[Rossini's Semiramide Overture playing]
Umu: You are now reacting to SM Entertainment's new super group
called 'GOT' which stands for 'Girls On Top'.
Girls On Top is a rotating group,
you'll be reacting to the debut of their sub-unit called 'Got The Beat'
which includes members from already existing groups,
Girls' Generation...
O-O
Henry: Wait-
Like there's me-
What?
Umu: Girls' Generation. Henry: Who?
Umu: Taeyeon and Hyo...
Red Velvet, æspa, and BoA.
Ju Young: AAHhHHHhhHHhH!
STOooP!!!!
This is gonna be a good group!
Umu: You'll be reacting to a live stage of their debut song called 'Step Back'
and in fact it's time for your computer to say 'Step Back' to malware and hackers
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...which is composed by 유영진 (Yoo Young Jin), Dem Jointz, Tayla Monet Parx, Ryan S. Jhun,
while the lyrics were written by Yoo Young Jin.
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Now back to our reaction, cue the countdown.
Sam: Three... two... one...
Raffi: STEP BACK!
Sam: Oh wow!
This sample?!
Ju Young: This is euphoria!
Ju Young: This is euphoria... Jason: Gregorian chants?
Rachel: OooH!
Rachel: I thought it was gonna be minor, and then it- and then...
ugh~
Sam: What in the world...
Will: That's so out! Jory: That's kind of rad, right?
Jory: I kind of like that a lot.
Liam: Ooooo~
Rachel: OH that BASS!
Jason: I'm trying, I'm trying to vibe to it,
Jason: It's just changing so much... Ju Young: I LOVE THIS! I LOVE THIS!
Liam: Ugh! Ju Young: AARH!
Liam: That was powerful. Rachel: Dude, that bass is intense.
Raffi: I like that timbre.
There's some vocal constriction, but without the rasp.
Jory: I love how long the bottom bass note takes to get there.
Will: Yeah.
Jory: *Bieeooouuuuuwwwww*
Will: It's like almost until it's already the next chord!
That's killing.
Raffi: Eyyyy. We love the text.
Ju Young: Ugh!
Jason: I can't even talk, there's so many things happening
that if I say something I'll miss something.
Jory: Ooh~
Rachel: Woah, okay. Liam: Hoooo, I like the rhythm there.
Rachel: Yeah.
Triplets, man.
[t/n: They make everything better]
Jory: I love how every single one of them just belts that.
Raffi: They're layering a lot, I mean now the opening sample is back.
Sam: Like wow, it's so eerie.
Jason: It sounds like a Kanye West sample in the back.
Umu: This producer [Dem Jointz] has written for Kanye West.
Jason: Wow. Ju Young: There you go, Jason!
Cloud: I either hate it or I love it, I still haven't decided.
Ju Young: WhaaAa!
AaaAhH!
Jory: OoOh~
Ju Young: HnHngngnn!
Of course you got the Queen of K-pop doing the bridge!
Dude, come on...
Henry: Ooh, that riff in the bass!
Raffi: Oh!
Yeah, that's a voice. Mm~
Liam: That was very interesting.
That rhythmic motif coming back.
Rachel: Oh, do we get a dance break? Liam: Oooh, yes please!
Cloud: I like this.
Jory: You know that scene in the 'Alvin and The Chipmunks' sequel,
where they're like dance battling the chipmunks?
Will: No?
Jory: Oh okay.
It's like the best scene in the whole movie.
Ju Young: Uhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
Raffi: Eyyyy!
She- that's, she's...
Sam: Hm, sing it!
Jory: Fire!
Sam: Wow, this percussion is also very snare heavy.
It's almost like marching-esque.
Like a march-esque...
Raffi: Mhmm
*Raffi singing along to instrumental*
Will: That sample is SO OUT!
Jason: So what is that?
Ju Young: It's so distorted I LOVE IT! Oh my god! Jason: Yeah, what is it?
Jason: It sounded like a drunk steel drums player.
*Umu processing*
All: HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Raffi: That's- it's actually like scaring me.
Sam: Yeah, no, literally! Raffi: I don't understand why.
Sam: It's like actually so eerie, and it's so out of nowhere.
Raffi: It's so creepy, like,
that's the music I imagine I'll be murdered to.
Jason: At the end of that sample it's like,
[t/n: ~minor seconds sound really harsh~]
Jason: Yeah, they have like this dissonance there where it goes:
*F-G-G♭/F, then F bass* (Ju Young: Maybe a semitone?)
Jason: But then it goes into just this like,
*mwAh*
this like brass hit on an F, where it's like,
in the middle of this like, them singing and stuff,
which is like eEeh, I don't know,
I think it could be like incredibly distorted,
I don't know if it's an orchestra,
I don't know if I hear like a string sound but it,
to me, it gives me like the vibes of like a 1930's soundtrack to like a silent film,
like just that kind of distortion on like either an organ or a piano.
Jory: That's rad!
Will: What is that from?
It sounds like it's from like an...
elementary school like band or so, like...
Will: I don't know, you know, like it's so... Yeah! Umu: Like the flutes playing all the wrong notes?
Will: An it's like, *mimics*
Jory: No, I think it was just violins.
Jory: It sounded like a chamber group... Will: I though I hear like some flutes
Will: and maybe some percussion bells or something.
Jory: No, it sounds like a bad recording, Will: Or like maybe it is just...
Jory: or like... yeah, so it's just distorted strings, Will: it's just like really distorted recording.
Jory: And then they like shelved it,
which means getting rid of all the top frequencies,
so it kind of sounds like a kind of telephone.
Sam: It's also really impressive
because I think throughout this entire song
they've made like a very like defined atmosphere,
and with that little section it completely like takes you out of it,
in like a really good and specific way,
cuz it kind of alerts your senses, like...
something is very different and very weird,
and then it immediately goes back into that kind of like,
that mellotron vocal track with that 808 that's like,
*gieøuwouwoæ*
and the drums that are very snare-like,
and it only brings up that little thing twice in the verses.
It's honestly messing with the audiences' expectations of atmosphere, (Raffi: Mm)
and of tonality, and of like all of those things, and it,
that's why, I think that's why there is such a visceral reaction,
cuz it like makes you like...
scared.
You don't know when it's gonna come back.
Like that's really cool.
Jason: It's a tough one cuz the music,
it was incredibly disorienting.
I think that the choice of samples were really interesting,
but then, on top of those, there was a very bare instrumentation on the back.
There where times when I wanted there to be like, you know,
stability in like the, the rhythm and bass or something,
and it was just like *tsh tsh tsh* like hi-hats on offbeats and stuff,
and this weird steel drum guy, and whatever like,
it was just, there where some moments where it really just kind of like twisted your expectations,
and then it brought you in a whole new sonic area,
and you're just like, "okay?"
And then it keeps twisting your expectations, and then:
Pretty Bridge!
You know it's like, it was really disconnected,
but I think that that was meant to be,
like I feel like those where choices to create like different realms of sound.
Rachel: Oh my god.
That's like such a crazy group.
Ju Young: I think this is the first song that like, from...
Well I don't know, I don't remember what I reacted to,
but like this really hyped me up for some reason.
Like I think it's because of the possible sampling in the background?
Yeah just the, the distorted like drunk steel drummer,
(Umu: The vocal chops, yeah.) Yeah just the, the distorted like drunk steel drummer,
Yeah just the, the distorted like drunk steel drummer,
I loved that!
Ju Young: I loved that- Jason: Is that the new coin term?
Ju Young: It think it's like, they distorted some voices?
Jason: Yeah, I wanna listen to that again and figure that out. Ju Young: Maybe like- I love that.
Jory: That's sick.
Yeah, there was distortion on every single one of their voices.
It's a cool touch, but like...
your ears get fatigued at like 16k [Hz],
so it's kind of dangerous to do that on every vocal,
especially when there are so many singers.
But like it kind of works because there is kind of stripped back instrumentation.
Rachel: I liked the effects.
My only thing is that like...
It sounds kind of empty.
I think maybe what they were trying to do was
fill the sound out with the vocalists, cuz there's so many.
There was a lot of just them playing or singing the same thing.
I don't know, I wanted more, I wanted a little bit more.
Liam: I think the bass also, like,
it wasn't super... ~bassy~?
Rachel: Yeah it wasn't, it was kind of like a mid-range bass. Liam: No it was a, I think it was a saw wave, but it was just like,
*nieeouwee~*
Umu: It just kept sliding around, right? Liam & Rachel: Yeah.
Liam: But like if there was a bit more body to that,
I think that could have helped.
Rachel: But I liked some of the melodic lines though,
I thought that they were really nice.
Liam: They were like belting them out too...
Rachel: Yeah, like they just make it just seem really easy, right? But...
Umu: LLeeEvEEEEEL!
Rachel: Like that's literally, that's like the [pre-]chorus!
Like, that's an F, and they're just like...
"It's fine!"
I mean there was harmony there.
Liam: Yeah, I really think it's just that weird synth line.
Like it's in a different key.
Like I'm pretty sure it's in F♯ major,
on top of...
Both: F major?
Rachel: Not really, wait, what-? Liam: No, no, like the synth.
~minor seconds~
Rachel: Oh that thing. I mean, yeah.
Henry: I don't know if it was supposed to be in the same key,
if it was it was just enough out of tune,
Henry: I think by choice, that, Cloud: I think the chanty thing was supposed to be a little out of tune.
Henry: it seemed really dissonant with the singers,
just in terms of timbre and energy,
and it was always present, well, almost always present,
when the singers were doing like a really powerful focused melody
and I couldn't really focus on the singers because of that,
so I didn't really feel like a "Wow this is really awesome
in that like, and they're really supported by the instrumental.
Cloud: That's the part that kinda reminded me of æspa a little bit
where I felt like æspa had a lot of sounds and like,
a lot of, I don't wanna say out of tune, but definitely like..
explorative like key instrumentals going on.
Cuz I remember that was one of the reasons why I didn't super love 'Savage' the first time I listened to it,
cuz I was like, "I don't know, I don't know about it",
cuz like some of those sounds I don't really like.
So this might be one of those songs where I have to listen to it like 2 or 3 times and then be like:
"Oh this group I really like here, like these elements, and also her voice is super awesome..."
I think I recognize like one girl from Girls' Generation.
Henry: I couldn't recognize faces, it's been too long.
*Jason figuring out*
Ju Young: That's like plagal motion.
Jason: Yeah, well, it's...
Jason: It is, it is plagal, it's B♭ minor to F. Ju Young: Like when you sing- right.
Jason: So it's just like:
Sing the melody!
*B♭ minor - F major*
Ju Young: I think that's something like that, I don't know.
Jason: Okay so it's plagal motion,
that's why I almost felt it a little bit church-y,
Jason: it was like, yeah, so that's it right there, it's plagal. Ju Young: Yeah, I felt it very church-y too!
Jason: Plagal motions are incredibly church-y,
it's the iv chord to the i chord.
[t/n: iv-i for minor plagal, IV-I for major]
Liam: OooOh, I forgot about the bridge. Rachel: I forgot about the bridge, yeah!
Jason: Is this right, is it going to *B♭maj7*? Yeah.
That's why the bridge is so appealing,
it's going from this:
It's got like this F(sus4) quality,
and she's running, she's using B♭ minor,
which this whole time has been B♭ minor - F - B♭ minor...
the plagal thing that's kinda haunting,
and then randomly, when she goes up to like the first end of that phrase,
or like the high point of that phrase,
it hits and changes from B♭ minor to B♭maj7 with that A in there,
which completely changes it, which in a sense is like the stereotypical bridge thing to do,
like change it to major and add 7th in,
and then have those sprinkles on top of like the electric piano,
and chimes and stuff, and glockenspiel...
Umu: Also yeah, so the point of this song, I believe,
is to show of the vocal and dance performance of these women,
do you think they succeeded in doing that through this song?
Jory: Yeah, yeah.
Raffi: The technique, oh my gosh, all of them have such amazing voices.
I thought it was really interesting that they really serve as the middle ground of this song
because for the maj- like for the first half of it,
I was like, okay, we have a lot of like top sounds
or higher timber and a lot of low.
Like, I was like, what's in the middle?
But then the voices really start to blend in.
Will: The vocals I was mostly drawn to I think because of the way they were produced.
Cuz they were produced actually really interestingly,
and there where lots of moments of where they would
kind of take out and put back in some of the effects
and like automate stuff,
and like I remember the one time we were both like,
Jory: Reverb. Will: "Oh the vocals are totally dry, reverb cut off."
Will: It's a really dope concept of like using reverb
as a specific artistic choice at a really specific moment
and like cutting out at specific times
to create some kind of effect, and so like,
there were, I think there were two moments that I heard specifically that,
they cut out the reverb in a little transition section
and it just made the vocals like just suddenly appear in this new space right in front of you...
Will: Yeah, that was fun. Yeah, she says "Girls bring it on", Jory: Yeahyeahyeah. "Girls bring it on".
Will: and it's just-
Jory: Dry.
Cuz it helps to think of reverb as like proximity.
It simulates distance,
so when it's like completely dry it's right up in your face,
whereas like a bunch of reverb, it's like all the way in the back of the concert hall,
so when you play with that it really forces you to listen to whatever the producer chooses as important.
Will: Yeah, totally just like...
sucks out like all of the space of the track, and it's just like,
you just have this one person right in front of you,
it's like "Girls, bring it on!",
and then it's like, sucks you back right in.
Umu: Hell yeah. Jory: Spits you out.
Will: Sucks you in and spits you out.
*SHSJHssSSsShHSssSjSShsSHskssSSHHhH*
Umu: NO STOP IT-
Cloud: They're all called 'GOT The Beat',
so I'm very interested to see what the other subdivisions [sic] lean into,
Cloud: if this is supposed to be them leaning into-
Umu: Sub-units? Cloud: if this is supposed to be them leaning into-
Cloud: ?
Umu: You said "subdivisions". Henry: Subdivisions, subdivide...