I do not believe that the music of girl groups under HYBE Entertainment is causing the downfall of civilization, as many people seem to imply with every passing tweet. I also do not believe that slop is a useful word that means anything in the world of art criticism, as of right now, May of 2026.
Here is "It's Me" by ILLIT (pronounced EYE-LIT). This song has been all the rage on Twitter lately, especially since it is currently being promoted alongside two other songs - "Celebrate" by LESSERAFIM and "Pinky Up" by Katseye - from the same entertainment supercompany, HYBE. At first, I personally disliked "It's Me". The People pointed out that the song was very different from ILLIT's previous releases, speculating that the trio of songs released in the same time frame are manifestations of HYBE's greed, its desire to capitalize off of some kind of EDM craze.I think there are some things to criticize about "It's Me". For one, the chorus is essentially that of BLACKPINK's "Jump". For two (???), I don't like the way "I'm the one, I'm your idol" is delivered. For three (??????), I don't like that choreography - it feels ridiculous and too on-the-nose for the silliness of this song.
But I'm not even interested in criticizing the song anymore, because as much as I hate HYBE Entertainment for being a huge media conglomerate, and as much as I will not listen to this song through official means because of the ongoing HYBE boycott, I'm very sick of the way art is treated these days. I am sick of things being arbitrarily judged as "high-effort" or "slop", "authentic" or "cheap"; I'm very sick of the miserable way in which people dismiss anything that challenges their taste as below them. I know I sound ridiculous as someone who criticizes music all the time - and I think people are absolutely allowed to dig into music that they hate, even so far as to accuse it of having a corporate sheen on it.
It's just incredibly annoying seeing people moralize constantly about art as if art isn't one of the most subjective things out there. It's come to the point where I am sick of seeing people who don't understand the subjectivity inherent to art attempt to make moral critiques of society through art. People through the ages have always been saying that music was better when they were a kid. I feel like we as a society should have progressed past that. People should be able to say that they don't get what the kids are picking up these days without calling new things "degenerate slop" - or worse, beginning and ending their political critique with "music is bad nowadays because the world is bad." You can easily make an argument for art being affected by the sociopolitical climate in which the artist functions; you can even say "music from the Reagan administration sucked because the world sucked more than usual." You can easily say that shit without annoying the fuck out of me. And yet you have managed to annoy the fuck out of me!
ILLIT fans have (perhaps rightfully!) buried all the tweets I wanted to show as evidence of what I'm talking about, so I sound like I'm making shit up. But I am not, truly I am not. I feel as though this discourse is unavoidable. Do people have no other things to criticize capitalism for, but that it kills some mythical "soul" of art? There is nothing in it; art is nothing. Art is not as strong and all-important as people seem to believe. Art is in the eye of the beholder. Everything is in the eye of the beholder. This post is entirely subjective. Even morality is subjective. Isn't that fucked up? We need socialism. These are things I believe every artist and critic should understand.
Anyway, I do feel that "It's Me" aligns with ILLIT's general identity because it is, at its core, very cute. Who's your bias? I'm your bias! I love the song now, out of spite. Your criticisms have had the opposite effect. Take that!