BACK TO K-POP’S FIRST GENERATION: Bros – Win Win

K-Pop’s first generation is often referenced as the foundation for the industry we enjoy now, but there aren’t enough good English-language sources that give its music the focus it deserves. I’m hoping to change that with a continuing flashback series, spotlighting personal highlights from the era – both iconic and obscure.

The era in question is often considered to run from the debut of Seo Taiji & Boys in 1992 to the emergence of TVXQ in late 2003. The music featured in this series will largely fit within that time frame, give or take a few years on either side.

It was a time of bonkers song structures, wild fashion, slamming techno beats, bad reggae impressions, flagrant use (theft?) of American hip-hop samples, hearty power ballads, foul language, the growliest rapper tones you can imagine and an anything-goes scrappiness that’s impossible to pigeonhole. To borrow the name of a popular second-gen act, these years were the “big bang” of an emerging musical powerhouse, still finding its footing and throwing everything at the wall.

Years before Eminem exhilarated the world with his rap/rock hybrid Lose Yourself, Korean co-ed hip-hop supergroup Bros had their own pump-you-up anthem. But this being early K-pop, Win Win is quite idiosyncratic.

In this era, it was very common for songs to sample popular American hits, and you’ll often hear wildly unexpected interpolations and straight-up rip-offs framing much of this music. Given the industry’s underdog status its general stealth within the global music market at the time, part of me wonders how many of these samples were legally obtained. However, I’ve got no sourcing for this hypothesis. What’s most important about Win Win is that it chooses a killer sample. The song is built around the mammoth guitar riffs from Survivor’s 1982 mega-hit Eye Of The Tiger, fueling the track with an addictive intensity.

Bros was a 14-member collaborative project, including artists from popular groups Roo’Ra, Diva, and Chakra along with luminaries like Bobby Kim. They released exactly one album at the turn of the millennium, and it’s a mixed bag of disparate sounds and ideas. But Win Win stands as a total triumph — a song so exhilaratingly energetic that it’s impossible to sit still while it’s playing. Even when the vibe changes halfway through (a common occurrence in K-pop at the time), the production retains a sense of tension that keeps you waiting for the stabbing instrumental to make its triumphant return. And boy does it ever!

Grade: A-