KiiiKiii’s “404 (New Era)” just gave the group their first grand prize at a K-pop award show.
At the 2026 SPOTV K-Pop Awards on September 6, KiiiKiii won Best Song of the Year, along with an Artist of the Year bonsang.
I already knew “404,” but the award news gave me a reason to go back through the lyrics, MV, and music-show stages a little more closely.
The KiiiKiii 404 meaning starts with a very familiar internet message: 404 Not Found.
Starting With 404 Not Found
404 is the error code you see when the page you’re looking for can’t be found.
Normally, that means something is missing. You typed the wrong address, the page is gone, or the system simply can’t find what you asked for.
KiiiKiii takes that familiar error and puts it right in the title:
404 (New Era).
We’re used to seeing 404 error, but here it becomes 404, the new era.
What I like is the sound connection between error and era. They aren’t pronounced exactly the same, but they’re close enough for the switch to work. Something that normally signals a problem becomes the start of a new era instead.
And the lyrics don’t stop with the title.
“404, a Point Outside the Coordinates”
One of my favorite parts is “404 좌표 밖의 지점” — roughly, “404, a point outside the coordinates.”
If a computer system needs a location to find something, what happens when you’re outside the coordinates in the first place?
I read that line as:
The coordinates your system has can’t describe me.
That fits the official explanation of the song too. KiiiKiii’s “404 Not Found” isn’t treated as a message about being incomplete or missing. It’s reinterpreted as the freedom to exist without coordinates.
The person in “404” isn’t trying very hard to find the correct route. She might change direction on purpose. Instead of squeezing herself into a box, she seems happier playing outside of it.
That’s the part of the 404 idea I found most interesting. “Not Found” sounds negative on its own, but here there’s nothing wrong with not being found by the system.
The Error Keeps Showing Up in the Lyrics
There are more references to being connected, detected, or located throughout the song.
Wi-Fi. Antennas. Radar.
All things that should be able to pick something up — except KiiiKiii keeps slipping past them.
Then there’s the idea of turning in a blank paper and still getting 100 points.
Obviously, that would make no sense on a real test. But in a song where the expected answer isn’t that important, it fits perfectly.
That’s what makes the lyrics fun for me. They didn’t just put an internet error code in the title and move on. The same idea keeps showing up in different forms.
There are still lines where I catch myself thinking, wait, is this part of the 404 idea too?
Finding those little connections is part of the fun.
The MV’s Visuals Are Kind of Insane
And then there’s the music video.
The visual direction of “404 (New Era)” is kind of insane.
It’s colorful, weird, playful, and packed with little things to look at. The whole video has the kind of freedom that fits a song about being outside the coordinates in the first place.
But the MV also makes KiiiKiii’s music-show stages more interesting, because the choreography didn’t stay the same throughout the promotion.
Two Versions of the “404” Choreography
The chorus choreography used during the early “404 (New Era)” music-show stages was different from the version in the MV.
When I first saw the music-show version, I wondered if it had been made more with TikTok or dance challenges in mind.
A lot of fans, though, liked the choreography from the MV and wanted to see that version on stage.
And later in the promotion, KiiiKiii actually brought the MV choreography into their music-show performances.
So there are two versions of the “404” chorus you can compare from the same promotion period.
That’s a pretty fun detail because you don’t have to compare a demo or a dance practice with the final version. You can actually watch the early music-show stages and then jump forward to the later stages and see the difference in a real performance.
The Song That Gave KiiiKiii Their First Grand Prize
“404 (New Era)” was released in January as the title track of KiiiKiii’s second EP, Delulu Pack.
Months later, it became the song that gave them their first grand prize at a K-pop award show.
The award news is what sent me back to a song I already knew, and I ended up spending much more time with the little details than I expected.
I’m pretty sure there are still things in the lyrics that I missed.
If you’ve found another 404-related line or detail in the song, let me know.
🎧 Today’s K-pop Recommendation
KiiiKiii — “404 (New Era)”
Try watching one of KiiiKiii’s early music-show stages and then one of the later stages after the choreography changed.
Which version of the “404” choreography do you like better?