Isaac: Don't stop!
Hugo: We've reacted to Girl's Generation, haven't we?
Umu: Yes! So, Girls' Generation is the very first girl group that we reacted to this year. Hugo: Oh, sh*t
Umu: So, Gee was released in 2010 and was a cultural
behemoth that changed the K-pop game. Despite a strong start, Girls' Generation's future was in doubt before the song was released,
but it went to be the first song to stay nine consecutive weeks at number one on the charts.
Umu: After Gee was released,
SNSD were crowned as South Korea's nation's girl group, and they were winning major awards ahead of male groups.
Kevin: (singing)
Kevin: G-G-Gee!
Isaac: Triple G!
Fiona: Mannequins
Oh!
Lindsey: She got a booty!
Just sayin'!
Fiona: Wow, there's so many of them
Lindsey: They're real.
Fiona: Are they? Lindsey: Yeah. Fiona: They're so perfect.
Lindsey: They're real people I swear. I promise. Fiona: Their eyes. Lidsey: Look at their eyes. They're moving. It's them.
Charlotte: Dude, they're literally all watching you. Don't you- Peyton: yikes
Lindsey: My first love story
Fiona: Such a sweet voice!
Lindsey: Do you think they knew how to set text?
Fiona: Yeah Lindsey: That's what we learned about in theory this morning.
Peyton: Oh, this is screaming like, 2000s R&B.
Peyton: Okay, now the beats coming in, so that's a little more upbeat than most of those songs.
Hey!
James: Oh, Sh*t!
Hugo: I'm diggin' the synths.
Katie: It goes to the relative minor instead of the major.
Emiel: Everything is very tingy. I can feel it like literally, like zzzzz, sizzle on the top of my head.
Lindsey: The faction is so different.
Fiona: It's like more wholesome
Lindsey: It was like half time for one bar,
and then it was back in.
Fiona: Like how'd they articulate their words?
Lindsey: Did you heard it like skips a beat, and then Fiona: Bam! Lindsey: comes in on three and then...
Fiona: Ooh!
Lindsey: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah
Fiona: That was cute. it had like a little (singing)
Kevin: Oh I never noticed the booOAaoaa
Kevin: Oh, we said totally two different things (mimics synths)
Isaac: Yeah, it slides up. There it is!
Henry: The drum fill
that ends on one and the accent is on two, that's dope.
Jordon: Yeah, like a little synthesizer. All of the backgrounds seem to be like, very much tucked in behind in the texture.
It's like you have your voice up front and then you have like the drumbeat, but as far as the inner
stuff that drives the harmony, it seems very much,
very much in the background.
Peyton: I feel like I'm just like, waiting for it to go into half time, if that makes any sense to you. Charlotte: Yeah
Like, it's very like on the top of the beat the whole time, like it's driving.
Although they do kind of let it breathe every now and again, like that little break it's like *demonstrates*
There it is
Jordon: I was about to say it's like I could use a little bit more harmony with the voice lines, then we get to this kind of like,
little, chorale-esque thing. I'm like, all right.
There we are.
Fiona: I like the bass there.
Like weird wiggly like things spinning around.
Lindsey: This is like a very, everything about this is very subtle except for their voices. Fiona: Yeah, it's subtle.
Lindsey: Like the instrumentation is very just like,
laid back.
Fiona: It's light Lindsey: Yeah Fiona: It's not too thick.
Kevin: I love that!
(singing)
because the lyrics are so are so percussive (singing). I don't know what they're saying, but
Isaac: Oh, the delay! Kevin: That delay! Yeah, it's so good.
Peyton: (singing)
Isaac: Oh, no! The mannequins!
No!
Fiona: There was a lot of kisses on that. L: but there were- yeah.
He was like, he's kinda cute. Give me some kisses IRL, ladies. Umu: He's actually from the boy group SHINee.
Lindsey: Oh! Umu: He's their rapper. Since they're under the same company, he made an appearance in this music video.
Fiona: Didn't we see them live? Lindsey: Nice. No.
Kevin: I always thought of this song as like, not just an earworm.
You know, I always knew this, but like, putting into words is something else.
Like, I find it very interesting that the catchiest part of the song is not the chorus. The catchiest part is "Gee, gee, gee, gee, baby",
but that's actually the beginning of the verse, and the actual chorus
(singing)
(both singing) no, no, no, no Kevin: which I don't know, it adds,
it adds something to it, you know. Usually a lot of groups put the catchiest part in the chorus,
but like, something about this just makes it work.
Isaac: The bubblegum pop. I was really listening for it this time, and we actually listened to
Kevin: (singing) Isaac: just the very background.
If you just forget, just take out the voices, take out all, some of the instruments, you just hear synth.
Just some of the sounds just pop like this.
But then there's also parts, but it's like like similar to the
8-bit music, where they just pop, just push little themes down,
but they were
descending most of the time. They do it throughout the whole piece, which was just like very nice, which gives the sense of unity of
like all
whatever verse, chorus, or whatever part of the music they're in, it still has this continuity of
a pulse. Kevin: Um, hmm.
Kevin: Like it sounds shallow, but there's actually so many harmonic things. Isaac: Um, hmm. Kevin: Like when the voice
(singing)
there's a lot of layering and there's a lot of voices, so like the sound is very, it's very bright,
but then when you listen to it, it's not, it's got layers to it. I think that's what makes it work.
Jordon: Yeah, it was interesting. I had a hard time picking up as far as the chorus, because like the whole harmonic
instruments and what not were tucked so far behind. interesting because it's like there's a whole element that like,
I don't think we've talked about this much in this, is like you know, like the mixing and the editing like post recording,
you know, the balancing and leveling of everything. Like in this there was very
treble and very like extreme bass high,
where you had like the sub bass, and the rhythm, and you had the voice.
It was really like these are the two prominent channels that you're hearing. Everything else was kinda stuck behind.
Sometimes like that whole effect we were talking about earlier,
whenever the whole, coming from different sides, that's all manipulation in the booth, after everyone has recorded
everything. It's interesting. And there's like a whole
set of artistry that lies within that. And I think, you know, in this engineer, they chose to really just kind of like push out
top and low-end. But unfortunately,
we could have used a little bit more of that middle, because that's where a lot of the, you know,
the flavor is in a song. Katie: Very well said.
Umu: So yeah, what did you think of that song over musically, and did you catch what scale the instrument were using, or the synths?
Fiona: Pentatonic! Ume: Yeah! Lindsey: We learned about that a while ago. Fiona: ?????? There were definitely pentatonic vibes.
Lindsey: Pentatonic scale is extremely popular in East Asian music
I mean like Arirang is entirely based around the pentatonic scale. So that kind of makes sense. I mean, it's like traditional Korean
(singing)
Umu: Okay, so this next Girls' Generation song is called 'I Got a Boy', and it leads the experimental K-pop wave in 2013.
The composer's at Design Music said that the inspiration for this song was quite organic in the way that the song was literally written in
15 minutes. Fiona: Wow, so it contained carbon?
Lindsey: Shut up!
Umu: They wanted the song to have an urban dance feel to it, some American swagger, but still keep the unique K-pop flavor.
So in order to not spoil what genre or genres this song uses, I'm just going to end my script right here.
Katie: Ooh! Jordon: They made this song in 15 minutes? This is a five minute song! That means that they spent like...
Katie: That's crazy.
Jordon: Oh, what the heck.
Katie: Okay, let's do it. Jordon: All right, well Katie: Three, two, one...
Lindsey: Oh, yeah, we got, like some piano
A little honky Both: (honking noises)
Jordon: Major seven, and then whatever that is.
Katie: Four?
Jordon: (singing)
Fiona: They're havin' a sleep over. That's weird. Lindsey: It sounds like Fiona: Comic Sans, no! No! Comic Sans, no! Don't use that as a font! No!
Unless you're Doge.
Whoa!
Charlotte: What? Peyton: Whoa!
Peyton: Oh, my God!
I'm shook.
Charlotte: I don't know how to process this.
Kevin: Ooh, I like that.
Kevin: DEATH GRIPS
Kevin: Whoa, E-major. How...
Isaac: Are we just changing genres?
Emiel: This song just feels like it hasn't settled into the tune yet. It's like, you know that pop intro, where people are just like,
"Yo, what's up?",
like, that type of thing, or whatever? Henry: Yeah
Emiel: It feels like we're still in that phase, but like, we're not in the song yet, still.
Fiona: They're really gutsy in this one.
Lindsey: Yeah
Fiona: Like it's cheerful in the voices and in the instruments.
And the dancing! Wow!
Lindsey: Whoa! The backgrounds keep changing. It's so much!
Charlotte: It's interesting because their voices are the only thing happening, melodically. Peyton: Yes, girl!
Peyton: Yeah!
Charlotte: Which is nice.
Peyton: Yeah
Peyton: It's almost like they're one step away from being a cappella.
Charlotte: Like all they have underneath that is a rhythm,
and like,
Peyton: A little like tonic vamp Charlotte: A little bit of a bass harmony type thing happening, occasionally
Talk about the most rockin' tonic pedal in the history of tonic pedals. Bam, bam, bam, it's literally just E-major chord.
Isaac: Oh! She got a Batman shirt!
Oh!
Isaac: Whoa!
Lindsey: Whoa, whoa, my God! What?
Fiona: Wow, they're going for it. Lindsey: Beat just got real fast.
Emiel: Wow, these are the synths that like, pierce my ear, right here.
That like, fall where it goes from like the top and just goes down back down at the end of the phrase.
Fiona: Ooh, yeah! I love this vocal line. Lindsey: Yeah
Emiel: You got to take the high ends out. Henry: (laughter)
Emiel: They're just piercing .
Henry: Oh man, this is kind of a mess
Emiel: I like some components about this tune, but the thing that's mainly catching my ear is this high end.
Isaac: I need help!
Kevin: But is it gonna change back?
Oh, it's the same chord! No! 1, 1, 1, 1, b6!
Oh, not this time.
Katie: Oh, my gosh.
Umu: Are you okay?
Katie: I'm just shocked.
Kevin: Whoa, this is some great structure, man.
Structure and Isaac: E-major triad. Kevin: It is
Kevin: But like Isaac: Just arpeggiated.
Lindsey: We love a major triad
Fiona: So does Mozart.
Charlotte: Where are we going now?
Jarod: I was not ready for this either
Fiona: Whoa. Lindsey: What the heck?
Fiona: Kill. It. Lindsey: This is like Lady Gaga, like early Lady Gaga kind of thing, I feel like.
Hugo: This song takes you on a journey.
Peyton: This is like, a super powerful solo. Charlotte: We just went Rock and Roll vibe.
Peyton: (mimicking beat)
Isaak: Don't stop
Both: Whoa!!
Isaak: Metronome marking! Kevin: (howls)
Katie: She's referring to the beats per minute!
Lindsey: Whoa. Oh, my God, they just said, "Let's bring it back to 140", and that's the tempo they're at now, isn't it? Fiona: Like BPM, beats per minute?
Lindsey: Yeah, cause it's like faster than a march, but like
Lindsey: That's hilarious!
Isaac: Oh, my goodness!
Lindsey: This is more like a half time thing, so I guess now we're at 70. Like my quick maths? Fiona: It'll probably go back.
Kevin: Is it going back to E-major for this?
Kevin: What?
E-flat major 7 to E-major, without transition.
Tritone, guys!
Fiona: They go back to the chorus, and then they have the vocals over top, like that's a common theme with this group.
Lindsey: Yeah
Fiona: Just like makes it like, more intense
Kevin: Lil b6
Isaac: Yes!!
That was so good!
Jarod: What the heck?
Nothing could have prepared me for that.
Umu: And also, not only did it bring it back to 140 BPM, but it also
in the song, that's one minute 40 seconds in--that specific section.
So, it was two things that they were referring to.
Jarod: transcendental bro
Charlotte: That's pretty nifty. Whoever did that is pretty smart.
Umu: So yeah, what do you think overall of this song and its changing styles?
I mean, I really did not expect that honestly from the first video that we watched.
I was like, they're a cutesy cutesy girl group, and that's what they are, and I was all for it,
and then they're just like, just kidding, look at us do all these other things,
like Bollywood, and rock and roll, and hip-hop, and we can also
do awesome dance moves, and I was just like, haha.
Umu: What about you, Peyton??
Peyton: Yeah
What she said, man.
Umu: What did you think? Katie: do, you know this reminds me of? Umu: Hm, mm
Marching band, where they do like a
mash-up of like 40 different songs in one thing, and they're all like marching, and
this just reminded me of it, cuz there were like 40 different genres of music in that one video, and I was just like
Uh!
What?
Jordon: The thing is it's like they hopped around,
but like they did in such a way, and they kind of smacked you in the face while doing it that made it look really
cool. Katie: Um, hmm
Jordon: Like it worked.
Emiel: Their voices with the contrast to the amount of high-end that they shove into their tunes is like oddly satisfying,
because they're instrumentals are just like,
so high-pitched. Their synths literally just like, pierce the sound.
Umu: Right, so you thought that wasn't cohesive. Henry: Yeah, that gave me anxiety!
It just felt like such a complete mess
It felt like four or five ideas that were a quarter of an idea, and then they put them all together to make one song.
Emiel: I'm just not sure if I... Henry: It was just sliced and diced, and it just really did not feel like something that I wanted to be listening to.
Emiel: I'm just not sure if I liked it, let me put it that way.
Henry: Oh, boy.
Lindsey: I think the songs matched the video super well, because there was so much going on in both of them,
but like, not in an overwhelming kind of way.
Like I feel like with all the like set changes that they had with the style changes
it worked, plus their crazy outfits that are kind of all over the place it like almost is a personification of the song
Fiona: Yeah Lindsey: in all of them, which is kind of cool.
Isaac: I was questioning the beginning because I wasn't sure. Kevin: Um, hmm.
Isaac: Then, they combined everything, and then, oh, my goodness, the part where it has like
(singing)
It's just using semitones to- Kevin: (singing)
Isaac: That was a lot to digest, because they changed so often. There's that stage lighting which is more triangles,
which is the rap scene. But then they had like the
the graffiti on the walls, the really colorful graffiti, and also the culture and the clothing. Kevin: Um, hmm. Yeah.
There's that,
what was that? It sounded like soft rock almost, or just rock.
Kevin: I think the thing I liked the most about is even after it changed tempos,
it still changed within each tempo. Like, you know, it was at 140
before it went slow again. There were, each section still had its distinct sound,
even within the same tempo. Umu: Comparing 'I Got a Boy' to 'Gee'.
Lindsey: The other ones a lot cutesier,
and then this one's a lot more just like, high-energy, intense... Fiona: Empowering. Lindsey: Yes
Fiona: The other one was so subtle and like, clean and well done. Lindsey: Um, hmm. Fiona: This one was also clean, but it wasn't subtle.
There's no way. Lindsey:
Kevin: Nah, man, I mean, she's great, she's catchy. See how far I've come? Isaac: But, I think they're all just different.
Kevin: They are different. Isaac: They're just different, but they're all really good for what they are, so it's like,.
it's hard to compare because they're not comparable to one another.
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