By Andrew Hamlin
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Lumpy, galumphing brass notes lay down the bassline. Faint trumpet-y overtones join in. The beat pickleballs left-right across the stereo spectrum, before a lead vocal joins in—cool, commanding, confident, with all eyes, ears, and adoration on her—but she knew that from the start.
That’s how the title track to aespa’s “Whiplash” starts. “Whiplash” is aespa’s latest mini-album (or extended play, EP). The all-female group from South Korea will be performing at Kent’s ShoWare Center on Jan. 28.

Members of the K-pop group Aespa perform prior to an opening day baseball game between the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, South Korea Wednesday, March 20, 2024, in Seoul, South Korea. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Together for just five years as of 2025, the singing quartet has already broken sales records, starred in their own reality web series, and banged their beats everywhere from Tokyo and Cannes, to Jakarta and Good Morning America.
Thrown together, courtesy of the deep pockets and deeper grooming of the K-Pop magnates SM Entertainment Company, the group features four young women—Ningning the baby at 22, the other three, Giselle, Winter, and Karina, all 24.
The group’s debut single, “Black Mamba,” dropped on Nov. 17, 2020. With eight writers and one producer, the song runs less than four minutes, the tune code-switched, in classic K-Pop style, between Korean and English lyrics in the blink of an eye. The song as a whole uses the metaphor of a huge, all-consuming snake to be fought to the death.
One month later came the group’s debut EP “Savage,” which made the “Billboard 200” chart at number 20—a record for any K-Pop act. Its title track found the mamba still snaking around the edges of its video. This time, just four writers created the less-than-four minutes of music, which kicked off with someone doing a hilarious impression of a Valley Girl, then affirming her status as a savage soul indeed, with the phrase, “You’re still hiding and hallucinating”—my favorite putdown—an impeccable invective directed at an unnamed target.
(This reporter’s second favorite: “Your weakness algorithm.”)
And “impeccable”’s frankly too mild.
Soo-man Lee, head of SM Entertainment, doesn’t let anything out the studio door until he’s signed off on every single syllable. An assembly line machine vacuum-packing tennis balls could not be more ruthless.
“Girls,” the second EP, dropped in the summer of 2022. That title track required six writers for exactly four minutes of music. The pesky mamba refused to die, but our valiant quartet brandished motorcycles, samurai swords, and ironclad determination to dominate and devastate the snake in this and all possible parallel universes.
“Girls” blew past “Savage”’s record-making debut, taking Billboard 200’s number three spot.
Concert-goers on Tuesday can expect most, if not all, of the above at the night’s live show, as well as highlights from the “My World,” “Drama,” and “Whiplash” EPs. aespa will also perform pieces from their first—and, so far, only—full-length album, 2024’s “Armageddon.”
From the live footage this reporter has seen online, fans can expect spotlights, pinspot lights, track lights, backup dancers, and a brain-boggling array of stadium-sized vector graphics.
aespa performs Jan. 28 at the ShoWare center in Kent. For more information, visit https://www.accessoshowarecenter.com/events/2025/aespa.
Nice article, but you didn’t mention aespa’s song Next Level. It was released before Savage and was reviled along with the group – at first. Next Level became so popular as to be banned from the airwaves in Korea during study week, only the third song ever so honored. It’ll always be my favorite aespa song and the music video always gets my heart racing!