Highlight is still here - and that is important.
Copyright: Highlight/ Around Us Entertainment
Spring offers new beginnings, the brutality of winter be damned.
When the four members of Highlight returned from their mandatory military service in early 2020, they found not just a completely new landscape in K-Pop, but a changed world.
Yang Yoesob remembered in 2021, “[After the COVID-19 pandemic began], I thought a lot about my junior artists and how much they must want to meet their fans. And when we finished our service, there still weren’t a lot of chances to meet fans offline, so it was disappointing.”
Some of the trends Highlight learned were a little funny, like the “ending fairy poses'' that idols struck at the end of a variety show performance. “I don’t have any confidence in my ability to stare down a camera for almost ten seconds,” Yoseob joked.
The group’s leader Yoon Doo-joon (sometimes written as “Dujun”") added, “The trends have changed a lot. There’s a lot more web variety and online content than before. I filmed a lot of those.”
But perhaps Highlight was best suited to meet the challenges of a new generation of idols. After all, Highlight was originally known as BEAST, a six member group that debuted in 2009 under Cube Entertainment. Their performance style could be hyper-masculine which matched the group’s name. In their debut stage, the boys wore (sometimes questionably) futuristic white outfits that were reminiscent of their contemporaries, like SHINee and 2PM.
But as they grew from wide eyed teens to thoughtful young men an interesting shift took place: BEAST became a softer creature. This first occurred with the group’s 2011 album “Fact and Fiction”. In the K-Pop fandom, the ballad “Fiction” is often hailed as one of the best K-Pop songs to ever be released. Eleven years after its release, the song more than holds up. I caught myself listening to it nearly daily this winter and still believe it is one of the most sophisticated ballads released by a second gen group.
“Fiction” and “On Rainy Days”, a second single from “Fact and Fiction”, would represent the lighter direction Highlight would take ten years later when they returned from the military. But before this could happen, BEAST would lose one member before departing Cube, and then lose a second member after Highlight’s formation. In 2018, Do-joon, Gi-kwang, Dongwoon, and Yoseob entered the military. Two years later the world changed and this is when Highlight made their comeback.
“When we moved agencies, we set up our own company,” Son Dongwoon explained in the same interview. The agency, Around Us, allowed the group to release music on their own terms - to write, produce and develop concepts that spoke to them. “I want to become a senior that can take these diverse paths.”
Upon the release of their latest album DAYDREAM, the members have been together for thirteen years.* They view themselves, as Dongwoon described, as “long-running artists”. They are seniors in their industry who are eager to evolve and shift. As men in their thirties, they are now able to show several complex shades and sides to themselves that perhaps was not an option for teen boys.
And they’re also one of the last groups from the second generation still standing. “I always feel regretful when I see so many groups disbanding,” Dongwoon said, aware that many groups disband before they can reach their potential. Highlight’s ability to last and still be here is important. The importance lies in just how rare it is for four idols to choose to continue together and to make music on their own terms. Their title track “Not The End” exemplifies this.
A softer view of Highlight. Copyright: Highlight/ Around Us Entertainment
When Highlight embarked on their comeback in 2021 they chose “Not The End” as their title track. Lee Gi-kwang co-wrote and produced the song, which the members unanimously chose. “I worked hard on it, but it was chosen because the members liked it,” Gi-kwang said. “We did a blind test with three songs and this is the one that was chosen. The members also actively gave suggestions as we did recordings and we had fun preparing. I thought about what the members were good at while I was making the song.”
On the surface the lyrics are to a lover who is going through a hard time. “I believe in you,” Doo-joon sings in the opening verse. “Just as I believe Spring will come after the cold Winter.” As the song builds towards the chorus, the group declares, “I’m still here, it's not the end.” The song, then, becomes a metaphor.
“Not The End” hits the sweet spot for me. It is nostalgic and bittersweet to listen to as I remember the boys who debuted in 2009. As someone who is the same age as the Highlight members, I also reminisced my own experiences from their debut year when I was a freshman art school student. Through member changes, label shifts, and striking out on their own, they are still forging their own path. On my walks throughout the Fall and into the Winter, I would listen to this song and think of the resilience we as humans have. They’re still here – I am, too.
Highlight reminds me that we can change and evolve. We have to in order to survive. I recall the words of the poet Jane Hirshfield when she mused, “I know there are people for whom the pronoun 'we' has become quite problematic. I respect and honor the pain and the history behind that. But I cannot give up the pronoun 'we'."
There is a power in the pronoun “we” that I see in Highlight. Despite their hardships they have chosen to remain together. But there is also a camaraderie and understanding between second generation groups like Highlight, SHINee and 2PM. As the members of Highlight explain, there are so few people who can understand the pressures of debuting as a teenager and growing into men in K-Pop.
“SHINee recently finished an amazing run of promotions. They’re artists who promoted around the same time as us back then,” Gi-kwang explained. “We also prepared an album that shows our unique color. I heard that 2PM is making a comeback soon. I think that it’s a source of strength to each of us that the groups that debuted around the same time are still able to do music and approach the public. I really got a lot of strength from watching SHINee. I hope that all artists will be able to enjoy their time as we push and pull each other.”
Doo-joon is especially close to SHINee’s Choi Minho. The two bonded over sports and once traveled together to Brazil in 2014 to film “Our Neighborhood Arts and Physical Education.” For years the two would compete against each other in the Idol Star Athletic Championships. “I wanted to be on the same team as Minho,” he said. “But it never happened.”
Minho texted Do-joon when he enlisted in the military and Do-joon returned the favor when it was Minho’s turn. “I think that we felt a sense of commonality as we had both been in this line of work for over 10 years,” Do-joon said. “There weren’t as many idol artists back then, so our groups were friendly with each other. There were a lot of things we took for granted back then that aren’t the case now, so we could relate to and comfort each other. I felt really happy to see SHINee promote this time and I cheered them on.”
Second generation K-Pop is often defined by these groups. At times, I view the early years of this generation as something that resembles my experience as a young artist. Some of us survive, some of us flounder, but we all began in the same place. We are all crash landing in new beginnings together, trusting our creative instincts and cheering each other on, even if we are apart.
As we grow older, we realize that life can shatter and break us open. When I first began writing about K-Pop in 2020, for example, I was struck by how easily the genre could tenderly hold this truth about life: It is quick; it is fragile; and we need each other to make sense of it. Perhaps it is because the idols of second gen remind me of my own friendships, I often find myself peering into the stories of groups like Highlight as a reflection of my own..
Highlight’s elegant album cover for “DAYDREAM”. Copyright: Highlight/ Around Us Entertainment
On Monday, March 20 the members released DAYDREAM. The cover is striking: the four men lay with their heads resting on one another as they drift to sleep. It’s a soft, elegant portrait of the members' friendship and their ability to show a gentleness that is so rarely seen from men in their thirties.
The album opens with the title track of the same name and it continues the evolution of ethereal and tender sounds. “I’m having a dream that I won’t wake up from,” they sing in the title track. “The album is perfect for Spring,” a Highlight fan told me this week. Over the last few days, I’ve listened to it as I watched the cherry blossom trees bloom again. On my way to a cafe the day I wrote this, I was caught off-guard by the beauty of the member’s harmonies in “Our Eyes” and how touched I was to hear this.
Highlight reminds me that we all can bloom into our best selves. And that is something we should celebrate.
Back in 2021 as the members promoted “Not The End” they found themselves unexpectedly standing on stage at Music Core as they heard the results for the week’s winner of top song. In a sea of junior idols with large company backing, Highlight broke through with a hit song. As the results came in, Gi-kwang leaned forward with his mouth ajar. When Highlight was announced as the winner, they yelled out in disbelief. Gi-kwang covered his mouth as Yoseob stepped back with his eyes widened in shock.
It is customary that when idols win a variety show, they give an encore performance. These stages are always special but there was something extremely nostalgic about Highlight’s. As the opening notes of “Not The End” began and the members hugged one another, I thought about how far the members had come to be in this moment. A win was not something anyone expected. But Highlight’s story is one of resilience and brotherhood. As the chorus neared, Gi-kwang held the trophy up to the camera with the members surrounding him.
They stood together with tears streaking their eyes. And then with humility, they bowed.
Footnote: *Depending on the time system you are basing Highlight’s anniversary on, it is either 13 years (Western way of counting years) or 14 years (Korean way of counting years).
SOURCES: The majority of this article’s interviews are taken from this Naver article. Other sources are hyperlinked in the article. Just click on them to access and read.
