Henry: That's fuuuuuunny!
[Rossini's Semiramide Overture playing]
Umu: Before we begin this reaction
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let the reaction begin!
So you are now reacting to the 8 member boy group Ateez
and their 2021 release 'The Real (興 version)'.
Umu: Do you know what the Hanja character for 興 means? Ju Young: Nah man...
Umu: So it usually means like
the feelings when someone has fun and or joyful moments
or it means like to rise, prosper and flourish, to get up.
First up 'The Real' was released as Ateez's final song
on the competition show 'Kingdom Legendary War'
but then was revamped to be their new lead title track for this album.
The lyrics encourage you to embrace the real you
in the process of becoming adult.
People theorize that this MV supports that message
by breaking the members into several different groups.
Two are in a motorbike crew,
two are in a calligraphy club,
two are in a baseball club,
Umu: one is a transfer student- Jason: Boo!
Jason: You know how much I hate baseball!
Raffi: I love baseball!
I won like five championships in baseball!
(Jason: Good for you-) Umu: Well then you know, Raffi,
that what is super cool is dedication, passion and teamwork
when it comes to playing on a baseball team, right?
Raffi: It's true.
Umu: There is the 7th member
who's actually a transfer student from another school
and therefore his morals are the strongest
and he thinks he is the coolest of all.
And then they all get like ready to fight each other,
they're like, "My values, my traits are the most important!"
Cloud: And there's like lightning from the heavens.
Umu: Wait-
Have you seen this MV? (Cloud: Yeah.)
Aw, dammit
Cloud: I love it though,
I love this MV, it's so good! (Umu: Okay, great)
Umu: But the 8th member helps them all come together to realize
there is no singular way to be cool,
there is no style that is better than the other,
everyone is cool in their own way
when you do your best
and when you act with kindness and humility
so you don't need to fight to see like, (Stephanie: Yeah!)
which traits are cooler than others,
it's just being yourself is number one.
The song is composed by 이든 (EDEN), Ollounder, LEEZ, Peperoni, Oliv,
and the Ateez members 김홍중 (Kim Hongjoong) and 송민기 (Mingi) wrote the lyrics.
Jory: Mate, you just dropped pizza ingredients on us, what was that?
Raffi: Okay, on the count of three,
"One two three, Jason's beanie."
We click on "Jason's beanie."
Okay.
One
Two
Three
Jason's Beanie!
Oooh~
Cloud: *båbabåwawøw*
Raffi: Is this the song?
No, this is not the song.
Sam: Oh, there's the high school!
Kevin: I like how the voice is mixed in this,
it's like far and reverby in a good way.
Stephanie: Woah.
Liam: Oho, there's a buildup just to get into this song!?
It's so fun!
Jory: It's so bright!
Will: Yeah, it's a crazy synth sound, it's cool. (Jory: Yeah)
Ju Young: I love this like little traditional thing that is going on.
Sam: Yeah! Ju Young: I mean, this HUGE traditional thing going on.
Rachel: Do they use Korean, like, traditional instruments, I'm assuming?
The gong?
And then I heard like some kind of skinned drum, I think.
(Kevin: Oh, minor.) Owen: These are like the most suave baseball players I have ever seen.
Jory: I don't know what that is, like all the way over to the right.
That's pretty dope. (Will: Yeah, that's cool.)
Owen: Does his baseball have hair at the end of it?
Baseball bat?
Sam & Ju Young: Oh, a dog!
Sam: Jinx, you owe me a soda.
Henry: That's fuuuuuunny!
Liam: It's so loud.
Rachel: Wow...
Liam: That reedy synth sound.
Jory: Yeah, that is a nut synth.
Sam: Mm~
Ju Young: Yeah!
Liam: Oh!?
Rachel: What is that?
Liam: Oh, g minor now?
Owen: Yeah, there is hair at the end of his baseball bat!
Umu: That isn't a baseball bat.
That's a GIANT paintbrush!
Owen: NOOO!
Raffi: I love this ascend.
Jason: Why is there a cat, a sad cat in the background, did you see that?
That was- that was-
Owen: Wow.
Kevin: Full on almost E♭,
but then of course it comes back to C.
Raffi: Shout out to the choreographers!
Liam: Yeah, that brightness in that harmony, it's really nice.
Jory: The laughs were harmonized, that was rad!
Jory & Will: Oh!
Henry: So those guys are the hottest.
The calligraphy group?
Owen: Yeah, it's nice to have something more tonal than modal. Kevin: Oh, nice drums!
Kevin: Woooo!
Drum line vibes.
Ju Young: Something's gonna happen.
Something's gonna happen.
They're gonna dance, aren't they?
They can- this is-
Oh my god!
Both: This is High School Musical 2!
Kevin: "I don't dance, I know you can~"
Owen: Not a chance.
Henry: Everyone sees it from afar,
this is so much like an anime!
Jory: Four-way-punch!
Just guys being dudes.
Liam: Major 6?
Rachel: There's some instrument that's like tripping me up,
it sounds almost like a horn?
And it's just like, it's really in the back.
Henry: There's just too much power in their fists.
Cloud: No, in their souls, Henry.
Henry: Ooh
Cloud: It's the crows for me, the *caw*
Kevin: What?!
Owen: *caw*
*what?*
Stephanie: Oh so that's the guy.
That's the dude!
Sam: Oh?
Okay?
Leon: Oooho. Stephanie: Ooooooooh, okay!
Cloud: This always reminds me of like last day of school
and the seniors are like "We're done!"
Ju Young: Oh, this dance is so fun!
Kevin: Oh it's so gnarly.
Kevin: Wooo!? Raffi: Oh!
Liam: Yeah! Jory: Let's gooo
Kevin: That sounds like a- Owen: Pretty hype.
Kevin: Yeah, like an ethnic trumpet, like a Korean...
Like a suona, that's a Chinese equivalent.
Henry: What a fun song.
Henry: What a fun little narrative. Cloud: I told you I'm easy, I love it!
Raffi: That was one of the best things I've heard in a while.
I think that "la di dei di...",
when you get those syllables going on like a catchy motion in this scale,
it's so... I love that kind of style, I can vibe to it.
I really liked the way the voices sound in it,
I really liked the melodies throughout,
like it was a lot of phrases where I'm like,
"Oh that's- I would love to sing that"
I thought it was catchy.
And then when it ended I felt like I needed to clap,
like, it felt, there was so much energy to me,
it was like a visceral response of like...
I really enjoyed it.
Sam: I think it was really fun kind of trying to map
when it kind of used different scales
versus when it kind of moved away from that.
Henry: I don't know what that scale was.
Is this phrygian?
Umu: With a major three.
Henry: Oh.
Umu: So it's the one that every single K-pop song uses.
Dominant phrygian.
Henry: Dominant phrygian, is that the name of it?
Henry: At the moment I was like brain fart, I can't forget that. Umu: It's phrygian with a raised 3.
Sam: At the beginning I was kinda like,
"Okay, there's definitely some kind of scale tones that were different,"
that weren't necessarily major and minor,
so I was like "Okay, maybe this is kind of paying homage to a different scale"
kind of seeing that it was, was really cool.
I don't know, I think it's really exciting
when it's something that is not necessarily phrygian,
not necessarily major or minor,
it uses elements of both.
Liam: See, and then that's minor.
Rachel: Yeah.
Liam: So the pre-chorus, you do get the C minor.
And then solidly ends on *G major*
Rachel: This is what we call "style"
Liam: And then that reedy synth sound just brings back the major color.
Cloud: This was one of my like favorite Ateez songs even before seeing it live
because I feel like it's very anthem-esque,
like it's very easy to sings along to, because "Dam da di dam..."
I love the actual Korean instrumentals
and like hearing that, super great.
Sam: I also was really excited by the use of different instruments,
particularly in the percussion, so kind of hearing,
oh okay, the timbre of these percussion instruments
are very different from what I'm used to hearing
so it definitely gave a very different affect
that I though was rather pleasant.
Stephanie: Oh, I think I really liked when it went into that instrumental solo, yeah,
cuz the bass drum before that is like,
what was the rhythm?
Not on every downbeat.
Oh yeah, it's like:
that kind of a rhythm.
And so the bass drum is feeling-
so I was just like kinda feeling that groove
but then, when it hits that instrumental solo,
the bass drum played every downbeat
and so I just like,
*head bopping intensifies*
yeah, I just really liked-
you know, it's kind of like reedy,
kind of like a nasal sounding soprano sax kind of a thing
so it was just like kinda interesting to me from that perspective.
Umu: Yeah, it's a double reed; but a brass bell.
Stephanie: Oooooh! Leon: Wow.
Umu: So it has that oboe-brass-sax sound,
(Stephanie: Yeah!) like it has everything together in one, it's really cool.
Liam: Honestly the whole song is kind of like
more trebley than I was expecting (Rachel: Yeah)
Liam: Like I was expecting a lot more bass. Rachel: Really bassy, but it's not.
Jason: There wasn't enough low end for me,
there wasn't enough bass,
there wasn't enough to like ground me.
Umu: A lot of piercing upper register. Jason: A lot of it.
Raffi: It was tinny.
Jason: Yeah, very.
But to the degree that they wanted it to be
like electric and tinny and kind of I think it worked.
Jory: I think the craziest part for me was that synth,
the one that was so bright.
I don't think I've actually heard synths like that before.
The sub-bass was super low,
like you could barely hear it in headphones,
so you know it'd be like...
crazy on like a huge sound system or something.
Umu: Bruh. I saw this live.
It was f#%king insane.
Jory: Yeah, is it like the kind that rattles your teeth?
Umu: Yeah, yeah. Jory: Yeah.
Umu: You just feel it, like,
as it changes note you feel it travel through your entire body,
Umu: just like up and down, yeah. Jory: It's like it's digesting your food for you.
Jory: And then-
And then the synth was super bright,
so there wasn't like a lot of mid-range-y stuff,
but it meant that you could hear everything really clearly.
Umu: Okay.
Kevin: I was surprised how...
consistent it was.
I think I was expecting more change
but it was just constantly pretty hard hitting
and then with little nuances, like the rap part being droneless and stuff.
I don't know, it felt more like a...
like a rap song, like one of those K-hip-hop groups,
the way they would just focus on a beat.
But then this added some more of the dancey K-pop boy group vibes,
but they kept it-
I feel like they didn't do a lot with it,
but in this case it's a strength.
But I, I guess my brain wasn't,
I don't know, I kept on-
it was anticipating something
but by the end I'm like, "Yeah, that's all you need."
Owen: The song doesn't change in vibe all that much,
besides the section with the rap and things like that,
that's why I liked going from one group to another group,
like a totally different vibe,
and it kind of carried the story, as much as there was one, forward for me, which was nice.
Stephanie: Until the very- what, like maybe 30s of the video,
the whole thing is like, looks so chaotic and like,
such like vigorous and like, everyone just like so rebellious kind of a vibe.
In contrast to that at the end it just feels super resolved.
Honestly the first part made me feel really uncomfortable and just like,
"What's going on, this is scary," (Umu: Too many things to pay attention to)
like I can not approach them at all if I saw them in person kind of a thing,
so I was kinda intimidated, and then until,
but like the last 30s it was just like completely the opposite
with that 8th guy coming in to resolve everything,
so I think that was really effective, actually.
Jason: The theme overall in a narrative sense is about kind of belonging
and you know, an ethical and moral fight over
what is the right way or what is the right perspective.
I don't know, there could be like biblical imagery that they brought in
with the guy at the end wearing white and all this stuff, you never know.
Umu: There were doves flying in the air.
Jason: Yeah, and he almost was like,
there was so much ascension,
and then he kind of descended and came,
that's like that romantic idealism,
like Beethoven and everybody,
they used to write pieces where there would be like so much drama
and then by the end the descend of the like Jesus figure
which in Missa Solemnis, Beethoven,
it's like that's the last thing that happens, one of the last things, and it's like,
it's like a very romantic idea in music.
Owen: I had a great time.
Kevin: Yeah, I think it's really good, it's a party,
and the MV was clearly a lot of fun to make because
(Owen: Yeah) and the MV was clearly a lot of fun to make because
Kevin: big groups, and yeah, wide shots, Owen: To throw everything everywhere.
Kevin: Yeah, just people.
Owen: People and things.
Kevin: And clubs!
Umu: And places?
Owen: And baseball bats with hair.
Owen: I loved when they were going:
There was one like really-
how everything is super gritty
but there was one instrument
that was like very bubbly,
very like clear.
Rachel: Like do you hear that horn thing?!
Stephanie: I heard that, O0ooOo~
Liam: Yeah, that's a vibe,
just like goofy dancing with the boys...
Rachel: Did you- is that what just happened?
*E over E♭*
Ju Young: They like put like two different lines together.
Why would they do that?
Stephanie: It sounds like a French horn randomly playing a *woo* from afar, from far away.
Rachel: It was tripping me up so hard because it's like so distant,
but I can hear it and I'm like, "What the f#%k is that?"
Owen: It was really wild and I liked it a lot.
Rachel: I know, like, I don't mind it, I just wanna know what it is,
like what its purpose is?!
Owen: But that was like the wildest part of the song for me
cuz it was super bizarre
and it's already in the middle of all this chaos for sure,
so to have that like off in the distance and this really round sound,
like it feels like a bubble of air under water,
like that kind of morphousness but it's very satisfying.
Umu: Their concept is pirates, so...
Owen: Sure.
Umu: Remember, these are the pirates guys!
Owen: Oh, it's "the pirates guys" Kevin: I kinda got...
Kevin: I think it actually keeps some of the pirate vibe a little bit,
just not in the video but mostly in the audio.
Owen: For me- Kevin: There's something-
Kevin: "Da da da..." there's something a little like that.
Owen: It's not a pirate vibe, it's just the Ateez vibe,
Kevin: Yeah, you're right. Owen: at this point, more than anything.
Kevin: They have redefined the pirate vibe for me. Owen: It's very Ateez now.
Jory: Do you [enjoy] Hawaiian pizza?
Will: I do, I think it's pretty good.
Jory: I like Hawaiian pizza. Will: I mean it's not like my first choice
Will: but I'm like down with it. Jory: Yeah, I think I just really like it though,
Jory: It's like...
~ s p a r k l e s ~
Umu: I'm gonna be putting this in the video and y'all gonna get flamed in the comments.