Text Painting in K-pop: A concept that will blow your mind

Written by: Vedansh Varshney, Delhi

Edited by: Bagmita Gogoi, Tinsukia, Assam

Explore text painting in K-pop, where music brings lyrics to life for an enhanced and deeper listening experience.

Imagine you’re listening to a song and the lyrics “breathe in, breathe out” come up. Interestingly enough, the lyrics are immediately followed by actual “breathing sounds” included in the song as a part of its instrumentals. You might get surprised and think, “Wow! That’s an interesting choice to pair those sound effects with those lyrics; it makes it feel more realistic.” Well, that’s exactly what “Text Painting” in music can look like!

Text Painting (also known as Word Painting) is a music composition (or songwriting) technique where the music tries to mimic or reflect the lyrics, theme, or message of the song. It’s a riveting concept considering it can help you feel more connected to the song you’re listening to by creating these “visual mental images” and leaving a stronger impression. Text Painting can appear in music in numerous ways, some quite evidently obvious and others more subtly incorporated. It personally makes me appreciate the song a lot more seeing how well the song’s idea (or concept) is expressed by beautifully interlinking both the music and lyrics.

In this article, I have mentioned some of my favorite instances of Text Painting observed in K-pop songs and I hope you’ll find it equally fascinating too!

1. Stray Kids – Side Effects

“Side Effects” might be an unconventional and experimental title track, but it’s a remarkable production and one of the best examples of Text Painting. The song talks about fear, anxiety, and self-doubt that follow after taking pills of “baseless self-confidence.” The song has two noticeable instances—the first being the incorporation of “screaming sounds” right before they say, “My head hurts,” which represents the side effects (of the pills). The second is the list of side effects mentioned in the chorus (in the background), i.e., nervousness, insomnia, nausea, agitation, anxiety, sweating, vision problems, psychosis, numbness, dizziness, headaches, and weight loss, which I think is an absolutely genius choice made to reflect the concept of the song accurately.

_{Video Credits: JYP Entertainment}

2. RIIZE – Siren

The hype, upbeat, and fast-paced instrumentals of RIIZE’s performance track “Siren” perfectly incorporate the feeling of rush and urgency felt while hearing a siren. A siren is usually used to “alert” people; similarly, RIIZE wanted to alert people about their upcoming debut (considering this was released as a pre-debut track) and make them pay attention to the things they have to offer as a new K-pop group. Not only does the song have siren sounds, but also the way they elongate the word “siren” while singing it closely mimics the sound of an actual siren.

A very similar case of Text Painting is observed in NCT 127’s song “Fire Truck,” where the “woo woo woo” part of the chorus mimics the sound of a fire truck siren.

_{Video Credits: SMTOWN}

3. iKON – Rubber Band

It’s quite interesting to see how the instrumentals of iKON’s song “Rubber Band” mimic the feeling of a rubber band being stretched. The song lyrics themselves talk about ending (or moving on from) a relationship and compare the painful process to “letting go of one end of a rubber band.” It’s such a creative metaphor for representing the concept, as both the people involved in the relationship want to keep holding onto the ends of the rubber band to avoid hurting each other’s feelings. But eventually, they realize that someone has to let go first and get hurt in order for things to change for the better.

_{Video Credits: iKON}

4. EXO – Obsession

Another experimental yet addictive release by an SM group, EXO’s song “Obsession” is truly intriguing. Right off the bat, we have the phrase “I want you, I want you, want you” repeating multiple times before we enter the song, and interestingly, the same phrase keeps on repeating throughout the entire song until the end (another interesting musical concept called “ostinato”). Now look at the song title and think about it. Yes, it’s there to put emphasis on the “obsession theme” of the song. The lyrics are open to interpretation in regard to what “obsession” exactly means here.

However, I think the dark and eerie vibe of the song with the vocals (especially the chorus) expressing the feeling of grappling with something bothering them (while being unable to get rid of it) accompanied by the phrase “I want you, I want you, want you” constantly playing in the background is a great representation of the internal dialogue (in the mind) of an obsessive person.

_{Video Credits: SMTOWN}

5. Girls’ Generation –  I Got A Boy

A classical K-pop song well-known by fans and a great example of Text Painting is Girls’ Generation’s “I Got A Boy.” Former Girls’ Generation member Jessica’s line “Don’t stop, let’s bring it back to 140” is quite popular today and also makes this song special musically. Here with “140,” she refers to the BPM or Beats Per Minute, which is a measurement of the song’s tempo (or pacing). As observed, the BPM of the song immediately changes to 140. This is known as “Metronome Marking,” as it tells us the BPM of the upcoming section of the song.

And if this wasn’t mind-boggling enough, 140 also refers to the timestamp “1:40” in the official song audio. Check it out yourself! Open Spotify or Apple Music, play “I Got A Boy” and skip to 1:40 in the song. You’ll find out it’s the same instrumental section (with BPM 140) which also gets repeated towards the end after Jessica’s iconic line.

_{Video Credits: SMTOWN}

6. BEAST – Breath

Another popular song from the 2^nd generation of K-pop and also the one I was actually referring to in the introduction of this article. “Breath” by BEAST expresses the sorrow of an aching heart tormented by past memories to the extent of it almost feeling suffocating and leaving you breathless. This message is further highlighted by the “vigorous breathing sounds” that symbolise feelings of angst, restlessness, and anxiety (or even panic).

_{Video Credits: BEAST}

7. Taemin – Drip Drop

“Drip Drop” represents the sound of water droplets dripping. In Taemin’s song “Drip Drop,” you can hear some water trickling sounds in the intro section. When we reach the chorus, we observe that the style in which “Drip Drop” is sung literally mimics the dripping sound of water. The chorus also has a line “Drip Drop like this music,” which literally points out the instrumentals (i.e., the phrase “Drip Drop”) mimicking the dripping sound. In the lyrics, Taemin compares his heart to a turbulent ocean that is only calmed by the presence of his love interest. His falling in love is metaphorically depicted by water droplets dripping into the ocean drop by drop.

_{Video Credits: SMTOWN}

8. TXT – Run Away

In their song “Run Away,” TXT expresses their desire to escape to a magical world far away from their reality, which feels burdensome and unbearable. The title and lyrics both reference the famous “Platform 9 ¾” from the Harry Potter series, the hidden platform that allowed people to travel between the wizard world and the real world. It’s interesting to notice that this theme of “magic” is also observed in the form of Text Painting while hearing the pre-chorus of the song. When they say “Bibbidi bobbidi, the train is departing (Oh-oh-oh); Bibbidi bobbidi, our magic island (Oh-oh-oh),” it is accompanied by magical sound effects in the background as if they were casting a spell.

_{Video Credits: HYBE LABELS}

Text painting provides listeners with an immersive experience. What’s your favorite example of this technique? Let us know in the comments.