After the Friday teaser was released, starting over the weekend, articles fixated on the bold keyword “self-producing” were copied straight into communities as popular posts, and all kinds of reactions came pouring in.
[Monster rookies Debonair, “Self-produced title track pre-release”]
[Debonair’s second album “DBNR,” pre-release title track “Sweet Demon” self-produced by member Lee Dohee...]
[Are self-producing idols the trend? Fourth-generation girl group Debonair “takes on self-producing”; member “Wooa” participates in choreography...]
─Wow... They’re really going with a title track written by Lee Dohee herself? That’s insane. Isn’t that a first among fourth-gen girl groups? I’m honestly kind of excited.
─I definitely have to listen to this right when it drops.
─Debonair’s two debut title tracks were both so good, so my expectations were high, but this time Lee Dohee composed it herself?
─This sudden self-producing thing... Hmm, makes me wonder if they got rushed after seeing Ailee hit it big.
─I’m seriously curious how far Dohee is going to grow. She’s only eighteen.
└(Link) Fr, her body lately is insane... growth you can’t hide even without revealing clothes...
└That wasn’t what I meant... wow...
└Seriously insane... I wonder who she’ll marry.
└I’m confident I could worship her my whole life, please, Dohee...
But there were all sorts of people in the world, and the reactions were just as varied.
Amid gazes of anticipation and desire, sneers could also be heard.
[A kid who’s only written two songs is producing a title track?]
And even those two songs, one was basically her fiddling with an arrangement of a song written by a professional composer, and the other was just a common piano piece.
Honestly, I don’t even believe the stuff about her being good at studying or piano this and that.
She should’ve just kept doing body and face virals like before.
I’ll give credit where it’s due: the more mature she gets, the more her looks feel like she’s becoming the undisputed number one even among the three emperors of Do-Se-Min.
I’ll admit that. I really like her too, yeah.
But that’s about her appearance. Seeing the viraling they do is kind of gross.
Feels like they’re trying to force an artist image on her now too.
I’m kind of jealous too. Just because she’s pretty, her company steps in like this and turns her into a genius.
Must be so easy to live like that lol...
─??? She’s doing it because she has the ability to compose. First of all, even the song she arranged wasn’t by some veteran composer; it was actually that composer’s first debut too. And the song you’re calling a common piano piece isn’t just being praised by everyone right now, pianists are raving about it too. People are saying if she’d released it properly as a classical album, it could’ve gotten onto the Billboard classical chart, so what are you even saying lol
─ㅋㅋㅋ You believe that? There are plenty of people in the indie scene from Berklee or Juilliard too, so why don’t they hype them up? They’re just saying nice things because Lee Dohee is popular and doing well lololol. Average simp IQ.
└Fine, I don’t know much about classical, so leave that aside. The arrangement alone already means she has the ability to make a title track. Don’t muddy the point.
└That’s exactly why the Lee Dohee genius viral works. Don’t you get it? It’s obvious they tacked the producing member’s name onto the end of a song written by composers.
└She’s listed first, though? (screenshot)
└The composers she worked with are the same people who made Debonair’s debut songs, you idiot lolol
└So what?
└This is so frustrating, so frustrating lolol. They stole shares from TopEast’s in-house composers and put her name first. Most idols make artist images like this, and people like you fall for it. This is why the public gets called pigs and dogs.
└ㅋㅋㅋ TopEast in-house?? These guys are a famous composing team that’s worked not just with TopEast but with ZY, Haru, and Repro too? Go look it up lololol
└Wow, from the post to the comments, this is dizzying.
└Ugh... So these are the kids who watch fake news on YouTube. I’ve already seen people claiming her report cards and the records of her receiving the grand prize trophy were all fabricated.
└But if she’s first in composition and arrangement even among those people, then she really must have composed it herself.
└This’ll end with them deleting the post and running.
And as comments like that were screenshotted and spread across the internet, becoming a topic of discussion, the fans who had been excited naturally couldn’t help but look on with concern.
[Self-producing itself is a double-edged sword, so I’m a little worried. It feels like Dohee is taking on unnecessary risk... She’s our youngest we’re supposed to protectㅠㅠ]
[TopEast’s A&R team picks songs well, so they could’ve just used a bought track and it would’ve been fine.]
[From what I heard, the former head of TopEast’s A&R is Director Jeong Sohyeon, who’s producing Debonair now.]
[ㅇㅇ She definitely would’ve done blind tests with the A&R team too. I’m just trusting them and waiting.]
[I’m confident I’ll like any song Dohee puts out!!]
That was exactly the kind of desirable publicity and phenomenon TopEast had hoped for.
There was no need to drag it out any longer.
─Ding!
At six o’clock on Monday, the music video was released as scheduled.
▶ [Debonair(데보네어) - “Sweet Demon” Official M/V]
Dohee’s fansite master, Bae Hayoung, clicked on the music video with fingers trembling more than ever.
“Phew... I’m nervous.”
As soon as it began, what filled the screen, the frame, was a monochrome painting of an angel in Renaissance style.
And in an instant, a low bass range.
The moment an especially thick bass sound came through.
─Dnn Dnn
The dull angel painting was ripped diagonally in a flash.
Freshness began returning to the monochrome world.
All around, charming eyes flashed.
“Fr-from the very start, a beauty bombardment by a group of absolute goddesses...”
At last, the torn painting fell away.
Inside the frame stood the members side by side.
The thick bass from a moment ago was like Bae Hayoung’s pounding heartbeat.
And as the intro began, the members absolutely did not stay still.
The four of them moved wildly, continuing poses where they gathered their hands to the center, then stretched them outward.
[Yeah-]
In the center, Wooa hummed an ad-lib and showed off a light neck-tilting isolation.
[huu-]
It was a short performance lasting less than ten seconds, but it was enough.
The concept of this pre-release song was clear.
Debonair’s two concepts.
Androgynous confidence, Debonair.
Feminine ideal types, Born ideals.
Between the two, it was the former.
Because they were tough poses not often seen from girl groups.
And from then on, the screen began switching so rapidly it was almost chaotic.
“So this intro is Chiyo.”
The thought flashed through her mind that Producer Dohee must have chosen it herself!
And she looked at Chiyo, who stood tall on the dining table in her shoes under candlelight.
[hey, some thing whispering inside you
The moment dyed sweetly]
Front left, upper right, below the front, from behind—the camera’s perspective changed dizzily.
But even when the camera angle changed constantly, Chiyo remained the same.
Because she was looking straight into the camera and greeting it playfully, as if she were watching always, everywhere—like a demon.
And around the dining table, where the candlelight did not reach, four members sat encircling it in chairs, without the slightest expression or movement.
[Daze face like you haven’t even slept
you will never be the same]
Only Seoyun, the owner of the part, moved her lips little by little.
Then, unable to withstand the dizziness, the first-person view of the camera collapsed drunkenly in the middle of the table.
“Oh, the sound changed...!”
Naeun’s eyes still gazed at the screen tenderly, yet resentfully.
[cause i’m Staring in your eyes]
Only then did the scarlet liquid enter the fansite master’s eyes.
The red liquid that had filled the silverware on the table, somehow reminiscent of the fruit of good and evil.
Though the silver goblet had clearly been kicked over by Chiyo’s foot, and the liquid that had flowed for a long while was soaking the members’ sleeves.
That was how dizzying the screen was.
It felt like being drunk.
[Make you gonna strange]
Just like the lyrics.
[You could try to run, but it would be useless]
And, obvious to anyone, it was just before the chorus.
Naeun’s bewitching, delicate high falsetto!
What allowed her to escape that drunken gaze
was the funkiness of the accompanying guitar riff.
‘It’s the chorus...! What kind of chorus will it be now...!’
The stage from the very beginning of the music video.
Wooa still stood in the center.
Usually, the start of the chorus was handled by the member serving as center, so it was a little puzzling.
But Hayoung thought that if it was the playful yet kind-hearted Dohee, she would have yielded parts for her unnies even while producing.
[Swe-ee-et de-mo-mo-mon
Yes, all you ne-ee-ed is me truly one]
Meanwhile, Wooa’s refreshing dance lines looked perfect as the main dancer.
“Ah, right...! They said Wooa made the dance for this. The chorus!”
The choreography seemed to make the most enjoyable use of “the pull of charm.”
Centered on the heart, the push and pull itself expressed the funk rhythm.
Hair scattered coolly with inertia.
Moreover, right now—
“No, why is this chorus so good...!?”
It wasn’t necessarily because the dance made her feel catharsis.
Even if she listened to the song separately, it was addictive enough to circle in her head like crazy.
[The direction of your toes, just as it is
The destination of your gaze, toward me]
Dohee, the composer, finally changed formations and stood at the center of the screen for the first time.
[Sweet demon]
Dohee’s gesture as she lightly swept her thumb across her lips, as if saying this was who she was, and her bewitching smile.
“She really is an absolute goddess...”
Meanwhile, with Dohee’s appearance, the choreography part loosened slightly.
It seemed to match the ad-libs and chorus, stretching out and repeating the song title, “Sweet demon.”
But because of the interaction between the two, even the visual satisfaction was maximized.
Bae Hayoung’s heart felt like it would burst.
Then began the second verse.
By this point, Bae Hayoung was already singing along to the melody inwardly.
“The song is easy...!”
Aside from the lyrics changing little by little, the structure of the second verse was not especially different from the first.
By easy, she didn’t mean boring.
It was easy listening to that extent, yet incredibly exciting.
It meant the song offered a ridiculous addictiveness that made it easy for anyone to sing along.
And Dohee’s falsetto in the pre-chorus just before the second chorus had a charm different from Naeun’s.
It was so insanely good that she wanted to replay it again in a little while.
Only then did Bae Hayoung finally shake off, completely, even the slightest worry she had that the song might be bad.
She was able to fully enjoy the newly appearing melody line, the third-verse bridge.
The scene she had seen in the teaser was appearing.
Light spreading amid fragments of red flame.
Vision blurring.
The members’ forms barely recognizable.
[Sweet Demon─]
A cheerful yet seductive voice and a repeated sound like a wooden temple block.
Sounds added one by one.
Normally, she wouldn’t have done this.
But because it was Dohee’s song, she kept paying close attention even to the background sound.
And the more she listened, the more she felt it.
She had thought it was simply easy listening, but the deeper one dug into it, the more the build-up of a certain tension and obsession would provide freshness every time.
At last, the voice that would resolve that tension began to burst out.
[Don’t lie pretending to be innocent, right now]
Debonair’s main vocalist, Seoyun.
“Ah, a violin comes in quietly here...!”
The screen flickered dizzily dozens of times per second, passing by bright images of the members.
Dohee wearing a baseball cap, Wooa with face chains dangling, Chiyo in a leather jumper, Naeun wearing a beanie, Seoyun showing a sleeveless top.
From countless individual cuts of each of them
to group cuts of them huddled in front of an arcade machine looking at the screen, setting off fireworks, sitting on stairs...
Countless group cutscenes.
At last, Seoyun’s voice burst out not in falsetto, but in a true high note.
[You could try to run, but it would be useless]
Along with Dohee’s falsetto ad-lib layering the harmony.
[(i already told you─)]
Bae Hayoung was thrilled.
“Wow...”
For a first title track she had composed,
no, even for a seasoned composer,
the quality was unbelievable.
After listening to the song on repeat several times, Bae Hayoung finally came to her senses as a named fan.
By the time she began posting her review and reactions on her SNS—
Dol-ahui @Dol_Ahyee
─How did an idol like Dohee appear in my life……
Fifteen minutes had already passed, and the communities had long since been overflowing with posts.