A Brief History of Obsession

(Or: How I Learned to Stop Resisting and Love EXO)

If we’re talking about first encounters, then it began with Goblin and Chanyeol on Stay With Me early into the pandemic, in 2020. I had no idea who he was, but his melodic, almost tender rapping (I know it sounds preposterous but there’s no other way to describe it) and harmonization with Punch was worlds away from what I had thought k-pop was.

But the story didn’t begin there, did it? It really began with Phantom back in 2004/05: the first time I experienced a musical universe hooking me in and upending life as I knew it. It was in the era of fans feverishly sharing YouSendit files in forums, before the advent of fancams on YouTube. I listened on repeat to every version of the final lair scene I could get my hands on, particularly Christine, the Phantom, and Raoul singing Wandering Child. After Phantom, U2 took over, and I became part of a little community online sharing DVD copies of prized concert bootlegs over snail mail, group-watching anniversary specials, fangirling over every newly unearthed Boy or Achtung Baby (my favorite eras) photo of the band. There were a few other musical acts (Twoset Violin, Hamilton) that made blips on my radar, but not on the same scale as Phantom and U2.

After Goblin I dove headfirst into the world of k-entertainment. I liked My Girlfriend is a Gumiho and Lee Seung-gi’s comic appeal, so I looked for his other shows on Netflix and stumbled upon Busted! which opened up for me the chaotic multiverse of Korean variety shows. Little did I know that one of the cast members was EXO’s maknae (youngest member) Sehun, then a variety show rookie adorably calling Park Min-young “noona“. I also discovered New World because of Lee Seung-gi, and there was Kai, EXO’s lead dancer, getting bamboozled by the day by his sunbae (senior) castmates. When I started getting into sageuks (historical dramas), I breezed through 100 Days My Prince and thought the lead, Do Kyung-soo (D.O.), was charming if a little wooden. The chemistry he had with Nam Ji-hyun was a slow burn; he did pull off the quiet, understated smolder very well. But I still was indifferent, because none of these shows featured any musical connections to EXO. I thought that if I’d ever get into k-pop, it would be via BTS through my ARMY friends and the tons of content they were sharing on Twitter. Kin even recommended a playlist to me some time ago.

But boy, was I wrong.

Because of a recent Lee Joon-gi marathon, I watched Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo last month, and Baekhyun played the youngest prince. When I found out he was EXO as well, I thought I’d at least check out how different he and D.O. were as pop stars. Baekhyun was so-so on Candy, so I played the first EXO video that came up on the search suggestions on YouTube. It was Love Shot.

That was the tipping point. It blew me away, with its languid beat, Kai’s gracefully martial movements, D.O.’s smolder turned up to its maximum (not to mention those delicious, levitation-inducing vocals), and the irresistibly catchy naaa-na-na-na-na-na-na of the chorus.

The Eve inevitably followed, then Monster, Obsession, Call Me Baby, Ko Ko Bop, Growl and Overdose. I loved the whiplash from the dizzying mix of genres they squeeze into their songs. I loved their outlandish costumes and MV storylines. Their choreography is top-tier, the live stages are spectacular, and the incredible one-shot camera maneuvering of Heart Attack lives in my head rent-free. The level of fanservice in EXO Next Door and EXO’s Travel the World is ridiculous. Let’s not forget the deadly live concert sequence of White Noise + Thunder + Playboy + Artificial Love.

I still have a couple of Travel seasons to go through, Chanyeol, Kai, and D.O.’s other shows and movies, and a whole lot of concert footage. Hwaiting!

Edited: Now with a playlist! There’s another mixtape story I’m trying to tell here, as always.