Belift Lab

‘ILLIT core’ is a term that refers to the unique sensibility and aesthetics of the girl group ILLIT (ILLIT).

Wearing balloon skirts, ribbons, and lace-trimmed outfits, and delivering music with bright, bouncy sounds, they evoked ‘magical girls’ and gained popularity among global fans in their teens and twenties.

However, ILLIT did not chase established formulas for success and boldly tried something new. Through their first single ‘NOT CUTE ANYMORE’, they declared that they are ‘no longer just cute’. They rejected how others look at them and the world’s fixed ideas or expectations, and sang about the agency and growth of the real ‘me’ beyond the ‘cute girl’ image.

The musical mood also changed drastically. Unlike earlier releases that often featured danceable tempos using synth sounds and repeated trap beats, this time they presented a title track grounded in a loose reggae rhythm. Even so, the catchiness remains. A soft, pillowy melody that suits winter feels calm. The spaces are filled by the pure, unadorned vocals of the five members and their delicate expressiveness.

Belift Lab

The performance likewise showed a different side of ILLIT. Concise choreography that lightly shakes the head and shoulders, together with restrained expressions, pares back their signature sprightliness and delivers the cool, chic message of the song with focus. Despite ILLIT’s declaration of ‘shedding cuteness’, their ‘quirky charm’ remains, which many say doubles the paradoxical appeal of the five members.

ILLIT has continued a narrative faithful to their emotions, unfolding whimsical, lively imaginings that cross reality and dreams through diverse motifs. They elicited empathy from peers by likening the pull toward someone they like to a magnet (‘Magnetic’), expressing growing pains through a wisdom tooth (‘Cherish (My Love)’), and comparing clumsiness in new relationships to a cat (‘Borrowed Cat (Do the Dance)’).

‘NOT CUTE ANYMORE’ focuses even more purely on the feelings and tastes of ‘me’. Lyrics such as “Linda Linda lullaby” and “Suede on my vinyl”, imbued with the idea that they grew up listening to the LPs of rock bands as if they were picture books, show this. The wish to be a cool jellyfish that simply goes with the flow without caring how others view them, rather than a universally loved cute puppy (lyrics ‘I prefer being a loose jellyfish to a puppy’), puts the finishing touch on ‘NOT CUTE ANYMORE’.

It is, so to speak, an ‘expansion of the ILLIT core’. Global fans responded. ‘NOT CUTE ANYMORE’ rose to No. 1 on the Billboard Japan rapid-rising chart ‘Hot Shot Songs’ for the chart dated November 30, and took the top spot on QQ Music, the largest music streaming platform in China, on the ‘Weekly Korea Chart’ (aggregation period November 28~December 4). On Melon ‘Top 100’, it entered at No. 100 soon after release and has steadily climbed, reaching No. 34 as of 9 a.m. on the 10th, showing a sharp uptrend.

Through ‘NOT CUTE ANYMORE’, ILLIT proved that they are a team with a broad musical spectrum and the ability to freely expand a diverse palette of colors. It is a move befitting the group name (ILLIT), created by combining ‘I will’ and ‘It’. The next step from ILLIT, a group with great potential that makes one look forward to what they will become because they can become anything, is eagerly anticipated.