Ariana what are you doing here?

Ariana Grande’s new album is brilliant - please allow me to find some Kpop influence and take away lessons for the Kpop industry

Fun fact about me: I love Kpop but I am also a massive Ariana Grande fan. Crazy right? I’m sure no one else in the whole world shares these two interests! (sarcasm, sarcasm) But what that means for this newsletter is that Kpop had a pretty boring week last week and Ariana Grande dropped her first album in four years, so we’re gonna be talking about that and justifying that conversation by hypothesizing that our girl Ariana might also be a Kpop stan.

But first a little introduction to this new Ariana album, eternal sunshine. Ariana has writing credits on every song and worked with Swedish pop producer icons Max Martin and Ilya Salmanzadeh to produce (among others). This collaboration has resulted in a cohesive and consistent sound throughout this album (I’ve heard it described as soft fuzz and I love that). It’s a concept album that tells a version of her life over the past 18 months or so - divorce (she refers to her marriage as a situationship which, lol), then falling in love again, then having the public react extremely badly to her new relationship. It’s honest and raw and her perfect vocals and the soft fuzzy pop vibe - it’s pretty perfect.

So let’s dive into the Kpop of it all. First of all, the name of her album (and one of my favorite songs) is eternal sunshine. There are many explanations for the title - the obvious one is the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the less obvious one is that it is the initials of her current partner Ethan Slater. But mayyyyybe it’s actually none of the above - maybe she is an Atiny and was inspired by the Ateez song Eternal Sunshine?

Next up my favorite song of the album, we can’t be friends (wait for your love). This song is so brilliant. At first listen you might think it’s a love song but it’s actually Ariana grappling with the public criticism she faced. In that way, it reminds me of mirrorball by Taylor Swift. Once you have experienced the power of public adoration there must be such a terror of never feeling it again and it must feel so horrible to have it change at the drop of a hat. This is also a feeling that must resonate for Kpop idols, just look at poor Karina last week having to apologize for an age appropriate relationship. Lots of people are saying the music video is reenacting the eternal sunshine movie, but I think Kpop fans will recognize the beats taken from IU’s stunning music video for eight.

My last ridiculous excuse to find a way to talk about this album in my Kpop newsletter is to highlight the similar sentiment behind Ariana’s gorgeous i wish i hated you and a standout B-side from Jungkook’s album, Hate You. We already know Ariana and JK have met! Maybe she listened to his album and got inspired! But seriously, you can’t listen to both of these songs and think they are at all on the same level. The vulnerability and honesty in Ariana’s song, communicated via lyrics she herself wrote, transports you into her mind and her experience. You are there with her. And it’s not like her marriage was intensely public! We hardly knew anything about their relationship except a few photos she shared and now what she has shared in this album. And yet there is value added to the experience of listening to this album by knowing at least a little bit about the real things in her life that inspired her to make this art.

Jungkook delivers Hate You beautifully, but he was not involved in the writing of this song, and we know so little about his personal life that we can’t be sure if he has ever genuinely experienced the feelings he is singing about. It dilutes the experience. And this is something Kpop needs to grapple with.

As long as there is this massive taboo against publicly dating someone, or even dancing on stage with a member of the opposite sex, then the artistry that makes truly extraordinary pop music like this album from Ariana, or Adele’s divorce album, or Kelsea Ballerini’s divorce album - no one in Kpop is delivering this type of music, and that’s (part of) the reason why they’re not competitive at an international awards show like the Grammys. Like, why should Karina be apologizing for dating Lee Jaewook??? Why are people sending protest trucks to SM about this? Girl, get out there, live your life and if you get your heart broken by that gorgeous gorgeous man, then make us an incredible aespa album!!