Kevin: What? D Flat and A? Minor seven?
Kevin: What?!
Jordan: So the next group you're going to be listening to is called Cosmic Girls,
And they're a 12 member girl group that debuted under Starship and Yuehua Entertainment in 2015.
But then gained another member in 2016.
Umu: Since they are called Cosmic Girls,
each of the girls represent different constellations, where Yeonjung, the latest member,
represents the latest constellation, Ophiuchus.
This first song that you'll be reacting to is their 2018 release 'Dreams Come True'.
This music video is like a continuation of a past music video where their concept was a magic school, and
aligned with their cosmic space theme that they've had since debut.
Jordan: So, their leader/main rapper
contributed to writing the lyrics for the song, which is composed by Glory Faces and Jake K from Full8loom.
Melissa: 3, 2, 1.
Ooh, it starts off like [wind effects]. This is spooky.
Melissa: This is like, this is like (Strauss') Also Sprach! James: Yeah
Fiona: A storm's a-brewin'! Lindsey: Whoa
Fiona: Just kidding, it's a beach, or a coastal city
Peyton: Heavy synth vibes
Peyton: They got every synth in Korea.
Charlotte: Why does this remind me of like Pokemon? Peyton: Cause it is
L: This is harmonically interesting
It's like going places.
F: I like all that twinkly like [sound effects] if you listen for those, that's cool.
M: I feel like this is very, like, J: Cinematography is...
J: ...wonderful. M: Yeahhh
M: Like this is more like, they're going for like, you know like, a breathier sound almost
M: Which is cool
Kevin: Oh, D Flat? I mean did it ever hurt nobody? No, it ain't no hurt nobody
K: What? D Flat and A? Minor seven?
K: What?!
K: What?!?!
K: Okay, there's many levels of mixture and quick modulations going on.
P: #GirlsWhoRapAreGreat
L: What!
F: It got cool, this is the rap section
Classic K-pop! [finger guns]
M: Did they just have a- J: The sing-talky part, it's happening.
M: Oh, yeah J: They always have like a rap, a rap, a rap
M: But like it's not rap, like what do you call this?
J: Sing talking? (M: Sing talking) Yeah M: Same, sprechstimme
M: Music theory jokes, am I right?
K: Ooh with that little piano, [piano sound]
K: I need more piano, come on
J: See even in this there's some interesting like, I don't even know what it is,
it's probably modal mixture or something, honestly like I-
M: That was a chord right there. J: Yes, a chord. Thank you, Melissa
I: Nooo
K: I love the Flat 2 to regular 2
to 5, and then to some deceptive.
P: I like that little like, rhythmic anticipation like [imitates sound]
K: Oh, we're in Picardy land... except,
K: Wow, they didn't slap that at the beginning. What a refreshing thing
K: Oof, there's so many chords!
L: Whoa
L: What is the like, the key?
F: So you said the new member's a constellation (L: It's doing stuff)
F: Or, the new constellation.
J: I also like the concept a little bit too, cause it's like
Harry Potter Hogwarts meets like, the 21st century.
M: It's like-- J: Like they've got iPhones, that's nice M: Yeah
F: [sound effects] L: oh yeah
F: It sounds like a bass (L: It's string) but its electronic L: Yeah
J: Their voices are beautiful... and you're right, it's so much higher than everything we've heard
M: Yeah, that's like, it's like a very breathy style (J: Yeah) and like,
J: It's like airy tone. M: Yeah, I don't know how I feel about that.
J: I'm sure it's intentional. M: It works really well for this though. J: I like it.
M: It's like a trend, though. J: Yeah,
J: Well it's poppy and dancey, but it's a little more ethereal, you know? M: Yeah
P: Are they like saving the world right now? Seems very intense, but like also soft.
P: I'm not sure.
L: Oh, that did not resolve.
F: Was all a dream.
F: *gasp*
J: What's going on? M: Mi Do Re So
M: Big Ben theme, So Re Mi Do
J: Oh, that's pretty... M: This is so cool
J: I thought it was over, what the heck? M: This is like,
M: A crescendo
M: They don't usually happens in pop music J: Okay, and now it's over
J: See, M: I love how they ended it that way like it's like, hey, this is different
I: Well, I thought it's very interesting how they use rhythm in this.
There's one where they do four beats
just to emphasize that there's, it's a 4/4 meter, and then, there's one where they stroke three beats in the rap,
which I find it very effective, cause it's just like, you say your rap, when you say your phrase and it's
da da da da da da. So this is strong, I guess, oh my goodness,
I keep thinking about Bartok now
I: This is not good K: I have a mean reference to classical music
I: But actually in uh, the cadenza of the viola concerto, there's this one replay,
[Imitates sound]
[imitating intensifies]
I: And it keeps going, and it's very interesting because like, a lot of pieces actually,
Like I find Bach doing that quite frequently, but like
A lot of his lines he would start with the "soprano line" in the cello suites,
and then the bass would come later.
It's very interesting, cause you're kinda, you're just floating in the soprano line without any basis or foundation,
but if you don't have a foundation
you're like constantly seeking for the foundation, for your solid grounding and then
just having that bass line, the emphasis of the bass line was very cool.
I: And the way they did that throughout like, to create different atmospheres,
like there was the one, it's like nearly a quarter of the song,
they wanted to go for like a really light sounding texture,
They didn't have much bass line, and it was just her singing.
I: I forgot who was singing... K: Yeah, there was one section where the voice really came out.
I: Yeah.
I: I really liked how they used the rhythm and it, for some reason just reminded me of anime.
K: I think the chords are really cool, and it definitely threw me for a loop. However,
listening to this gave me a really interesting feeling which is like,
you know oftentimes the way we pick the songs to react is based on how interesting musically it is,
but I think when a song goes so harmonically crazy,
sometimes, the melody is compromised. Like as the song went on, I realized that
I don't remember what the chorus sounds like, and I think that the chorus and the verses,
they tend to sound a bit same-y, with some songs like this.
K: I'm gonna quote a classical piece
There's a little moment when the piano had, I think it's right after the first chorus,
when the piano had a little bass like [imitates sound]
K: Just a little [sound], almost like a percussion instrument just so we get a little energetic kick
I: Rumble K: Yeah, and then it disappears.
K: It reminds me of how just orchestral pieces can use piano parts too like, Pines of Rome. With that
[piano effect]
And I really like it when the piano's low register is
used more often, like, sort of a percussion instrument,
like a bassy percussion instrument and I really want to hear that more.
C: I did not personally enjoy that.
It was just like, let's just have this like floaty ethereal sound the entire time underneath this like,
techno-y synth sound the entire time, and then, to change it up we're gonna do the same thing.
But now we're gonna do it in canon.
P: I don't know, I just felt like it would, never really settled for me, you know?
Like whenever someone like, tries to kind of make something harmonically interesting
It's very easy to do too much and I felt like that was too much.
I don't know, there was never like a chord that like really settled for more than like, a couple beats
when they were going through sequences and stuff like that.
It'd be like a left turn here, left turn here, left turn here
I was just like where the fuck are we going, you know.
M: I don't think it did that much.
M: I feel like it was like a standard just dance tune. So the ending was like J: Yeah, I would disagree
J: Just because-- M: Fight me, J: Okay
J: What really, like we had talked about the tone a little bit and how it was a little bit airy and ethereal
That definitely did it. And just really like, the pitch placement of everything
Like their voices are just like up here, because (M: Yeah) they're all female.
And part of it too was like, the, the way they were like singing the lyrics
It never really stayed or felt grounded in any way.
They would always like keep singing and like, keep like,
motion going and like, throw in some weird changes and stuff when they felt like turning things around and like,
deceiving the audience. So for me if it was like a little more grounded like we're used to,
M: That's true. J: The tonic, dominant, you know,
M: Like I can't think of any like sections that I would put this in, J: Yeah
M, Like, I don't know where the bridge was and all that. J: Exactly.
J: So it's definitely ethereal to listen to.
Umu: Next you'll be reacting to Miracle, which is a B-side track released on the 2017 Happy Moment album.
Umu: This song is composed by e.one.
M: 3, 2, 1.
J: Kids
J: Hate em M: I like (J: naw i'm just kidding) Wait, this sounds like
M: Okay, the first one this sounds like Dancing Queen right now,
F: [imitating song] Like having scale runs up to stuff, like that just sounds so...
...disco-y to me.
L: Also the like strings that we got going on here with the slight synthesized feel to it, F: Yeah
I: Like you know, you know you're gonna go somewhere with this, (K: Yeah) with the strings
M: There's some chords in here, J: Yeah, it's already, like,
M: Dang it, my new chord is fabulous~
F: Cool! L: Yeah, that kind of went where I didn't think it was going to to go
P: It's like, I don't know, like girl punk group from the 70s, C: Yeah
P: But with like, modern sounds.
P: That groove is like, definitely that area, like
P: The bass player is killing though!
J: I love the little bass going on, (M: Yeah) with the little string run.
M: I feel like the little string runs really say like 80s or 90s Pop to me,
J: Yeah, and that brass in the beginning was very.. M: Yeah, it's almost like a nostalgic like
J: ...was brass band-y almost. M: Yeah, like it's like, hey remember like Abba, and like old eras of pop music
C: No, this is the step, push, step, push
Step, push, step, push,
P: Yeah, C: Or the [does move]
P: It's very like, I don't know like I feel like there needs to be dance moves, you know
P: that just means the groove is cool!
M: I like how the string J: Now they're singing again. M: Yeah / J: Right
M: I like how in the talking-ish part like, the string was like an equal participant, I guess like a duet.
M: Like a focal [blah] voice and string instrument.
F: I like how individual their parts are! Like they all have different vibes...
And like that's captured by the underlying music, in like baseline and sounds, so
K: Lot of vocal harmonies, it's like walls of vocal harmonies
K: It's almost using the synth strings like a percussion instrument. Because it's just very punchy
[imitating sound]
K: And it's always syncopated. Oh, okay
K: Oh, okay
K: [sound effects]
J: So many weird changes (M: What?) I would love to see the sheet music for this. Like the types?
M: Yeah
P: Woah these lyrics are deep as fuck!!!
P: Wow, that's heavy!!!!!!!!
F: I love this part!
L: The chorus?
P: Like, her vocal like inflections here, that's so cool! Like the slides
J: And their voices are very clear M: Yeah
J: And honest M: Yeahhh
L: Their vocal harmonies are kind of cool cause they're not, like,
traditional, like they're very wide, like...
You get the one person singing everyone else is way above them.
K: Oh, good outro! I: Vocaloids? K: Yeah, right.
K: That's a really good outro. Oh, they should have continued it.
They have such a good idea, but they gotta, they gotta continue the voices. Ah,
I: Wow, that was nice. K: Yeah
M: Wait, was that, that was a half-cadence, right?
J: But my question is would that be considered a cadence? M: It's a half-cadence,
J: But would it be considered? M: Only half of one
U: Half of a half-cadence
M: No, no
J: Half of a full cadence, is that what you mean? M: Yeah, exactly!
M: James gets me.
M: No no no, like a half-cadence is when you take a cadence, right
and you just like literally just, divide it in half and you should only take one half of that.
K: I really like it when every
instrument, including voice, are all like banging on the same beat that [beat]
where everyone is doing the same thing. I think those moments are very powerful.
But in terms of the chords, this, this also risks being a little same-y,
but I think one thing that makes this stand out is the wall of
vocal harmonies that are kind of mixed in a way that it sounds very,
it's very dense and that like, kind of punches you in the face.
I: I really like how the bass line moved.
If very like happy moments they would go up, and then when they're going to, I don't know,
I guess into more a darker color, they would do a descending motive.
But what's interesting, one of the descending lines, they instead of going straight down,
It's very similar to Bach and how he does his bass lines where he would go down,
so if you were going from C B and A,
instead of going C B and then to the lower A, you jump to a higher A, and to continue up.
Right now we're learning in theory
But just like the aspect of pitches and how like, A = A.
And the chorus it would repeat it,
but then the A instead of going back down it would jump higher which is like, my goodness,
you would never expect that.
If you're going along with it, you think that you're gonna catch on to it with them,
or like a pattern that they're establishing in the beginning?
But instead they just throw you a curveball and just go straight up.
K: The melody is unconventional, that is true,
Like there are moments where it seems like something would resolve the classical way, but it totally doesn't do that.
So yeah, it's pretty cool.
P: I think I liked this song a little bit more,
It had kind of a more clear identity, you know
M: I like this one better. The bass, or like the instrumental part,
it's very much like, sometimes it's in sync with the vocals, sometimes it's not,
and like it's just like, it interacts more and it blends more like the
timbre blends more and I like, had a like, really focus on the strings.
M: Cause like that's a mood. J: Yeah,
J: And I actually like the way they sang some of the melodies more here, because I noticed there were a lot of leaps,
that the other one didn't quite have, they were really kind of like, (M: Oh, true)
J: jumping and doing all kinds of interesting things. I thought I liked it. It was good.
M: We do. J: Yeah. M: Yeah.
Umu: Hello everyone, I'm Umu and I'm the channel runner of ReacttotheK.
I really hope you enjoyed watching this video.
If you're curious about the videos that we'll be reacting to in the future,
I put a link to a doc with our release schedule in the description.
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