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K-Pop is already known for being unique. It’s unlike any other music industry, be it in terms of the MV, group concepts or even the song itself. And since K-Pop is part of Korean culture, it’s not uncommon for international fans to come across words and expressions they’re not familiar with. But it’s also a great occasion and a way to learn about Korean culture in a really fun way!
But there are some groups that have released songs with unique names that are not related to Korean culture either! And the titles of these songs confused not only international fans, but even Korean fans as to their meaning. There are many song titles that are unique in the K-Pop world, some have very deep meanings and explanations, and some are just for entertainment purposes, but be that as it may, these song titles are mind-blowing! So let’s take a look at some of the most unique song titles in the K-Pop industry!
1. TFN (named T1419 at the time) – ‘ASURABALBALTA’
As strange as the name may sound, it simply means ‘abracadabra’. This title looks like some kind of incantation, but it’s as simple as being the Korean version of the commonly known expression ‘abracadabra’ used when performing magic tricks!
2. ONEUS – ‘BBUSYEO’
When you first saw this title, you probably thought to yourself ‘there’s no way this means anything!’ well it does! ‘BBUSYEO‘ is a Korean word for ‘Break it all’. This explains why in the MV, all the members are breaking tons of objects!
3. SunMi – ‘I’m Not Afraid’
Again, it’s a transcription of the Korean title ‘purple night‘ which literally is night of purple light and is a reference to the sky turning purple during some phase of sunset. Now it should be clearer why the main color of the MV is purple and there are also a lot of glowing elements included!
Another word that sounds like an incantation and, again, is nothing more than a kind of ‘abracadabra’ or ‘alakazam’! It is, again, another word you can use when completing a magic trick. It seems that our K-Pop artists are also great magicians sometimes!
5. VIXX – ‘GR8.U’
Of course, it’s easy to guess what the title means in this version, but the little secret of its writing is in the Korean title! In Korean, this song is called ‘vs. from the. I. from the. you‘ (Dae.Da.Na.Da.Neo), and it sounds exactly like the word ‘대단하다’ (Daedanhada) which means to be great and/or awesome! The reason why they wrote it with an 8 in English is that in Korean the word is also written in a very peculiar way, it is spelled differently from the original word but it sounds the same, just like ‘GR8.U‘ sounds like ‘great you’!
6. SuperM – ‘Jopping’
With this title, SuperM has created a whole new word! In fact, as stated in the lyrics of the song, the word jopping is nothing more than the combination of ‘jumping’ and ‘popping’ (a dance technique) that gives rise to the main dance movement of the chorus! This was certainly an innovative title for a debut song!
7. ODD – ‘0&4’
If you thought the meaning of this song was exactly ‘0&4’, you’re not technically wrong, but the true meaning goes deeper than that. In fact, in Korean, 0&4 is pronounced ‘Gong Gwa Sa’, using the Sino-Korean counting method. But out of numbers ‘Gong’ (공) can mean ‘a whole’ or ‘a group’, and ‘Sa’ (사) means ‘individual’, ‘part of a whole’ and lastly ‘Gwa’ (과 ) means ‘e’, so the title actually means ‘public and private affairs’, it sounds like ‘0&4’!
8. SEVENTEEN – ‘Lilili Yabbay’
If all previous songs had a more or less deep meaning in their single title, this one does not. Not even, ‘Lilili Yabbay‘ means absolutely nothing! During a Fansign, a fan asked one of the members what that title meant and JeongHan replied that it was the way they counted the steps while dancing, saying ‘li’ ‘li’ ‘li’. Who would expect that?
All these titles may be unique, but some of them are quite funny, interesting and instructive too. We hope to see more of these in the future as well.
