A recent conversation following the pre-release of KiiiKiii‘s “Candy Pink Magic Hole Flip Phone” had my coworkers and me reminiscing the good old days of K-pop phone company collaborations a la BigBang/2NE1‘s “Lollipop,” as well as other second-gen songs about phones that had slipped our minds like TVXQ‘s “Wrong Number.” It was a fun phone-themed trip down memory lane that made me realize just how many K-pop songs are about ignoring calls, begging for a replies, or the addictive nature of technology. And that’s how this playlist came to be.
Bringing all the generations of K-pop together — from Mina‘s 2002 hit “Answer the Phone” to BoyNextDoor‘s “Call Me” from 2024 — this playlist is both a love and breakup letter to the technology we can’t seem to escape, with some classic phone collabs and their modern counterparts thrown in.
Sadly, my all-time phone-themed fave, SNSD‘s Japanese single “Beep Beep,” couldn’t make the cut, but once you’re done with this playlist, go give it a listen!
