This a song I debated covering. But if I’m going to cover songs where any member of Stray Kids are involved (like OSTs), I have to cover this one. And this is an even more unique situation, in my opinion, as this song wasn’t written for MODYSSEY specifically. One of the members of MODYSSEY, Zi Hao, said that I.N told him that it was a track they were planning on using for Stray Kids and was then given to MODYSSEY.
Now, we don’t know the full life of this song. We don’t know when it was written and how far along it was before it was handed off to MODYSSEY.
What we do know is that it had to have been far enough along for the other members of Stray Kids to have heard it. And in watching MODYSSEY’s recording video, it seemed like 3RACHA had made a demo that MODYSSEY then used. (That’s an assumption on my part, but that’s what I took from it.) And we know that 3RACHA was not involved in the actual recording of the song. They weren’t present in the recording studio for any of the directing.
So, while the track itself – the lyrics and composition – is credited to 3RACHA and two other producers, the style choices in the actual recording and performance, the concept, the choreography, and the music video storyline are all unknowns. How much of the performance came from the possible demo and how much came from the director in the studio with them? Was any concept inspiration taken from ideas Stray Kids and their team had thought about? Were there any parts of the choreography that had already been brainstormed before being taken over by MODYSSEY?
I don’t know. There’s a possibility, but nothing that I’ve seen that confirms or denies that.
But it’s still a 3RACHA song! And because it got so far down the Stray Kids pipeline, it has a lot of Stray Kids signature to it and a lot of 3RACHA signature to it. And! MODYSSEY has definitely made it their own, and they’re an insanely talented group on their own merits.
With all of that said, let’s look at the lyrics.
Couple disclaimers: I don’t speak Korean. I am using my limited SKZ knowledge and the English translations from Genius. These are my own thoughts based on those translations and not meant to be a definitive interpretation.
Here is the music video to listen to as you read the lyrics:
In case you’re unfamiliar, MODYSSEY is a brand new seven member boy group that debuted with JYP in April of this year. “HOOK” is their debut song. They were formed on the Mnet show Planet C: Home Race. It was a spin-off series from Boys II Planet, a survival show that aired last year and produced Alpha Drive One. Planet C: Home Race took eighteen of the Boys II Planet contestants who had been eliminated and did a much shorter version of the survival show – only three episodes – to form MODYSSEY.
Their management is sort of complicated, a collaboration between a few different entertainment companies, one of which is JYP/JYP China. The members are Yichen, Hengyu, Rowan, Lynnlynn, Li Zi Hao, Suren, and Fan Zheyi. Five of the seven had already either debuted in groups or been on one or more survival/reality competition shows prior to Boys II Planet and Planet C.
Specifically, Li Zi Hao debuted with Boy Story in 2018 when he was just fourteen. Boy Story was a Chinese boy group under JYP, and Stray Kids know him from then. If you remember, in part two of the “Hyunjin’s Cells” SKZ Code episode, Hyunjin, Changbin, and Lee Know deliver coffee to two of the MODYSSEY members in one of the dance studios. And as they’re leaving, they ask where Zi Hao is. It’s a really sweet full circle moment.
As I said, “HOOK” is their debut song, part of their debut single album 1. Got Hooked: An Addictive Symphony, which includes “HOOK,” “Revenant,” “HOOK Chinese Ver.” and “Hook Inst.” In that same SKZ Code episode, the caption said “A song produced by Stray Kids’ 3RACHA, combining MODYSSEY’s energy and 3RACHA’s signature rough and powerful beat.”
And that is a fantastic way to describe the song. It’s upbeat. It’s catchy. And it makes you want to dance.
I really love the whole overall concept of a “hook.” A hook is the part of the song that grabs your attention and gets stuck in your head. Sometimes, it’s the first line. Sometimes, it’s the chorus or even just part of the chorus. Sometimes, it’s a beat or a melody. It usually incorporates the main motif or theme of a song.
And I love when 3RACHA writes about music. It feels like a look into their heads of how they see and think about and write music. And “HOOK” has a lot of really interesting analogies for a song hook.
Verse 1 starts with:
Hit you like a hook, not a verse, it’s a hook
Jump so hard, feel the shock, yeah hook
Slide right in, catch your vibe in one go
Hook, hook, Captain Hook
They describe a hook as a physical experience. Getting it, jumping, shocking, sliding in, catching. And that’s what a hook is supposed to do. It’s supposed to grab your attention, pull you in and not let you go.
They also use several little analogies of beginnings or small things that make a big impact.
Pre-Chorus:
Bloom like flowers, starlight glowChorus:
From one seed, I build it up
A seed. A bloom. Something that starts small and grows into something huge. I wonder if that’s how a lot of their songs start – with a beat, with a melody, with an idea, with a concept – and they build around that to fill out a full song. Even if that first idea doesn’t end up being the actual hook, that’s definitely a common creative experience. That’s how it is when I write. I start with one small idea, one “what if,” and it grows into a full blown story, even if that initial idea is changed beyond recognition or dropped entirely.
“Starlight glow” is in the same vein. Stars in the night sky aren’t that bright from Earth. But an actual star up close – like the sun – is bright. It’s that same idea of pulling you in, getting you, well, hooked. (I also love seeing the common motifs from other 3RACHA songs like “0801” or “Star, Light.” Little things that scream them.)
And speaking of “getting hooked,” there are a few references to addiction or being “hooked” on something.
Chorus:
Don’t stop the melody
‘Cause I know this is our remedy
Addictive symphony
Let’s just hook, hook, hook, hookVerse 2
Crazy scene, can’t be seen
No pattern, now you’re deep in
Before it fades, lock your place
Hurry up and get it, get it
I really love the idea of music as a remedy and an addiction. For a lot of us, music is that. It’s a remedy to bad days – mental, physical, emotional. A specific genre or band or group or album can be the only thing to get you out of a funk. And it may not even just be the music but the members themselves that help. And it’s obsession. K-Pop is really good at getting us obsessed and emotionally hooked on not only music but on a group entirely.
And “hook” is not only used in the music industry. It’s used in writing as the first line in a book or article that gets a readers attention. It’s used in marketing as the thing that grabs someone’s attention at the beginning of a video or on a billboard.
I really loved the imagery used in the music video. They use fishing, which was just funny, honestly – a very literal image of “hook.” But the recurring motif is phones. The members recording on their phones or watching something on their phones or fighting to plug their phones in because the battery is about to die. Another double meaning of phone/screen addiction and being “hooked” into a video.
It’s very well done. A really fascinating amalgamation of metaphors for music and, specifically, this one aspect of song writing that I, as someone who does not write music, don’t always think about too deeply.
As for 3RACHA signatures, I pointed out a few in my lyric annotations. There are few rhythms and vocal styles that feel very 3RACHA/Stray Kids. Again, I don’t know how much of that was part of the possible demo or was directed that way later. But the sound is very recognizable either way.
I also pointed out the tempo changes and stand out moments from the bridge. If you look at pretty much any Stray Kids title song, you’ll find some sort of bridge/refrain/chorus/outro combination that matches this vibe almost to a T. The tempo changes, there are a few slower lines and then a few explosive lines, maybe a dance break or a rap break, and then a chorus or outro. I’m not well-verse enough in other K-Pop groups to know if this is an industry standard or habit. But I do know that’s very on brand for 3RACHA.
And I also pointed out the higher vocal adlibs in the last chorus. That’s very much a signature I’ve noticed in many of their songs. For “HOOK,” MODYSSEY turned into to a highlight part, where the member singing those high notes – Suren – has a solo moment in the choreo and the music video.
And that’s ultimately where I want to end this post. MODYSSEY is amazing. And they made this song theirs. I took some time to listen to the other song on the single album, “Revenant.” I watched the music video, their reaction to the music video, the making of the music video, and one of their dance practices. (I have also watched all of Boys II Planet and part of Planet C: Home Race.) I really wanted to get a feel of them as artists on their own merit.
And they’re adorable, guys. So funny. So insanely talented. They were very sweet in how grateful they were to 3RACHA for the song, and they really wanted to do it justice. I think they did a fantastic job. I’m really interested to see where they go from here, what other music they put out. Definitely check them out if you haven’t yet.
Sources:
“HOOK” Dance Practice (Moving Ver.)
Zi Hao talking about song origin
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