10cm's New Single 'Earthling' To Promote New Branch Of Korean Online Shopping Mega-Site Gmarket: Has The K-Indie Band Sold Out?

It is true that a lot of popular songs are used in commercials to help sell various products. It is also true that in the world of K-Pop, idols' faces are often plastered on signs and billboards and the stars appear in cheesy commercials where they dance around and act cute trying convince everyone to buy a certain brand of juice or face cream (who else switched to innisfree after the Lee Min Ho ad campaign?).

We can even go as far as to admit that some pop groups release specific singles that are in themselves, commercials (so happy that Big Bang made it past that horrendous "Lollipop" cell phone song).

Some may say it is a right of passage. Rising stars need to peddle themselves, do the commercial grunt work, before they can really make it big. That's all well and fine for commercial singers, but now even Korean indie bands are selling out?

10cm got their start on the streets of Hongdae, a major university area in Seoul, playing amongst dozens of other buskers vying for the attention of passersby. With their unique style and catchy original songs, they were soon attracting large crowds.

Slowly but surely they have built themselves up to a reasonable amount of fame. They have appeared on music shows, lent songs to various compilations, and had unimagined sales for their first and second studio albums. I mean, come on, they only recently gave up their old CyWorld account for Facebook.

Their mainstream popularity came with the catchy song, "Americano." In 2011 there wasn't a coffee shop in Korea that didn't have the tune as part of their regular music rotation (I will even admit to it being my ringtone for quite some time). 10cm then followed up their single success with a rather popular domestic concert series in 2012, a big change from their usual scene of sidewalks, parks, and cramped cafes.

But on Friday the acoustic duo disappointed K-indie enthusiasts with the release of their latest single, "Earthling?" The song was written for the promotion of the Korean online shopping mega-site Gmarket's new branch, G9. The new sub-site will offer nine special deals each day for their upgraded members (the 'Earthlings'). In the song the other shoppers not taking advantage of the G9 deals are referred to as 'Aliens.'

Although the song hasn't even been out for a day yet, the response in the media has been filled with a lot of "cute" and "clever" remarks. But one listen of the song and it is painfully clear that this is not 10cm's best work. In fact, I would go as far as to say it is the worst song they have ever produced.

I don't appreciate Kwon Jung Yeol telling me where I should "click." I don't like that he keeps talking about how nice it is to shop either. I have to wonder if they are satisfied with this single, or if they are slamming back a few bottles of soju somewhere trying to forget the time they agreed to write a song about the wonders of online shopping.

Wasn't it bad enough when G-Dragon was writing terrible songs for the website's commercials a few years ago? I thought we had moved past all this, people.

Whatever the reason for this latest musical abomination, shame on you, 10cm. You are just another name added to the list of cool indie bands that have sold out.