Brianna: They didn't have to hit that hard!
Henry: Before we jump into our reaction to Irene and Seulgi,
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Let's get to reacting!
UMU: You are now reacting to two members from the girl group Red Velvet:
Irene and Seulgi who had a comeback as a duo this year.
This is their song 'Monster'
in which they sing about being a little monster
that will play around with you and haunt you in your sleep.
For the music video, the member Irene explained that represent two egos,
who meet inside of a dream, become a monster together and become destructive.
Fans on the other hand, have several different theories about the music video;
One being connecting the music video
to the 1872.....
Charlotte: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
novel 'Carmilla', which is about a female vampire and a female protagonist.
This song is composed by Yaakov Gruzman
Delaney Jane, Jensen Vaugn, and Yoo Young-jin
Kevin:The concept sounds very intriguing.
Umu: It is.
Owen: Three, two, one, go
Kevin: woah
It's like... not quite in the beat
and I like it.
Oh, now it's totally in the beat.
Henry:ohhh... I like those pauses.
Charlotte: (clapping) Gaaaay
Sam:I love how they're using that vocal sample
and like... using it in different ways to like
create atmosphere.
Raffi: And there's that low bass under, too, like the wave.
Sam: It's very unsettling.
Raffi: yeah
Sam: ooooh. We love the harmony.
Raffi: Yes!
Josh. Mmm!
Her flow~
Raffi: What a voice! There's such core.
Sam: Yeah
Kevin: The energy of the two, the duo
is really strong with this. Owen: They do have a really good energy together Charlotte: SO GAY
Charlotte: gay gay gay gay gay gay
I'm so happy how gay this is!!!!
Raffi: Oh! Sam: Scary!
Raffi: Yeah, spook.
Sam: Did you jump this time?
Ju Young: I love their bridges.
They're so good at bridges.
Jason: Yeah I like that, the strings kinda like that half-step dip. Ju Young: Yeah, yeah it has, kinda that
like that creepy feel...ohhhhh-
Steve: Got a gun.
Josh: That's a gun.
Steve: That's a gun.
Owen: Yeah, that was cool.
Oh, it was like a...um...
like a 4-3 suspension. Daaaa...
yeah. Interesting
Brianna: Ohh...
They didn't have to hit that hard.
Oh, period
Ju Young: Mm
mmmmmmm
MMMMM that was tasteful.
Josh: I really enjoyed..uh..their time when they sang.
Th-the confidence and the...
I don't know, just the relentlessness
of like how strong their beat was.
I could just feel that, which was good.
Steve: Sometimes when you hear other songs,
they have a really cool beginning,
they have a really cool middle,
and then it just goes nowhere.
This was just like when you eat chicken,
chicken is awesome.
It's great, but if you have too much chicken, you get sick of chicken.
This was continuous chicken,
BUT it was like, alright we are learning
how to cook chicken, we cook it in a pan,
then we fry it, then we do like some
cordon bleu, then we like, we keep
we get the chicken parmesan, and that's what it was.
And there was like cool recorder thing at the end.
I was very into it.
Josh: I was right wasn't I?
Josh: One, Four
Steve: Six, Five
Josh: Six, Five Steve: One, Four, Six Five
Josh: Yeah, Yeah. Something about
the way it got to five I thought was really cool.
I think that's why I like it so much.
Steve: well, you hear that progression a lot Josh: All my songs do that. Yeah, I was gonna say
Steve: in the minor, you don't hear it very much in the minor.
Umu: What do you think if that progression is used in every song, what around it
makes it not become to tiring to hear it over and over?
Josh: I just love it. I don't know.
Steve: It's the way you do it, you know. Like,
chicken.
Josh: Like right there, *imitating the bass* Steve: Ahhhhhhh
Josh: Like that weird little drop.
Steve: Like the theremin type deal.
Josh: Th-the thing, the way he got into it,
he probably used a plug-in or something
but it was just whuuuuw.
It was just a sound, and it was killing!
And I bet you the next time we-we go to a
drop, I guess this is pre-chorus
or no this is the chorus.
It's not gonna be the same. Steve: This is the chorus?
Josh: whuuuuuw. He uses it again.
That was the...*sings along with creepy child voice melody* ]
Steve: I like it 'cause it's, you know
it's a... "gimmicky" sound.
Josh: Yeah Steve: But it's not like, they're not doing
it poorly, like they didn't quote
'Monster Mash' or something, you know
Josh: Yeah, so you know how in D'Angelo
I was-we were listening to 'Voodoo',
D'Angelo, and..uh..there's this part where
like the sna...I noticed like the snaps,
the way Questlove was playing the snaps
was like a little behind the beat. And the
(Monster) producer actually used something that I
think is kind of D'Angelo-esque. He had
snaps and then claps.
Steve: Yeah Josh:Like, but they're way off from each other
but it sounds killing. No, it's like...
Steve: Yeah
Josh: And it like fades out, like hear
you can hear it, in like this.
Steve and Josh: You hear it?
Josh: Yeah, isn't that crazy?
Steve: He didn't use the...the...thing
Josh: Again didn't use that *bass sound*,
he went *imitates dubstep synths* BAM!
Steve: tukukuku Josh: Like, Killing. Beautiful!
Just, get there a different way,
I don't care how you get there, you know, just
in a different way, you know what I mean?
That's completely different, that's a
brand new sound, he's never used that.
Steve: It's like a Skrillex sample or something J: Yeah
Steve: Different
Josh: That's what I'm saying, he's getting to places differently when you notice it.
That's why we're still engaged. But it's
really small! But it takes the song from good to great.
Cloud: I think there's a interesting
juxtaposition between little and monster
because when you hear like 'little' it's
like 'little devil' or like 'little demon'
or whatever and it makes me think of like
a high pitched sound. Like 'nyanyanya' *sings high pitched children singing thing*
and like they kinda had that, so like
when they say 'little monster' and they
get like, do like the upper... kinda like
female voice, you know in the clown song
that we watched, like when you have a
high female sounding like 'nyanyanya'
like you're like "oh, like creepy clowns"
like mischievous. Um, so when they say like
little, little, like devil or whatever
oh, I'm like mischiefs running around.
Like, "oh, they making you think of me."
or whatever, but when they say like,
when it went into the refrain for the first time, it's like "I'm a little monster"
and it went down. Because when you think
'monster' you're like big, scary, deep
voice. So I thought they had a lot of
nice like, here's like the higher stuff,
not too much, I think they focused more
on the lower part. And it's like "I'm a
little monster", base drops, and I think
to add there's like electronic, and I'm
like "robo-monster"?
Brianna:Yeah, I was getting that type.Yeah
Cloud: I did like the dance formation
when they all came together and they were
like the monster, as one unit. I was like
"okay, that's kinda cool."
Umu: Yeah, continuing off that, what
elements, musical elements do you think
they used to create like more of a spooky
vibe?
Charlotte: Uh, there was a little child
laughter in the last part of it. Henry: I hate that little...yeah. They went stereo, like
"Ahahaha"and it traveled like from the
right ear to the left, which is super
unsettling, cause you're like it's actually
coming around me, and that's really creepy. Charlotte: Yeah, yeah.
Charlotte: So you should definitely listen to this song with headphones.
Henry: Um, absolutely. I also...I'm not a
fan musically of the like *imitates child voice singing part*
it kinda sounds like a whiny child a little bit. Um...
Charlotte: I think that's the point. Umu: that's the point
Henry: I know that's the point. I don't like Charlotte: Like a creepy
it musically, it just kinda get on my nerves Charlotte: ....Chucky Doll.
Henry: And not in like a 'unsettling
gets on my nerves', I'm like this just
the timbre is annoying. But, um, it
does fit in the, yeah, the creepy Chucky
kinda vibes.
Brianna: I imagine like a robot kinda like
malfunctioning and like taking over and
becoming a monster. Because like the tonal
center was low-key like creating a lot
of dissonance even though they played
the same four chords throughout the whole thing, but we're not gonna talk about that.
Because...because it hit, it hit different. The bass
was just funking throughout, you know,
the syncopation and the bass and everything
just like builds upon that. And I love that!
Sam: They used chromaticism in very, in
subtle ways. Like it's not necessarily in
the normal chord structure, but in the
bridge or something, they had this
synth that was like in the background,
but it was like ascending and descending
and it was like moving through like
chromatic tones. And it was used to like
create atmosphere, and this unsettling
atmosphere, and I was just on the edge
of my seat.
Brianna: I really enjoyed this song. It's
something like I would actually listen
to because like they could actually
sing well, which is what I liked. I like
how their voices were not the cookie-cutter
like super soft, like nice, like lyrical
like kpop voice. I was actually strong and
and their harmonies were strong, and I
feel like they showcased their range,
and stuff like that.
Stephanie: I, what stood out to me in this
one is one the harmony, the harmonizing part
and the sound effects probably. And
also the melody is just really catchy.
Because the melody's so catchy, and it's
really repetitive it could just, you know
start feeling kinda old, too repetitive,
but, yeah, like you don't get bored of it
because of the harmony.
Leon:Like this, to me, sounds a little bit
like dubstep, cause it got a lot of like
wobble bass. But, it just completely like
merged different things, like some kpop
elements inside, so it doesn't sound like
dubstep anymore. It sounds like a completely
different genre.
Charlotte: I thought it didn't hit as hard
in the drop of the chorus as it led up to,
like that first bass drop in the every part
of the chorus makes it feel like you're
going into an extremely hardcore, like,
very dark intense low bass sound. And it
doesn't go there, it just goes there for
a second, and I almost wish that it had
done it more, it hit harder, but then I
get distracted by like how stunningly
gorgeous they are, and I'm like not upset
at all.
Umu: I think what the producers wanted to
was seep in that darkness, because each,
with each chorus, more and more dubstep
came in.
Charlotte: Yeah, yeah, noticed that. Charlotte: I was just about to say how all Henry: There's a lot more wubs.
the choruses had something that was added
into it each time. So, I just think that
was what was interesting, and they use
like the half step, which is like really
common in doing more of like a darker
sounding, you know, kinda going into that
minor-esque area. You use half steps
to kinda show that, it's more like
spooky.
Henry: Legs for days!
Umu: Okay, you like the legs, and you
like the gayness. What about the music? Charlotte: *laughs*
Cloud: I did want to ask. Is this queer baiting?
Brianna: Are yeah, oh that's another thing
are they gay? Cloud: Is it? Is this queer baiting?
Brianna: Is that the monster part? Cloud: Cause I feel a little queer
baited. Personally.
Brianna: No, I was like, is that like the
subliminal message, like are they considered
monsters because they are a couple? Is
that like taboo in Korean culture? Umu: Oh, wow!
Cloud: We'll, we'll go into it, Im...
Umu: Interesting
Brianna: Three, Two, One
Sh*t...I need to like, click (she's using her ipad)
Cloud: Oh, they start in formation with the monster too.
Yeah, cause she says "steal your heart and
dominate you". Like is it both of them
trying to influence a guy or are they just
together?
See, I just think it's interesting cause a
lot of times when they have the same
clothes on, the same outfits, it's almost
like they are trying to represent the same
persona, but then they're like,
together and I'm like, are they the 'same person'
or are they a 'couple'? Brianna: Person, or are they....mmhm
Umu: But yeah, so do you guys have any
theories of how like even further like
developing what you said, after your first listen?
Cloud: Like what I said before, like I feel
like whenever they put them in the same
outfits, and the-the backup dancers
are wearing something different to contrast
and I'm like 'oh, so they could have been wearing contrasting outfits if they want
to be different people, but because they
are wearing the same thing it's because
they're both monsters. So they share
that similarity.' So they're both dressed the same, but they have different shoes,
or whatever, or is it that they are...like
so are they the same person or are they
like the same thing?
Because if they are the same like,
category, it's like 'oh, well if you're
both lesbians', but then like society
rejects you and you're like 'a little
monster'.
Brianna: Yeah Brianna: A monster, yeah I get what you're
trying to say. So that's, that's what I
initially thought. I was like, so I like
took like a horror film class last year
Uh, the monster Frankenstein, what made
him a monster was just him like being
different. Cloud: People rejecting him.
Brianna: Yeah, that's another tea.
Frankenstein the monster has no name but
the monster. He was never even named,
because that's how much he was reviled from
society because he just looked different.
And I now, I'm just like 'oh is it because
they are different as in like their
sexuality is different?'. Are they considered
monsters because of that and are-and are
just owning that, they're "little monsters",
and that even- and that's, they're like- the play on that's, they talked about
you dreaming about us, like me and stuff like that.
And I was just like 'oh,
because in some ways you guys are monsters,
but it's still like a fetish, in a way'
Like guys like are attracted to that, but
also I like the idea of them just being
one person as like a monster because they
do share a lot of outfits together, and I
just think they have the sexual undertones
to sell this song itself.
Jason: Something I do appreciate about
them as a group, now that I am just seeing
more, is that they, um, they don't shy
away from-from shock-shock value. They
have this aspect to them that really kinda
draws you in. And kinda plays with what
you find to be normal, and kinda tests you
and I like that. I appreciate that.
J: you know how this is called Monster?
Here you go!
I'll teach you how to make it!
Ju Young: He's a Gemini, guys!
Jason: look at that!!!!! Ju: Girls, if you're looking for a Gemini! Jason: WAIT-
He's got a tongue now!! Ju Young: A Gemini~