The K-pop Song of Summer of September
If you exist even slightly in the realm of pop culture conversations online, one of the biggest topics for much of August and September was the idea that there was no singular Song of Summer, or even many great contenders, though there were some.
Depending on who you asked, "Golden" from K-POP Demon Hunters or Lewky's "I Have One Daughter" were the songs of summer, but both are atypical: "Golden" is a musical song performed by three singers who came together to perform as the fictional girl group HUNTR/X, and "I Have One Daughter" is a 1-minute long meme song.
But, finally, we do indeed actually have a song of summer in the form of Dayoung's "Body". The problem, of course, is that it dropped on September 9.
While there's no actual problem with this, the whole cycle around a single song taking off and being overrun by everyone in the K-pop industry shifted, so now everyone and their mother are doing dance challenges to "Body". Internally, I'm sure everyone at Starship is wondering how to capitalize on this the same way the company once made Sistar a household name for similar hits of summer. And, hopefully, doing some questioning about why this wasn't actually released in the summer.
Because while "Body" may have come out of nowhere for some people, it actually came out of the Starship dungeon, freeing Dayoung for the first time to perform in a few years. The last time we saw her singing, she was performing WJSN's 2022 single "Last Sequence", a song that some grimly interpreted as a finale to the act's glorious discography.
Since everyone pretty much assumes quiet on all fronts from WJSN, I don't think anyone, including me, thought that Dayoung of all people would arrive with a song that began building momentum in a way that's rare nowadays. In an era when fans cling to their faves, and a year when the general public generally seems sick of K-pop aside from a few one-offs, Dayoung released an optimal, classic, evergreen dance track. It's one with some pep, as well as some lower energy moments, which pretty much perfectly defines the dual vibrancy and lethargy that summer often evokes.
As far as the release goes, it doesn't feel like "Body" was expected to be hit, at least not based on the promo budget and style of the rollout: Starship usually sends out several emails promoting releases, especially when they begin taking off. But after searching my inbox, I only saw two emails labeled with the terms "Dayoung" or "Body" in either Korean or English, both arriving before the release. This level of promo seems incredibly lackluster in comparison to rollouts for typicall all-English songs, which companies often promote intensely in the hopes of breaking out. That foresight, it feels, was lacking here.
Similarly, the music video for "Body" is engaging to watch, but a lot of it is filmed around excellent cinematography, such as a single-shot dance sequence. And there are no major sets built around an artistic concept, but instead it's filmed on location. It's almost simplistic, or at least until a bit of an ethereal, sultry dance break. But because of how clean and simple it is, the music video draws you in to the musicality and performance.
So why did it come out in September? I think the answer lies in two facts: First, nobody expected it to get so big, and Starship didn't put the song forward to go viral. Second, nobody is actually creating classic pop songs in 2025. They're creating songs either to go viral OR to appeal to their own fanbase, rather than music that just hits grasps the long term attention (versus the TikTok attention) of everyone who hears it. There's nothing wrong with that, but in 2025 I really wonder about music that actually invests in being listenable rather than repeatable.
In a way, I think the unsuspecting nature of it is why "Body" works so well: this song feels like a classic hit of summer, with a very danceable tune, some sleek choreography, a hot girl who is giving it her all (very publicly), and an addicting pep to it that makes you hum it even when it's not playing. It comes down to being an addicting, timeless song of summer with an easy-to-emulate choreography that feels refreshing in the current environment where it seems like very people actually knows how to make good pop music in 2025.
The fact that "Body", and Dayoung's entire three-song gonna love me, right? album rolled out in September feels telling in an odd, and maybe uncomfortable way: this song is as basic as they come, performed by a confident woman who knows she's sexy, who just wants to sing about wanting your body on her body.
This is the literal epitome of sex selling a song of summer, and if anything I can't help but wonder if the reason we don't have any true pop star songs of summer this year, from K-pop or the western market at large, is because we can't decide what sort of authentic steamy songs of summer we want to exist nowadays. Performing authenticity has become key to a lot of entertainment, but it's almost tongue-in-cheek, or opens artists, particularly women, up to criticism. Just ask Sabrina Carpenter.
If you're unfamiliar with Dayoung, since this is really her first major hit, here's a quick introduction: she's a member of the Starship Entertainment group WJSN and the subunit Chocome. If you don't know "Supper Yuppers!" and her glory in it, please stop reading to watch the iconic music video.
As one of the Cosmic Girls (another name for WJSN), she garneredsome popularity and was known as a personality. As the group became less active, she gained a reputation for being a hard worker for a particular reason: she became a brand representative for a construction company and got a license to drive excavators, giving her the nickname "The Construction Idol".
Now, many fans have credited Dayoung's hard work and charismatic stage presence to the success of "Body": she presumably spearheaded everything here, and has filmed dozens of dance challenge videos with other artists across the K-pop industry, getting herself out there. She is a workhorse beating the "Body" drum, making everyone pay attention to its sonic glory even if it's out of season, and remind us all that sometimes we just want a good, sexy song of summer to enjoy.
Personal flag... I'll be in Seoul for a week in November! If you're part of the industry and would like to work together while I'm there, please reach out.
In the news
Rosé is on the cover of The Hollywood Reporter.
Bang Si-hyuk is banned from leaving South Korea amid stock fraud investigation.
Tampering is the talk of the town when it comes to K-pop contract disputes.
President Lee is pushing for Hallyu 4.0.
What I'm listening to
As I said earlier, I'm not really happy at the moment with the state of music. There are things I like, but not much I'm really loving in 2025. Am I just old, having turned 34 earlier this month, and the music being made isn't tickling my ancient ear? Or is there an identity crisis of pop culture identity in 2025? There are things I've really enjoyed (h/t to ToneGlow for pointing me to the direction of Amanda Mur's Neu Om album that I've been absorbed with much of the past few weeks) but only a few from K-pop. Please comment and share any recent faves you've had. I'd really like to know what's resonating with people!
One song that did hit for me recently is more of part of a song, actually: The opening minute of Chen's "Arcadia" is captivating, in my opinion. I have a love-hate relationship with EXO's solo albums, sometimes going almost too classic sounding in a way that doesn't always hit for me. But the warmth of Chen's rich voice feels like a hug ushering in autumn, and when he turns from the opening into the chorus around 40 seconds in, it's pretty close to perfection. I think the song struggles a bit from trying to be neither a ballad nor an intense dance track, but somewhere in between. Chen pulls it off, but I kind of wish he'd go full power ballad someday soon.
What I'm reading
This is not typical of Notes on K-pop, but yesterday was Yom Kippur, the holiest Jewish day of the year, one where we seek atonement and pray to be inscribed in the Book of Life for another year. It is an emotional day, and one of the few days where during services we do physical things such as striking our chest with acknowledgement of all the sins we do, or may have done, in the previous year, and will revisit in the following year. We kneel on the floor in prostration, something we do not do any other day of the year, acknowledging the solemnity and intensity of the day by literally laying ourselves down in front of the Master of the Universe, in acknowledgement of the extraordinary, unnecessary thing that is human existence. It's a day of meditation, atonement, yearning for forgiveness, and both communal and personal retrospection. I spent much of the day thinking about Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg's piece, "Gaza's Annihilation Can Never Be Forgiven", and decided I wanted to share it with you all. Then I came back from being offline and saw the horrific news from Manchester, and got sad and mad again, and am thinking more about this piece. I hope we can all have peace and safety soon, but hope is hard right now.
