WHAT’S WRONG WITH US?

Rock in Roma: Intro VCR

THEY USED THEIR FULL GOVERNMENT NAME??!

Like, look, I'm aroace af so idc about any of it. BUT! Love and desire ARE part of the human experience? A large majority of people feel these things! Ateez are grown men who're allowed to talk about it if they want to! Stripping them of the time/space/ability to do so WHILE lots of Atiny are often also being aggressively horny at and about them is, hm, hypocritical.

And idk maybe I'm too lore-pilled but it reads as very Sopro-triggered to me, and if it's Sopro-influenced then of course it would be toxic and destructive and hard to break free from. Not only that, but I've seen enough documentaries to know that love and desire, whether truly reciprocal or not, can lead to heinous levels of control over someone, leading to terrible things. So to me, the stronger and more deeply rooted the 'love,' the more control Sopro has.

(Love can of course also lead to wonderful things!! I can be aroace and still acknowledge that!! GH5 simply. Um. Gives 'this specific love is poison to which there is not yet a cure' to me.)

But y'know, even if you don't look at Sopro specifically, one of the lines in the Fin: Will outro track is "Have you ever fallen in love?", so isn't the further exploration of such aspects, whether 'good' or 'bad,' simply continuing with the overall thesis statement of The World? If they're free to experience ALL emotions/feelings then surely that would include love and physical desire?

sorry for the ramble i just have many Thoughts. yes, i personally do prefer songs which aren't this directly about love/sex, but i'm glad they have the ability to explore not only new genres but also topics at their own discretion, even if those aren't my taste. is it my favorite gh? nah, gh2 & gh4 exist, but i'm happy it's here in the 'explore a lot of things' series regardless. and, well, whatever's next will likely be entirely different yet again! i have everything else ateez has even done and xikers' discography as well to tide me over in the meantime :)

rambling anon from earlier who's a bit more awake now lmao bit worried my phrasing could've suggested i think less of anyone who's not vibing with the themes of gh5/they should suck it up, and that's not my intent!! if it's not for you (general you here), then that's fine!! everyone's allowed to have preferences!! i just. idk. wish that those preferences didn't come with a side of kind of dismissing the value of gh5's themes to exist in the first place? or acting like ateez has, idk, sullied themselves by singing about those themes? the validity of one's opinion noted and set aside, let's maybe not police the art someone's allowed to make or the feelings they're allowed to share through that art? please? and, well! it's far from the first time ateez have ever leaned into the sexy vibe so idk why anybody's really surprised they've for once not been all 'wink wink nudge nudge' about it. :') (i've got a lot of complex feelings about this topic, if you can't already tell. aroace-ness aside, i see sex/love as distinctive points of connection, of communication, of intimacy, of vulnerability. ateez have long used dancing, when they sing of it, as a method of communication and connection; to dance is to move, to feel, to open a dialogue between other dancers and an audience alike. are sex and romantic love not similar in that regard? (they've sung about what could be taken as platonic love plenty before too.) is sex not potentially entrusting one's body to another? is romantic love not entrusting one's heart? they can both be beautiful and they can both be painful and they both have value for those who seek them. (obvs they're not the be all, end all, but they're pertinent to gh5's themes and do have their own value!) yes, i don't get the appeal myself and never have, but i can understand why people do care for the whole shebang (pun not intended). i just. idk. even if i personally don't want any of it for myself, i'd rather it not be treated like it's some ugly, crass, valueless topic that ateez should never ever touch? like, they get sexualized and projected upon all the time, but it's apparently bad when they choose to tackle these themes of their own free will? hm. interesting. (this isn't really aimed at anybody btw; i've just seen a lot of weirdness specifically w/r/t this cb.)) see i said i'm more awake but idk if i was any more coherent. :(

Alrighty, so I'll do my best to cover all points you're hitting by doing this section-by-section! I hope that's okay ♥

The Latin sound

I think the first time I heard someone express their dislike of the Latin sound in their music was after the release of 'Golden Hour' Pt. 1, so that aspect isn't actually new to this album.

Personally, I have admittedly very strong genre preferences and Latin music simply isn't among the ones I like, but I find it weird how so many people seem unable to express their dislike of something without trying to enforce that opinion onto others, or even worse, trying to make it a moral thing when it's not.

People online have been doing that for years now. They don't like a movie? Then it can't possibly be because it's just not their thing, nah - it's because that movie is promoting bad values, could ruin lives and topple civilizations!

There definitely are songs, movies, TV-shows, etc. that are being used as propaganda or tools to manipulate the public or achieve certain goals, but damn, eight guys in Korea releasing songs with a Latin sound won't be able to take down the Kpop industry mega complex. I don't know what else to say to that.

It's fine to not like the Latin sound. It's fine to skip songs or entire albums, and it's fine if someone wants to stop listening to Ateez for now or forever, but why can't they just do that quietly? Why do they feel the need to publicly insult something so many other people are harmlessly enjoying and celebrating? Maybe they should ask themselves that question before they hit 'post' a little more frequently. (I'm talking about social media videos here btw. - not the anon from yesterday!)

One last thing on this topic though: I think what should be acknowledged here is just how huge Ateez are in Central and South America. Like, the arenas they've performed in over there? MASSIVE. During the 'Break the Wall' tour back in 2023, they had roughly 70,000 people in attendance across just four days, and yet they still haven't toured there since, so lowkey? This album should've been dedicated to Latinx Atinys.

Lore relevance

I do think there are lore-related aspects in the lyrics, just as there usually are - especially in some of the B-sides. 'Fallin'' in particular comes to mind with that aspect of destructive love with the violent imagery of fire and breaking skin, of getting lost in someone, swallowed whole. Heck, they even outright call the person doing this to them a monster. So yeah, that one's definitely playing off the concept of Sopro and the power she wields.

The lore hasn't been creeping into the lyrics as much as it used to before, I feel like, but I think that's actually an upside for everyone who works on the lyrics - Hongjoong and Mingi in particular - since it gives them more freedom to express what they want to express without restrictions.

But yeah, the topic of love is far from new to their music, but as I'll talk about more in a sec - specifically talking about a woman's physical appearance is.

Spicy songs

Ey, hello fellow asexual lmao - I'm bi and ace, so I'm with you here.

I would like to think the people who write horny stuff about the members and the ones who are unhappy with this album are two separate circles in the Venn diagram, but I also wouldn't be surprised if there's some overlap.

Regardless of which circle you're in though, we all have to simply accept the fact that we're one fandom and the actions of many of us will reflect on all of us because Ateez and KQ can hardly split us into districts and address us separately, so if we got a lot of horny folks who like to post online about what they want the members to do them, then the rest of us shouldn't be surprised or appalled when we get an album with some spicy lyrics in response. You know what I mean?

Another thing though is that I don't think it's particularly the sexiness some Atinys have a problem with, but rather specific lyrics in 'BAD', i.e. lines like 'Curves along her body / Got the people calling it Photoshop', calling "her" 'spicy' and 'hot señorita', saying she's got a beautiful figure - stuff like that.

Mind you, I personally think the lyrics are completely fine. They're giving pretty harmless compliments, nothing obscene. Many ladies have curves - heck, I'm nonbinary and people who don't know me always think I'm woman because I have curves and if someone pulled lines similar to these on me from a respectful distance, I wouldn't be offended - I'd just think it's hilarious and laugh before I walk away.

But yeah, I don't think there's anything ethically wrong with putting out music about sex, love, flirting, whatever. I more so think the issue some Atiny have is that songs about these themes are the norm/standard in the music industry since most artists write primarily about these things and they wanted Ateez to keep being different.

As I said before many times though: What I personally want for Ateez is to feel fulfilled in their careers. I want them to keep having the opportunity to try themselves out, dip their toes in everything, find out what they like and don't like, and most importantly: what brings them the purest forms of joy and fulfillment.