Reading the title of KiiiKiii's new album: 'WhyKiiiKiii'. The name is taken from Waikiki Beach, a signature resort destination representing Hawaii. The group's third mini album and summer project introduces a full 24 hours spent at a fictional summer resort across six tracks. The comeback announcement website is decorated with travel tour package graphics from small pensions and hotels that were modestly maintained before hotel booking sites emerged. From flights heading to destinations to accommodation programs, travel itineraries, tour guides, and modest reviews—it's exactly as it was left in past internet traces. It even carries that eerie feeling as if clicking carelessly might install malicious software and slow down your computer.
Fortunately, traces of the past function to ornament the spirited daily lives of girls fully enjoying summer itself. In the music video for the title track 'Pop Off Pop Off,' KiiiKiii members enjoying a sunny, cool summer become characters from the popular life simulation game The Sims. Continuously skipping through an endless stream of buggy internet windows, they dash toward joyful days at an exotic summer resort. Words like retro, past trends, and nostalgia fade. Is interpretation even necessary about which elements were used, what songs and what era they bring? Reading from another angle: why KiiiKiii? The question flips again. Why KiiiKiii?
KiiiKiii is a group that dreams of escape. The first place they wish to leave is Korea as a location. From their debut with 'Fingertips Butterfly' and 'Bean Ladybug'—which left a strong impression—through this year leading the Y2K trend, KiiiKiii's goal has been not to stay. In 'I DO ME,' where girls who left the city declare they will achieve everything they want in New Zealand's nature, and in 'Dancing Alone,' which captures shining exotic summer through all-location filming in Vancouver, Canada, it was the same. The essential guidebook website understanding KiiiKiii's world is decorated with the primitive layout of the faded early web, vivid primary colors and clip art, and elements like analog guidebooks.
Here, KiiiKiii seeks not merely to escape physical space but to ascend back through present time itself. That time machine is the internet. The aesthetic of the 2000s, exemplified by Y2K revival, can be found without much effort through YouTube and Pinterest, and through traces remarkably still lingering. I, who was an elementary school student then, read countless times through books receiving education about the necessity of indirect experience through reading. Now it is the internet. Windows operating system, Internet Explorer, Media Player, and Flash-based webpages unfold like a fascinating archaeological museum. This is the background for KiiiKiii pushing '404'—the "page not found" error when accessing a webpage—as the title track. Consider the first verse lyrics beginning the song.
There is a point to clarify. KiiiKiii's destination is not the internet itself. 'I DO ME,' '404,' and 'Pop Off Pop Off' appear to be set against completely different locations. They are not. Their role is identical. Paradoxically, this place is most distant from and disconnected from today where smartphones, SNS, LTE, and 5G cannot reach. The reason past internet aesthetics capture young creators' attention is because it does not resemble today's internet. During this period, algorithms did not mean emphasizing taste and recommending likes—rather, it meant the basic procedure of finding and delivering data. Views did not signify value. The concept of ecosystem continuity was scarce. Generative AI did not exist. One cannot read KiiiKiii's retro as emotion yearning for the past. Members born in the mid-to-late 2000s cannot digest the past they never experienced, no matter how hard they study and learn. Rather, if they performed that way, it would merely result in reproduction or preservation.
Reconsidering 'WhyKiiiKiii' from the perspective of a passage evading the present: the album dissolves boundaries. The title track 'Pop Off Pop Off' blends electronic music featuring electro-clash and French touch shared through the internet with the image of a popstar evoking Ke$ha, who dominated 2010s Billboard charts. Girls arriving at a fictional resort wear t-shirts under school uniforms like early 21st century Korean schoolgirls. There is no problem with Uhm Jung-hwa's disco and LMFAO's shuffle dance coexisting. Historical accuracy is confused? KiiiKiji's planning had not considered historical accuracy from the start. Because they did not experience it, there is no need for precision—they can be free. In fact, even those of us who lived through that era, how incredibly accurate were our memories? KiiiKiji is not a team doing tedious archival work.
Mixed play becomes evident in the album credits. K-pop planners feeling bottlenecks from overseas song camps and pipelines have recently turned their attention to domestic underground and independent scenes. Omega Sapiens of Balming Tiger, who penned the witty lyrics for '404,' took on the role of charming party girl again in 'Pop Off Pop Off.' That is not all. Iiso, who has followed the hyperpop current early on, credits writing and composition. Yun Da-hye, last year's Korean Music Awards Best R&B Soul Album recipient, and Sumin, an all-around singer-songwriter who released two full-length albums, also catch attention. Included tracks feature many more noteworthy names. 'Ever2Late!,' which begins the album, includes Sumin and indie Y2K girl group Tomato Flavor, trendsetter The Deep—who participated in writing ILLIT's 'It's Me' and has long been putting the electro-pop craze into practice—and 19-year-old singer-songwriter ZIN CHOI, who expresses genuine teen sensibility that adults cannot create.
The most important track is 'Candy Pink Magic Hole Flip Phone (What Do I Do).' This track drew attention through participation by Effie, who delivered the most distinctive global results among hyperpop and electro-pop artists escaping hyperpop last year. Effie, who does not hide her Korean identity and love for her hometown Busan while refusing compartmentalization through international collaboration, is a key figure completing KiiiKiji's philosophy. Lyrics specified in 'Candy Pink Magic Hole Flip Phone' can be confirmed in presentation materials and demos Effie released. However, verified overseas pop market personnel are listed under the arranger's credits, leading Effie to express questioning and dissatisfaction about this point. The crux is that she was involved in much beyond songwriting but is not receiving proper credit.
Another identity of KiiiKiji appears here. An ambiguous dreamlike existence. KiiiKiji, studded with ideas from numerous creators and aesthetic directions from planners, are mysterious girls whose physical time and location are unclear. This is why an included track title from the previous album was 'Delulu,' meaning delusional or unrealistic. The hazy world blurs under neon signs of glittering house and electro-pop. Criticism emerges that the names of those who create KiiiKiji appear more frequently than the idols themselves regarding the group's planning direction. The fact that even that confusion connects through a theme of anemoia—yearning for a past never experienced—as concept becomes a point proving KiiiKiji's meticulous planning. However, debate is unavoidable. No matter how much an idol is a planning product, there is no reason to focus on KiiiKiji as a group itself rather than a collective collective.
This is why writer Lee Seul-ah is precious. Her lyrics, creating the team's story from KiiiKiji's beginning, distinctly imprint them as Korean dreamy and innocent girls from the world of avatars and AI-generated characters on the internet. She is the person who helped Ji-u, I-sol, Su-i, Ha-um, and Kiya voice themselves through Korean games like 'Groundwork' and 'Strawberry Game.' This time, she wove a short text on the webpage with new jack swing-style 'Sweet Sour.' Complex feelings toward a friend who stands out particularly on summer days are contained in an early 2000s mini-homepage-style theme, suggested through expressions, and ultimately, through lyrics where the group hesitates, repeats, and shouts their name, KiiiKiji's world opens a window for participation.
Now one can answer the question. Why KiiiKiji? Because only KiiiKiji swiftly established group identity as a persona capable of encompassing shared memories and tastes. Why does KiiiKiji want to become such a concept and existence? Because we want it from them. So they run the farthest, enjoy themselves where they've run to, don't leave entirely but return to cherish precious memories long, and occasionally take them out again and smile.
Kim Do-heon (Popular Music Critic) / zener1218@gmail.com
<Photo source=Starship>
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