Battle of the B-Sides:: Fin.K.L: To My Boyfriend

 Let's go back in time a little bit to May of 1998, before a lot of newer idols were born. And by newer, I mean, this song was released about two weeks before SinB of GFriend/VIVIZ was born. Fin.K.L is one of those groups which had the Korean name decided first, with the English name to follow, which is why the English meaning is a little confusing (Fin Killing Liberty). Still, they'd end up being one of the greats of the first generation of K-Pop and an act to help break ground for future girl groups and soloists to move further into various markets. 

Welcome, Fin.K.L. Their name in Hangeul is the only reason I have any idea of how to pronounce their group name (핑클).

This was also the group that saw the start of Lee Hyori, now an accomplished soloist in her own right, as well as Ock Joo-hyun, a celebrated musical theatre actress; Lee Jin of the drama and variety acting persuasion; and Sung Yuri of the drama and film acting persuasion. They've all done very well for themselves since they broke out on their own.

I picked up this song as a suggestion from someone, and I genuinely thought this would be a Greatest Hits post because of how popular this song is. Feature my surprise when it ended up being a promoted b-side from the debut album, Blue Rain. Also! To My Boyfriend was their first win on a music show, the one in question being Inkigayo in September of '98. Good thing this was a promoted b-side because finding performances from that far back is a little more difficult than I'd like them to be and finding non-promoted b-sides? Forget it. Especially for a group that stopped promoting together basically before YouTube. 

Thank you, people on the internet for preserving this music video. 

The entire thing has a glamour lens over it, which does definitely age it because a glamour lens that strong isn't used as often anymore, but that also means that it makes me smile fondly. The nostalgia hits hard for a twenty-seven-year-old song. 

The choreography at the beginning is one of the most adorable things I've seen in a long time. I mean, it's so adorable that I'd love to see more of the younger and newer groups do covers of the song just so they could do the choreography. Some have, but really it's not enough even though some of the covers of this song have been done by pretty substantial groups, included BTS and GFriend. Let more groups do covers so they can do this choreography! It is so cute!

I have it on pretty good authority (meaning: I asked someone who was alive and aware of music at the time) to tell me what decade the music sounded like. She almost instantly said that the beginning was seventies and when the vocals started up, they were more eighties, which makes the song work well for the early eighties, which also tracks with trends I've seeing revisiting this style in more recent songs as well as the general trends from K-Pop in the nineties anyway, which is another reason why I want this song covered by newer artists. I think it would match current concepts well. This is more of less what many of them are trying to achieve. 

All of this to say, To My Boyfriend has achieved a level of timelessness that I very much enjoy with an older sound that is then connected forward with the sound of more recent groups, providing an excellent musical bridge.

I have no information on where or when this song was performed other than apparently 1998. But, really, camerawork largely hasn't changed in the last twenty-seven years. If you come looking for synchronized choreography, well, you're not going to find it. But what you will find is a yacht-sized boatload of fun. They're so obviously having fun that it's contagious, and you can tell by the screaming from the audience that they're feeling the same way. I also don't know quite how to put into words my delight over their outfits. Like, it is so... They remind me so much of the plaid outfit Cher wears in Clueless, and the bags? Classic. Looking at it from the style of mid 20s, it's odd, but it's still very recognizable from what what I remember seeing on TV and in movies, and I just unironically love their outfits. 

These outfits are almost identical to the ones above, except yellow instead of white and plaid, which brings me more joy than I can quite describe. I imagine that they're music show performances, but I couldn't tell you which ones. The benefit of this one is that the lyrics are on the screen, and there are fewer backup dancers to distract from the group. But the group is adorable and again, I love how much they're obviously enjoying this.