Album Review: f(x) - Pink Tape

f(x) were always an acquired taste. Especially compared to their big sister group Girls’ Generation, whose whole thing was to appeal to as wide an audience as possible and maintain a *cough and does air quotes* ‘girlish charm’. f(x) comparatively had a far more niche approach to everything, which was a tad disruptive and unorthodox in K-pop at the time. Girlish charms and girls next door were never really the angle with f(x), and SM Entertainment did not seem the slightest bit concerned about shrinking the net that f(x) would potentially cast because of it. Girls’ Generation pretty much ran K-pop circa 2010, so SM could afford to take risks with another girl group, making f(x) their variable, whilst having Girls’ Generation as their control.

But the thing with K-pop (and the same can be said of mainstream pop culture across the board), is that familiarity and clear comparisons are often favoured. So f(x) eventually wound up making a bit of a turn. And that turning point was with their second studio album, Pink Tape.

Pink Tape marked a concerted effort on SM Entertainment’s part to really package f(x) in a way they hadn’t really been before. With f(x)’s LP and EP, Pinocchio and Electric Shock respectively, SM seemed to focus heavily on making f(x)’s visual concepts for their releases a bit whacky. But the concepts were often far stranger than the music was, so there was a bit of a disconnect there. But also, the visuals didn’t always make sense or seem to serve any real purpose. They were just odd for the sake of being odd, because odd became an f(x) trait. And because of this, SM Entertainment ran into an issue. f(x) didn’t really make sense, but they needed to. And they needed to feel familiar and enable people to draw some form of a comparison, so that they have a point of reference. f(x) incorporating a Kaws-esque graphic into the group logo, with an EP cover of them standing on a hilltop wearing animal heads is cool creatively, but how can audiences connect with that? And when you’ve gone so crazy with the visuals, how do you ensure the music matches the expectation that somebody may have based on them? SM had backed themselves into a bit of a corner.

Pink Tape was effectively a soft rebrand for f(x), and it was all about trying to have f(x) tap into what helped Girls’ Generation become as big as they were; and that was by giving them a sense of familiarity, relatability and simplicity. A group like f(x) would have made sense coming from anybody but SM. So Pink Tape was SM putting f(x) through what could be deemed more of a typical and expected SM package. And I know that this sounds like a bad thing or a downgrade, but it was actually a great idea. Choices SM made with Pink Tape are what allowed SM to go the route they did with 4 Walls. And Pink Tape also provided the blueprint for Red Velvet.

SM Entertainment had to show everybody that f(x) weren’t just the odd ball group of K-pop with that tomboy in it. We knew that f(x) could do fun and frenetic uptempo pop songs. But Pink Tape showcased that f(x) could do cute and more ‘straightforward’ songs like the other girls. That they could do a standard ‘urban leaning’ club record like the other girls. That they could slow things down for a typical K-pop ballad like the other girls. Or do a cute lil’ doo-wop bop like the Generation of Girls’. Pink Tape showed that f(x) were a group that had range and could truly do it all. But it also showed that they really did have a style that could carry across different sounds and types of songs. f(x) could do a Girls’ Generation song, but Girls’ Generation couldn’t pick an f(x) song at random and necessarily do it the same justice.

f(x) - Pink Tape | SM Entertainment

The more conformist (if you will) straight-laced songs on Pink Tape are a bit of a mixed bag. “No More” (a song which started life as an Ariana Grande song titled “Boyfriend Material”) is great. It’s different for f(x), but it works because their charm comes through on the song in spades. But “Signal” is as beige as beige can get. It’s a generic disco song. It’s flat like unrefrigerated Pepsi. It’s just an anybody song. Girls’ Generation could do this. Wonder Girls have done this. BoA has also done this. “Signal” isn’t a bad song. But f(x) don’t come through on it at all. It’s crazy that f(x) sound so deadpan and give nothing on a damn disco track where they have so much space to do what f(x) do. But these two songs breaking this way kinda makes sense when you consider SM’s plan of having f(x) tap into what helped make Girls’ Generation popular. Of the two songs, “No More” is the one that sounds most like it could be a Girls’ Generation song.

But the kookier songs on the album are also a bit of a mixed bag. “Rum Pum Pum Pum” is a pretty typical f(x) song, but it’s too by the f(x) book. This could be a song on Electric Shock, Hot Summer, or Pinocchio. I always skip it. Pink Tape for me starts at “Shadow”, which is the one song on the album which not only sets the tone for the whole thing, but also encapsulates it. “Shadow” manages to tap into the ‘girlish charm’ associated with Girls’ Generation, but with the left of centre quirks you would associate with f(x). It’s actually a shame that “Shadow” wasn’t made the title song of the album. “Airplane” is a strange one. It’s very much of its time; being of the David Guetta, Zedd and Madeon sound which was EVERYWHERE circa 2013. But it wasn’t a sound which K-pop had yet run into the ground, so it felt somewhat fresh. And “Airplane” being EDM, made it feel fresh for f(x), because it wasn’t a sound they’d ever done up until it. But, it’s very void of f(x)-isms. So what you end up with is this really cool sounding song, which doesn’t feel enough like an f(x) song, even though all of the pieces were there for it to.

There is an inconsistency with the material in terms of how much of the f(x)-isms we get on each song, which I also felt was a trait with Pinocchio / Hot Summer. But the material isn’t the sole culprit here. The order of it is.

The sequencing on Pink Tape isn’t the best. Despite the different sounds and vibes that Pink Tape plays with, it very easily could have been sequenced in a way where the album had a sense of flow, as opposed to feeling like you’re listening to a Now compilation. I’m sure a stan will be like ‘It’s to give the effect of different things being recorded on a tape, at different times like in the title’, but I’m not buying that. Not when most of the fans probably didn’t know what a VHS cassette tape was when f(x) dropped this album. I bet even members of f(x) had to Google what that shit was.

Each song you get shunted to is listenable. Nothing on Pink Tape is so bad it demands a skip. But the sequencing does make this album feel messier than it actually is, and robs it of sounding like an actual body of work - thereby once again creating the disconnect between the narrative of the visuals and the music.

f(x) - Pink Tape | SM Entertainment

A common thing with K-pop groups is that there are some members who just have no presence on songs whatsoever. Shout-outs to Sunny from Girls’ Generation. And a continued discussion is that of line distribution. This isn’t exclusive to K-pop. It happens with groups in every genre, in / from every country. Sometimes there is a clear ‘hierarchy’ if you will in terms of who is the lead vocalist (I use the term vocalist loosely when it comes to K-pop), who is the second lead, and so on and so forth. f(x) are no different. Victoria categorically gets the least amount of mic time on every song. And whilst Krystal likes to step into the booth like she’s the Beyoncé of the group, it’s actually Luna. But the thing I like about f(x)’s songs, is that regardless of how they are divided up, every member still has a presence on the song. And whilst Amber is the designated rapper of the group, she doesn’t rap on every song. Sometimes she sings. And it adds a nice colour to the songs, because you’re not expecting to hear Amber sing, or to sound as good as she does.

And the biggest thing which separated f(x) from Girls’ Generation is that you can hear every member, singing on the hooks of songs, and it’s always in the form of a really cool harmony and vocal arrangement - which was and still is pretty rare in K-pop. The vocal arrangements on f(x)’s songs is a big thing that helps set them apart from everybody else. And Pink Tape highlights that the special sauce on f(x)’s songs aren’t just the songs themselves, but the way in which their vocals are produced and arranged. It’s why f(x) are able to sing Girls’ Generation sounding ass songs and not have them sound JUST like Girls’ Generation songs. And it’s also why they’re able to cover 4 Minute’s “Mirror Mirror” and then claim it.

f(x) - Pink Tape | SM Entertainment

Pink Tape really shouldn’t work as well as it does. Some would argue that it doesn’t. It throws a lot of different sounds up in the air, and then just lobs them at you. It feels less trippy now than it did back in 2013. The slightly off-kilter and unconventional structures and arrangements which became a trend with f(x)’s music is somewhat the genesis of SM’s A&R team cherry picking these sorts of songs for more of their acts. You can hear it in SuperM’s music, some of Red Velvet’s earlier stuff, and you can definitely hear it in Aespa’s music today. Despite f(x) being the one SM group that didn’t last, their essence still lives on in SM acts to this day, which is what makes their disbandment so bittersweet.

For those coming into K-pop fresh, they will probably appreciate the familiarity of the sounds on Pink Tape and how catchy the songs are. And even now, Pink Tape still sounds good and has songs which could play on radio now. It wouldn’t surprise me if it randomly managed to find itself a new audience during this age of music where anything that’s old can be new again once Gen Z discovers it.

f(x)’s debut didn’t make much of a statement in terms of who f(x) were and what really made them unique compared to Girls’ Generation and even their brother / sister group SHINee. It was pretty much wholly typical SM fare that any artist in the Seongsu-dong headquarters could have done. But Pink Tape pushed f(x) into a place where everything clicked. SM Entertainment pulled on the threads of “Nu ABO” and songs from Electric Shock to differentiate f(x)’s sound to a point where it was a part of their overall branding. To such a point that when Girls’ Generation would release certain songs that didn’t quite work for them, my response would be ‘f(x) woulda done this better’ (i.e “Catch Me If You Can”) or ‘This sounds like an f(x) song’ (i.e “I Got a Boy”). But with Pink Tape, SM manages to show that for how different f(x) were as a group, they were not this wholly alien group that couldn’t sit alongside other girl groups. K-pop is not a business where being an outlier really pays off. But even so f(x) managed to straddle that line with Pink Tape.

f(x) - Pink Tape | SM Entertainment

But whilst SM may have had their good marketing heads on for f(x), there is a fast food approach that SM took with f(x), which I do think hurts Pink Tape. f(x) were putting out something every year. Despite this you can still hear the growth in their music. But it also meant that in some cases, the frequency of releases meant that one release ended up with songs which would have been far better served on another. I liked Electric Shock. But we didn’t need it. And some of those songs should have been held to be featured on Pink Tape. “Jet”, “Love Hate” and “Let’s Try” all would have tightened up the Pink Tape package.

But as it stands, Pink Tape is still enjoyable, making the start of a new wave that SM were on, of delivering actual ALBUMS, as opposed to a 13 track release consisting of the title track, one great album track and then 11 tracks of filler. I’m not sure if Pink Tape is f(x)’s best album, as many others regard it. But I do think it is an important album in their discography, which really opened up the potential of what f(x) could go on to be.

Verdict: What is a VHS?

Highlights:
▪ Shadow 🔥
▪ Pretty Girl
▪ Step
▪ Airplane
▪ No More 🏆