Kevin: Oh, that's so cool, so --
So any other artist would end the last chord with a picardy third.
But they actually ended in minor. Which is so -- for some reason sounds so --
fresh. (laughs)
Umu: Okay, here we go, ready start--!
So iKon is a seven member boy group that debuted in 2015 under YG Entertainment.
Which is the same company that... BLACKPINK, AKMU, 2NE1, and Big Bang are under --
*snap*
This group has jumped between a few genres in the past,
but they are most known for their more hip-hop centered, uh, rappy tracks.
We'll be reacting to one of their B-side tracks from 2018 called 'Hug Me'.
In front of you is a fan-made lyric video
At the top of the screen there's all the members and so their picture will be highlighted when they're singing or rapping.
Naoki: Cool.
Umu: So, 'Hug Me' was written by a rapper named Tablo and the leader of iKon named B.I.
The lyrics were written by the leader B.I and a rapper named Bobby.
Charlotte: Bobbehhh..
Umu: Bobbehhh... Go ahead.
Hugo: Un, deux, trois.
Hugo: Oh!
Shit, I'm diggin the guitar.
James: That's groovy...
Hugo: Yeah!
Hugo: Oh! James: Wait, what??
Hugo: That voice, damn - (J: Yeah!) - He is up there.
Jarod: I like how it goes to the minor at the end, which instead of the typical major third that I'm expecting.
Kevin: So any other artist would end the last chord with a picardy third.
But they actually ended in minor. Which is so -- for some reason sounds so --
fresh. (laughs)
Charlotte: Would you call it like a weird lament bass in a way?
Peyton: ..Kinda weird, yeah, um...
I think it's like a one, and then like... five of four and then four...
Peyton: Like a minor four? And then it goes to six? Charlotte: 'Cause it's just so strange 'cause it goes chromatically.
Charlotte: ...down. Peyton: Yeah.
Naoki: I'm liking the flow of the words... very rhythmic.
Stephen: Yeah, it is rhythmic... Naoki: Yeah.
Peyton: (reading lyrics) Just once for ten seconds, let me hug you...
Literally my life.
Charlotte: (laughs)
Peyton: Ten seconds, that's all it takes, and then..
Charlotte: Fwasdafh PEYTON!
Kevin: Okay -- okay, a lil ma -- E flat major, E flat minor.
Add thirteen, add nine?
Peyton: This can be our song.
I could like learn Korean and sing it to you at our wedding.
Charlotte: My god..
Sold!
Jarod: He has a very, like, miracle rap voice at the same time. Katie: Yeah.
Jarod: Like, it's got the edge, (K: It's melodic.) but at the same time it's... very fluid.
Lindsey: This is just like really chill, you know what I mean, it's very laid-back.
Fiona: I disagree because... for me, like their voices are just kind of like -- it's just an always present thing.
Fiona: But I guess the background is -- Lindsey: Guess I'm listening to the background more --
Fiona: Yeah the background's really chill. Lindsey: It's very just like...
..going..
I think the background's kind of holding it back from pushing forward too much.
Jarod: Their voices blend well together, that's really cool.
And I like how they color the video, like the text, since they're both going..
Katie: What are these two guys doing? We've heard from all of them, we haven't heard from them.
Jarod: I don't know. Maybe you're supposed to look at them and admire.
Hugo: Oh my gosh.. Donghyuk? Is that how you say his name?
His voice is just unreal.
Naoki: Man, it's so high. But it doesn't sound bad.
James: Oh!...... hey.
Hugo: I was wondering when we were gonna hear him!
*snap*
Jarod: It's like a half (K: Yeah..) time feel...
It's just like.. psshhhh
It's like.. molasses.
Kevin: Nice.
Uh...
Nope, nope, brain not working.
Six, big five, little five, one.
Peyton: Man I like this, like, floating on top. Charlotte: The falsettos are really nice, actually.
Kevin: Ahhh.. a little, uh... a little -- a little delay.
Peyton: Yeah, there's a - there's an octave on the, on -- (*makes sound effect*)
Charlotte: Yeah, I like how they always go, like, above and then they come back down - it's a appoggiatura
Hugo: Oh, I like that, I like the - (J: It's a cool effect.) saturation on his voice, yeah.
James: Wonder how you get that?
Hugo: Overdrive, maybe?
James: Overdrive and - probably a filter too. Hugo: Yeah! Oh yeah, oh... Yeah.
James: Like a low pass filter -- Hugo: Shit, that was dope!
Umu: So, what'd you think?
James: That was soooo good!
Umu: Yeah, what'd you think of that overall musically and also their vocals and rapping too?
Hugo: So Donghyuk and...... Ju-ne? Or Jun-ah?
Um.. it's just hyphenated, so I didn't know whether you pronounce the syllables.... separately.. Um, I apologize.
James: It's Juuuuuuuuuuune.
Hugo: Their high voices were.. awesome! And they fit the style really well, too.
James: Oh, so nice..
Hugo: It never tried to be - too much.
Hugo: Like it was never.. over.. the top. James: Yep.
Hugo: You just had -- you had a nice rhythm guitar. You had a nice drum set. You had a fat bass --
James: Really good base line. Hugo: Yeah! And then you had those like - the ghost synths during like -
It was like almost off in the distance, but it really added that. And then, um.. you didn't hear Chanwoo or...
Yun...Yunyeong? I think that's how you say it - until the very end but like everyone's voices were awesome..
And Bobby and B.I...
...man..
They were - they were spitting some fat -- Some fat.. they were except.. there.
No it was good! And the poetry was good, too, I wasn't paying attention to that as much.
Maybe 'cause like - even on like - what would be considered the "hit" or like the....
.. the impact moment of the song - it never got too much.
It's just kind of a chill song, and it stayed within that, and I thought it was good.
James: I agree with everything that he said.
Um, everything was also, you know, for the number of --
uh
-- individual singers in this, it was seamless. Hugo: Yeah!
James: You know, I felt like everything flowed really well into each other.
Hugo: Exactly, there was never a definitive like: 'Oh, this is a new singer now'. James: Yup.
Hugo: Um, what's the one who was -'Mer'? By like H-
Umu: Hyukoh.
Hugo: Hyukoh, yeah. Kinda like that where it's kind of like a mood song. Almost.
Where like the whole song has a kind of vibe to it, and you're really gonna listen into it for that.
And it was really good. Like, there were individual parts that contributed to that.
But it was really about the overall production, and I thought it was great.
Katie: I think it's like your standard....
K-pop, like, structure... with like - verse, chorus, bridge..... chorus... stuff.
But, I really liked the intro, it was very like - calming and relaxing. Um, it was just a...
Electric guitar, but it was - it sounded like - definitely not acoustic, but it was like a very gentle... electric.
And just kind of like put - puts you in the mood for the song.
And it's just something you just kind of like sit. And just like....
Jarod: Yeah, it's definitely a groove, definitely a vibe.
Isaac: 'Party in the USA', that's the song.
Kevin: In the beginning it does sound like 'Party in the USA'.......
Umu: Is it the chord progression?
Kevin: No. Isaac: No, it's the strumming --
Kevin: It's the exact timbre and the exact rhythm.
*Isaac singing the beginning of 'Party in the USA'*
Isaac: I liked, uh... how -- Kevin: So, party..
Kevin: So -- Umu: asfsfjs Isaac talk --
Isaac: No, it's fine..
Kevin: So 'Hug Me in the Party of the USA'. Isaac: 'Hug Me in the USA'.
Kevin: Okay, Isaac, go.
Isaac: Oh, I really liked how each one of them had their own specific instrument sets and also the way they were presented.
...through audio so like umm.. I forgot who, but --
Someone takes over the chorus. Someone else takes over the verse.
And then the raps - well they happen during the verses. And each of the --
Within the raps there's different - there's different types of raps, there's uh -
What Kevin mentioned, there's one that goes with melody and one that's just straight bars with beats.
Isaac: They just sing with beats, and -- Kevin: I like when you add 's' to rap and call them raps.
Isaac: rapss Kevin: It's great.
Isaac: Chord progression, there was one, it was just like, um...
Isaac: I don't know what chords would- Kevin: There's no picardy third.
Isaac: It's descending at first. It's like B flat, B flat, A...
Kevin: ..A...?
Isaac: Was it B flat, B flat.. Kevin: For the - this song is in like G minor.
Isaac: No no, then it went to G. Kevin: Oh, okay.
Isaac: G at the end but it was really -- They like caught my eye, er-
Caught my ears, not my eyes. It caught my ears --
Where it was just like it descended and all of a sudden it just disappeared.
And I was just like: "Wait what?" Like, "What happened to it?"
Kevin: You mean the descending pattern disappeared? Isaac: Yeah.
Kevin: Huh.. Isaac: I guess it, like, kind of moves on to something else, but it's like...
Kevin: It's still descending... Major E flat, minor E flat, major- minor D, and then one.
So six, minor six, minor five, one. So the first three are still (sings descending scale).
Isaac: It's still going down, I guess.. Kevin: *still singing*
Isaac: I think it was just that specific line disappeared but..
It definitely - probably altered.. and modulated to something else.
Or just completely transformed. But I thought was really neat.
Charlotte: Very ballad-like... but more like a pop-y vallad...
Ballad? Valid? Ballad? (laughs)
Peyton: Pop ballad. Charlotte: ...English?
Peyton: Yeah, I mean it was a really good song though. I mean it's a nice groove they set up.
And then like, you know, they changed it from time to time so it wasn't like -
Too much of the same thing. Because if they never really moved it then I would have got bored real fast.
Fiona: Um, I actually didn't read the lyrics but like just the.. the overall feel that was just really relaxed.
Um, but it, the - the whole time, like, it was filled with their voices.
But it was never overbearing, because I think that background, like guitar and just like the -- (snaps)
-- Just kept it nice and chill and it held back from pushing.
Lindsey: Yeah, and I think in some other groups that we've listened to also when there's a lot of harmonies,
they're all very loud. Like you can hear all the voices very loud and clear.
And in this one there was a more clear-like melody line, and there was like.. well, thinner harmonies?
And a lot - It was just the texture was a lot thinner overall and I think that kind of fit everything. Like I think it really worked.
Yeah, I don't think it was like particularly anything that was, like, super outstanding in terms of like..
musical interestingness, but it was just very much like them. You could tell that it was them.
Umu: Right, and you said that you didn't read the lyrics too much,
but are you able to tell, like, how the music supported what they're trying to convey through the lyrics?
Hugo: Well, the song itself was kind of like a giant hug. Like, it was -
James: It was warm and embracing. I feel like I could easily relax in bed to that song --
Ohhhhhh hug me...
Hugo: Mmmm (laughter)
Naoki: It was very gentle. Even the rapping was like super gentle... Stephen: Yeah.
Naoki: It was very, like, on the surface like floating.. there was nothing too, like, in your face.
It was just like.... you know... huggable music. Stephen: It was laid back and inviting.
Naoki: Yeah, exactly, 'cause you want to invite people to hug you - Stephen: You don't want to be creepy, or weird, or forceful.
Charlotte: Okay, so like I.. I see colors when I hear music, so like for me
they're all like, very like, warm toned colors and everything, so it's just a very interesting like -
very inviting like, pull you in. But when they like broke, and they just had like - when they're in, um, halftime
it like changed to like cooler, like darker colors? So like midnight-y blue and purples.
But like the rest of it was like these very warm-like reds and oranges. A lot of orange.
Umu: That's beautiful... Charlotte: (laughs)
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