Cloud: Before we react to Moonbyul we wanted to let you know that today's video was made possible by our sponsor Skillshare.
We've seen a lot of you guys mentioning that you have a lot of time during quarantine, and you want to learn either music theory
Or maybe another instrument and Skillshare is the perfect platform to do that.
Brianna: An annual subscription to Skillshare premium is less than ten dollars a month which in our opinion is a really good deal.
Period.
For the amount of things you can learn in just one month using Skillshare...it's a steal.
The first 1000 of you to use the link in the description below to sign up for Skillshare will get a free trial of Skillshare premium.
Both: Now let's move on to the reaction!
Umu: So you are now reacting to the main rapper, dancer, and sub vocalist of the girl group Mamamoo: Moonbyul.
Who also goes by MoonStar. And her 2020 solo comeback "Eclipse".
Moonbyul has always been a person who pushes for destruction of gender stereotypes towards females and she has expressed
before that she doesn't feel comfortable showing a lot of skin. Jason: Fire.
U: So with this comeback she wanted to show how a woman can dance and wear what they want regardless of gender stereotype and still appear
sexy and powerful. Henry: Yes! I'm so ready for the dance moves.
U: The lyrics of "Eclipse" speak of a battle between the light and dark side. It is open for interpretation if Moonbyul's describing an inner
battle between her own dark side--the monster sheltered by the moon--or if she is instead out to save her listeners.
Taking the position as a protector.
The song is composed by Kim Do-Hoon, Soo Young-Bae, Lee Hoo-Sang, Miki, and Inner Child from MonoTree.
Sam: Three, two, one...
Oh~
Kevin: That's a piano note, but heavily altered.
H: Ooo!
Octave displacement add the third harmony on top...Sounds beautiful.
So cool.
Jamal: Fat bea-OH! *vocalizes*
K: What I love about this already is that it sounds like a boy group sound but she's killing it.
She's killing it!
J: That was just trap as fuck. Wow. Rafael: Yeah, This is a trap ass beat.
H: Like this half time feel.
AHHHHH!!!
Pre-chorus!
Stamp!
Ju Young: wow!
*singing*
H: Ooo!
S: Her voice for some reason has more deeper colors in it than previous vocalists I feel like we've listened to.
J: Woo~
R: This beat is sick. J: The beat's sick and the choreography is sick like Yah!
R: Really, definitely got a lot from Black American music here.
Jason: Is that one five six one? Ju Young: Oh my god she's so badass!
Jason: I like this part! I like that!
Raffi: That's a big range. S: Yea.
Ju Young: Is this the bridge? Oh no nope nope nope nope we're not there yet. Okay.
C: Yes!
J: Yea that was nice! Some room to breathe! Yea!
K: Ooh the descant is very nice.
~~~ooooo~~~
I'm not in tune.
K: Okay choreography with the drum fill is pretty cool.
Ju Young: Wow~ Jason: It was cool. That was good.
Ju Young: I love her.
J: I thought this one from the pieces that we've heard today I felt like had the most continuity.
As far as just being its own piece and not like... R: It was sick.
J: It was like not like...I felt like other tunes were like combinations of ideas and like...which is cool which is still valid but
This just felt like this was just one cohesive like piece. And the fact that they had like a little like room
like towards the end was just like instrumental it's like "Yes oh my gosh wow!"
Also I really like it this...it's also just like a really simple thing...but the start of it just had like exposed piano.
R: with like a like synth....just like an ambient pad vibe to it J: Yeah
J: Something's like...gets my attention and then...like it's so simple but it's so eloquent...I guess...
R: I wish I could produce music like this. I've been making a trap beat like all of the last two days and like it's nothing compared to this.
U: You'll get there man!
Owen: you know at the beginning how it's kind of hard to find the meter? I think what she did is she went with like with the same chorus chords.
O: That's the bass right? K: Yes.
O: Alright I think they did that same chorus chords and they did four four four and three. Before they started the actual song. K: Yeah yeah yeah.
O: I think that's why it felt weird to kind of throw you off but that was just like... K: It was a very cool opening.
K: I think it started off really strong. Arguably the strongest part of the song is the opening.
In terms of dynamics in terms of in terms of how hard-hitting it is. And then we moved to a lighter pre-chorus which I was also engaged by.
I thought the build up was very strong, but then when it dropped into the chorus...every time it felt a little it felt like it could have delivered more.
Yeah the melodies were also a little bit more predictable. All of the things that made her voice stand out during the verses and the pre-chorus
When the once the chorus comes it just became this package of something I've heard before just just you know a lot of tropes and it doesn't go as hard
and again I like that drum fill but it just doesn't go as hard yeah I don't know why.
O: I feel like it does go hard enough but it doesn't have a contrast that builds it up to make it feel like it goes harder.
Like I think the pre-chorus gets to the chorus and doesn't have any jump to get bigger.
I think it gets exactly to the same level of going hardness and therefore it's not the same hit when it finally drops.
K: Usually when the moment the chorus cuts off, when they have their little revamp section where it's quiet and they're building up I feel my attention coming back to it.
O: Yeah and it's interesting chromaticism too...stuff outside of it. K: Like exactly yeah yeah yeah
K: So eclipse I guess it's an eclipse of opinions from me hey!
H: so much camera switching! Like she had really nice dance moves but you they never focused on her for more than like two seconds. Charlotte: I think that's the point!
C: That's the point! Do you listen to her intros? Because they help you so much to understand all the artistic things that are happening!
H: I didn't think it was necessary!
C: I think the whole point of the camera switching would be in the fact that like if there's some sort of like clash happening...
whether it be with whatever you were talking about I don't know (U: dark sides?) dark and light let's just go with that.
Whatever the two are representing I think that was the point to be flashing between them to show that they're within one person?
Which is why we're flashing between them. Like when she's got like the the mainly like white suit but she's got like the bedazzled is the light side,
But when she's like sitting in her throne like in this all black like commander militaristic outfit like looking at the crown with like her dark smokey eye like that's...
Yeah you got it you got it you got it! So like I think that's why the camera thing was there like artistically speaking. I think it makes absolute perfect sense knowing-
H: How frequently switched? C: Oh yeah. (H: Really?) Yeah.
H: I thought it was too frequent. Like it switched so quickly you didn't get to see like half of dance move before it moved.
C: Well that's why you then go and watch the dance practice videos. H: Yes yes...
H: Actually that's my first thought was I can't like after the first chorus I'm like I want to watch the dance practice of this because I want to see what they came up with for the whole thing.
C: It kind of reminded me of some boy group songs the way that it had the way that it used modal mixture and the way that it went into refrains definitely gave me like Superm groups or...
like I don't know. I felt very Stray Kids or like Super Junior or whatever...I don't remember which... U: I think you're just just making a bunch of random boy groups...
C: Like here's a bunch of random boy groups that's what it made me think of.
Like when you have that acceleration into the refrain and then a switch to major like "Look now the light!"
I feel like a lot of boy groups do that with their song because they're trying to make them like epic or whatever and like I guess it works. I wasn't like super blown away. I thought it was cool.
S: I just felt like a lot of the instruments they used like a lot of the synths and stuff like that were much more in their lower registers and it was a lot of the sound that you were listening to was based off of the drive of the percussion.
And so I feel as though that sort of production really helps a voice like hers that is much more on the richer side.
R: I liked in the beginning right away how she's obviously using like a breathier tone which we're seeing is a theme I think quite a bit.
But it's beautiful but then it was doubled like an octave lower and I think that contributed a little bit more strength to it but like also that dark...dark side.
C: Was it in fact--am I like hearing this correctly--that every time she was backed up vocally it was by a man? U: mhmm *agrees*
H: Was it a man or her voice pitched down? It was an octave down- C: Nope. It's a man.
U: It was the producer. It was the producer. And then she backed herself up including the...
C: She backed herself up but there are some moments where it's definitely a guy backing her up on the octave lower for doing some of that more grungy sound kind of thing.
U: And all the the backup dancers were men too. C: I know I can't we just...okay this is not about the music but this is just like purely from our artistic standpoint
Woo smash the patriarchy! Because like literally every outfit she had on can be considered traditionally a masculine associated outfit.
Not only that but a lot of the visuals and the the moves that she was doing even in just the close-up shots I've seen a lot of that I feel like in the rap verses of boy groups.
So not only did she pull dance moves and clothing and like the aesthetic of the whole thing from a traditionally male like viewpoint she then just made it her own.
Like there were some touches of it being feminine like the way that the things are tailored and like having like the jewels and the shinier parts and just like all of that.
Like and obviously her hair and makeup being done with it to match the outfit gave it that feminine touch.
But I think it was really cool to see her take "Well this was meant for boys but now it's mine. No it's for girls too." so I liked that a lot.
U: How do you think that was painted out in the track?
H: *humming* that feels really strong to me. Four three four three four three five one to start.
Like to start the chorus with a big five one...um I don't know it feels really sturdy to me it feels really sturdy to me.
Not to mention it's in her lower range so there's a lot more lower resonance that comes out in that timbre and she doubles it often with the lower octave and then that upper third which just sounds awesome.
And that to me you hear that in a lot of boy groups. (C: You do.) That's like that kind of strong musical sound, and it I think that helps it out. Also the the classic (C: quarter note triplets?) pre-chorus you heard me do like pre-chorus stamp. You know:
Like is also I mean you hear that in a lot of a lot of music but especially in like strength-y dance-y masculine songs. C: Also the triplets. Don't forget the triplets.
H: When? C: On the dudu-dudu.
H: Oh yeah!
H: Yeah. C: Yeah!
B: They would do this thing called ratatata, kind of liked how they were like imitating like the drum sounds that were happening.
I really liked like the rhythmic play within those sounds. Like they had a lot of breaks which the drums would kind of fill in and I thought that was really nice.
Ju Young: No but she really got that concept down. Jason: Listen. Right here.
And then ready?
That.
That was fresh.
U: Rhythmic things like that how they work to feel interesting...
Jason: It enunciates the space and kind of like it's all anticipation like getting you ready for the beat to happen.
So it's like *vocalizes* like that space between the mm like and like the final like hit.
Because especially like percussion in general is more of like a you know like we have percussion inside of us like our heartbeat you know.
It's like percussion's kind of like this primal rhythm of living. And I think that when like we hear percussive qualities kind of lead us somewhere it really is like a pretty intense feeling.
Ju Young: But like the song was very like straightforward but like she did like give that badass like I love it when like this kind of stuff happen like Billy Eilish. Like you don't have to show off skin to like look sexy or like you know.
Jason: That's the thing that I really respect about this was she bent a lot of social normalities. That that's some of my favorite types of art is when people kind of defy what is normal and what is normal in the sense that society has structured it to where it shouldn't be normal.
Like women should be able to express themselves the way they want, men should be able to express themselves the way they want, and non-gender people should be able to express themselves the way they want.
And I thought that this was really interesting because most of the pieces she chose to wear were like progressively it was changing like back and forth into so many different places of "structure" but that was the purpose was to like there shouldn't be any structure.
We have it so easy. Women are it. Like they birth humans into the world, like that's crazy. Like WHAT?!
Ju Young: All you guys do is poop.