"Love Light" () is a song recorded by South Korean rock band

CNBLUE CNBLUE ( ko, 씨엔블루) is a South Korean pop rock band formed in 2009. The band consists of Jung Yong-hwa (leader, main vocals, guitar, keyboard, rap), Kang Min-hyuk ( drums), and Lee Jung-shin ( bass). First bassist Kwon Kwang-jin left t ...

. It is a single from the band's second mini-album ''

Bluelove ''Bluelove'' is the second Korean extended play of South Korean rock band CNBLUE. It was released on May 19, 2010 by FNC Entertainment and distributed by Mnet Media. Before the album was released, " Love Light" was released as the first digital si ...

''. An acoustic ballad written by main vocalist

Jung Yong-hwa Jung Yong-hwa (; ; born June 22, 1989) is a South Korean singer, musician and actor. He is the leader, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the rock band CNBLUE. Jung made his television debut in '' You're Beautiful'' (2009), and has since st ...

, the track was released by

FNC Entertainment FNC Entertainment (; stands for "fish and cake") is a South Korean entertainment company established in 2006 by South Korean singer and record producer Han Seong-ho. The label operates as a record label, talent agency, music production company, ev ...

and distributed by

Kakao M Kakao M (; formerly Seoul Records, YBM Seoul Records and LOEN Entertainment) was a South Korean entertainment company established by Min Yeong-bin in 1978. It is currently one of the largest co-publisher companies in South Korea. The company op ...

on May 10, 2010. The song peaked at number ten on South Korea's national Gaon Digital Chart; since its release, it has sold over 1.9 million downloads domestically.

Background and composition

Shortly after CNBLUE debuted, main vocalist

was cast for the second season of MBC TV's reality show ''

We Got Married ''We Got Married'' () was a South Korean reality variety show that aired on MBC from 2008 to 2017. The show paired up celebrities who pretended to be married couples and completed various challenges together. The show ran for four seasons and ...

'' and partnered with

Seohyun Seo Ju-hyun (; born June 28, 1991), known professionally as Seohyun, is a South Korean singer, actress and songwriter. She debuted as a member of girl group Girls' Generation (and later its subgroup Girls' Generation-TTS) in August 2007, which ...

of Girls' Generation. He began developing the lyrics for "Love Light" after their initial meeting. While penning the track, Jung thought about his first love and compared it to "Love Revolution" from the band's first mini-album '' Bluetory'' (2010). The rap section was written with Seohyun in mind. "Love Light" is a "light-hearted romantic" song. The ballad comprises Jung's and bandmate

Lee Jong-hyun Lee Jong-hyun (born May 15, 1990) is a South Korean musician, singer-songwriter and actor. He was the former lead guitarist and vocalist of South Korean rock band CNBLUE. He made his acting debut in an omnibus movie '' Acoustic'' in 2010, fol ...

's vocals over an acoustic guitar melody. In order for the listener to find the song more endearing, the former intentionally altered the pronunciation of his words to emphasize the feeling. In addition to the lyrics, Jung also composed the track; it is written in the key of

D Major D major (or the key of D) is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor. The D major scale is: : Ch ...

and has a tempo of 138 beats per minute.

Release and promotion

Ahead of the release of CNBLUE's second mini-album ''

'', "Love Light" was made available on online music stores on May 10, 2010. The band performed the single on SBS MTV's music program '' Inkigayo'' along with lead single "

Love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love o ...

". "Love Light" was performed as a duet with Seohyun at that year's Incheon Hallyu Concert. During a concert stop in midst of the 2014 CNBLUE Live: Can't Stop tour in Singapore, Jung devoted the song to the victims of the sinking of motor vessel ''Sewol''.

Critical reception and commercial performance

Writing for online magazine '' IZM'', So Seung-keun rated "Love Light" half a star out of five, panning the song for the "embarrassing melody aimed at women", its "middle school" lyrics, and "lame" rap. In a separate review for the publication, Lim Yun-hye was disappointed with the track's "simple" and "uninspired" progression. On the chart dated May 9–15, 2010, "Love Light" debuted and peaked at number ten on South Korea's national Gaon Digital Chart. The single ranked within the top 100 for seventeen consecutive weeks. On Gaon Music Chart's year-end report for 2010, "Love" ranked at number 20 on its list of best-performing singles. It was the fortieth best-selling song in South Korea with 1,955,920 downloads and was ranked at number 54 on the Streaming Chart for accumulating 17,046,303 streams.

Charts

Weekly

Year-end

References

{{authority control 2010 singles 2010 songs 2010s ballads CNBLUE songs FNC Entertainment singles Kakao M singles Korean-language songs Songs written by Jung Yong-hwa