Jason: *Confused laugh*
What did he do to my brain just now?
[Semiramide Overture - Rossini]
Umu: Okay! So, you know who you're reacting to! It's...
Ju Young: Rap Monster, RM, or Kim Nam Joon!
But his name is not Rap Monster anymore, he changed it to RM!
Umu: I was like AA- AA- Rewind, rewind, rewind!
Umu: You guys know who RM is, right?
Jason: Of course I do!
Brian: REM?
Jason: RM is one of the leading geniuses of our time.
Umu: Oh...
I happen to agree.
Jason: Ha!
Umu: So RM is the leader of a little group called BTS,
Umu: you may have heard of them. Jory: Oh!
Will: I didn't know that.
Umu: Yeah!
In an interview with The Atlantic
RM says that his whole life was an exhibition,
"Unconsciously, or maybe consciously, I’ve been exhibiting my life for decades."
"So [I said], Okay, then let’s make it into a real exhibition."
And the exhibition is the Album 'Indigo'
and so each track paints of a different aspect of his life.
The song 'Change Pt.2' is his personal relationship with change,
he says he felt like he had always been chasing for eternity
but things kept changing and changing and changing nonetheless
and it was very frustrating.
The reason why this song is called 'Change Pt.2' is because
he had previously released a song titled 'Change'
that had lyrics dealing with racism, education, mental health and more,
but in an interview RM explained that this song isn't necessarily a direct sequel to it
and it more focuses on his personal experiences with change.
The song is composed by RM, of course, and the producer eAeon.
Have you ever wanted to learn more about the history of K-pop
but don't know where or how to start?
I have a podcast recommendation for you.
Written and hosted by Korea-American writer Vivian Yoon,
'K-Pop Dreaming' is a limited podcast series that explores both the history of K-pop
and Yoon's own relationship to K-pop
as a second generation Korean immigrant growing up in LA in the 90s.
Listening to this podcast, I learned so much about K-pop that I didn't know before,
like how a group of Korean-American kids from LA were the first to bring R&B to Korea,
or how a club in Itaewon for Black American soldiers became a hot spot for hip-hop culture in Seoul.
The episode about the club, 'Moon Night', is one of my favorites.
It really speaks to the power Music has to connect people,
and not going to lie, I had tears in my eyes by the end of the episode.
Beyond just the history of K-pop
the podcast also tries to understand the unique characteristics of the music itself,
featuring interviews with New Jeans's producer 250,
and the producers of Red Velvet's 'Psycho', EJAE and Druski.
I really enjoy listening to this podcast
and if you are interested in the history of this genre we all know and love, I'm sure you will too.
'K-Pop Dreaming' is available on all podcast platforms
and if you visit their website right now
you can enter in a giveaway for over $1000 worth of K-pop albums,
from both classic first generation artists to today's most popular groups.
But you need to hurry because the last day to enter this giveaway is April 20th.
And now, let's get this reaction started.
Kevin: Three, two, one, Dyna...mite...
Ali: I wasn't expecting that.
Ju Young: What the fµcĸ is this?!?
Rachel: I was not expecting that!
Liam: No, not from this cover.
Ali: I was expecting acoustic guitar... Ju Young: The- the- cuz the picture-
Brian: Feels like it's right at my ear!
Whispering.
Jacob: Oh my god!
Jason: That was so unexpected.
Brian: Mmh! Jason: It's slowly building, slowly building.
Brian: Hehehehehehehehe!
Kayla: Oooohhhhhhhhhhh!
Liam: Oh yes, dude, the chromatic descend, oh!
Jason: What did he do to my brain just now?
Kayla: Oh.
Kayla. Oh! Wow! Jacob: Oh my gooosh!
Ju Young: Okay, yeah, this is what I expected, like... Ali: I- yeah, yeah.
Adam: Wow!
Catherine: The piano is so good.
Adam: That changed everything for me about this song. Catherine: That's- I know!
Jory: That thing is bitcrushed.
Kevin: I like the sloppy piano, it - woah, oh~
Ju Young: There something like spooky about this.
Ju Young: I mean cuz like, it feels like the notes are so, Ali: There's a lot of dissonance.
Ju Young: it's so, like it's so, ĸchrrrrrr!
Ali: It's crunchy.
Both: That's it?!
Owen: That's it~
Jason: Yeah, this is like a piece of art, like a painting.
Jory: Wohohow.
Will: Wow! Jory: That was really...
Will: That's so interesting.
Jory: That was really wild.
Catherine: Wow, what a plot twist.
Adam: What a plot twist. Catherine: Things really changed.
Catherine: I can't even, I can like-
Adam: I'm changed!
Kayla: I'm a fan! Big fan!
I loved the beat, I was a big fan.
That usually is - I feel like I talk about that a lot,
you kinda just have an internal vibe that just like feels like 'yeah'
and I liked that even though the texture changed
and it was like a bit shift,
it still felt like it still had that underlying beat.
Jacob: I was listening for the change in texture
because a lot of it started with a lot of bass
and then gradually it started to add in some of these mid and high tones
and then the bass faded out and the mid faded out
and then you were just left with the piano
and I thought that was really cool because that's also the idea of change,
like the texture is changing too.
Kayla: Yeah.
Brian: I also think it was interesting how much variety he had
cuz it was really short-
Jason: Why do you think there was so much variety?
Brian: Because of that one part with the bibedibødæbidubi,
the bee-boops, do you know what I'm talking about?
Umu: Yeah.
Brian: Where it's suddenly like computer music?
Jason: Yes.
Brian: I was not expecting that - yeah. Jason: Stockhausen!
Jason: Well why, why weren't you expecting it?
Brian: Because I feel like you don't hear a lot of that stuff
Brian: ...in pop music - Jason: Yeah, but what is this song called?
Brian: 'Change Pt.2'
Jason: What is it about?
Brian: Changing.
Jason: What was this song aurally doing?
Brian: Changing.
Jason: Mhm.
Umu: WHY DO YOU TAKE MY JOB, JASON?!?!?!
NOW YOU DON'T EVEN NEED-
like, who, I don't feel needed!
Brian: But like- Umu: I...
Umu: I quit! Jason: I'm sorry!
Will: This song has like so much character.
Jory: This thing grimy as sḥ*t.
Will: It's so grimy, is so like, I don't know,
like guttural, emotional, just like, rrr...
Liam: Yeah, that was so gritty.
Rachel: Yeah, it was really intense.
Liam: I was surprised how intimate the tone of the song remained
even with the crazy production with all the style changes,
like the instrumentation was actually not as crazy or like as dense as I actually thought it was initially.
Catherine: The piano was so good, that was like sexy piano.
What?
I thought it was really good.
Adam: I just was not thinking 'sexy'.
Catherine: Really? I loved it.
I would listen to it again, just for the piano.
Will: It was, I think it was a, probably a MIDI piano,
but an acoustic piano but just like super compressed and then distorted a little.
Jory: It's cool.
Rachel: It's like super dry, like...
like it sounded like he was like poking it, you know what I mean?
Liam: Yeah, no, it...
It like almost seemed like haphazard, just like notes kinda falling into place.
Rachel: Yeah.
Like I don't know, it was very, like, picky,
like:
Liam: Yeah, just kind of like plink plonk.
Rachel: Like really no thought happening, like harmonically,
not like a bad way, it's just like it's like a textural thing and I thought it's really cool.
Liam: Yes, like almost randomized.
Leon: First it starts like, uh:
Which is like normal progression,
but it starts to go like:
Like, it's just like a serial of like sixths, thirds and sometimes fourths
and like implies some other, like ♭2 stuff,
and then it's like, contrary motion.
Like that stuff, and it gives a lot of dissonance,
but it's like, it all makes sense, cuz it's all from like classical or jazz.
Will: Yeah, the harmony was like really weird too, it was like pretty out.
Jory: I was kind of into it.
Will: But like not in a bad way, like it was cool.
It was just interesting cuz it totally, you know, it's a vibe, it matches the vibe.
You can feel the emotion that he's trying to convey.
Leon: Like good dissonance.
Stephanie: Yeah, exactly, that's what I was thinking about just listening to it,
like stuff made sense.
Will: With a really specific and like really tangible emotion behind it,
and so those choices are guided by that emotional context,
and that comes through, you know,
in a song where there is just kind of weird chords for the sake of being weird chords,
or just like a vocal melody that gets tuned to a note and doesn't quite fit, whatever,
it's different, there is not a guiding emotional context and like actual reason for that.
But for this there really, there is, it's very strong, it's very obvious, and it comes through.
Ali: Everything is like dissonant cuz like, if you think about it,
let's say the key center is here,
the most dissonant notes that you have, like according to counterpoint, are 2 and 7,
and 2 and 7 just happen to be the notes closest to your key center.
So like 2 would be like here; obviously a ♭2, then it's this,
and then 7 would be here or that's also 7,
but you don't have to go that far from your key center to get to 7, it's right below you.
So:
Those are the most dissonant notes, and then in the electronic part,
that's all it's going to, it's just like up a semitone, it's like:
But it starts with some sort of resemblance of a harmonic pattern at the beginning
and then it just gets more dissonant and dissonant and dissonant,
and suddenly it goes to the piano part.
And then it's the same thing, it's like some resemblance of a harmonic pattern,
and then at the end it's like pretty post-tonal, honestly.
Umu: What kind of emotions did you get from the different sections?
Kayla: I think the first one kinda felt very metal, like, angry.
a little
Umu: Frustrated?
Kayla: Like, sad, yeah, sad and frustrated,
and then I think by the end it was, with the piano, especially in like the upper register,
it kind of felt more like acceptance.
Jacob: Oh yeah, like the 5 stages of grief
Kayla: Yeah, like it kind of felt like there was a journey, there was an arc.
Jacob: I felt like the beginning thing changed, people changed, everything changed,
so it felt like fresh out of a breakup
because change can be such a relative thing, it's like,
whey you are experiencing that change right after you break up with someone,
like that feels like such an abrupt change and so like,
I think like the almost raspy grunginess of the bass in that sort of communicated that anger.
Adam: It sounded like spiteful, I don't know.
Catherine: It sounded angry. Adam: Yeah.
Catherine: But spiteful, yeah, like angry doesn't describe it, that's true.
Adam: Mm.
Catherine: Vengeful.
Ju Young: Towards the second half I was like "Okay but like why would he like do that?"
Cuz I am like, RM definitely has some sort of thought process to it,
a lot of what he composes or what he writes.
Umu: He did the entire topline by himself,
he was out just walking, (Ju Young: Okay) this song and lyrics sprung into his head,
he ran over to eAeon's producing studio and recorded the entire thing to a metronome
and he said, "eAeon, produce something that just keeps on changing!"
and eAeon just like mathematically wrote a track.
Umu: The vocals that you hear right now are the demo vocals
when he had first written it and he was drunk.
Jory: Cool.
Umu: Beca-ahaha.
Will: That's, yeah, that's actually awesome, that like totally makes that...
Will: That like makes the vibe. Jory: You can hear the booze.
Will: Yeah.
Umu: Within like the laid back piano?
Jory: Yeah.
Rachel: I don't know, that's like a cool thing to do.
If that's the way that you're producing a song.
Liam: Yeah, building around something so raw, like that...
Liam: There is just so much cre- Rachel: Instead of messing with it you just like,
Rachel: You just like find a different creative route to go with it.
Liam: Yeah, no, there is so much great creative thought put into this.
Ju Young: I think it's really...
great when -
I think that's the meaning of music, and I think RM like gets it,
is to like take the listener like literally with you (Ali: Yeah!)
and like make you feel the same emotions
that like he is going though,
or like what the lyrics mean, or like what the instruments mean,
and like, I'm like so...
like, I'm gonna cry, like it's so...
Jason: It's kind of like James Joyce kind of stream of consciousness type of thing.
He let his stream of consciousness just go through the changes aurally
and paint out what he was feeling in all these random fractured moments,
that's why it's reminding me of abstraction, of almost cubism,
because it's taking the chair - so like, Georges Braque and Picasso,
really Braque though, Picasso kind of followed with him, but,
would take one kind of...
You know, it is abstraction, I was right,
and this is my perspective, there's no right and wrong, but like,
it's taking like, they took like a chair or a chessboard, and they would abstract it because,
this was, this is what's so interesting about cubism and abstraction,
it's the idea that there is no one perspective and no one way to look at something,
so the way that you see a chair, they painted it from top, side, bottom, diagonal, left, right,
they painted it from all these different places, and then cubism was born,
and it looks really wacky, but then you can kind of make it out of this abstracted object, right?
That's what I was feeling here, it was that he took the concept of change,
and aurally and musically he was able to see it from this perspective, that perspective,
this perspective, and there, this way, and then put it all together into this one thing,
and it was incredibly abstract, and, because it was all based on the concept of change.
So I think that this is a multi-dimensional concept of change,
it's not just change like, "Oh no, life changed" or something happened,
it's also he's changed when somebody is telling him he hasn't.
So it's like, there's a lot of different changes going on
and I think that the aural and sonic realms that he brought us into are like that,
they're multidimensional, like in just the way that the word change he's using is multidimensional,
cuz it's coming from different directions towards him and outside of him,
and the music was coming from certain areas and outside of certain areas
and were areas that were, I think, sometimes the music was a bit subconscious,
emotion, emotional expression, as opposed to what he actually felt.
It was like a painting.
Kevin: It feels a bit like something I would pass by,
like say during, like in time it would be like during this react session,
or in space it would be like some sort of museum piece,
I'll look at it and be like...
"Wow..."
And then I would leave.
That's just what this reminds me of.
Kevin: I enjoyed it. Owen: Just like a moment,
Kevin: Yeah!
Owen: Separate from the rest of your life Kevin: It almost should be experienced like that.
Jason: I would, you know, I think that this doesn't sit for me as a song,
to where when you think of a song you want to listen to it again.
This kind of sits as a song, like Stockhausen, actually,
like Boulez, like certain modern -
which, those guys are also kind of the cubists and abstract formists with music,
where it's like, it is its own kind of stationary thing that doesn't need to be done again, it's just,
it meant something and it had a message and it kind of closed in this little capsule.
And you can go back and revisit it but it's not like:
"Oh it's a song that we'll listen to again because it sounds so good and makes me happy"
No, it's like, this is an experiential time piece of sound.
Jason: When you get drunk, does Gregorian chants go through your head or something?
Brian: Sometimes, honestly.
All sorts of things in the rolodex.
Jason: Cue like, just like zoom in on his face and just Gregorian chant.
Brian: I have problems.
Jason: Yes, one can tell.