The new year has only just begun, but as always January is already well underway with the newest releases and teasers to jump start 2017. It’s only fitting that we kick things off with SM Entertainment’s catch-all “superstar rookie platform” group NCT (“Neo-Culture Technology” *TRADEMARK COPYRIGHT ETC ETC*) and their new release “LIMITLESS”.
This will be a slightly lengthier introduction, because this “group” is actually quite unique and context is important! In fact NCT is not really a group at all, but more of a loading zone for SM Entertainment to give some exposure to their trainees (people who haven’t officially debuted yet). If you don’t know much about them, and to be honest I haven’t followed them very extensively, NCT is sort of the realization of SM Entertainment’s (one of the big 3 entertainment companies that make up the k-pop industry) vision for the future of k-pop; namely how it will disseminate and conquer the world by industrializing cultural capital in the context of music. The idea is to systematically train idols and mold them into perfectly crafted cultural vehicles for every major music market, with each song produced specifically to gain acceptance and popularity in that particular culture. What does that mean?? It means that idols will practice (think: culture handbook, literally) giving a specific kind of wink and a certain type of greeting when they are performing in Thailand vs. in the Philippines. It means that each idol’s schedule and training, which can go on for years, will be highly regimented and regulated for just the right amounts of exposure in areas that will benefit that idol’s image. It means that entertainment companies have a huge pipeline of potential idols that can continue to be churned out at alarming rates with no fear of exhaustion. I know I’m making k-pop sound a little bit like the apocalypse now, but I don’t mean to sound so dramatic and it’s not like this is supported by all entertainment companies (though a lot of it has become industry-standard). Rest assured, there are still a lot of obstacles in the way of k-pop achieving global domination.
Anyway all of this is extremely well represented by both NCT (whose namesake comes from the aforementioned neo-culture technology) and this song. The fact that NCT is not a group puts all of the focus really on the music production and the performance aspect (which is why I chose to review the performance video), and not the members themselves. In fact, there is so much vocal layering in this song that almost all vocal color is just lost, save for maybe one or two lines by Taeil in the bridge. At first I thought maybe that was just because he’s the only one who can sing (he’s actually very good), but then I realized that it was probably intentional (an SM trend continuing from Red Velvet’s Russian Roulette maybe?). Less individuality means less variability and thus, less risk of being positively received in any given place. The same goes for the music itself–you can’t realize pigeonhole this song into any particular genre because it’s so diluted stylistically. While this makes it pretty accessible to any one listener, there is also really nothing memorable about it. In fact, I posit that you could play this song on infinite loop and not realize when it had started over. #Worth?
In terms of musical production value, here too I found rather lacking. The song comes across like a mash-up of SNSD’s Catch Me If You Can with the piano banging of Henry’s Trap for the chorus, and just for good measure let’s throw in some sound effects (i.e. that high pitched whirring sound at 01:38) from iKON’s RHYTHM TA. Even the beat sounds like something I could have made with a synthesizer, and that’s saying something.
Since it’s a performance video, the set is of course extremely basic and claaassic SM; basically just a dark box with flashing lights. And sometimes some smoke. Again, pretty uninspiring. But that’s to be expected because the point of a performance video is to stay simple and highlight the dance. BUT HERE IN FACT WAS THE BIGGEST LET-DOWN: THE CHOREOGRAPHY. I was expecting so much because these guys are such good dancers, and all I got was out-of-the-box, cookie cutter dance moves:
Everything just looked SO mechanical! It looked a little like EXO’s Lotto Pt. 2, which no offense to EXO-Ls, but I have to say, NCT can do a lot better. I’m just going to stop here on this because there’s nothing more for me to say.
All in all, I think I was really expecting a lot more from this release, especially with the addition of Doyoung and Johnny, but I was unfortunately disappointed. This will be a promotion that I no doubt will enjoy, but will most likely not remember after a few months have passed.
SKIM-POP 
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