The Power of Friendship in ITZY’s “Boys Like You”
Screenshot from “Boys Like You”; JYP
ITZY has always been their best when they’ve leaned on the concepts of devouring your inner girl power. Romantic love songs have never been ITZY’s secret sauce. Instead, the girls thrive when they portray stories about self-love and the embrace of your inner queen (or king). From their first video “DALLA DALLA”, ITZY has held invisible crowns on their heads and in turn asked their fanbase known as MIDZY to grab their own crown.
Today the girls released their first original English language song “Boys Like You” which furthers a storyline of self-love over boys. The song’s timing is similar to JYP labelmates TWICE who released their first original English track “The Feels” right before the start of their tour. In two weeks, ITZY will embark on the “CHECKMATE TOUR” and “Boys Like You” is a nod to this.
“Boys Like You” is heavy on the plucky lyrics (sample: “Boy wanna date me? Boy wanna kiss me? I don’t fall for boys like you!”) but ITZY’s ability to finesse what could be a cheesy line is their starpower. The song’s music video places ITZY costumed as angels at a Hallowen party where all five girls are scammed by the same guy. After several attempts to take one another down, the girls realize that they’re more powerful and better as friends. The video ends with the girls coming together to party without the jerk. “Boy, gonna diss me? Boy, I’m so pissed/ Boy, gonna miss me/ Boy, you are dismissed!” they sing in punchy, sassy lyrics to the boy as they wise up that they’re being played. The video hits the same notes as a 90s or early 2000s teen movie, similar to “Mean Girls”, and this makes it a particularly fun watch.
“Boys Like You” continues an impressive trajectory for the group. While JYP has not announced an official bid to break into the West, it’s hard to not read their upcoming tour and single as a first attempt. Led by the incredible swagger of the group’s rapper Yeji, ITZY has taken residence as the queens of weird in K-Pop. In just three years, they’ve doubled their album sales and debuted at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 album chart with their latest album “Checkmate”. You probably couldn’t escape their summer single “SNEAKERS”, which stands at more than 116 million views on YouTube. They practically yell the chorus, “Put my sneakers on/ 1, 2, get set go!” It is an incredibly stupid fun song – and an instant earworm.
“The reason why ‘Sneakers’ is the title is because they’re one of the things that represent that freedom and joyful feeling,” Lia told Billboard to promote the song. ITZY’s running concept asks you to find your inner queen. To know iTZY is to be free; to love ITZY is to be a freak. “You can call me weirdo,” Yeji sings in “SNEAKERS”, a line that went viral with both groans and cheers. This group is not for those who like conformity.
“One word you won't hear from the members: perfect,” wrote Crystal Bell in a Teen Vogue profile on the group. “For ITZY, it's not about the pursuit of perfection.” Instead, what they do best is embrace their differences, and in turn, encourage their listeners to be as odd as they want.
“Yeji and I are both strong and charismatic, so we can be a little bit scary on stage," Ryujin told Teen Vogue and laughed. Yeji quickly added, "At the same time we're cool and chic!" When they debuted, they pointed out, they had very little experience. The concepts felt challenging for them. But as they’ve proven themselves, they’ve grown to feel more confident.
“I think that the idea of being yourself is very wide – there are so many things we relate to,” Lia told Billboard while promoting “SNEAKERS”. With each release ITZY charts a path for younger fans to follow: Be yourself, look to your friends for fun and comfort, screw the boys. “We’ve been together for a long time – four years now.” Ryujin said in the same interview. “We work together. We eat together, we sleep together. We do everything together.” This sort of understanding and bonding is what she hopes other fans notice – and take to heart for themselves. “We must know each other well to do the job well. I think that’s why we have a special bond, and that I think gave us great teamwork. Great teamwork goes to great stages.”
Boys come back around, but good friends are rare. Don’t drop your crown this Halloween.
