♪ (punk rock music) ♪
(echoing footsteps)
- Whoa, ooh, the aesthetics are so nice.
Oh, what is-- oh, are these K-pop people?
Oh, it's K-pop, huh?
♪ (singing in Korean) ♪
- I love K-pop.
- This is K-pop.
Yeah, I have no idea who the hell this is.
- Before I was on the show, I was requesting BTS
to be on Teens React.
- Ooh.
♪ (electronic dance music) ♪
- It's pretty artistic.
- 'Ey!
- I like the tune.
- Oh snap, some sick moves.
♪ (rapping in Korean) ♪
- Catchy.
- The song's got a really good flow.
- They're so pretty.
- They look so good! It's so good.
♪ (singing in Korean) ♪
- Where's the volume button at? Bump this. (laughing)
- "Kill me gently." (laughing)
Same. (laughing)
- That's so cool.
- Ooh, gosh!
- It's super aesthetically pleasing. (laughing)
- Dude, I love watching K-pop music videos
because they go so ham with them.
- Damn.
- Whoa. Whoa.
- Is it like an Angel of Death thing?
- Is he kissing the statue? Oh, okay.
- Okay, you did that.
- You gotta detach yourself from the fact
that he's kissing a statue, and just appreciate how hot he looks.
♪ (singing in Korean) ♪
- I don't know. I just appreciate this so much.
The choreography is so good.
♪ (song concludes) ♪
- (gasping) Oh, he's cracking.
Oh my god-- the symbolism in that though.
- I enjoyed it.
It's not really my cup of tea, but I still enjoyed it.
- I liked this video compared to the other ones I've seen,
but, as a whole, I don't like it.
- All of their videos always impress me.
Their dance moves are always on point,
like, the whole aesthetics is always on point,
and they just always look so good.
- ♪ (keyboard playing) ♪
- It's BLACKPINK, okay.
♪ (upbeat synthpop) ♪
- I'm not trying to be biased here,
but I think I like this a little bit more now.
♪ (singing in Korean) ♪
- Same, be careful around men. (laughing)
- Yes, men are the worst.
They're awful.
- I don't think I like this as much as I liked their other ones.
- I'm loving the camera angles though.
They did a really good job on this.
- It's so colorful.
I notice this about a lot of Korean music videos.
I love the color and, like, all the visuals that it gives you.
- ♪ Look at me, look at me now ♪
- I-- I never understood the inclusion of the English language in these songs.
♪ (singing in Korean) ♪
♪ Oh uh uh oh ♪
♪ My love is on fire ♪
- Oh, I'm thoroughly enjoying this one more.
- ♪ Now burn, baby, burn ♪
♪ (singing in Korean) ♪
- Just look at the aesthetic!
It's just so-- they're literally singing in a burning building.
Like, that's so cool. That's so cool.
- Really uplifting music.
- Oh, she looks sad now, but I thoroughly enjoyed that.
- I can definitely see them being one of the more popular girl bands.
♪ (electric guitar riff) ♪
- This is EXO.
♪ (singing in Korean) ♪
- Oh, this is a really cool set.
That's so cool.
- ♪ What you think about that ♪
♪ What you think about that, that ♪
- Singing in English or, like, maybe even in another language
is really popular because you don't really see that that much
in America.
- ♪ Hey mama ♪
- There's so many of them.
Oh my gosh, who do I focus on?
- ♪ Just you and I ♪
♪ (singing in Korean) ♪
- You always have to admire the dancing in these videos.
It's very good.
- The dancing is phenomenal.
♪ (rapping in Korean) ♪
- It's pretty sweet.
- The music definitely sounds different.
- ♪ Now 1, 2, 3 ♪
♪ (rapping in Korean) ♪
- 'Ey! That's funky.
- ♪ Every day is a party day ♪
♪ It's a party day, it's a party day ♪
- Pretty catchy. I like it.
♪ (electric guitar riff) ♪
- Oh, dang, EXO, oh!
I hear people talking about this all the time.
- That group was probably the best
out of the ones I've seen, like, ever.
- I've never really taken the time to listen to any of this,
but I've liked them all so far.
- I actually would probably look into it now.
Before, I really had no interest in it.
♪ (punk rock music) ♪
- (FBE) Okay, so, before we start talking about these artists,
the K-pop fandom seems to be very split
about K-pop react videos, even though FBE has been making them
for almost five years.
Many think YouTubers only do it for views,
and that non-fans watching just say uninformed things,
and when big channels cover K-pop, it brings K-pop too into the mainstream.
So, what do you think about that criticism?
- Like I said in the last K-pop video,
their fanbase is really, really intense.
- From a fan perspective, maybe you don't want them
to be all just-- everyone knows about them
and you're not the only one that knows about them.
- People who do react videos to things, the reason isn't necessarily
to be mainstream and jump on the bandwagon.
It's to shows people's reaction to things,
if they may not even know these bands.
- People are gonna say uninformed things on everything,
and you've just kind of got to live with it,
and just, you know, let the press happen
because the more attention you get, the better it's gonna go.
- (FBE) On the flip side, others have said they became
big K-pop fans because of our shows or other channels' videos,
and say it helps make these bands more popular,
to get global audiences.
What do you think, hearing that?
- I think that's really good because some people,
they don't really know that much about Korean music artists.
- I just like being able to learn more about different cultures,
so I see this as a very positive thing.
- People who click on this video are gonna go watch that video
if they like it, or if they laugh, or are interested.
- Just because, you know, people become exposed to it
through this, or something like that,
that doesn't make them any less of a fan.
You've got to be exposed to it somewhere, at some point.
- YouTubers, um, making videos about K-pop
really helps more people get into the fandom,
and then later, they'll go deeper in,
but it just helps them as an introduction.
That was me.
I think I saw Big Bang on the first YouTubers React.
- (FBE) Okay, so let's talk about the bands.
The first video we showed you was for the song
"Blood, Sweat, and Tears," by the group BTS.
- Okay, I figured the title had something to do
with blood, sweat, and tears.
- (FBE) Their fans really have been requesting for us
to show you this, as the video broke records
for the most views in 24 hours by a K-pop group,
and most sales in a week for a K-pop album,
and the highest ranking album on the Billboard Top 200.
- Holy crap!
That's really impressive.
That just kind of blows everything out of the water.
- They have so many views right now. I'm so proud of them!
- (FBE) The band also wrote and co-produced their latest album,
as well as dove into many social issues.
- Well, I wasn't the biggest fan of the song,
but I do highly respect the fact that they wrote their own music
and produced it.
I feel like a lot of people don't do that in working in the pop music industry.
- (FBE) What do you think about how they are as big,
if not bigger, than groups you know here in America?
- Oh, I think that that's fantastic.
The talent and the quality of everything is just so good
that everyone in the entire world likes it,
and that's super impressive.
- It just shows that it doesn't really matter anymore
where you come from; you can still break the billboards anywhere.
- The fact that they're going above and beyond,
even American musicians in the US, that's fantastic.
That's amazing. I'm so-- I'm so proud of them.
- (FBE) The next video we showed you was from the girl group BLACKPINK,
called "Playing With Fire."
They just dropped their first album and already have become
one of the biggest acts in K-pop, with their first two singles
topping the Korean and US/World charts.
What about them do you think made them so popular so quickly?
- You know, they're a girl group.
(laughing) That's why.
- They stand out.
They're, like, literally too immaculate.
- That was, you know, the poppy girl stuff,
but it was also just like-- it was good, it was fun to listen to.
I can see how it can really reach an audience.
- (FBE) So, our last video was for "Hey Mama,"
by EXO-CBX, a subgroup of the main group EXO,
who we covered on Teens React in the past.
- Yeah, I love them. They're cool.
- (FBE) What do you think about the fact that these groups
are so big that they're releasing music as smaller groups within the band,
but the band as a whole is still together?
- That is really weird.
I feel like I would almost be offended, like,
if I was part of that group and I wasn't part of the little group.
- I think it's nice because that way, like,
if individual members have different preferences
and they have different tastes, they can express them more.
- It may have a mixture to do with business saying, hey,
what if there's a-- we notice that there's a small following for these guys,
and if we break them off and give them their own music,
they'll become more popular, and we'll make more money.
- In America, you'd never hear of that.
It's either One Direction or One Direction breaking up.
There's never been a giant group, as big as them,
who just go into small subgroups.
- (FBE) After seeing and talking about K-pop,
is this a genre you can find yourself not just listening to,
but wanting to understand more?
- I would enjoy understanding them, but I'm not necessarily sure
I want to join a fandom.
- I don't know if I would watch it religiously,
but I think, you know, I would check it out
to see what it's about.
- Personally, I don't like K-pop. It's not my style of music.
I don't have anything against it.
- It's something that I could listen to,
but I don't think I would listen to it a lot.
- I'm definitely an army, hands down.
I like Twice, I like Red Velvet, I loved Russian Roulette--
that was such a good song-- I like EXO still,
and I like BTS, obviously.
- I feel like I'm gonna end up joining one of the really big fanbases
and becoming a total fangirl.
- K-pop just seems like such an interesting fandom to be a part of.
Knowing that, I don't know, people from across the world
can communicate with each other because of these bands,
it's just super cool to me
- Thanks for watching this episode of Teens React.
- If you want to see more, subscribe.
We have new content every week.
- Let us know in the comments what K-pop artist
you want to see us react to next.
- Thanks for watching, everyone. Bye!
- Hey, everyone, it's Dallen here, from FBE.
Thanks so much for watching this episode of Teens React.
We know when we do K-pop, it can get a little controversial,
but we really love the music here, and just want more of you to check it out.
Appreciate all the feedback.
♪ (punk rock music) ♪