Charlotte: It's like they've got a dog squeaky toy!
Umu: Fans are thinking it sounds like a squeaking bed.
Charlotte: Oh!
OH!
Peyton: Oh, God...
Umu: Now you're acting to the boy group EXO, and their 2018 release, called 'Tempo'. And it's from their album called
'Don't mess Up My Tempo', Melissa: Same! Umu: and it has three different versions: allegro, moderato, and andante.
Melissa: That's so cute. James: That's great.
Umu: Isn't that awesome?
James: That's awesome, yeah. Melissa: This is really cool,
because I mess up my own tempo a lot of the time.
Umu: This is composed by Jamil "Digi" Chammas, Leven Kali, Tay Jasper, Adrian Mckinnon, and MZMC.
So, this song is a warning to other guys to stay away from the girl.
She's his melody and his tempo will steal her heart.
Elizabeth: Ooh! Jordan: he doesn't want anyone
Straight outta Symphonie Fantastique! Jordan: to mess with his tempo.
Symphonie fantastique was written by Berlioz, who was high on opium while writing it, and was obsessed with this
Shakespearean actress, and
had this like drugged-out dream that
he
murders her because he was in love with her and she rejected him.
And the big thing we talk about with that piece
is that like there's a melody that is this woman, and the melody shows up throughout the whole piece
as he's killed her, and then in hell, it's transformed into like the witch's song. So,
that idea of like a woman being a melody has existed for a very long time.
Peyton: I'm a 116(bpm) kinda guy, myself.
Umu: Well, this song actually sticks around 116(bpm)-115(bpm), so...
Peyton: I'm so good.
I'm so good.
I'm a f*cking professional.
All right, let's start this thing!
Charlotte: Oh.
Peyton: Woo!
Seiji: Mmm. All right.
Stephen: Those synth patches! Seiji: It's thick. Stephen: Dude, it sounds so good!
Charlotte: Whoa! Oh, oh! Peyton: I love this!
Henry: It sounds like someone figured out their cabinet door squeaks, and now they're going...
James: It's like someone's rockin' on an old armchair. Melissa: Oh, my god. Yeah, it is. James: Yeah
Melissa: It's so like consistent and steady because it is keeping the tempo.
Lindsey: Yeah.
Pretty typical EXO. Davis: This is just like EXO.
Lindsey: This guy's vocal quality is really cool, though. It's like super deep and... Davis: Yeah, its so unique. Lindsey: Yeah, it's very unique.
Seiji: It's just really messed up. Like this groove is like...this groove and the sound is just really messed up.
We just have no other way to explain it, just dirty. Stephen: Nice descending bass line, though. Seiji: That, too
Charlotte: Nice harmony.
Kevin: I love how the chorus, it maintains the hype, but it technically is like a sort of half-time
drop.
Charlotte: Is that a squeaky toy making the beat in the back?
Peyton: You've never heard this in a rap song before?
Charlotte: It's like they've got a dog squeaky toy!
Umu: Fans are thinking it sounds like a squeaking bed.
Charlotte: Oh!
OH!
Peyton: Oh, God...
Hugo: Ooh, I dug that. Jeremy: That was cool.
Jeremy: This is like...
Like a really cool song. Hugo: I love this song.
Jeremy: Yeah
Kevin: The vocal tambours of the group really show. Everyone sounds different, but they sometimes sing the same material.
Stephen: Got that disco drum set beat.
You know that they mean business now.
Seiji: There's a time and a place, and this is the right time and place. Stephen: Oh, my God.
Hugo: See, half time makes more sense here. Jeremy: Yeah, but also it doesn't, because they're saying "Don't mess up my tempo" and they're messing up their tempo.
Hugo: Well, I mean they're doing half time, so technically it's like the same tempo. They're just you know,
feeling the beat in a different way. The tempo stays the same, the beat changes.
James: Wow.
These guys are riffing fast.
Melissa: Sixteenth notes. Wait, no, triplets. I'm so dumb. It's literally triplets. Just like everything. James: Whoa!
Melissa: It's the piano!
Wow, that sustain was so... pianistic.
I love this.
James: Whoa! Melissa: Oh, my God!
Elizabeth: It kind of sounds...it's acapella.
Henry: Yeah.
I love acapella! Wait!
Peyton: Ooh!
Their acapella's good.
Charlotte: It's very good.
Elizabeth: The bass singer! Henry: Whoever's in their low voice is so tight! Elizabeth: Ahh!
Henry: See, and that's why I don't hate this,
because know that whole section is so good.
And like, their counterpoint stuff that they're doing is so cool.
Elizabeth: polyphonyyyyyy! Ahhhh!
Henry: But so much of it is just so infuriating. Like...
Elizabeth: You're just mad that you like it!
Henry: That's not true!
Peyton: Ride out, y'all.
Both: (making motorcycle sounds)
Peyton: Let's go get my ??legre???
Charlotte: (making motorcycle sounds)
Peyton: They're going EXO miles per hour.
Come on, we're the funniest!
Peyton: We just are.
Charlotte: Vroom! Charlotte and Umu: (making motorcycle sounds)
Umu: So, yeah, what are your thoughts on 'Tempo'? Charlotte: Oh...
Peyton: Can- can you give a PG answer, thank you?
Charlotte: All I said was, "Oh".
Peyton: That's PG13, at least!
Charlotte: *Oh
I don't know!
Davis: EXO is just so clean. They're like pristine.
They're literally... Lindsey: I will say, I think it's funny how they use kind of like a speedometer theme throughout this,
because there's definitely been times when I've been driving, and like my dumbass musician brain
will try to instead of like thinking about how fast I'm going, like driving my speed,
my brain will be like, I need to slow down my tempo, which is so stupid, and every time I do that,
I'm like flicking myself in the face. It's not like I've ever said that like to someone else in the car, but like, to myself,
I'm like, why is that my thought?
But here they are, just right there with me. Davis: Yeah.
Davis: They know your struggle. They know your struggle. Lindsey: Yeah.
Elizabeth: I like EXO. Fight me!
Henry: See and the thing is that I don't even dislike EXO. I happen to feel like there are a lot of parts of that that were
aesthetically annoying. First of all, the video was just like, all over the place. Elizabeth: Macho!
Elizabeth: Yeah, you know what, on a synthetic level, I did have a problem with the fact that it was about like, "Don't steal my girl,
cuz they're things to steal!" Like, that made me a little bit uncomfortable.
I'm just so tired of that being like the crux of male pop music. But um, I also thought that like, there were
synths that were annoying, especially the squeaky cabinet door one. Elizabeth: Oh, I don't know what that was, but that was like, but once you pointed it out,
I could not pay attention to the song anymore. Henry: I don't know who was like, "That's not annoying". Also, like the rapping
I thought was a little bit over the top. And on the other hand,
oh my God, their vocal recording was so incredible! Elizabeth: Holy crap Henry: Like, holy sh*t! How did they do that?
Like, their writing was spectacular. Plus, also the fact that they were like, I mean, obviously it's all pitch correction in the studio, which is fine,
but like, Elizabeth: I feel like they could do that live, though.
Henry: They probably could do a variant of that live.
I mean like, it's insane, there's enough of them and they're all
Individually good enough at singing that they could do something like that live, you know. Elizabeth: Yeah.
Henry: Because that's like the interesting part--that breakdown. I don't know.
I need to hear it again to come up with a better, like more concrete actual analysis.
I felt like I was tossed around all over the place with that one, so. Elizabeth: I liked it.
I was a fan. I would listen to it again.
James: Bruh.
That was really good. Okay. Melissa: Yeah! Jams: I think I, this was the first K-pop group that I had ever heard of, but
that was a comeback. Again,
I'm really not that familiar,
but just the production value, they were clear in
focusing on how strong they are as a group, just vocally. Melissa: Yeah. Yeah! James: Just the things they were doing
Melissa: The a capella section, oh, my God! James: Yeah. Especially when everything dropped out.
When the synth dropped out, Melissa: Yeah
James: it was just them, Melissa: I love that. It's such an effect. James: and the whole time, that whole little section,
the harmonies just kept...so many interesting things were happening,
I kind of want to go back and listen to it again. They had like, great resonant lows, Melissa: Yeah
James: they had guys riffing like crazy fast, like up at the top, and that's so hard to do.
It's so hard to do Melissa: Yeah James: when there's nothing to hold on to, when there's
just nothing
but you, and your voices, and your colleagues, and pitch. Like, that's all you can hear, and it's really apparent
when when the pitch isn't there especially when you're singing alone.
So if anything that just shows me how much of a beast they are, you know.
Melissa: I think the way that like everything all the instruments dropped out and left just the voice,
it kind of reminded me of like the very beginning of the song, when like
it had like the synth noise and then silence, and then like synth and then silence. James: Um ,hmm
Like, I really like when they use almost the absence of beats or
instruments to like make a statement. James: Um, hmm. Melissa: Like I feel like that really grabs our attention.
James: We've been talking about the a capella section, but just about the whole song in general, again,
like so many of these groups play with our expectations and they use really interesting
techniques. Like that chair squeaky noise? Like that was sick. Melissa: Yeah. James: It was like,
it went with the beat, it was really innovative and like, kind of funny.
They just kept like throwing things in there like, using silence, using an unexpected noise, you know,
something like that, to kind of keep you
kind of like,
engaged and like playing with your
expectations in that way, and that's why I love this music so much, because they really do get creative in ways that I don't think
a lot of American pop artists do.
Hello everyone. I'm Umu, and I'm the channel runner of React to the K.
I really hope you enjoyed watching this video. If you're curious about the videos that we'll be reacting to in the future,
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