제 5 호 Song Challenge Becomes an Issue
Kicker: ENTERTAINMENT (MUSIC)
Song Challenge Becomes an Issue
-Trends of Popular Music Culture
By Eugene Ha, Reporter
Recently, singer Zico’s new single album “Any Song” has been gaining popularity on various SNS channels. Like the lyrics of the song, Zico caught the public eye and attracted the public’s attention by promoting it in his own style. What makes the song even more special is because of the "Any Song Dance Challenge," the song challenge marketing. The challenge began with a wide spread of videos taken with MAMAMOO Hwasa and Chungha with witty lyrics and easy dance moves that anyone can follow. It showed the connected public of the new SNS era.
Zico's “Any Song” released on Jan. 13, 2020, topped the music charts upon its release. The song is exciting and the rhythm is fun, but Zico's expression in the music video is boring from start to finish. The feeling of “not funny” creates an ironic mood. When he was asked on several music programs, “Did you expect your song to be this big issue?”, he said, “I didn't expect it at all. I have never had such a long run with a single song, and I have never had such a syndrome that the entire nation knows. So I think it's strange to feel it.” This became Zico's biggest hit song that everyone from children to adults know. The number of “Any Song Challenge” hashtags on the short video platform TikTok, which is used by 300 million people around the world, hit 1.23 million. While the official music video view was 9.35 million views, TikTok's “Any Song Dance Challenge” recently surpassed 800 million views.
▲Zico’s “Any Song Dance Challenge” in TikTok
Let’s find out what makes this song so popular and special.
One of the reasons why “Any Song” is popular is, first, the change of trend in popular culture. The center of the times shifted from the public to the individual, as the era of the public in the 20th century changed to the era of the individual in the 21st century. Now you cannot ask anyone to follow your taste, nor do you have to follow. You can infer from the lyrics that he is talking about this trend too.
The second reason is that the public is connected through SNS. For example, the Any Song Dance Challenge involves uploading a short 15-second video of “Any Song” dance on social media. This also coincides with the new cultural phenomenon “meme.” Meme culture refers to behavior patterns such as videos and images that are popular on the Internet. Consumers are now turning into active players who create while consuming. The number of video views related to “Any Song Challenge” on the short video platform TikTok has recently surpassed 800 million views. This was influenced by the spread of meme culture, in which individuals create their own contents. This phenomenon has spread as video-friendly generations have created and shared the images they want. Now the public shares with friends, consumes new cultures, and creates creative works at the same time.
▲New cultural phenomenon, meme culture
As such, the SNS era has created a new public connected to the Internet. In comparison with the past, unlike the traditional public, there is no physical presence on the Internet, but the Internet binds people together, which results in more than the sum of individual activities. The newly born public has met with change through the Internet and new media. The biggest characteristic of the public in this era is that it has diversified according to its taste or political ideology. Here they appear as protesting, enthusiastic and entertaining masses.
We can summarize the public as: 1) smaller than the public in the past 2) shorter in duration and 3) belongs to a larger group than before. However, it is characterized as: 1) more distinct in taste or ideological expression 2) less swayed by crowd psychology and 3) more closely and homogenous in sharing similar lifestyles.
Zico's "Any Song" contains the current trend of popular music. Rather than expressing in writing, it is an era where people make videos and post them on Instagram and social media to show what they are doing, thinking, singing, dancing, and showing other talents. With the video containing Zico’s own expression reaching well over 100 million views, the younger generation also created and shared their versions of it. In this connected place of communication, the internet has changed rapidly in the form of images, videos, hashtags, and buzzwords, bringing about the culture of play and memes. This is a good example of the culture of consumers who are not only just consuming, but also directly participating and creating. I am looking forward to how much more active our play culture will be in the future.
Sources:
The Birth of New Public, Gunter Gebauer, Sven Rücker, translated by Jung-yong Yeom, 2020
https://www.ytn.co.kr/_ln/0106_202003070055534123
https://www.newsen.com/news_view.php?uid=202003140758256210
http://www.sportsseoul.com/news/read/891893
