(G)I-DLE Pushes the Boundaries with “Oh my god”
After a successful run on survival show Queendom, (G)I-DLE has made a long-awaited return with new mini-album I Trust. Though a music video was released for Queendom final track “LION,” the group’s last official album release came in June of 2019 with single “Uh-oh,” the last longer album nearly a year ago in February 2019. Anticipation was high, especially given the success of “LION” promotions.
The Title: “Oh my god”
(G)I-DLE is a group that has tackled a lot of different sounds in their time, but “Oh my god” is still something completely unexpected, despite knowing their affinity for experimenting with different genres. Minnie kicks off the track accompanied by an eerie chiming clock, which is particularly fitting for the videography, but we’ll get into that a bit later. The song in general has a normal pop groove during Soyeon’s verse, but the tempo picks up as Yuqi and Miyeon come in and build up to the chorus. The drop is what really sets apart this track, as the melody takes a completely different turn, with a less formulaic tempo. It’s perfectly placed, and the track is insanely addicting for that. One particularly distinct lyric in the chorus: “Oh my god, she took me to the sky, oh my god, she showed me all the stars,” strongly implies a queer relationship, something incredibly taboo in Korean media. While acceptance of the queer community grows, it is still abnormal to be outspoken about it, and it appears that (G)I-DLE is smashing expectations by choosing to use “she” instead of “he” in the chorus. It’s not just implied in the chorus, either.
What really pushes the magnificence of the title is the cinematography. Minnie begins the video being dragged through an all white room, and shots show blood being poured in a wine glass in front of her. You know the darkness will be in overdrive just from these opening shots. It appears that the girls are split down the middle as good and evil: Shuhua appears to be an archangel, while Yuqi and Miyeon play the part of pure angels themselves. On the contrary, Soojin appears to be the devil, the queen of temptation that has bewitched Soyeon. Minnie plays the part of the main character, representing a fallen angel. Even though her scenes are pure white, she is slowly taken over by darkness, represented in her hands getting covered by charcoal. It’s a very powerful story of corruption that’s accentuated by highlighting the major differences between black and white, with softer light used on the angels and more intense, hard light used on the demons. It’s an incredibly strong metaphor that pushes the boundary in a way the group never has before. As a top trending video on YouTube and 32 million views racked up in two days, it’s definitely leaving a lasting impression on many people.
The Album
I Trust is a short mini-album, with just four songs in total including the title. “Luv U” is the first B-side, and it definitely catches your attention for its eccentricity almost immediately. The song begins with simply the sounds of tongue clicking before the beat drops, where it gets particularly catchy and has a certain swagger to it. It feels as though Soyeon had a heavy hand in the creation of this song. It’s groovy and brings in a different flavor from the title, which kicks off the album.
“Maybe” goes in a different direction, a more subdued feeling that builds up to the chorus, an oddly electronic rhythm used as the focus that more or less seems somewhat out of place. This song would probably have been better without that particular breakdown, as the majority of the track is very enchanting and enjoyable until that beat comes in. It’s not necessarily bad and it doesn’t ruin the entire track, but it does throw the listener off.
Finally rounding out the album we have “LION,” which everyone should be familiar with at this point. As far as the composition for the mini-album, the theme seems to be particularly cohesive, with an overall feeling of powerful women sending strong messages through their music. I find this cohesion to be the main selling point of the album despite any criticisms I have at some of the musical elements.
Since the group's debut, it’s been clear that (G)I-DLE has the X factor needed to be majorly successful in the K-Pop industry. Exploring different concepts has been a boon to their success, and with this as the most intense and potentially controversial of their career, it’s only going to boost the girls further into the spotlight.