[Rossini's Semiramide Overture playing]
Umu: You are now reacting to the legendary K-pop group Super Junior
who has been part of the music industry for over 15 years
and their song 'House Party' [Henry jamming to 'Sorry Sorry']
the title track off of their 10th album 'The Renaissance'.
Sam: We're learning about the Renaissance in music history right now!
Umu: *Cheers* OOoohh!
Well this song sounds nothing like the music released
Umu: during the Renaissance period, just FYI, just FYI...
Sam: I'm very glad, cuz it's not very good.
Raffi & Umu: OOOOOHHHH!!!
[Renaissance period music playing] [t/n: I failed you, Renaissance, I have no
idea what this piece is...]
"Oh brother, this guy STINKS!"
On screen text: 'This post was made by Romantic Era Stans'
[Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov playing]
Umu: The concept for this song becomes clear
after reading the first few lines of lyrics,
so I'll refrain from spoiling the message before you listen to it.
What I will say right now is that
Super Junior spent a lot of careful time
during the decision for the album's title track
to select a song that is both musically fun
and fitting with the time that we live in today.
This song is composed by Christian Fast, Didrik Thott,
Sebastian Thott and Yoo Young Jin (유영진).
Ju Young: Ready?
3 2 1!
Jason: Yey.
Ju Young: "This hit, that ice cold, Michelle Pfeiffer"
Ju Young: "that white gold" *sings 'Uptown Funk'*
(Jason: Yeah!)
Cloud: I'm just...
I don't know why, but I'm really happy
that I am being welcomed into this song.
Raffi: This sounds just like 'Uptown Funk' by Bruno Mars.
Umu: It's in the same key!
Sam: Yeah.
Raffi: Relative pitch...
Sam: It also...
Henry: Uh.
I like that dissonance.
Jason: OOOH he look good.
Tiger Woods who??
*Ju Young imitating guitar part* Jason: He's looking fresh!
Henry: I like that a lot~
Owen: Haha, "house-par-ty"
Kevin: Yeah, right??
Owen: That's such an odd- Kevin: The minor five...
Owen: I was just thinking about the placing of the strong syllables.
Kevin: Oh yeah.
Syllabic.
Owen: Instead of 'party'...
Stephanie: Mm, that horn line.
Leon: Yeah.
Stephanie: I would wanna play for them.
(*Both giggling*)
Henry: Huhh, the space.
Sam: Wow.
All their voices are like so distinct.
Raffi: Mhm.
Stephanie: Whaaat?
Leon: Uuh!
Stephanie: WWHHAAAT?!?
Charlotte: WhAt?
Sam: Wow.
Jaon: UuuRrRGghgH!
Uurghhgh, what?
Jason: WOW, what the f*ck is happening!?
Ju Young: HUHUHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA
Ju Young: Ahahahahahahahahaha!
Jason: That was, that was, that was sick!
*Ju Young still loling*
Brianna: Is this the same song?
Haha, cuz I,
I was scared they just changed randomly.
Cloud: It's like the house party where your friends will come over,
but your parents are home,
and the house party you have when your parents aren't home...
Owen: It's a whole new vibe, whole new song we're in.
Kevin: Yeah.
Kevin: It's more than just a generic stylistic change
because I feel like they actually embody the new style.
Sam: And they just expect us to go along like nothing just happened.
Henry: I am all about this- this message.
Stephanie: Woo~
Sam: That was really funny.
Kevin: And there's still a bridge!
That's crazy how the stylistic change was the second verse.
(Owen: That's a good point)
Jason: Like a little cowbell in the back is...
nice touch on the production for the rhythmic arrangement.
Raffi: Aw.
Sam: Oh, cake.
"Everlasting friends"
Raffi: Maybe if you're like the good and the bad?
Sam: Maybe.
Raffi: Like us!
...
Sam: Yeah...
Raffi: Uh, I like *sings ad-lib*
Sam: Yeah.
Ju Young: God, slay me with the vocals.
Jason: That was FIRE!
Ju Young: Hmm~ Jason: How many-?
Jason: That was like crazy, this was like different worlds!
(Ju Young: Wow)
Cloud: Am I upset?
It was very sudden.
It was like a-
Brianna: Yeah.
Yeah, there was no transition, no preparation,
Brianna: no anticipating, nothing.
Cloud: It's like when you're looking at a camera and they just
Cloud: *bup*, pop in like another film over it and it's just like:
Cloud: a completely different color.
Brianna: I really thought YouTube skipped videos,
Brianna: I really thought YouTube kicked me out of the video and starting-
I was like - oh!
That's weird.
That's suspicious.
But I liked the transition afterwards,
when they were going back to the funk,
the transition was really nice.
Umu: Really, it wasn't to sudden for you?
Brianna: When they were going back - yeah.
// Cloud: [They were both sudden for meee] Umu: Cuz there's an actual metric modulation
going into it,
Umu: but it just went straight back.
(Brianna: Yes,)
Brianna: But there was some type of anticipation (Cloud: I though they were both very sudden.)
that something was going to change,
whereas the first one I believed that a new video just started randomly,
I was like: What?
I had to check my browser to be like: What's going on.
Jason: I thought that was cool.
I gotta listen to that transition, cuz that was just like WHAT?
So don't they just metrically modulate to a dotted quarter above?
Umu: Dotted eighth becomes quarter.
Jason: Dotted eight, not quarter.
Dotted eight, because it's *mimics rhythm*.
Kevin: I don't think there is any metric modulation.
I don't know if it's intentional, I guess.
Owen: I don't think it's a metric modulation,
I think it's a tonicization of the metric modulation
in a very short sense (Umu: Haha, what?)
Owen: And then I think it just goes into eighth notes
and then speeds up the eighth notes.
Kevin: Right that's what - yeah, the only connection is that where the "god"-
And yeah, it's literally just accelerandoes.
Owen: Yeah.
Kevin: Yeah, I don't think there is any relationship there, yeah,
and I think that's also why the non-transition
back to the original vibe feels a little jarring.
Owen: This transition into the faster tempo
felt a little bit more seamless because
the dotted eighth notes sort of
halted your sense of the rhythm before
so that you could enter the new tempo with sort of a fresh slate,
whereas in the transition back into the original tempo
you felt those two tempi right against each other,
without that sort of break in your mind.
Kevin: Yeah.
I just came up with a theory.
What if the middle section is what happens when you leave the house?
(Owen: Without mask...)
Kevin: And then the moment you shut the door:
Boom!
"Everybody now..."
[party]
Kevin: You know?
Ju Young: This is the same company that did NCT, right?
Yeah, they like their spoken lyrics.
They like that a lot, and I think that gives it-
like a different vibe to it,
especially with the funk, like all this funk going on behind it,
(Jason: Lots of funk) especially with the funk, like all this funk
going on behind it,
it was a lot of funk, it reminded me of Bruno Mars 'Uptown Funk'.
Leon: This arrangement sounds really really like 'Uptown Funk'.
Umu: Same key, similar chord progression, similar rhythms, yes.
(Stephanie: Mmh!)
\\ (Leon: Yeah, yes, yeah!)
Leon: And then similar instruments, too.
Like the guitar at the beginning, and then 'Uptown Funk' also has that,
and then in the chorus there is like a chord,
maybe like a synth sound, like a really old retro synth sound,
and they add a little bit of warp so that it kinda sounds out of tune
to represent the old vintage sound,
and then this also did that, that really stood out to my ears.
Umu: Right, but then the second verse happened.
Leon: Yeahaha, like: "Wow, what's happening right now!"
Stephanie: Yeah, that was crazy.
Jason: Just like everything about it was screaming
Quincy Jones, James Brown,
adding these small like tin, almost cowbell sounding rhythms
that go against the *imitates main rhythm*,
that was a really good touch, and they panned them really well,
to where it was like...
you almost didn't catch it, but if you do it's like it's even more tasteful.
Umu: So what do you think about each section,
is there one you preferred more, and why?
Cloud: The first section.
Not like the verse rapping section but the refrain,
the first refrain that was in major with a little modal mixture,
I thought that was very groovy, I liked it.
Brianna: I guess my favorite section would have to be the funk
because I felt like there was more interaction between
the different members, harmonization and like a call and response,
playing off of each others timbres,
it felt more like a group whereas the transition felt really like,
it was to show off members, it was more soloistic,
so kinda like that a little bit better, the funk section,
but I do think they are both good on their own.
Charlotte: Why is your go-to dance move always like constipated baby?
Henry: What the-???
Henry: Like shaking, like I'm trying to get it out?
Charlotte: No, it's your face!
[Mad World by Gary Jules playing]
Charlotte: The face you make looks like a baby who can't get out the poop.
*Defeated Henry noises*
Henry: This whole thing was just so catchy,
I love that the "house party lick" is actually
kinda melodically all over the place, *demonstrates*,
like that's a lot of leaps, it's not just an easy contour to follow,
and then "house par-ty", that chromaticism is also really catchy,
sooo it got stuck in my ear!
No I love it, and I love the message
I love the literal propaganda of:
"Hey let's not throw a house party,
you can throw a house party virtually or with us,
just dancing at home."
And I liked that message.
You know, we need more art out there that's promoting positive vibes.
Kevin: Once this whole shebang is over
we can look back to this song
and see it as a really nice sort of emblem of what that time was,
I mean this could be, this could bring back all the feels.
(Umu: I think that's, their goal was that.)
Umu: Did you want to talk more about the syllabic...
Kevin: The "house-par-ty"
Umu: Oh, cuz we usually say "HOUSE-party" instead of-
Kevin: Yeah, house-PAR-ty, yeah.
Umu: Okay okay okay.
Owen: Playing with where our syncopation is in our speech patterns,
it's a whole rabbit hole of things that you can do.
I would recommend looking up drummers
playing along to speech patterns on YouTube,
and that can kinda give you an impression of all these ways
that we phrase our sentences, like you can say:
articuLAtion,
arTIculation,
ARticulation,
articulaTION,
and all these things that kind of,
we don't think about when we talk,
but having a drummer actually create a beat
off of human sentences and how the rhythm is organized
and how it changes,
is a really interesting way to see
how our language has a lot of rhythm in it.
Kevin: K-pop does use English in a very interesting way,
maybe it's because, when we listen to a K-pop song,
we're kind of conditioned already to
treat the English language in a different way,
and I wonder if I hadn't listened to any K-pop
maybe that "house party thing",
maybe it'll be a little less likable, a little more jarring?
I don't know.
Jason: I think that that more intense and just uncomfortably,
like rhythmic modulatory part of this song,
I think that it's kind of like this interjection within all of the
"yes, we can do this, we're all in this together, too,
yeah, we can get through this, only if you guys realize
we're all human beings."
And what they said, "don't wave others off for the life of your own",
so don't like, you know, only care about yourself
and not wanna wear a mask "cuz it's freedom",
and he said: "This is not freedom, you guys messed up",
the message they're spreading is fantastic cuz it's like
yeah, we're all human beings, if we,
if we don't wear a mask we're disrespecting even ourselves,
if we're not being careful about what's going on,
you know, people are dying, and
to only care about one's own freedom, it's like, it's ridiculous.
So I think that sonic interjection was done really well
and I loved that message, I think it's great.
Sam: I was not expecting that at all.
Raffi: Yeah, I just felt like my emotions were ravaged,
cuz one minute I was happy and then the next minute I was like wha-?
Umu: Being assaulted?
Raffi: Why is everyone angry?
*Umu & Sam laughing*
Sam: "Why are you yelling at me?"
Raffi: I liked the direction of the rapping, there was descend.
Umu: Oh yeah, it was always like *imitates*...
Raffi: Yeah.
Sam: I'm just still...
just like thinking about every part,
saying to myself:
Wow.
That...
...was about COVID.
That's like so interesting.
Umu: Arguably the best COVID song there is.
Sam: Now I'm thinking of other artists that did projects
that were related to COVID, and really?
Not a lot of them had such a specific message?
My mind has been rattled.
Umu: Charlotte, what are your thoughts on this song?
They have you jammin'?
Charlotte: Not constipated baby jamming, but yeah.
[t/n: Poor Henry]
I think all the references to everything that we have experienced
in the pandemic, in quarantine, the regulations,
all the stuff that's expected of you, the ever changing nature of it,
the fact that it makes you go insane...
But also like all of the things that like-
could you imagine doing this if we didn't have the internet?
Kinda touches on that, like the whole world being connected
without any physical contact.
Umu: And we can all be one, together, through the internet.
Charlotte: That's a little mushy for me, but yeah.
Ju Young: It just made me happy, it's a good song to, you know,
make me, make someone happy, you know...
Jason: I agree.
I think it's important, too, (Ju Young: Yeah)
for the happy emotions she is feeling.
It's meant for us to listen to today.
This is during a pandemic and there is not a lot of artists
that are putting out music to help us cope
with the exact experiences we're in right now,
cuz this is a very complex time and a very individualistic time,
and so I think that it was very nice for them to kind of;
in one of the lyrics they say you need like two hands to hold together,
so it's nice for them to reach out a hand through music
to their fans and just say: "Okay,
we're gonna get through this together, you guys do your part
and it's gonna all happen and heal faster if you do your part."
So I think that's really really nice.
Umu: Okay, maybe you didn't read the lyrics at the crucial parts
but this is just basically a COVID song.
Raffi: There were subtitles?
Umu: YEaH!
Umu: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Sam: Oh, there were?