Umu: So now you're reacting to the twelve-member girl group LOONA
and their intro track called '#', it used to be called 'Sharp' but now it's call 'Hash(tag)',
from their second mini album released in 2020.
Just like how ''hashtag'' has little meaning when used by itself,
but manifests and special functions or great achievement when used alongside words and characters,
'#' is about how we can realize results from multi use combinations when we are together.
Kevin: Why are there eleven girls in the album?
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Haseul! (We hope you're doing well, Haseul) I'm so sad, without our opera singer.
(Henry: Huh...) Umu: This is intro track is written by Coach and Sendo. Henry: Interesting
Cloud: But didn't you know that hashtag means sharp?
Henry: That's not our sharp sign, a sharp sign is two vertical and the horizontal ones
diagonally cross-section that the staff.
This one has the verticals are diagonal in the horizontals—
It would get confusing on a staff because the horizontal lines will get confused with the staff lines.
This has been BEAT into me.
Henry: Tic-tac-toe.
Kevin: All right, you get dark. It's like you're wobbling a really rickety chair.
But now—whoa every time it happens it I hear something different.
Now, it sounds like parallel fifths but an octave displaced.
Fiona: This is really like...
Deep-sounding...(Daniel: Yeah.) because it's like low.
Daniel: Three-dimensional, I think, on a certain level.
Kevin: So the melody, "melody", is in B...
but the bass is C#—oh!
James: I'm imagining like a laser show right now.
Daniel: Is that it?
That's it?! (Fiona: What?!?!)
Umu: It's an intro track!!
Daniel: It's a what? Umu: Intro track!
Daniel: Oh, I was like...oh like, "I'm waiting."
Fiona: That's cool, that sets the vibe for everything else.
Daniel: Yeah, it does. (Umu: Exactly.)
Umu: So you just said it's sets the vibe for everything else so
do you think you guys can predict with the title track, which comes next in the album, will sound like?
Daniel: No.
Daniel: Or yes, but like, no.
Fiona: I'm going to guess it still has that chill vibe but still is upbeat.
Umu: It's a pretty good guess.
Fiona: And it has —
Daniel: Yeah, I think it's going be a lot more...
angular, because of the way that even like the vocals,
it was sort of made to sound like percussion-esque.
Like you kind of like took out like the organics essence of like this of like, you know
What you consider like the human voice, right?
Which is like juxtapose between like the non-organic sounds of like an instrument.
You know, there was like voice/vocals versus instrument, right?
That's sort of like that dichotomy that exists in the classical sphere...(Fiona: Realm?) Yeah, realm.
So I feel like the fact that they mechanized it in a way
made me feel like that's setting up this kind of futuristic, if I could call it,
Umu: Yeah.
...like, sound palette.
Owen: I have no idea what to expect after that. Like normally it...
excites your palate for what's next on the album, but I just...
I'm not sure what exactly is going to come after that.
Elizabeth: I don't know, I kind of—I really like having an instrumental intro to like albums or groups
I feel like...it's like an overture in an opera or in a musical, you know?
It's like...you kind of get the feel for what vibe they're putting out there.
Like in an overture, you would have a lot of themes from the full work like condensed.
I guess the sort of impression I get from this from LOONA is like I feel like they've toed the line
kind of between being this like super girly, very feminine group
And this like also kind of like hardcore group
because like a lot of the ways that they dress like they were like the leather harnesses and like
striking colors and when they do like all their dances like when we've seen them live, like it's very intense.
I definitely get more of a grungy, intense vibe from this introduction.
I mean, with all of the distortion and like the syncopation, I feel like.
Nick: Yeah, I totally agree.
I think it was like a really cool crescendo type thing
in terms of like the intensity that motifs too and it seems to solve one of the
questions when you're making your crescendo like that.
Like how do you actually fill in the space at the beginning of it?
If you don't want it to be like music stuff, and they had the weird crinkling paper.
And then they had this like white noise thing for the next like four measures after that
and I think that's their solution to it, which is actually a really cool way to do it.
So like when the music itself is really quiet, just like fill it in with other sounds.
Henry: I could rave to that, I don't even rave but I could rave to that!
I really want to know what those sounds were at the beginning because I couldn't really pin it down.
(Cloud singing) No, before that! Like right at the beginning those really—
Cloud: Oh no, well we'll have to go back, oh no!
Henry: That!
What the hell is that?
Cloud: You know what it sounds like?
It sounds like windshield wipers.
When you have like a cleaning cloth on a squeaky surface.
Henry: [laughing] Yeah, I see it, I see it!
ANYWAY
Yeah, it's a—yeah, oooh ooh!
That's a jam.
Cool, yeah I'm ready for 'So What'
Umu: So now you're reacting to the title track 'So What' which is about dismissing fear and negativity while pursuing your goals.
It is LOONA's expression of girl power.
Fans (specifically, RTK's assistant editor) theorized that since the moon is a symbol of femininity in some Asian cultures,
and they say "burn yourself" in the music video and feature a moon burning,
they believe LOONA's message with this comeback, may be about destroying traditional femininity and burning brighter because of it.
The song is composed by David Anthony, Anna Timgren, and produced by SM Entertainment's Lee Sooman.
Kevin: John Cage, it's 4 minutes and 33 seconds.
James: Hmm.
James: Female empowerment.
See already, already! (Brianna: Yeah.) The samples are fucking fire.
Fiona: "A hungry beast emerges from the wild."
Daniel: It sounds like me after every work shift.
Stephen: Okay, so already compared to like the intro track, we have similar sounds
or like similar sounds that evoke those feelings.
Right from the beginning.
Daniel: I feel like she's going to beat me up, you know what I mean?
Cloud: I'm so ready!
Henry: What?!
James: Oh.
Brianna: Oh, harmonies!
James: Baaaad.
Cloud: "Tic-tac-toe''!
That was surprisingly major.
Aaron: This is a bop! Nick: I really like the vocal harmonies.
It's like a little barber shop quartet-ly.
But like just the top end of it.
Kevin: Okay!
Okay, so there's an extra half measure or measure?
I think it's an extra one measure in a four measure phrase.
James: Yeah, that's good!!
It's a flat seven up to the root.
Daniel: Oh my god they're having so much fun! (Fiona: It's so...)
Fiona: It's so light and happy and cute but it still has this menacing underlying...
brass synth. So it's a duality of like the soft femininity and like...
total badassery.
Aaron: I like the way they walk it's very empowering.
Henry: Oh there was like a prechorus.
No, is this another verse? I'm lost.
Nick: There's a lot of these sliding synths in here. (Aaron: Well—)
It's like they're doing a little portamento from every single note to another one.
Kevin: They really like the Gb F# key.
I don't know what they consider it, but I'm gonna say Gb is a little sadder.
Henry: Dang.... (Cloud: Back to the beginning)
It's still going, this is great. This is a trip.
James: They're belting is also incredible, it's really great.
Fiona: There's tension here.
Daniel: I think it's specifically caused by sequential movement in the bass.
So it's like the biggest peak is probably about to happen of this song.
Brianna: Do you hear the modal mixture in it? (James: Huh?)
Do you hear the modal mixture, it's like there's not one set key.
They're like a dissonance in between.
James: Yes!
We're going off in the background.
Brianna: I wish I would have showcased their voices more at this part (James: Yeah.)
and put mixing down because I feel like I'm just like missing something.
Kevin: Ooh nice dance. Nice dance alert!
Henry: If that's not already a huge hit that's got to be a huge hit!
Daniel: She's mad! She's like, freakin' pissed.
Fiona: "I'm burning these feathers." Daniel: Is this supposed to be symbolic?
Fiona: Probably...oh, she anti-burned them.
Umu: Yeahhhhh.
Isaach: Huh, what does that mean? Let me ponder it for the rest of my life.
Aaron: Yay!
Umu: Thoughts on the song and the synth sounds and stuff?
Nick: Yeah, okay. So this synth sounds were really like sliding up and down, that's portamento, right?
Is what like producers also call that, that's that's what it's called on viola, at least.
Hearing that is kind of unusual, I think in this kind of poppy music.
Because usually you just have like the one harmony and then maybe you slide to another harmony,
but they had like more...
ostinato like melodic-ish stuff with a lot of portamento in between it.
Then the vocal harmonies were really thick on top of that.
So like we never lost track of like what pitches were important in the harmonies.
It's really cleverly done.
Seiji: Usually that song wouldn't be in major, right?
Umu: Yeah, if you think badass...
Like you're more...
Seiji: I don't know, it's like it just feel, like uh—
Umu: It just sounds like a mixture of half light and fluffy and half dark Seji: Yeah...
Seiji: because like they're definitely a lot of intense things going on
and like the purpose of the song is something that's pretty intense.
The fact—there's some like harmonic things and I guess some
Textural things that still keep it lighter and like more upbeat and positive
so like they're moments where it sounds like something...
like you hear more...
Like a different K-Pop girl group would do and more like a summery song
There's still aspects of that that kind of ring through, which might be a characteristic of their music, I don't know.
I don't really follow them.
Yeah, it's like it's definitely a hybrid, I'd imagine it was intentional.
Stephen: Yeah, because if you look too like the things that they're presenting in the music video.
There's a duality of what's expected, right, and like what their culture has set up for them and then
what they're trying to do and what they're trying to push and you see...
that duality is in the beginning and then less and less towards the end
More of like what their agenda and what they're trying to push
becomes a lot more prevalent if that's what they're portraying in the music video then perhaps
the duality that Seiji was kind of talking about could be explained as a matter of that.
Henry: That's awesome! It sounds great!
And it's really fresh, I feel like it's really got a fresh sound and it's got...
It didn't feel—I don't know.
It's all gut feeling, right? Like I feel like I would listen to this and not get sick of it.
I love the like kind of feeling of defiance when I can't really figure out the harmony right now
But the "wub wubs" the bass, that established of harmony feels like it should move into a minor setting
Cloud: The first refrain, I thought it was going to be in minor! (Henry: Yeah! I think it's because like—) And then it wasn't and I was like—
They use some like minor seconds that feel like it should
descend until it either kind of some kind of Phrygian feel kind of thing, right?
And then but they're singing in different register and it's all...
It doesn't even like move a major melody. They're literally just hitting major chords
and then just going different inversions root, first, second
(Cloud: Yeah.) And then up up up!
Cloud: The full seventh chord, they would do for like—
Both: Yeah, yeah.
Brianna: There was one point where I just wanted—like, you know we wanted them to like not a super high note
But just like a high point because I feel like there were so many moment that could have been like taken like
Higher and it just like never like reached a peak of resolution? I don't know how to like describe it.
James: But at the same time, I'm like working—
We're sort of making a big deal out of it. But I don't really care. I still know the song is really good. (Brianna: It was good.)
James: Even though we say like there wasn't like a big moment like we were expecting I think it showcased their vocals really well
*singing* Like that was really cool, that's really high.
And they were belting it and it sounded really good.
There was some agility that I heard at some point, you know, they were like doing cool stuff in the background.
Brianna: I thought their harmonizations was pretty like tight. (James: Yeah...)
It was really solid. (James: The harmony was nice.)
(Brianna: It was pretty good.) And I think the message is really important too
because like so, you know, so often like as women, you know
Like you'll get comments about like what you're wearing
like I think the response "So what?" like it's just like it's it's the perfect encapsulation of like
Being a female like femininity like takes many different like shapes and forms
today and they even show that in the lyric video like they had like shots of like ballet dancers and also like
her standing in the alley really like punk and
Also, like them like around the cars like dancing like they were they really like showcased all the ways
You can be feminine like there isn't just one way and but people tried to tell you that
But your response should be like, "So what?"
Kevin: Yeah, I feel like with a lot of the past LOONA tracks
even in the very, you know....
fast-paced 'High High' a lot of the lyrics in that was about
searching, finding yourself and like sort of it's almost like...
Pepping you up?
This is like when they actually come out on the other side a more confident person.
So I think it's pretty dope.
Umu: HEY THERE
Before you click out of this video,
I have something to announce that you might be excited about
We've partnered with Saturday Morning Pancakes
To create fun and aesthetic (high quality!) K-Pop apparel
And so you might remember a while back,
I posted on twitter and our YouTube community page asking you guys
to send me K-Pop quotes, lyrics and memes that you might want to wear on a T-shirt
and I'm happy to say that one of our highest requested memes was the
stan LOONA meme (not a meme, just a fact) and so
Saturday Morning Pancakes just got to me the 'Stan LOONA' t-shirt design and BAM
*LOONA impressed noises*
Umu: YO
LOOK AT IT
This t-shirt design is available right now in their online store
and i'm super excited for our partnership with Saturday Morning Pancakes to develop, so send in your requests
what memes, what quotes do you want to wear on your body?
and we'll get in those requests to Saturday Morning Pancakes and hopefully
we'll be able to create a lot of amazing K-Pop apparel that you guys will want to wear
All right, that's it for now! Thank you so much for watching the video!
(stan loona)