"Git It Up" (투자) by H.O.T, Monday, August 30, 2021

Many credit the formation of Seo Taiji and the Boys in 1992 as the birth of K-pop. Singer Seo Taiji had been a member of a heavy metal group in '80s but decided to experiment with electronic music and choreography. Seo, in essence, started the ripple, whereas, today's boy band was part part of a forming Korean wave, or Hallyu (한류) that seems turning into more and more of a tsunami every year. The boy bands and girl groups of early '00s were known by Korean enthusiasts. Korean cinema was known by film buffs. But in 2012 when Psy's "Gangnam Style" hit the Internet, the wave officially hit everywhere. In the late '10s, BTS and other K-pop groups started placing well on Billboard's Hot 100, performing on American television shows, and featuring on American pop albums. Then in 2020, Korean director Bong Joon-ho cleaned up the Oscars with his film Parasite (기생충). Korean dramas, too, are part of the wave. While they haven't broken through in their original language to the same extent that Parasite or BTS has, they are extremely popular in Asia and growing more popular in other places thanks to platforms such as Netflix.

EVERYONE CAN'T IGNORE IT NOW THAT THEY USED TO THEIR SPOILED GREED. Going back before the wave crested, the drama Reply 1997 (응답하라 1997) takes viewers to the late '90s to the time of Japanese digital pets, Dance Dance Revolution, dial-up internet, and a time when K-pop was ruled by two rival boy bands: H.O.T and Sechs Kies. Besides being an excellent character-driven drama, Reply 1997 gives viewers a feel of what K-pop fandom was at its inception. We meet directionless Shi-won (played by Apink's Jeong Eun-ji), whose only teenage ambition is to become the wife of H.O.T member Tony Ahn (cameoed in the drama by the real Tony Ahn). As the drama goes on, she has a falling out with her friend Yoo-jung, when Shi-won realizes that Yoo-jung is actually a Sechs Kies fan. There are so many nods to early K-pop, including Ji-won's eventual boyfriend, played by none other than Sech Kies's Eun Ji-won--the oldest member of the cast trying to pass as a teenager--Glee? Smallville?  The drama follows the high school years of Shi-won and her friends. While the others are studying for the 수능 or CSAT, the college entrance exam that determines if or where you can attend university, Shi-won is sneaking off on a bus to Daegu for an H.O.T concert. 

IN THAT INCURABLE SADNESS, THEY ARE ONCE AGAIN INSIDE US. Korean boy band music has been the soundtrack of teenagers since the '90s, but Korean boy bands didn't always sound like BTS, nor did they sound like the American/Swedish-produced equivalents. While some of the songs of High-Five of Teenagers (or H.O.T for short) are called bubblegum pop, the band was always more rap-heavy. Some complained that their lead single from 1998's Resurrection  "Line Up!" plagiarized Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name Of." Whether or not that was the case, H.O.T showed a much more aggressive sound than the Backstreet Boys or other '90s American boy bands. In June of 1999, the band shared the stage with Michael Jackson, who was doing a benefit concert in Seoul. In September, they released their fourth album. The second single from 1999's I Yah! "Git It Up!" sounds like hardcore rap and comes just short of screaming like the harder rock/hip-hop acts of the day. The boy band, too, took on a gothic aesthetic in their imagery and costumes. The lead single and title track of the album were a reference to a fire that killed elementary school students earlier that year. The music video for "Git It Up" includes scary imagery of a grim reaper standing over a baby in the nursery. It's not quite Marylin Manson, but there is a sense of the ironic and grotesque the band is trying to convey with their message. The band broke up in 2001, when they couldn't agree on a the terms of renewing their contract with SM Entertainment. While many say that '90s pop or K-pop doesn't hold up, Reply 1997 helped to give a resurgence to the old boy bands. And for non-Koreans, the drama introduced a world we never knew existed. 

H.O.T concert scene from Reply 1997:

"Git It Up" music video: