“Super Shy” by NewJeans
NewJeans are amongst the new kids on the block as far as the k-pop scene is concerned. This girl group dropped their first EP, “New Jeans”, in August of 2022. That project achieved the kind of success you would hope for with a debut album and furthermore with NewJeans being the first act under ADOR, a sub-label of the Hybe Corporation.
“Super Shy” was released on 7 July 2023, acting as the lead single for the girls’ second EP, “Get Up”, which is slated to come out a full a couple of weeks afterwards. And this song has already set a couple of records as of this writing, three days after its release.
For instance, South Korean music charts tend to be analyzed more minutely than those of other countries. And this track not only topped the country’s MelOn listing, but it has also been calculated that it spent more hours at number one than any other outing thus far this year.
Moreover, according to another K-pop report, “this release (became) the biggest song debut by a 4th generation K-pop artist on Spotify”. So that latter fact in particular would indicate that NewJeans is the hottest act to come from South Korea in more-recent times.
The Lyrics of “Super Shy”
Even though the lyrics of this song can be considered quite mild by Western standards, this is actually one of the most-overt K-pop love songs we have ever come across. That is not to say that the lyrics go there directly, because they don’t. But at the same time, it wouldn’t take rocket science to conclude that who’s being sung to is a romantic interest.
And as implied by the title, what the narrative revolves around is the vocalist being smitten by the addressee but being too shy to reveal her feelings to him. Or put more precisely, this reads like a case of secret attraction. For instance, the singer is convinced that the apple of her eye doesn’t even know her name. Yet and still, she fantasizes about the two of them becoming an item, and her ultimate goal is indeed to lock him down.
“I’m super shy, super shy
But wait a minute while I make you mine, make you mine
떨리는 지금도, you’re on my mind all the time
I wanna tell you but I’m super shy, super shy
I’m super shy, super shy
But wait a minute while I make you mine, make you mine
떨리는 지금도, you’re on my mind all the time
I wanna tell you but I’m super shy, super shy”
The Composers of “Super Shy”
As is becoming increasingly popular in K-pop, especially for songs such as this one (which is rendered primarily in English and less so in Korean), the composition of this track was handled by an international team of musicians.
For example, as of this writing we cannot determine exactly where the song’s producer, Frankie Scoca, comes from, but he obviously isn’t Korean.
Scoca also co-wrote this piece with Erika de Casier of Denmark, Kristine Bogan of the USA and a handful of Korean musicians in Gigi, Kim Ximya and Danielle, the latter of whom is a member of NewJeans.
And for the record, the other members of the crew are Haerin, Hanni, Hyein and Minji, with all ranging from 15 to 19 years of age as of this release.
