Highlight Reveals The Difficulty Of Being A 2nd Generation Group In The 4th Generation Era
Today, Highlight held an online press conference for their third mini-album, The Blowing.
This is the first comeback that Highlight has made since all four members returned their military service. Their last comeback was in November 2018 with Outro, but Doojoon did not participate in promotions at that time.
Doojoon: “There was a surprising amount of time to spare.”
Yang Yoseob: “We had a lot of time to get it right, but it would be wrong to say we didn’t feel a sense of pressure about releasing a good album.”
Doojoon: “We prepared for the comeback for almost two months.”
Gikwang participated in writing and producing the title track, “Not the End.” He shared that he worked hard on it, but it wasn’t originally going to be the title track. He revealed, “We did a blind test with three songs, and this is the one that was chosen. The members also gave suggestions as we did recordings, and we had fun preparing.”
When asked if their mindsets changed after they came back from the military, Doojoon said that he feels like he has definitely changed, but he doesn’t know why. He thinks that it may be because he now has more gratitude for the little things and for being able to make music.
There are ‘ending poses’ at the end of music show performances now. We had to think about and discuss things like that. It felt strange to see the ending poses. It made me think that our juniors were truly amazing people. I don’t have confidence in my ability to stare down a camera for almost 10 seconds.
—Yoseob
Doojoon agreed and stated that the trends had changed a lot since he last made a comeback. He commented, “There’s a lot more web variety and online content than before.”
Veteran groups like SHINee and 2PM have been making comebacks after their members came back from their military service as well. Gikwang shared that those groups give them a lot of strength by showing them outstanding music many years after debut.
Doojoon, who is close with SHINee’s Minho, revealed that they both contacted each other during their enlistments and once they were discharged.
I think we felt a sense of commonality as we had both been in this line of work for over 10 years. There weren’t as many idol artists back then, so our groups were very friendly with each other. There were a lot of things we took for granted back then that aren’t the case now, so we could relate to and comfort each other. I felt really happy to see SHINee promote and I cheered them on.
—Doojoon
Highlight is part of the second generation of K-Pop that is typically groups formed between 2000 and 2010. In 2021, we are in the midst of the fourth generation that began around 2019 or 2020. Dongwoon said that he wishes to be a senior idol that surprises everyone with diversity. He stated that he’s not sure if he can say he is a “long-running” artist yet, but he hopes to work hard to become one. He remarked, “I always feel regretful when I see so many groups disbanding.”
I’m just grateful to be able to sing. I hope that these promotions will do well so we can take a step toward the next promotions. Regardless of our rankings, I want people to know that Highlight is a group that is good at continuing to make their music together.
—Yoseob
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