TXT: Pastel K-pop and the Art of Monetizing Anti-Capitalist Poetry

The group that has made Kpop known worldwide, BTS, will have to retire soon for nearly two years to complete South Korea’s compulsory military service. Given the risk such corporate crisis could entail for Big Hit Entertainment (a record company that holds BTS as a key revenue investment as well as a major attraction for shareholders) the boygroup Tomorrow By Together (TXT, 2019) was created as a follow-up.

This show-business elite unit has the legacy of its predecessors as a trampoline. However, a heavy expectation at a corporate, social and national scale falls on their shoulders.

For the third EP of the five young prodigies, Big Hit's team decided to cover 1990’s classic 'Fairy of Shampoo' and make it the third track on the album.

Source: Youtube

The popular song was itself a re-adaptation of the romanticist narrative of 'The Shampoo Fairy', a poem originally written in 1987 by Jang Jung-Il. The main plot revolves around a man who is mesmerized by the appearance of a young woman advertising soap on TV every day at the same time. The beauty of the actress, as well as the seductive discourse of the advertising piece, generates in the protagonist a distorted perception of the commercial message: if he buys that shampoo, he might fall in love.

As a result of the delirium derived from his sad loneliness, the man conceives the girl as a 'fairy' and remains faithful to her in his thoughts and actions. He channels his obsession by collecting clippings from photographs and plays with the fantasy of her reciprocating his feelings. Similar to a Bécquer legend, the man evades from his dreams and imagines an erotic encounter with her. Much to his disappointment, the affable treatment of his 'fairy' towards him ends up being nothing more than a method of persuasion to keep him buying the advertised shampoo. After such clash with reality he does not try to free himself from the spell and writes instead the following mantra: "the only fairy that exists is the shampoo fairy", thereby initiating a ritualized countdown until he sees her again on television.

The reflection that could be extracted from the poem is that the author intended to express a critique of the capitalist system that monetizes vulnerable emotions through the frustration generated by false materialistic ideals portrayed on mass media. In other words, it is a tragic and bitter testimony that narrates the unsatisfied yearning of an unattainable fantasy imposed by the consumption society.

Precisely because of this, it is ironic that throughout three decades the poem has been converted into a pop product and given to the masses until completing its transition as a TXT song that is sold in exchange for money.

Throughout the music video of the nostalgia-triggering track - a true example of chromatic and melodic harmony - they dance gracefully in shirts made of volatile fabrics and sky colours. Surrounded by a combination of plants, lanterns, balloons and a breeze of soap bubbles of ephemeral life, the boys croon the verses of 'Fairy of Shampoo'. Their presence complements the paradisiacal landscape of pastel tones as they repeat in a hypnotic way:

"I don't feel alone when I see you,

even if my heart is sad,

It just disappears,

Dear, you're my shampoo fairy,

From this moment on,

I will love you."

Finding its own space between background saxophones, Jang Jung-Il's words echo in the 21st century, yet they are trimmed, rearranged, filtered and recontextualized. In simple terms, the original message has been put aside for the sake of serving a capitalist end.

This practice of re-orchestrating artistic resources to confect sensorially pleasing anthems that celebrate short-term hedonism beyond conceptual coherence is nothing more than a new art form in itself: The commercial art of K-Pop.

Top-artwork and text by Alberto Méndez

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References:

BBC News. 2019. BTS: What Will Military Service Mean For The Band?. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-50515696>.

My Daily (Korean Version). 2020. 투모로우바이투게더, 새 앨범 트랙리스트 공개…'샴푸의 요정' 리메이크. [online] Available at: <http://web.archive.org/web/20200509051318/https://entertain.naver.com/read?oid=117&aid=0003359188>.

Scaffe, I., 2019. TXT: This New Group By Big Hit Entertainment Is Already Breaking Records.. [online] The Vector. Available at: <http://njitvector.com/2019/03/txt-this-new-group-by-big-hit-entertainment-is-already-breaking-records/>.

Yi Hyŏn. and Kim, K., 2010. _List: Books From Korea. Volume 10, Winter. Kyŏnggi-do: Korean Literature Translation Institute, pp.24, 25.

Big Hit Ent., T., 2020. [최초공개] TXT (투모로우바이투게더) - 샴푸의 요정 | TOMORROW X TOGETHER COMEBACKSHOW. [online] Youtube. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW6mN8COlMc>.