Mirotic

Background

The album had been in production since 2007, but the title was not decided upon until January 2008. TVXQ members Xiah Junsu and Max Changmin participated directly in the making of the album, penning the lyrics for "노을.. 바라보다 (Picture of You)" and "Love in the Ice", respectively. In addition, members Hero Jaejoong and Micky Yoochun composed and wrote the lyrics to "사랑아 울지마 (Don't Cry My Lover)" and "사랑 안녕 사랑 (Love Bye Love)", respectively, for version C of the album.

TVXQ had two promotional singles from the album. The title single "Mirotic" won a total of nine number-one trophies on Korean music programs The Music Trend, Music Bank, and M! Countdown, and is touted by critics as a staple song of K-pop. Though succeeding single "Wrong Number" was unable to meet the success of its predecessor, it was an acclaimed K-pop hit.

Mirotic won the Disk Daesang (equivalent to Album of the Year) at the 23rd Golden Disk Awards and Album of the Year at the 2008 Mnet KM Music Festival (MKMF). It is currently the best-selling album among Korea's second-generation idols, earning the name "Album of the Decade."

The choreography of "주문-Mirotic," the title track of the album, was done in a collaboration between Korean choreographers and Kenny Wormald, who had also worked with pop stars Justin Timberlake, Chris Brown and Christina Aguilera. The song features a "reverse beat" track, meaning that the bass beat is either a half beat or a whole beat late in coming into a new phrase. While in most genres of music, the bass note comes in directly on the first beat of the measure in setting the chord of the phrase, reverse beat songs alter this usual method. In doing so, the reverse beat genre is said to have an effect of "growing on" the listener, having an addictive sound.

"Mirotic" is a newly coined term, created by member Hero Jaejoong, that combines the Korean miro (미로), meaning "maze", and the English suffix "-tic".

The title song was composed by the Danish producers, Remee, Lucas Secon and Thomas Troelsen. The German singer, Sarah Connor, also bought the copyright to the song (not specified when). Despite the fact that the two original songs were the same composed piece, they have musical differences (TVXQ's version has a rap and multi-layered harmonies while Connor's has a bridge; the melodies in the chorus also differ). "Mirotic" is one of the most successful singles ever in South Korea, in 2008 the song was downloaded 2,337,864 times. By the end of 2011 the song was officially downloaded 4,173,225 times.

Critical reception

Mirotic has received positive acclaim from music critics. Hwang Seon-eop of online magazine IZM rated the album 3.5 out of 5 stars, putting Mirotic as TVXQ's most critically successful album to date.

Controversy

In November 2008, the Korean Commission of Youth Protection ruled that Mirotic was detrimental to youths and declared that the lyrics were provocative and overly sexual. As a result, the album was labeled with stickers indicating that it was unsuitable for people under 19 years old and any performances of the song would have to be broadcast after 10 PM. In response to the ruling, SM Entertainment agreed to make a clean version but also had filed an injunction to overrule the commission's decision

After the Commission of Youth Protection released their statement regarding the ban on the album, SM Entertainment said,

TVXQ performed the clean version at the 23rd Annual Golden Disk Awards. The lyrics were changed from "I got you" to "I chose you" and "I got you under my skin" to "I got you under my sky."

In March 2009, the Seoul Administrative Court ruled in favor of SM Entertainment, stating:

On April 9, 2009, the Commission of Youth Protection announced they would appeal the ruling to a high court after having an emergency meeting and deeming that the phrase, "I got you under my skin", was inappropriate for minors.