‘The Leaders’ Lyric Analysis
Released with ZERO: FEVER Part 2, 1st March 2021.
Once upon a time I saw something online saying that this song’s Korean name was ‘The Student Council’ or something of the like. But when researching for this post, I didn’t find any mention of it. It seems logical because the student council is consistently mentioned in the lyrics, but if it was that obvious, I feel like it would be pretty common knowledge on the internet.
This song is the first that marks my changed methods of analysis/annotation based on my changing view of the storyline prompted by the Diary entries. In my past analyses, red represented HALATEEZ, blue TREASURETEEZ, and purple traits that were present in both groups and the general story, such as time travel. Now, red will represent Gothic elements, including motifs like fire, fever, illusion vs reality, and so on. Blue will represent celestial and nautical imagery, and the idea of a ‘new hope’. Purple will represent general aspects of the storyline, like time travel. Luckily for me, this new system correlates quite closely with the old one - as HALATEEZ are associated with Gothic imagery, fire and such, and Treasureteez are associated with nautical imagery, light, and colours. This new system allows me to express broader themes about the storyline without shoving songs into tiny boxes.
But let’s talk about ‘The Leaders’.
It’s a very interesting song. Both ATEEZ’s general storyline and the FEVER series discuss rebelling against authority and systems of authority, using music, passion and dance. But ‘The Leaders’ not only takes joy in acts of authority, it supports the systems that authority came from. It comes off as having a duality of ATEEZ showing how cool they are, and them critiquing the system of authority through parodying how that system acts.
Or at least, I hope that’s the case. Because otherwise them bullying kids for their lunch money would be far more cruel than cool.
But other than that, it’s another ‘look how cool we are’ song - as is relatively common with ATEEZ, and especially with this album. They are expressing that they are the leaders of the 4th gen, and of kpop, music, and this rebellion. There’s lots of foreshadowing, lots of Hongjoong being a little odd, and lots of dissing those who aren’t as cool as them in some very creative and actually kind of motivating ways.
Full lyric analysis below the line.