(English subtitles by twitter @angelade17) JAMAL: They all have such sick flow, I just- it's so beautiful!
[Rossini's Semiramide overture plays]
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Now let's get to the reaction!
UMU: You're now reacting to the boy group Monsta X and their 2019 comeback, "Follow".
Some fans theorize that this song's message is the group singing the lyrics to themselves and each other,
but you can also read the lyrics as pertaining to their fans or loved ones.
The song says that no matter what happens, through fate or coincidence, they'll always find each other.
UMU: They will- CLOUD: Aw, cute.
UMU: They'll be able to meet each other, even when jumping through time and space to different worlds.
The song is composed by Daniel Kim, Willie Weeks, Andreas Oberg, and Skylar Mones,
while the members Jooheon and I.M participated in writing the lyrics.
JU YOUNG: Ready? 3 2 1.
JASON: Wait, I didn't start it.
...HELLO?
UMU: Stop! JASON: Hello??? UMU: STOP!
JASON: HELLO? JU YOUNG! (UMU: Stop!!!)
JASON *screams* (UMU: *screams*) JU YOUNG: ?!?!?!?!
JASON: ...I didn't start it. *laughs* JU YOUNG: JASON.
JU YOUNG: Okay. JASON: Sorry. No, because- wait wait!
JASON: Because last time you said we're doing 3 2 1 go.
JASON: You went 3 2 *1*. (JU YOUNG: No, I said 3 2 *1*.)
JASON: ...
Am I tripping?
UMU: *laughs* 3 2 1. JASON *screams*
JU YOUNG: No one ever listens to me, ugh.
JASON: Ready Ju? Start-
JU YOUNG: 3 2 *1*.
KEVIN: What?? G dominant 7?
STEPHANIE: *laughs*
CLOUD: This is so much faster than I was expecting.
HENRY: What is that instrument?
HENRY: It sounds like a reed instrument. CHARLOTTE: Yeah for sure reed. HENRY: Like a suona.
SAM: Have you noticed K-pop music videos have the prettiest water.
RAFFI: *laughs* Yeah. SAM: They have the most beautiful water. (RAFFI: It's a recurring, recurring thing.)
JAMAL: "Let's go", *laughs*
Hype!
KEVIN: I think the timing of the E-flat chord, the second chord in this part (OWEN: Thank you.) is well done.
RAFAEL: *laughs* The gun-click like, bass drop.
RAFAEL: That's so classic. JAMAL: It's so lit.
HENRY: Ooh? CHARLOTTE: I'll look at your face. HENRY: I am!
OWEN: Cool synth riff KEVIN: And then he explodes.
BRIANNA: I like his rap cadence.
HENRY: I like that harmony right there, I don't know what it is.
SAM: Oh, those are some abs. [t/n: ah yes wonho]
RAFAEL: This dude's so hot. JAMAL: Yeah he's like, shredded!
RAFAEL: For sure. JAMAL: Like yo what's up, I work out.
JAMAL: Ooh, *laughs* damn. (RAFAEL: Wow we got some SNAKES up in here.)
BRIANNA: Syncopation for me!
JAMAL: They all have such sick flow, I just- it's so beautiful.
HENRY: Oh very husky. CHARLOTTE: We still have that main melody very faded in the back. (HENRY: Very breathy.)
CHARLOTTE: You hear it, it's in the back of your head, yeah. (HENRY: Yeah, that's clever.)
JU YOUNG: *screams*
JU YOUNG: Ah! JASON: Some really great vocal performance.
SAM: It's alarming how high he belted that. RAFFI: Yeah.
JASON: This one's overwhelming me, this is so much happening.
JU YOUNG: Oh my god I really like his voice.
RAFFI: And that vocalist consonant "la la la la la", they're keeping it bouncy. SAM: Right?
RAFFI: "Fa la la la." SAM: No tension at all.
JASON: Ooh! JU YOUNG: Ohh. JASON: *sings*
JASON: *squeals*
KEVIN: Ooh major, major. (OWEN: They weren't really outlining that major 3 until the very end.)
OWEN: Like in the um, in that same way. That was cool.
KEVIN: You better deck your halls, 'cause Monsta X might "fa la la low"!
KEVIN: I liked this. It was very good. OWEN: Yeah, I liked this as well. KEVIN: Super solid.
CLOUD: I feel like whenever we start a song, I always like,
my mind is ready for the common time like in 4, just be like *counts*
And when this song started like, that was in cut time.
CLOUD: Like we were way too fast for 4! (BRIANNA: Yeah.)
CLOUD: So I was like oh oh oh, like brain has to catch up a little bit. BRIANNA: It was fast. CLOUD: Yeah.
STEPHANIE: So right from the beginning, it caught-
it like, grabbed my attention like right away.
And then the energy is kind of just kept like the whole time.
LEON: I love the drop so much. Probably like, the best drop I've listened so far.
UMU: Ooh! (LEON: Yeah!) What makes it so good?
LEON: This kind of particular style, I really love it because I used to listen to a lot of DJ Snake songs.
And then this really reminds me of the song "Taki Taki".
LEON: Is it "Taki Taki"? UMU: Oh, "taki taki, taki taki, rumba!"
LEON: Yeah, that kind of- because it's the same beat pattern,
and then kind of like even the same synth, like that synth is- I think it's probably like the-
UMU: *sings* That? LEON: Yeah yeah, that one.
UMU: It's actually an instrument. It's a traditional Korean instrument.
LEON: Ohh. (STEPHANIE: Woah.) UMU: It's a... wait...
UMU: The instrument that is repeated throughout the track is a taepyeongseo.
Which is also similar to the Turkish instrument zurna.
HENRY: Oh wait I found it, I found it! Taepyeongseo. UMU: Is it a reed instrument?
HENRY: Uh it's a Korean double reed instrument.
UMU: Ayyy. (CHARLOTTE: [chanting] Family, it's my family.)
HENRY: I'm thinking it's probably really close to the suona.
HENRY: Oh, yeah! That's what it is. It's like a, so it's like a-
It has double reed, and then it's put into like a metal tube.
HENRY: A metal bar, so that it- (CHARLOTTE: Well it has to be, to get that sound, yeah.)
HENRY: Yeah, so it gets *makes sound* CHARLOTTE: *makes sound* Yeah.
HENRY: The suona is mainly used for like big,
I mean, it's used for outdoor celebrations since it's freaking LOUD,
um but it's played a lot at like weddings and funerals.
So I think they did a-
HENRY: I think they used the sound of it pretty appropriately. (CHARLOTTE: I like the way they used the sound of it, yeah.)
HENRY: Yeah. I dunno, I liked it.
HENRY: It didn't get on my nerves as much as I felt like an instrument that high pitched-
(CHARLOTTE: That sounds that nasally should.) HENRY: High bright- yeah, a bright instrument would, you get what I mean? CHARLOTTE: Yeah yeah.
HENRY: 'Cause it didn't really like dings or bright instruments that continue throughout the whole song usually,
but I felt like this was done pretty well. I think it's 'cause it didn't feel super modified.
You know, it kind of just sounded like that instrument.
CHARLOTTE: Well I think it's the fact that the instrument's timbre fits in the color and the direction of the rest of the song.
It wasn't like they wanted something that fit outside of it, they picked something that would fit within what they were producing.
HENRY: Mmm. CHARLOTTE: So they allowed it to just be its own thing.
CHARLOTTE: I think that's why it worked, its color works with the color of the rest of the things that they were layering in.
HENRY: This one felt like...
chicken tikka masala.
HENRY: 'Cause it's got like, lots of flavors.
I feel like it's a milder one, you know like not too much spice in it.
CHARLOTTE: Ohh wow. (HENRY: Just has a lot of good flavor.)
CHARLOTTE: *laughs*
JAMAL: I really liked how um every kind of segment that they had,
one person was kind of like being more slower, more like intense rhythmic flow,
and it was like, it was a different vibe-
RAFAEL: Yeah each singer had their own like thematic content that they're singing, but they also had their own thematic setting that they were in.
RAFAEL: The only times they were together was in this like weird ether realm with all the pillars and this like, disc. (JAMAL: Yeah.)
RAFAEL: I was catching on some like um, some Biblical stuff honestly.
Mainly with the snakes and the apple, like it seems kind of um-
I don't know much about the Bible, let me just start with that-
It could be like something about like you know, falling, your urges or like your darker desires or something like that.
I dunno, it ended in a- like it seemed almost apocalpytic in some ways.
RAFAEL: So they're starting in the ether realm.
I'm just gonna call it the ether realm.
JAMAL: *sings rhythm* That's so lit!
RAFAEL: Yeah, the eye is all snakey too. (JAMAL: Yeah.) This dude's probably the devil.
RAFAEL: ...probably not honestly, I'm just saying that.
JAMAL: Yeah just like, everyone had a flow, but they kind of did like a different approach to it, and it was just like-
Like I think it has a nice like, contour.
Also it's just like, everyone looks- everyone has so many things on them, it's so cool.
Ooh!
Red, oh shoot.
JAMAL: Like, I'm gonna serenade you right now.
Ooh!
JAMAL: Like yeah, everytime if a beat drops, there's like, planets. (RAFAEL: So they're all seeing-)
RAFAEL: So they're all seeing the sun comes back, like that's what's happening, then it's gone. (JAMAL: And then they get back to the dance.)
JAMAL: They're like yo, this is what's happening, this is the scene.
Pants are sizzling.
RAFAEL: I'd say- I have a theory.
JAMAL: You have a theory. RAFAEL: I have an expansion to my theory. JAMAL: Okay.
RAFAEL: So here's the theory, so like- (JAMAL: Alright.)
RAFAEL: They're all like, in these separate realms, 'cause they're uh, you know like-
they are.
RAFAEL: It's like differently lit, there's different things around them- (JAMAL: But it's also LIT, you know what I'm saying.)
RAFAEL: ...right okay, um- *laughs*
And the choruses are when they're all together, right? That's when they're all dancing.
Aside from the choruses, the entire song there's no unifying aspect except for the very last chorus,
you see them all notice the sun or the eclipse happen- I think it's an eclipse maybe-
but the- you see this, they all see this astral movement, then it explodes and they're all together going to this like ether realm.
So it could be like, they're all like following this one person to to like, unite themselves or something like that. Yeah.
STEPHEN: The first rap was really interesting because the rhythms that they were using were thoughtful to where it'd be like,
they do the same rhythm twice so it'd kinda rhyme,
and then they go off on it and kinda build off of that. So that was just kinda nice to see.
JASON: Just one verse that this guy did, just the beginning of it.
UMU: *sings lyric* JASON: Yeah, *sings rhythm*
JASON: What is that- fuck what is that called? [counts] Triplet. Oh, it's just a quarter note triplet.
But it was like, that hit.
Like that anticipation, like the kinda like jump that they're going,
you expect them to be like *sings rhythm* or like *sings rhythm*
Or *sings rhythm* or *sings*
But he like, *sings rhythm*
Like that made me, that like draw me in.
I was like oh, so he's about to be saying things right now that are profound.
BRIANNA: I would like complain about this a lot last season, about like the rapping just kind of being like,
all like K-pop rappers had this just like cadence of like *sings rhythm* just really rhythmic,
but like the rappers in this specific piece, they were more like laidback and kind of moreso behind the beat,
and used a lot of syncopation and not a lot of like rhythmic play within their verses.
You remember in the beginning like, Cloud was like "This was faster than I expected!"
(CLOUD: For sure.) BRIANNA: And I think when their verse came in it kinda slowed the beat down and added a variety and just kinda of like a rhythmic shift.
CLOUD: Exactly what you said with them pulling back on the beat, the rest of the song is all them like pushing the beat.
'Cause you have like those off-beats, like you have the *sings rhythm* like that.
BRIANNA: Yeah throughout the whole thing, yeah. CLOUD: That's gonna keep it pushing forward.
SAM: Yeah I gotta say that drop was mad satisfying.
Um I also, there was a part- I think there was-
I think it was the last guy who uh, who was rapping. His voice stood out among the rest of them.
It was a really good, it was a really satisfying voice. I dunno whose it was.
SAM: It's the one who took a bite out of like a blue apple. UMU: Okay, that's I.M.
SAM: Mmm, I liked his voice. (UMU: He's got, *imitates lyric*)
SAM: Yeah, yeah you know the one, exactly.
SAM: And also that high note, he did not- he had no fear when he sang that.
The thing that I'm struggling with the most when I sing is being afraid,
getting in my head about it, and restricting myself because I'm like *makes choking sound*.
So um the fact that he didn't do that is awesome and I wish I could do that too.
[subtitles by twitter @angelade17 ~)
JASON: [whispering] This is my ASMR video.
JU YOUNG: Okay ready? JASON: *makes ASMR noises*