Kevin: That is some great sh*t! That is some great syncopation! That's Brahms-level.
Umu: Today we're reacting EXO's very first comeback after 'Mama'. and it's called 'Wolf'.
Even though they won their very first award with this song, people had really strong opinions on it,
so they received a lot of backlash. It was written and produced by Kenzi, and straight from Wikipedia, 'Wolf' is quote,
"Described as a dubstep inspired hip-hop song that tells a tragic story between a werewolf and a beauty".
Emiel: Okay, let's do this. Umu: I'm so ready!
Henry: Let's just dive in! Let's just do it! Emiel: Let's see what the world has to offer.
Three, two, one.
Henry: Unrequited werewolf love--didn't know that was how my night was gonna go. Emiel: Wow.
Lindsey: I feel like I'm already watching like a modern theater piece.
Charlotte: Alto flute or bass flute? Peyton: Me trying to play flute!
Charlotte: Alto or bass flute? Peyton: (imitating flute) Charlotte: Oh!
Melissa: Wow. This is cool. Elizabeth: It sounds like a cricket that's like the ostinato sound. That's interesting Melissa: It does. It's a cricket synth.
Hugo: This is....
This is different, I'll say that, at least.
This is amazing. Um, yeah, it's all mainstream sounds, but it sounds like no other K-pop song.
Hugo: Major, okay, cool.
Lindsey: Where did that just come from?
*literally in shock*
Henry: I don't like melodies either. Melody is overrated. I just wanna go:
Emiel: Oh, my God.
Fiona: It's like, wahhhh! It's just so loud right now. Lindsey: This is the wolf--it's the werewolf, coming to get you.
Kevin: It's a straight dubstep song. It's straight dubstep.
Henry: (werewolf howl)
Emiel: This is actually like, pretty scary, in a way.
Henry: Oh, it's a song now.
Elizabeth: This is the first time we've had like a good melody, Melissa: Yeah Elizabeth: and you notice that like the bass
drops out really, so we've got like a higher synth. Melissa: it's not as audible
Lindsey: What is happening with the harmony? Fiona: Yeah, I like that.
Lindsey: No, I like it, but I'm just like, what? Fiona: Who's singing with them? Is that themselves like, rerecorded?
Lindsey: Yeah. I mean, I think so.
Kevin: Excellent.
Ooh, the little- the little major that you barely can detect.
Melissa: I like how you can really hear the different voices like, equally, there's no hierarchy.
Kevin: That is that is some great sh*t. That is some great syncopation. That's Brahms level.
Fiona: I like how they're all yelling. Lindsey: This is making me feel weird to listen to, but I don't dislike it.
Kevin: You know, technically this can be considered cluster music,
because they go from harmonic stuff to just, "Hey!", but at different vague pitches.
Yeah, there's something almost like
contemporary classical music about this.
Oh, my God, that piano is the eargasm that I needed.
Fiona: Danger is happening! That's what this music means. That piano ostinato right now--
Danger!
Foreshadowing
Someone 'bout to get BIT!
Melissa: This is like, the piano is like a reminder that they have emotions, because it's like a softer tambour.
So it's like, even though he's a wolf, he's like soft on the inside.
Elizabeth: Oh, that's excellent harmony! Melissa: I love that!
Melissa: Yeah!
Very well mixed voices just there! Very good, actually! That was really good.
Fiona: I kinda expected that to go somewhere else. Lindsey: Yeah, me too. I didn't expect it to come back ???????? Fiona: Some were more like,
breathtaking. Lindsey: Um, hmm
Kevin: Ooh, ooh, it speeds up.
Cahrlotte: Huh!
Charlotte: He's just goin' for all them high notes.
Fiona: Um, dreads man, is the group hottie. I'm just telling you now, if you don't know.
Elizabeth: Oh, we've got that flute coming back now. Melissa: (singing)
Melissa: but over the synth synth Elizabeth: But also over the- Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah
Melissa: At the same time.
Elizabeth: That's cool, isn't it? Melissa: I love that piece...I mean song.
Lindsey: Here's what I will say: I thoroughly enjoyed that. However, I don't think that I can ever listen to it ever again.
Do you know what I mean?
Like, it was so much, and it was just like so hype, then they were all these super unexpected things that happened,
but it was so much.
So it's like, it was cool to listen to like a first listen kind of thing, and you get that effect of all these
surprising elements that you don't think are gonna happen, and they come out of nowhere and you don't know where it's going.
It's a very unpredictable song, but I don't think that I can ever listen to it again, it is so much.
Fiona: I would say this song, since it is less poppy and less like giving to like the common
person's ears, like you're listening to the radio, like if this turned on, I'd be like, oh, interesting! Lindsey: I crashed my car now.
Fiona: Yeah, you accidentally crashed your car, because it's so intense.
But seeing it with the music video, it really makes sense as a music video.
I have a hard time imagining this as like, Lindsey: A song? Fiona: like a number one hit, because,
because it doesn't pander to like a lot of things pop songs do.
Charlotte: It was interesting I can tell why you say it was controversial, just because like it's so weird.
If you have the expectation that they're going to have a very cohesive, well put together song,
then you're gonna be fairly disappointed by this.
But if you're going into it with an open mind, you're can find that it's actually like, really cool. And how they layer in the different parts,
so you have like chorus and a bridge, and like all the verses, and at the end they started layering them all on top of
each other, so that you could pick out literally like five different things to listen to for a little while, and then
the chorus again. That's how they ended it. But like, that was cool. Very cool.
Henry: There was so little melodic content that it barely even qualified as a song.
Henry: It was a music video Emiel: It's dubstep, dude, give it a break. Henry: I know. That's fair, that's fair, that's fair.
It was just noises, right? Like it wasn't really about
melody. And like, there was underlying harmony that was cool,
and so I can appreciate the perspective of like, once I actually sat down and was like, okay,
"What's happening here?", that there are things that are like, oh, I wouldn't have expected that from a pop song,
but like there are just layers and layers of things that are just completely either distracting or downright silly, like that
I just couldn't
possibly
get through in order to understand that musical content. Like it just was far too busy.
There's like certain music where if you have a musical intent, it'll sound good
despite people's musical preferences. But if you're taking a musical genre
and it doesn't really have a clear musical drive to it when you're trying to do
that and be original at the same time, then it doesn't really have an audience that suits it well.
And that's kind of just how it ended up there.
Umu: What did you think about that song overall, musically?
Rachel: Um, mmm. Hugo: (singing)
Umu: And why
Rachel: It was weird. It was a lot for my ears to handle. I was very distracted by the wolf noise.
It was a mashing up of a lot of different genres which .
can be good. Rachel: I think for it being dubstep, if it wanted to go down that road, there should have been like more
dubstep-ness. Hugo: There needed to be more dub in their step. Rachel: It was too basic of a step for the dub.
Rachel: The rapping? It was very aggressive. I felt attacked.
Hugo: It was very aggressive. It was hyper aggressive. There was no beauty, there was only beast. Rachel: Right. Oh, my God.
Ellizabeth: It felt like, lightly less
obnoxiously dubstep, which I think, it can get into that realm, if you overdo it.
So I thought it was a very tasteful the way they incorporated the dubstep sound, and it retained the integrity of their voices
Melissa: Yeah
Elizabeth: because it wasn't overpowering. Melissa: They really blended the tambour of their voices, like with the dubstep and like the synth
kind of tambour, like they definitely did
change it a little bit to like blend, which is a good thing. And then that one time when they had that little piano thing,
where like it was like really soft piano over the synth,
and it was just like, such a contrast, because it was like the soft, beautiful
tambour within like the harsher tambour, and it just really showed how he feels
probably. Elizabeth: I mean there were a lot of like weird
tambour changes at strange times, Melissa: Yeah Elizabeth: like you know it would be rapping, and then it would be rapping in triplets, and then it would be rapping really
quickly
and then suddenly, some guy would be like singing his heart out and like hitting high notes and then there would be piano, and... Melissa: I thought that added interest.
Like, I think that's like more interesting than when it's the same tambour the whole time. Elizabeth: Yeah, but it felt very scattered to me.
Melissa:That's true. Elizabeth: It didn't feel unified.
Kevin: You know, so, I use the word bangers a lot in music, and I call everything a banger.
But this and
BIGBANG's Fantastic, Baby are probably the two true bangers of K-pop. Like they're just so pure in their banging quality
I mean, I'm probably, this is an
overgeneralization, I'm sure there are other songs that I will hear. Like Audrey Nice is a banger,
But it doesn't bang us like this, where it's just the modern industrial type sound. It's the industrial
side of EDM music, and they just bring it out. It's cold,
it's kind of cruel and savage, but it just hits so hard!
This is wolf.
Isaac: Yeah, it was like very rough on the edges in terms of hitting each one of the beats, or when they sing,
it's like very abrupt or interrupted. I don't know, I felt like it was a little bit cliche; a little bit.
I'm gonna get corny for a second. Isaac: Um, hmm
I think this song has a soul, because right from the beginning I was saying how
this is definitely
typical stuff, but for some reason it does not sound cliche to my ears, Isaac: Interesting.
and I think that's because
I could sense the song had a purpose. I could sense that the song, the moment it started,
it was going to
go 110% on this thing that they started, and it did not fail to deliver.
And for some reason I could just, I just knew the moment it started. And so, every moment was just
very pure and very fresh for me. Isaac: Interesting
Hello everyone. I'm Umu, and I'm the channel runner of React to the K.
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