve ever heard but setting themselves up to even remotely claim to be iconic, on purpose or mistake.
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I heard one? Maybe two? Melody lines throughout the entire song. Complete lack of creativity from the songwriters
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Give ’em hell, Nick! 👏🏻
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The music video’s graphics and colors hurt my eyes, the music hurts my ears, the company behind it hurts my soul, is there anything that’s not doing damage here?
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I lowkey think these songs released by hybe ggs are kinda like agenda setting, once you start talking about it, you already be seen as haters.
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And the HYBE simps defend that the song is good. Hell no.
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they’re wasting their gg’s talents for what
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Whoever had “taste” at Hybe left the building some time ago.
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N** J****
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It’s throughly mid at hest (I’ve been more of a fan of the hyperpop stuff hybe has shoveled than most so a bare bones Drama lite is not my cup of tea and feels like a throwback to the side of 4th gen I really don’t care for) but honestly i do think the lyrics save it a bit. It’s creative and specific enough to not be just another generic f the haters song. A lot of those songs don’t work because it comes across as filler bars but in this song a lot of the lines really do grasp the mind of the strange weirdos on social media who end up going so far that it ends up benefiting the target by accident. It’s not subtle at all but then again people were too stupid (or pretending to be too stupid so they could get Elon bucks or didn’t want to get because the lyrics fit them whichever one works) to get the basic metaphor behind Spaghetti so you get this. And you know if any set of girls can speak to how bad social media can get it is ILLIT, LE SSERAFIM and Katseye.
Also I came into this with very low expectations given that company collabs have always been crap as a baseline and the last one I remember was the truly incomprehensibly bad JYP collab so I guess anything better than that
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i just feel bad, wth is this
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I’m glad the groups were able to respond to some of the hate they’ve been getting (if they were involved in the lyrics in anyways, more power to them) but it’s hard to look past the Hybe capitalizing on that same hate, I could just hear the board meeting. MV wasn’t even fun to watch, feels uninspired. Instead of bring the groups’ style together, it just feels like they were flatten for this but I guess that was already happen to some extent.
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congrats to hybe for creating brainrot kpop
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.. it’s a fine song for the message it’s trying to accomplish and im totally sure the people they’re talking about is gonna take it well but is it a god awful song to listen to as well lmfao
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Ah yes, solving the problem of your girl group idols getting cyberbullied relentlessly by parasocial creeps by creating a song with 0 substance and shoddy production which will only fuel the fires stoked against them (wrongfully by the way because its producers and management continually screwing them over these days).
Add that HYBE recently chose to debut a 16 year old who was not ready to debut let alone with a concept being portrayed by, minus her, ALL ADULTS, yeah HYBE absolutely cares about the women they work with.
3.5 (3,5,5,1). Just legally crush your enemies like any other big company.
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I get the prevailing sentiment about this track. They have 10+ from a powerful musical entity doing essentially a katseye track. It’s not hard to see why people don’t like it
I think the target audience (below 18) will enjoy it. It’s catchy and easy to sing a long with
Lyrically I don’t see the issue with this being the nth song about haters, that can be said about most song topics and like most songs with similar themes it has its own way of framing it
the only thing I truly love about this song is hearing the different groups hear the chorus, would’ve love to see how a more ambitious song showed off their individual, group, and supergroup charms. Even GOT the beat did a better job of this. I know it’s probably a one off but that makes it more agregious that they didn’t take a bigger swing. If I had to give it a number it’d be a 7
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YOU, Nick? Let’s talk about you. Yes YOU NICK, the KAREN.
You’re not a professional musician. Not even close. You couldn’t identify those girls’ trauma in the lyrics, if it hit you in the face, so you called it ‘metaphor’ like the coward you are.
You’re exactly what I mean by a hater: grading music while hiding every ounce of your own so-called ‘abilities.’ Where’s your guitar? Your voice? Your track record? Nowhere. Because you have NONE. ZERO.
I had zero respect for you from day one. You stayed in the shadows like a middle-aged gatekeeper who refuses to adapt. Gen Z left you behind, and you’re still bitter about it.
Upload a VIDEO that you could COMPOSE a real good one, SING belting out while dancing. YOU HAVE ZERO CAPABILITIES. No respect with the ARTISTS.
You don’t critique art. You project your own irrelevance.
GRADING YOUR KNOWLEDGE and your ARTICLE: ZERO
WORST ARTICLE EVER.
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Were you crying when you typed this? I feel like you were.
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“I had zero respect for you from day one.” Yet here we are.
This comment reads like the first draft of this god awful song lol
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wake up the new “Wow, really wow, what kind of review is this?!?!” copypasta just dropped
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Quite something to leave this type of comment while accusing Nick of being the bitter one. Thanks for the chuckle!
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it both pisses me off and entertains me at the same time whenever i see comments like this.
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it both pisses me off and entertains me at the same time whenever i see comments like this.
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love the mv, reminds me of a 2000’s horror movie. I don’t know how intentional that is, but I like it. Green/blue screen could’ve been better , thought we would’ve mastered that technology by now
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Nick, the girls may not have composed this, but I’m sure they had some say in releasing this song. My bias score for each of these groups just permanently dropped a point or two with this release.
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The biggest problem with Nick’s review is not whether he liked the song or not, it’s that he completely missed the message.
This song isn’t just noise, heavy beats, AI visuals, or shock value. It’s an expression of anger, exhaustion, pain, and the emotional toll of constant public scrutiny. The message speaks directly to today’s social media culture, where people attack artists daily while forgetting there are actual human beings on the receiving end.
What disappointed me is that the review focused on criticizing the surface while ignoring the deeper symbolism. The tooth extraction isn’t random imagery, it represents removing something that is part of you because the pain has become unbearable. The grills symbolize putting on a strong face, showing the world you’re fine even when you’re hurting underneath.
The aggressive production, distorted sounds, and intense visuals aren’t there by accident. They reflect frustration, trauma, and the emotional pressure that many young artists face every day. That’s the point. NICK YOU FAILED. You really do sound like a KAREN.
Whether it’s KATSEYE, LE SSERAFIM, ILLIT, or any young artist, the song captures what it feels like to be judged, mocked, and dissected online by people who never stop to consider the human being behind the stage persona.
You don’t have to love the song. You don’t even have to put it on your playlist. But a fair review should engage with the message the artists are trying to communicate. Reducing it to aesthetics while ignoring the emotional core feels like missing the entire purpose of the work.
For me, this isn’t a song about rebellion. It’s a song about pain. About anger. About ONLINE Trauma. About Cyberbullying. About surviving criticism. This song is an ART of EXPRESSION. And that’s why I’d rate it a 10/10.
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Shut the fuck up, you don’t know anything about Nick, so for you to accuse him of being something he’s not is really stupid of you. No one is forcing you to read this website so get the fuck off and never come back. Same goes for Lionbites.
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what is this chatgpt ass script
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They put out this video without Moka. She was on hiatus for just over a month. This has absolutely nothing to do with “art of expression.”
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imagine going on different accounts just to whine on nick’s blog lmfao
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I’m 11 and this is deep
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just listen to when they come for me by linkin park instead. its another song to clap back at haters but it doesn’t bother to “flex” and talk about stuff like iconic by mistake. It just simply a message to them telling them that the group has already moved on from the sounds of hybrid theory and meteora and they should too before it’s too late and the group moves on into another sound.
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Shrugs I liked it, and I’m not a fan of any of these groups. The Bollywood influence on the prechorus of “It’s Me” saved it from dislike, but I haven’t liked anything from LSF in years or Katseye except Gnarly, and that’s my reluctant appreciation for hyperpop and “so bad it’s good.”
This song is clearly not serious nor is it trying to be. I genuinely found it fun, self-aware, and hilarious with a lot of references I unfortunately understand and that mere fact is now making me wonder if my chronic online state has progressed to terminal.
Would I add it to my playlists? No. Did I laugh at and enjoy the video? Absolutely. Also will I watch the stages? At least one of them, yeah, probably.
Criticisms are fair, but I do think we shouldn’t pretend that we don’t know why these groups in particular are calling out haters.
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They’re calling out the haters for criticism which you say is fair?
It’s tacky. These are 3 of the biggest groups active right now. Absolutely unnecessary.
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You misread what I said. I said that I think it’s fair to have critiques for the song. Which I do.
I was, however, also referencing the “why target haters” idea about which some express bewilderment, for the same reason as you do: these groups are doing well. But we *do* know why, and it has nothing to do with popularity and everything to do with massive hate trains (popularity and hate trains are two sides of the same coin; they unfortunately can and do coexist, and the hate part can take a massive mental toll because I guarantee you people ruminate on the worst things said, not the best; it’s human nature). So no, I don’t see this as them punching down, which seems to be what you’re implying (forgive me if I’m wrong about that).
Like I said, I’m not even a fan of these groups. Katseye’s talent is being wasted, LSF are not good vocalists and I don’t see what their identity is, Illit’s music generally bores me. I just also think that a lot of the criticism they get isn’t criticism and is hate (not on a music review site, but a lot of the talk about them gets extremely personal and extremely cruel extremely fast). LSF and Illit especially got caught in the crosshairs of a corporate war and suffered hate for it, though they did nothing wrong. So if they want a cheeky “eff you haters” song, I think they’ve earned it.
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I didn’t misread. You just didn’t understand the point I was making.
You said criticism is fair, which is true. It’s always fair, and every group deals with it. But you just listed that Katseye’s talent is being wasted, LSF can’t sing, and Illit’s music is boring. Those are major musical flaws. For the agency to lump those completely valid critiques in with “hate” and drop a massive, defensive anthem to this degree is pretty ridiculous.
Especially when these are three of the biggest groups in the industry right now. Pushing out a song to monetize internet drama while a member of ILLIT was literally away on a health hiatus is just tacky and unnecessary.
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Criticism about music is fair, but the majority of HYBE girl groups’ hate did not come from their music. It came from corporate war (newjeans fallout drama) and fandom wars.
Most haters on SNS did not even criticize their music or vocals, they either involve body shaming or Zionist jokes. If they want to diss their haters, it is the hightime to do it
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I don’t think this song need to be reviewed or graded with the usual criteria from music production or replay value. This is neither a song for art nor chart that HYBE typically releases in pursue of profits.
It is just a collaboration project in the form of a diss track where all HYBE active girl groups taking turn to shade their haters one by one.
Yes the song production lacks creativity and I am definitely not a fan of the vocal effects much. But I kinda like the lyrics full of shade towards their haters, feels a bit cathartic. The music video is also full of easter eggs that fans will recognize upon watching.
Music taste aside, if anyone feel offended by the lyrics or the song message, maybe you are one of those haters that they called out in the song.
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Hybe has found it’s winning formula: make awesome performers carry awful songs to generate buzz.
(just look at the comment section)
This will go viral because the sheer star power, but god damn I don’t remember anything about the song, just who was on it.
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Musical diarrhea
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