Song Review:: Cortis: COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES- GO! {Pre-Debut}

• Release Date: 2025 August 22

• Album tracklist: 

• Album runtime:  minutes

 Sometimes I write this opening introduction blurb after I've written the meat of the review. Usually I do this first, as in this case because I'm hoping to get some of my initial, lingering frustrations out so that I can try to be more objective for when I'm listening to the actual song. Address the emotions so that they can be better set aside. So, unfortunately, right now it doesn't matter if I like this group or not. I cannot listen to them recreationally until their maknae is eighteen. There is a single member over the age of eighteen (James, 20, formerly of Trainee A, so I'm happy to see him finally debuting), and the other four have already had their birthdays, so we're left with two seventeen-year-olds and two sixteen-year-olds. This is why I have my other rule of majority adults, because just like NU'EST would have been disqualified from me listening to them the first year and a half, so too is Cortis. And one of those seventeen-year-olds already has producing and choreographing for active groups on his resume, for songs that came out last year when he was sixteen, and likely had been working on when he was fifteen. So well-done, BigHit, for using child labor. Rant incoming. Feel free to skip the next paragraph if you don't want to read it.

I am going to briefly bring up Hoshi, although I recognize that he's currently a sensitive subject right now with regards to BigHit groups, and Dino and Woozi. Dino was all of about fourteen or so when he joined Pledis and had been dancing since he could walk because both his parents are dancers (his dad was actually going to Seoul to be a kpop idol, but that didn't end up happening). He probably has the most dance experience in the group, other than perhaps The8. Hoshi and Woozi were also about fourteen when they joined Pledis. By about 2013, Pledis was starting to run out of money, so they used the resources they had to cheaply train the children, including using the experienced and talented dancers they already had as trainees to choreograph and teach the other children, using their older groups' songs and choreography to train (which also is a play out of SM's handbook), and also by adding songwriting to Woozi's reviews when they found out he had started doing it as a hobby. I have no problem with them being trained to do this (choreography and songwriting/producing). The differences, and where I'm feeling a little bit enraged, is that BigHit isn't broke (unless they are and then I have even bigger disappointment in them because they have two very successful groups under their command). They have no reason to be using the trainees who are children to be loaned out as choreographers and producers for older groups, especially one that isn't even at BigHit. Which brings me to my second point. The Seventeen trainees were not being used to produce or choreograph for After School and NU'EST. They were being used internally, for the Seventeen trainees and later the debuting group. Their training remained training, not a started career at the age of fifteen (there are some nuances and such to that statement where in some specific situations that's not entirely true, and I'd like to point that out even though I'm not going to dig into them). I'm sorry. I think that kids should be allowed to be kids. I also disagree with tennis players going pro at the age of fourteen, so this isn't a K-Pop specific feeling, and I've heard enough horror stories from child actors after they've grown up that there are issues there too. 

So to recap, BigHit debuting a group with 80% of the members being children is not cool, and I'm also not pleased with the child labor that is needlessly being used when BigHit should have the money to pay for producers or choreographers for TXT (or better yet, use the TXT members?), and I just dislike HYBE in general, but specifically in this case for also using the child labor on a group that's not even in the same company, since they're all "Oh, we own the company, but it still acts independently." It's very frustrating all around (none of this is actually directed at the members, just the relevant companies).

Also, it's not on YouTube Music or Spotify yet, so I'm going to use the music video but not watching it until it's time for it.

Interesting. The shift after the introduction happened exactly when I thought it would, so either I'm starting to get a strong feel for the rhythm of songs, or this is a very predictable set of instrumentals. I'm hoping for the former. There is a little bit of a problem in that it reminds me a little bit of Ross's "music" on FRIENDS. I don't think it's nearly that bad, but that's what my brain associated with the instrumental. So, that's not...great news. There is a fair bit of variation, though the variation is less varied than it is in the same flavor of sounds. If that makes sense. I was hoping that I would really like this, especially since I did like Deja Vu, and so that I could look forward to the day that I could listen to them. If this is what they're going to sound like though...

Please tell me that I'm not hearing the lyrics I think I'm hearing. Sigh. This section is going to be brief. The vocals are overly sanitized, overly altered, and overly stripped of individual characteristics. Is there any actual singing in this song? I'm not going to write the group off yet, because I want to like them so that I can listen in the future. But I may have to write the song off and wait for their debut proper, see if I like that any better.

There's a song I know from one of the seasons of American Idol that I watched so much that I memorized it and would hum it walking down the halls of my high school, for reasons. The song is called "Pants on the Ground." GO! suddenly reminded me of it. Anyway, the music video is a slice of life, which I deeply appreciate and enjoy, especially as a pre-debut introduction to the group. I'd actually be okay with watching with the sound off, and I'm moderately impressed that they've got directing credit for the music video. It does redeem the song enough that I'm more hopeful for future songs, which I couldn't be happier about. Also, I do have to give a shout-out to the 90s screensaver bonking about at the beginning. Very satisfying, even more that the music video didn't start until it hit the corner.