How Taeyang Created a Modern Classic
Ten years ago today, Taeyang released “Eyes, Nose, Lips”, a ballad that would become career defining for him and for a new generation of male vocalists.
YG Entertainment, 2014
BIGBANG stood apart as an idol group. They were the rare boy group that wrote and produced their music themselves, and their leader G-Dragon was a cataclysmic force in the industry. He was never to declare BIGBANG as the only group who were not puppeteered by the K-Pop industry. “What makes us different is that we make our own music, and the fact that [the songs] appeal really well to the public and that the public likes the song,” G-Dragon said in an interview on “News Room” in 2015. He didn’t care that this wasn’t entirely true. In G-Dragon’s eyes, BIGBANG was the bar others couldn’t reach.
As idols, BIGBANG were a cut above, and this was largely due to G-Dragon’s visionary work. He fought hard to depict the group as humans through his punchy lyricism: They were losers who never received the guidebook on how to love. They were the boys who often got themselves into messes and threw a middle finger up instead of apologizing – all of which they unrepentantly depicted in their music. But often when talking about BIGBANG, it is easy to forget that Taeyang, the group’s lead vocalist, also made significant contributions towards the advancement of K-Pop as a creative industry. Today, at 35, he is still working and promoting in the industry – just at a quieter pace than some of his peers.
Perhaps this is because Taeyang’s music is not really even K-Pop at all, but instead is seeped in the tradition of R&B. No track better exemplifies the singer at his best than the lead single “Eyes, Nose, Lips”, released in June of 2014. “Eyes, Nose, Lips” is Taeyang at his most bare and by K-Pop standards, it’s a starkly understated production that allows Taeyang’s vocals to flourish. This is the song that made him a legend as a soloist, and that proved he deserved to be taken seriously as an artist.
“Eyes, Nose, Lips” would serve as the title track for Taeyang’s second album “Rise”, a body of work that he was heavily involved in writing and producing. The singer worked with YG producer Teddy Park, who would go on to helm the career of BLACKPINK, and Choice37 on the majority of the album, but “Rise” was significantly influenced by Taeyang himself. The singer recorded over twenty songs for the album, and co-wrote many of the tracks including “Eyes, Nose, Lips”.
“My album was basically released because of this track,” Taeyang told Billboard in a track-by-track review of “Rise”. “Both Teddy and a foreign writer named Becca [Johnson] wrote this song. I remember feeling very excited about it, because it came about so unexpectedly. While Teddy was writing out the chords, Becca came along and wrote out the melody on the spot. I liked it so much, and I believed I could put a fresh feel to it with my voice.”
After listening to the demo, Taeyang remembered sharing his own memories of heartbreak with Teddy. Together, they wrote the final version of the song that became his lead single. “We were able to write a song together about missing an old lover, reminiscing about their eyes, nose and lips,” he said. “It’s a very emotional track.”
In the video, which is reminiscent of D’Angelo’s “Untitled”, Taeyang stands against a black background, shirtless with a chain around his neck and black jeans. As the camera pans out, Taeyang appears to be performing on a soundstage which explodes into pyro fireworks as he reaches the bridge. Behind him, the face of a woman is projected onto a screen. “Your lips that whispered, ‘I love you’...” he sings softly until his voice fades into the chorus.
A few months following the release of “Rise”, the song began to take on a life of its own. “Eyes, Nose, Lips” would become the second best-selling song of 2014, but its impact was perhaps first seen on a completely unexpected source: the hip-hop mavericks Epik High. Led by the brilliant lyricist Tablo, Epik High was in the middle of a redemption arc.
Over the past four years, the group had successfully, if not meticulously, clawed their way back from a false accusation that almost ruined their career and Tablo’s life. In 2010, a lie circulated that he never graduated from Stanford in 2002. Hundreds of thousands of Koreans refused to believe the truth, even after the Korean news channel MBC released a documentary that featured interviews with the university’s students and professors, all who confirmed Tablo graduated from the school.“Shoebox” was the second album released since the accusation, and the album would go on to be one of their most critically lauded. (Ten years later, like “Rise”, this album would become career-defining for the group.)
Tablo’s relationship with idol-dom has always been shaky at best. On his podcast “The Tablo Show”, he expresses a disinterest in award shows or networking with the industry as a whole. But for a time, Epik High was signed to YG Entertainment, one of the “Big Three” K-Pop companies which also housed BIGBANG and Taeyang. In the Fall of 2014, Tablo wrote his own version of “Eyes, Nose, Lips” and, using his now signature style, created a visceral, devastating portrait of grief.
“Funny that you got the nerve to keep asking me/ How I’ve been,” Tablo raps in the beginning of the song before observing, “You’re the victor in this pageantry.” Tablo also wrote a new verse for Taeyang to sing that was angrier and punchier than the original song. “I never want to look in your eyes again,” he sang. “No, I never want to hear you breathe again.”
Epik High gave Taeyang’s song a new narrative. This could have easily overtaken Taeyang’s version, but instead Tablo’s poetic lyricism actually elevated the song. In the resulting years, both versions became intertwined with one another. Instead of being categorized as a remake, today Epik High’s take is seen as the official English version of the song.
But perhaps most importantly in solidifying its legacy, Tablo saw something in Taeyang that the public also came to understand: that he wasn’t just an idol, but a skilled musician. He had created a damn good song, and by year end “Eyes, Nose, Lips” had become the second best-selling song in Korea.
YG Entertainment, 2014
Nearly a decade later, Taeyang revealed that “Eyes, Nose, Lips” was written about his now wife Min Hyo Rin.
Taeyang recalled on an episode of Yoo Quiz on the Block, that he first met Min on the set for his music video “1AM”. Min was hired at the last minute at the recommendation of a friend and the pair, Taeyang found, immediately connected. “The more I met up with her, the more I liked her,” he said. “I thought that I would want to get married if it was with her.”
But the life of an idol can be punishing with very little free time and for a brief moment, Taeyang said, they broke up. “I was too busy, and as I was in the middle of a world tour, so there was barely any time [for us to be together] while I was in Korea,” he said. “Thinking about it now, I was so unknowledgeable as I didn’t have any dating experience. She must’ve felt frustrated at different points. So we had a period of time where we were broken up, and I made the song ‘Eyes, Nose, Lips,’ holding my feelings of missing her.”
Four years after the release of “Eyes, Nose, Lips” Taeyang and Min were married. Today, the song Taeyang wrote for his wife has become a heartbreak anthem. But I also believe that thanks to the co-sign of Tablo, “Eyes, Nose, Lips” has bolstered male idols to go deeper and to show vulnerability in their music. Just one month after the song’s release BTS’ macknae Jungkook recorded a cover of the song for the group’s Bangtan Bomb vlog. Stray Kids’ Bangchan and Changbin also recently covered the song on a variety show. Even BLACKPINK’s Rose performed her own cover of the song in 2018. What I hear most today is how Taeyang’s vocals and exploration of R&B have inspired this new generation of idols.
When he was asked if there is a difference between himself as a soloist and in BIGBANG, he didn’t feel there was any. The creation of “Rise” proved to Taeyang that he could be a real artist.“I used to think the two were very different, but now I think that wall has been torn down,” he said. “I can show my characteristics and musical colors both as a member of BIGBANG and as a solo artist.”
