How you feel about “Bam Yang Gang” the first time you hear it will depend on how you see it and its overall sound when held up alongside singer BIBI. Before she ever entered the public eye as a recording artist, save for a few songs she had featured on, BIBI gained recognition through competitive reality TV shows like THE FAN. Compared to other contestants, who tended to have some experience to some degree, she was less of a well-kept secret and more of a genuine fresh face. Considering the show selected contestants based on recommendations from other artists or celebrities, it was a stroke of luck for BIBI to be able to appear on national TV—but luck had nothing to do with her winning runner-up. What’s more, the path that brought her from her high school days of posting original songs on SoundCloud to the present where she’s a variety show regular and a famous singer is an unbelievable story unto itself. It’s a path full of so many twists and turns that just seeing how it all fits together makes her backstory that much more fascinating.
Even after proving herself under the competitive conditions of THE FAN—choosing her own songs and choreography, all the while revealing a darker side of herself—it’s unlikely anyone could have seen her debut song, “BINU,” coming. And no matter how used to violent lyrics and colorful language those people may have been used to hearing in their pop music, there’s no way they were prepared for the shock of hearing BIBI sing, “They say / She is weird”—which, in the profane original Korean, borders on the idiomatic, at once elegant like literature and as ordinary as can be. There’s something intrinsically refreshing about the way she takes the very words she’s been bad-mouthed with and the rumors circulated around her and uses them to talk about herself. Whether you’ve been following BIBI from her time on THE FAN or her Girls’ High School Mystery Class days, her vision as a musician that started from “BINU” has continued on through to Lowlife Princess: Noir (“just a real bad bitch”). The Korean R&B scene really came into its own starting from the mid- to late 2010s, and her mix of wide appeal and unrestrained creativity makes her stand out from her peers. Only a small group of producers—those able to keep the personas they cultivate in their music and their real-life personalities separate—had ever been able to enjoy both mass appeal and artistic freedom, but BIBI has managed the same feat.
The sound and feel in “Bam Yang Gang” could be a blip on the BIBI timeline, or it could represent another pivot for the singer. Either way, the cheerful demeanor certainly seems to stand out, given her overall musical trajectory. And this distinct sound in BIBI’s catalog comes from songwriter Chang Kiha. Chang Kiha is well-regarded in the Korean music world, continuing the legacy of indie rock of the late 1990s and music as far back as Korean folk and psychedelic. Given the nuanced emotions in “Bam Yang Gang,” it might be more appropriate to compare it to songs from Broccoli, you too? or Okdal than to Chang Kiha’s unique singing style and downer music. But there’s no mistaking that “Bam Yang Gang” is Chang’s, featuring his acute observation of the everyday, exploration through Korean lyrics, and, above all else, his knack for conveying his messages through inanimate objects. And it was that very song that found its way to BIBI—who made it whole.
But what makes it feel so right? BIBI doesn’t perform “Bam Yang Gang” like an R&B or rock musician, but like a K-pop artist. When she performs the song on TV, she takes to the stage with backup dancers, complete with a man to dance opposite to, as is typical of solo performances by women. If you weren’t familiar with BIBI’s previous work, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were watching an artist perform their debut song. Outperforming all her previous songs on the charts, and followed by a slew of covers by real artists and AI alike, “Bam Yang Gang” has proven to be massively popular. And its status not as an indie darling but as one of the year’s biggest K-pop hits is just one piece of the puzzle.
What starts with a clash takes a turn toward the unexpected and ultimately moves toward universality. There’s still an edge to the music video, but that’s not a surprising choice, coming from BIBI—because that’s what she’s always done best, and what’s led her to such highs in the music world. It's here in BIBI’s voice that indie rock, R&B, and K-pop—all of which came from different places and have developed in different directions since the 1990s—converge, which is different from how hip hop and rap have been a singular force, trading influences with so many different genres across the world. The three genres in BIBI’s new song have followed their own paths, and they’re likely to do so into the future as well. Even if lightning doesn’t strike twice, the song will remain a testament to that special moment in 2024 when disparate threads of Korean popular music briefly became entwined.