Who doesn’t love a pop music collaboration? By combining several popular artists together, fans can see their favorite figures interacting in unique ways. However, there are times when a crossover’s execution falls short of expectations. This mentality is one demonstrated in SM Entertainment’s new supergroup Girls on Top, which combines the talents of popular female artists from the company’s storied history. After the company found success with a similar male-oriented idea in SuperM in 2019, it makes sense that they would try to capitalize on its success with a female group. However, this crossover is not as good as it could have been due to a variety of factors.
Girls on Top currently includes soloist BoA; Girls’ Generation’s Taeyeon and Hyoyeon; Red Velvet’s Seulgi and Wendy; and aespa’s Karina and Winter. This line-up is one of the few well-executed parts of the project, as it combines legendary SM artists from all four generations of K-pop. Even SuperM was only able to include artists from the second to four generations. In addition, the choice of members and groups might help the group appeal to different demographics. For instance, aespa has made it to No. 20 on the “Billboard 200” albums chart, a statistic significantly higher than any of the other artists. Therefore, Karina and Winter could help the group appeal to American fans. On the other hand, BoA and Girls’ Generation have found success on Japan’s Oricon chart and Korea’s Gaon chart, respectively, so their presence would appeal to that demographic.
According to Rolling Stone writer Tim Chan, the group’s members will rotate into different subunits based on their genre. The project’s first sub-unit, GOT The Beat, debuted with the single “Step Back” during SM’s virtual concert, “2021 Winter SM TOWN: SMCU Express,” on Jan. 1. Chan described the song as a “bass-heavy track [with] elements of dubstep, hip-hop and electro house with the seven members alternating between singing, rapping and a cheerleader chant-style chorus.” Despite the good line-up choices, this song seems like a bit of wasted potential. The main problem with the song is its lyrics, as they center around the girls getting revenge for someone taking their boyfriend.
Relevant lyrics that highlight this plotline include “You’re like a poison to the good boys” and “It won’t be enough even if you’re born again.” Considering that most of the artists in Girls on Top are in their late 20s and 30s, they should not be fighting over such a petty issue that’s reminiscent of teenagers. This type of song might have worked better if the group actually consisted of young, newly-debuted rookie idols who want to get revenge on a boyfriend thief. Also considering the group’s age disparity, the company should have chosen a song with more universal themes compared to the teenager-specific song that they went with. For instance, BoA was already performing with SM in the year Winter was born.
In addition, the “Step Back” performance video does not fit the artists well. It is done in a dark, sexy style that seems to be popular these days. As most of these groups’ members are from an earlier era of K-pop, which had a cute aesthetic, it seems slightly odd to see them singing about subjects like revenge while taking on such an edgier style. This is particularly notable for the Girls’ Generation and Red Velvet members, as both of those groups are known for cute songs such as “Gee” and “Power Up.” Due to this, it looks slightly awkward for them to perform a song with aesthetics that are the exact antithesis of the style that brought them fame in the first place.
Since most of these artists already have careers extending back several years, each member has a built-in fan base that they can attract to the new group. As such, they do not need to pander to fans of current K-pop in order to be successful. In fact, they should have tried a unique style with this group then wait for the rest of the industry to catch up with them, considering how many aspects of the K-pop industry were invented or popularized by SM, such as the idol manufacturing process entering the Japanese market and photo cards.
Even though this subunit did not turn out as well as it could have, hopefully SM continues this concept in the future as the idea of a crossover is appealing, and the line-up has a great amount of potential.
Bailey Kanthatham is an Entertainment Contributing Writer. He can be reached at bkanthat@uci.edu.
