- I just feel so happy listening to it.
- I'm seriously gonna have to go download
a bunch of this on my way home.
♪ (industrial intro) ♪
- ♪ I can't believe ♪ - Ooh, is this some K-pop?
- Oh! This is EXO, right? - EXO... just dropped an album.
- ♪ Don't mess up my tempo ♪ - Okay.
- ♪ (singing in Korean) ♪ ♪ I said don't mess up... ♪
- (sings along) ♪ My tempo ♪ - ♪ (singing in Korean) ♪
- Can I just say they upped their boy band game
so much better than Americans ever have?
- It feels really like Backstreet Boys
- ♪ Baby girl ♪ ♪ (singing in Korean) ♪
- I'm so astounded by the energy and color in K-pop music videos.
They're all so well produced. - ♪ I can't believe ♪
- ♪ I can't believe ♪ - ♪ I can't believe ♪
- ♪ (singing in Korean) ♪
- EXO came to play with this album.
I was literally just listening to it.
- ♪ Don't mess up my tempo ♪
- This seriously makes me wanna go out and take
an adult hip-hop class, so I could learn how to do that.
- If that had been in English, it would've sounded almost identical
to most of the stuff on top 40 right now.
- (FBE) So, we have more to show you in a second.
But that was the new song "Tempo" by K-pop group EXO.
- EXO. All right. I'm feeling ya, EXO.
You might get a download.
- My daughter knows that band big time.
And I don't. - Yeah. They're really good.
- (FBE) We've covered EXO before, and they even got
their own episode once. - Mm, they're really cool.
- (FBE) K-pop obviously continues to be massive and constantly growing,
has a dedicated fan base and everything.
The song got 17 million views
in the first 24 hours of being released.
- Holy crap, dude. That is always insane
how all of these things that I haven't seen yet
and heard of yet are just taking the world by storm.
- (FBE) So, another K-pop group that we've covered before
on this channel, Twice, also released a new music video
that garnered 22 million views in 11 hours.
- "Yes or Yes," right?
- (FBE) So, we have that to show you now as well.
- My gosh, K-pop. You're ruling the world.
♪ (upbeat K-pop music) ♪ - I love Twice.
Always makes me so happy!
- This is like a Dance Dance Revolution
type of thing right there. - There's so [bleep] cute!
(sings along) ♪ Yes or yes ♪
- ♪ (singing in Korean) ♪ ♪ Yes or yes ♪
- That's pretty good. - Sorry, girls,
but already, the boys are a little bit better dancers. (laughs)
- I feel like the boys were better dancers.
- The songs are always so catchy.
- I don't know how I feel about this one.
They look like they're on a Universal set or something.
- ♪ (singing in Korean) ♪
- See, I don't like the guy groups and the girl groups
have the ability to just make me blush. (giggles)
- ♪ (singing in Korean) ♪ ♪ My heart burn, burn, burn ♪
- Dude, now that's a [bleep] girl group.
- I just feel so happy listening to it. Oh my god.
- I feel like this is one I'm a little less likely
to listen to just 'cause it's quite "teenager-y."
- What's with the creepy eyeball thing?
That's the one thing that I'm like, yeeah,
I don't like that. That's freaky.
- ♪ (singing in Korean) ♪ ♪ Yes or yes ♪
- Ah, I [bleep] love Twice! - I just love the energy behind that.
That was so positive and upbeat.
- (FBE) So, both EXO and Twice released a bunch
of new music recently. - Okay.
- (FBE) So, we have a few more of their songs to show you.
- All right. - Some samplings.
You gonna give me some samplings?
- ♪ (singing in Korean) ♪
- I'm just always so amazed by the videos.
- ♪ Come and tell me where you at ♪ - Very good.
- I feel like they're a little bit more edgy,
and I think that's why I like them a bit more.
- This feels a little less pop than the last one.
- I'm seriously gonna have to go download a bunch
of this on my way home.
- I wanna work on a K-pop production so bad.
Let me just hold their waters. I'll be fine. (chuckles)
- ♪ Get out ♪ ♪ (singing in Korean) ♪
- Very talented guys. I have no idea how old they are,
but they've achieved something at this age.
- It's good choreography. They're very freaking good dancers.
- ♪ ...gonna be electric ♪ ♪ (singing in Korean) ♪
♪ It's gonna be electricity ♪ Oh, baby, baby ♪
- So good. - ♪ So electric, so electric, yeah ♪
- Yeah, I could dance like that. I just don't wanna show off right now.
- EXO, I think is just one of those groups too with their vocals
and their dancing, and they make everybody swoon.
They have it all. - They're the 2010 beyond version
of NSYNC and Backstreet Boys.
- ♪ You and me in the moonlight ♪
- Aww! This one is also really cute. This is "Dancing in the Night."
- ♪ (singing in Korean) ♪
- I have yet to see a boring K-pop video.
- I like this better. It's just young, fresh.
- ♪ (singing in Korean) ♪
♪ Hey, let's dance the night away ♪
- Look! We're stranded. Who cares? We're gonna dance the night away.
- It's like I'm watching Lost.
- ♪ Yeah ♪ - It's a little like sweetie,
innocent little girl pop stuff. Not necessarily my jam.
- ♪ Let's dance the night away ♪
- I haven't seen a shot where they haven't smiled.
And the other ones are all intense, like, moody.
- It's happy for a second, but to listen to the whole thing,
I would just be, like, "Aaand we're done."
- Between the choreography and the set design,
you can tell that they put so much thought into their videos.
It's amazing. ♪ (sorrowful music) ♪
- This does not sound anything like their other two songs.
- Yeah, running in slow motion.
- They're all very picturesque.
- Their fashion game is on point as well.
Who is dressing these guys?
- I like that it's more simplified. It shows that they
have range as artists, which is really cool.
- This is cute, 'cause then it shows
that they don't need to just be flashy to be good.
- I feel like I know them on a deeper level.
I still [bleep] with Twice heavier, though.
- It seemed a little moody and emo, but you know what?
That's the audience they're playing to.
What kid from, I don't know, 13 to 20 isn't, like,
the most angst-ridden, crippled-by-romance person?
♪ (upbeat K-pop music) ♪ - ♪ (singing in Korean) ♪
- Okay, they got their-- they're ripping of Britney here.
- This is Britney Spears with the girls behind.
- ♪ I wanna know ♪ ♪ (singing in Korean) ♪
- Aww, a little Pulp Fiction. Okay!
- Ha-ha! Awesome. - Love this music video so mu--
(sings along) ♪ Know, know, know, know ♪
- ♪ What is love? ♪ - I'm gonna join in.
- Aww, La La Land. That's so cute.
- Oh, wow. They're doing a number of the movies. Nice.
Oh, I get it. They're watching the movies.
- They're taking little bits of American culture
and throwing it in there. They're like, "This is for you, Tom."
- ♪ (singing in Korean) ♪
- This is such a good music video,
because of all the little romance movies that they reference.
- Are they gonna make her pretty?
Whoa! She's gorgeous without glasses! That's crazy!
- ♪ I wanna know, know, know, know ♪
♪ What is love? ♪ - The melodies are so catchy.
- (sings along) ♪ I wanna know, know, know, know ♪
(laughs) I love this music video.
They didn't use any guys in the music video.
It's-- and Twice just needs to love themselves basically.
- The thing with K-pop is each person's carefully selected
and mushed together to form this super group,
so everyone plays a part. You have the sub-vocals.
You have the vocals. You have the dancers.
And I think these two groups are excellent examples of K-pop groups.
- Overall, I really like EXO. I'm okay on Twice.
K-pop in general, I'm totally in love with.
- (FBE) So, this isn't the first time that EXO and Twice have brought in
crazy views like this. In 2017, Twice broke the YouTube record
and became the only K-pop artist to hit one million likes
on all of their music videos. - Crazy.
- (FBE) Additionally, EXO were in the Guinness World Records
for the most Daesangs won, which is the award
for artist of the year at the Mnet Asian Music Awards.
- That's so cool. - (FBE) What do you think it is
about these groups that have them continuously breaking records?
- It is catchy music, I mean, generally speaking.
Like, these days, the stuff that hit top 40s is the catchy stuff.
- The visuals in their videos are a great help.
I would kind of just go down this rabbit of just watching
the videos over and over again.
And that's how I came to love certain groups.
- They're different enough from the US artists right now
that they're gaining traction because people are like,
"Oh, okay. So, this is something I haven't seen or heard before."
- Their music has a mass appeal. And I think with globalization
and social media and technology and...
Whereas a band from my generation at that age would've maybe
had an American audience,
these kids have an entire global audience.
- (FBE) So, I hope I'm pronouncing this correctly, but Lay Zhang from EXO
has mentioned that he would love to collab with Ella Mai,
who is a new R&B artist, and other western artists
from different music genres have wanted to collab
with various K-pop bands as well. Like Maluma, for example,
who is a Spanish artist and has expressed his interest
in collaborating with K-pop group BTS.
- That's-- I mean, just crossing o-- I mean, it's really a crossing over.
Before it was European artist trying to hit it in the US.
Now it's artists from different countries
that have their own sense of popularity really crossing over
to other countries.
- (FBE) Based on what you saw from EXO, do you think
that these collaborations will work with their sound
or are these other genres not a good fit for the sound?
- No, it's going to work. We are all about it,
because they have a record of doing some good stuff right now.
- The genres would be perfect together.
And it doesn't really matter that they're a different culture
or different language, 'cause it's just music.
- I don't think their musical style is really different than anything else.
K-pop and American pop, they're all very similar.
So, I think they'll blend effortlessly.
- Why not implement another genre in that and another artist in there?
'Cause then it just kinda shakes things up,
and then it makes you less predictable.
"Oh, let me just throw a complete curveball here
and give you something fantastic."
- (FBE) So, it seems like most K-pop groups
are either an all-boy band or an all-girl band.
Now, there have been coed K-pop groups
and there are still some now. But none seem to match
the success of the separate girl or boy bands.
- Interesting. - (FBE) Why do you think
that coed K-pop groups are less popular?
- Well, I mean, even just coed groups like that,
we don't even see a lot in the music industry in general,
not even in K-pop. Even then, they're a lot easier to market,
because with the guy groups, it's they're these badass,
kind of good-looking guys. And then with the girl groups,
they're either badass or cute or bubbly.
- For girls, one, they can relate to all girl groups.
And then when it comes to the boy groups,
they have their crushes and their biases,
I think is what they're called, and their love interests.
- We listen to the music we relate to, right?
So, I might not necessarily listen
to some guy and his situation
as much as I would a woman and her situation.
- (FBE) So, although the bands are referred to as K-pop,
obviously standing for Korean popular music,
not all of the members are from the native Korea.
Aside from the Korean members, Twice girl group also includes members
from Taiwan, Japan, and one of the girls
was even born in America. - Okay.
- It's cool, because then you just get different groups
of people and a main group together.
- (FBE) Do you think that not having all the members from Korea
hurts the authenticity of the group, or do you think that'll help them
appeal to a wider market? - To be honest, I don't really care.
They're singing in Korean, then it's Korean pop.
- You don't necessarily have to be from a country to be able
to portray something that is-- you know, something that will catch on.
I think that-- like, say someone has roots in Latin America
or something and wants to sing in Spanish,
but they were born in the US. Why can't they sing in Spanish?
- In America, in the states, in westernized societies,
like, you know, England, Ireland, they're used to having
cross-cultural bands all the time.
But when you do get to Asian countries,
when you get to Korea, when you get to Japan,
when you get to China,
they don't have a huge immigrant population
like we do. And I do think there might be
a little bit of pushback from those countries.
To call your music K-pop when half your band is not Korean,
I could see how, in those cultures, they might have a problem with that.
But as Americans and--
I don't think we'll have an issue with it at all.
- (FBE) So finally, EXO and Twice are two very different groups.
And whether or not you're a fan of K-pop,
which song did you prefer: EXO's "Tempo" or Twice's "Yes or Yes"?
- Ooh. Definitely EXO's "Tempo." I liked that.
- I liked "Tempo." - Twice, yeah.
I just think they're more upbeat. - EXO.
- I liked EXO better. I don't know. I just like them.
- "Tempo" is EXO's best song. "Tempo" is a better song.
Twice is a better group. - Of course I'm gonna choose Twice.
They're my biggest sort of bias and Twice overall everything.
- "Tempo." Twice's "Yes or Yes," while cute,
was a little repetitive and high-pitched for me.
- I liked "Tempo" a little bit better.
I couldn't help but kind of bob my head along to it.
It was fun to listen to.
- Thanks for watching this episode of Adults React.
- Be sure to subscribe and hit the bell.
Shoutout to Michelle Mottey. - Do you like EXO or Twice or both?
Let us know in the comments. - Bye!
- Vartuhi here, producer at FBE.
Thank you so much for watching this episode of Adults React.
Make sure to subscribe to this channel,
but also check out the React Channel and subscribe to see reactors gaming,
competing, and so much more. Bye, guys!