Are You Ready To Party?
Lose yourself in the music! Let go of your worries! Allow five handsome party animals to bring out your wild side and let the fun begin!
With the numerous successful K-pop comebacks in the current year of 2014, there is one that has become my new earworm for the next few days. The Boss’s "Rilla Go!" is a colorful party song about, well, partying, as well as letting go of your concerns and losing your mind in the music. This should be the theme for all party music, right? Well, having listened to American pop music for the majority of my life, the party and club songs nowadays have a theme of doing drugs and hitting on random strangers with the hope that you can experience a 2.14 second feeling of climatic pleasure by the end of the night. My point is that love isn’t really there. (I’m not suggesting that all American party songs are about doing drugs and getting lucky, but I think you can agree that there are many songs with that kind of theme.) But that’s about American pop music. The topic for today is the song “Rilla Go!” performed by Korean boyband The Boss (a.k.a. DGNA).
The Boss? A Boyband?
The Boss. (this acronym meaning “The Boys of Super Space”) was, and still kind of is, a not well known K-pop band. Most K-pop fans are fans of TVXQ!, Super Junior, SHINee, BigBang, etc.; the bands that are mostly worshiped on Tumblr and other social media. You can remind me later of the ones I missed. Actually please don’t, there are too many. Anyway, The Boss came out with their first album The Admirer in 2010, which apparently made lousy sales. Another album came out the next year called Lady and it landed number 3 on the Korean music charts with more than 10,302 in sales. After that sudden rush of fame, the group debuted in Japan in 2011 with their first Japanese album Love Power, reaching number 9 on the Japanese charts and a sale of more than 12,136. When K-pop boy bands start promoting in Japan, it either means their popularity is very high or very low. Unfortunately, in The Boss’s case, it was very low. They just weren’t getting as much attention as other groups. This can be very frustrating for the small group of fans who try so hard to promote their favorite bands but end up getting ignored or overlooked. After the release of 6 more relatively successful Japanese albums, in 2013, the group came back in Korea with Chapter II. The chart placement and sales this album made are still being calculated. Finally, on October 6th of this month, The Boss has made their latest Korean comeback album and lead song: Rilla Go!
A Party Song About … Partying?
The song "Rilla Go!" is a typical party song. It’s upbeat, catchy, and fun to listen, dance, and sing along to. The music video is also fun to watch. The concept of the music video seems to be similar to an African Tribe, which fits well with the lyrics of the song. The lyrics create the ideal mood of the party atmosphere:
No more 괴로울 때 하늘 위로 Let it go~ / No more, when you’re in pain, let it go to the sky
내 음악에 빠져봐 날 따라 Jump it out!! / Fall into my music, follow me and jump it out
When I read the English translation of the Korean lyrics, I noticed how clean they were. There was no mentioning of doing harmful things to their body and nobody bragged about how much money they had or how popular they are (which was a good move because they aren’t as popular as other K-pop bands. They would have come off as cocky and righteous. ((“What? Why don’t you know who we are!? We’re, like, totally popular in Japan! Didn’t you see our videos? What do you mean you were watching anime instead!?”)). There is also no mentioning of women’s butts or wanting . Again, having grown up in an American society, our pop music is…tainted, to be nice. Most of the innocence and romance seems to have disappeared. All there seems to be left nowadays are self-riotous promoters who always thank God after winning a Grammy award even though their songs are filled with drug and themes. One thing that always draws me closer to K-pop music is the lyrical creativity, and while The Boss’s "Rilla Go!" doesn’t have particularly life-changing lyrics, they convince me they are having the time of their lives without the need to mention that they are Jesus and have a lot of money and women lusting after them.
"Rilla Go!" has given me a spark of energy and I’m glad The Boss came back this year. As I stated before, they aren’t as well-known as other big name bands, but they have a lot of potential and talent. Perhaps this song will create an even bigger spark in social media and give this group more attention. In the meantime, let's enjoy the catchy "Rilla Go!" rhythm and visuals.
If you have any comments or questions, feel free to state them, but please do not sent me death threats about anything I might have offended you with in this article. Bring out your inner party animal, forget the woes in your life, and have some fun!
Comments