Like every Sunday, we are taking a look back at K-pop history. For today, I chose a song that brought together two of Korea’s greatest stars nine years ago: IU and G-Dragon. G-Dragon featured on IU’s song ‘Palette’ back then, but doesn’t make an appearance on the official MV. I wanted to choose the video from a live session they did last year, on IU’s YouTube show of the same name, but in that version they skipped the second verse from which I chose the lyrics for today, so we stay with the official MV.

The lyrics I picked from the song are these:

“긴 머리보다 반듯이 자른 단발이 좋아

하긴 그래도 “좋은 날” 부를 땐 참 예뻤더라”

“I like a neat, blunt bob more than long hair.

Still, when you sang ‘Good Day,’ you really were beautiful.”

1. 긴 머리보다 … 단발이 좋아

• 긴 머리 = “long hair”
• 단발 = “bob haircut”
• –보다 = comparison marker (“more than”)
• –이 좋아 = “(I) like / is good”

→ Basic comparison structure: A보다 B가 좋아 (“I like B more than A”).

2. 반듯이 자른 단발

• 반듯이 = “neatly / evenly / straight” (adverb)
• 자르다 → 자른 = past attributive form modifying a noun
• 단발 = the noun being modified

→ Standard noun-modifying structure: [adverb + verb-(은)] + noun.

3. 하긴

• Discourse adverb meaning “well, that’s true / still / admittedly”
• Used to partially agree with or add nuance to a previous statement

→ Common in spoken Korean to soften or qualify what follows.

4. –을 땐 / –더라

• 부를 땐 = “when (someone) sang”
• 부르다 → 부를 때 → 땐 (contracted)
• –더라 = past tense based on personal observation or memory

→ Used to state something the speaker remembers having seen or experienced.

IU here compares her current self, at (Korean) age 25, with her singing the song ‘Good Day’ when she was 18, reminiscing about her past. She has changed, and she likes how she is at that moment, but this doesn’t mean that she feels that she wasn’t beautiful back then as well.

Do you remember when you first heard IU’s ‘Palette’? How have you evolved in the years since then?