The girl groups of HYBE are reclaiming their narrative, and the first step to this is through their biting new single “ICONIC BY MISTAKE.” In the song, the girls sing about what it’s like to rise to fame in the arms of the same haters who wish for nothing but to see them crumble. It’s a true empowerment anthem if I ever saw one, and one wrapped in the arms of a big pop beat and beautifully bold melodies.
“ICONIC BY MISTAKE” feels like one of those once-in-a-generation happenings, especially since it’s the song that brought three of the current reigning girl groups together under one massive collaboration umbrella. It’s also not surprising that they chose to advertise the single in such a grand way by teasing iconic moments from the music video. I’m talking popcorns exploding, a flying golden tooth, a broken statue being kissed, the whole works.
But let’s talk about the song itself. From the first listen, you’d see that the composers meant to throw out curveballs every two or three seconds in the song, and I’m not even kidding. Sometimes you think they’re going to finish a verse on a sustained key, and then they take it even higher. The thing with this trick is that, while this style is very shiny and attractive, if it’s not handled carefully, it will turn out sounding dissonant. Remember this is a song that’s roughly three minutes long. If too many ingredients appear, it’d clash. aespa runs with this style: sometimes it works for them, other times it doesn’t. For “ICONIC BY MISTAKE,” I can’t complain.
“Hating me is like all you do breakfast to dinner / Algorithm bulletproof, b-breaking your fingers,” they start off with their chant-like chorus. I honestly love the bite. If you’re going to write a song directed at your haters, it might as well sting harder than a bee. “Your imagination got me going viral / Life’s a simulation, got me in a spiral / 24/7, more like 25/8 / Honestly, are you okay?” Minju and Moka add in the pre-chorus. It’s subtle, but every group present is represented, and this shift is felt even more when KATSEYE enters the chat.
“We are truly happy that our long-held wish to stand on stage together has finally come true,” LE SSERAFIM shared with fans ahead of the song’s release. They also called it a “special gift.”
The three powerhouse groups performed the track for the first time on the June 11 broadcast of M Countdown. The song arrived with a music video and two variants: a clean version and an instrumental.