Yunyi: Ah! So! Welcome to the Kevin and Yunyi Talk Show.
Yunyi: Today our topic is...
Yunyi: What's our topic?
Kevin: Salads?
Yunyi: Salads.
Kevin: Do you, do you like, do you like lots of dressing? Or do you prefer naked juice?
Yunyi: Uhh...
Kevin: LOL
Yunyi: Why was the lettuce embarrassed in front of the tomato?
Kevin: LOL
Yunyi: Because the tomato walked in on the lettuce, who said, "Get out! I'm dressing."
[Rossini - "Semiramide Overture" plays]
Umu: Alright, so now we're moving on to "Highlight"!
Umu: This is actually-- remember how I told you how Seventeen was broken up into different sub-units?
Umu: There's the hip-hop unit, the performance unit, and the vocal unit.
Naoki: Sure.
Umu: Okay, well anyways, now, today we're comparing two of the sub-units.
Umu: We're comparing the first one, is the performance unit, and the second one will be the hip-hop unit.
Naoki: This is hip-hop-y?
Umu: THIS is performance-y. Shimon: [chuckle]
Lindsey: I like the rap unit better.
Umu: You haven't even heard it!
Lindsey: I know.
Umu: Okay! Let's go. This is "Highlight."
Umu: I'm like a bird, not a turkey.
Lindsay: Like a-- like a-- that highlight-- like, "peep that, that glow/highlight" Davis: *knows what's up* peep that, that highlight.
Umu: Definitely.
Emiel: Four three two one zero. Henry: Four.
Yunyi: I hope this is the highlight of my night.
Gwen: Ooh. Boy. That eye shadow.
Davis: Oh! Peep THAT highlight.
Davis: Honestly though.
Hugo: I'm already attracted to all of them.
Yunyi: So much good hair.
Henry: Nope.
Kevin: Ooh. I like that bass oscillating.
Fiona: *chuckle and other noises* Henry: *yawn*
Emiel: This is interesting Henry: Sorry. I'm reallllly tired.
Henry: I don't know how I feel about this to be honest. Emiel: I don't know how I feel about it right now.
Naoki: Is the crowd sort of cheering in the background? Shimon: I think so.
Naoki: Yeah.
Yunyi: I like the little chimes. The sparkly chimes up in the top register.
Yunyi: It's well-balanced.
Yunyi: See. So they have a bass going on, they have tenor voices, and, like, a little thing in the upper register.
Yunyi: Nice.
Emiel: Oh sick. I like this.
Naoki: K. Okay.
Fiona: Imagine flying through the clouds-- Henry: Flying through the skyyy!!
Kevin: Ooh, lighting, man. So many highlights.
Emiel: This, like, music reminds me of what I would listen to, like, back in eighth grade but those were the good days.
Yunyi: I like it too.
Yunyi: Here we go!! Drop!! Kevin: ready for the chorus
*synchronized finger drop*
Kevin: Eyyyyyyyy
Yunyi: Solid drop. Kevin: That's-- yeah.
Naoki: This has, like, got a very club vibe. I think because of the beat.
Shimon: I like how there's two different percussion on both sides of the-- *taps earbuds*
Yunyi: *wubwubwubwub*
Naoki: Are there?
Shimon: It's like *bababababa*
Yunyi: It's actually not that much "wub". It's just mostly synth and uh... the...
Yunyi: what do you even call that? The drum?
Kevin: I don't know.
Kevin: The Rattlesnake rattle.
Yunyi: Rattlesnake...
Naoki: It just sounds like they have a drill going *mimics drilling sound*
Naoki: I don't know. It's so high though. Shimon: They're, like, one of those *mimics drilling action*
Gwen: Put your coat back on.
Lindsey: I don't think I like this too much. Is that okay?
Umu: Yah. What, what do you not like about it?
Lindsey: It's just kind of blah.
Davis: There's like a pop-yness to it, but there's no POP, you know? Lindsey: Yeah.
Davis: It's like there's NO POP, but there's, like-- Lindsey: It's just, like, a little bland.
Hugo: DAMN BOYS. Get it!
Gwen: *eyes*
Shimon: That's cool.
Kevin: Oh the synth strings are so good! Yunyi: Yeah. Synth strings.
Kevin: It's like guilty pleasure synth strings.
*air violin*
Naoki: But I'm like the-- I'm liking the echo in the voice.
Lindsey: Not a turkey.
Davis: lol
Kevin: Like, they're not the first thing we hear. They're, like, kind of in the middle.
Kevin: I think that's what makes it so effective. Yunyi: It does help that there's a little bit of reverb added to the mix, it sounds like.
Yunyi: So it doesn't sound as grating. Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Hugo: The drop is great. Gwen: Oh yeah. For real.
Naoki: Oh the strings are, like, kind of driving the piece aren't they? Or they were in that, that section.
Shimon: Wait, what? Naoki: The, the violins were driving that section.
Naoki: And now this is, like, relying on the harmony and progression moving up to drive it.
Emiel: This song's kinda, just straightforward.
Fiona: Yeah, it's kinda refreshing after a while, you know? Emiel: Yeah.
Henry: Yeah, it is a little bit refreshing to be honest. Fiona: I'm okay with it.
Kevin: Oh yah!
Gwen: [sings] Youuu~~~ Hugo: Damn.
Yunyi: This is new material isn't it?
Kevin: I think so, yeah. Yunyi: What is this? Is this the bridge?
Gwen: We love it when they pretend that they're not tenors.
Gwen: I'm convinced that-- Hugo: You can't fool us. We know you're tenors.
Yunyi: Oh wait. Did they just pop, lock and drop it?
Kevin: I think they might've.
Fiona: [mimics vocal effect]
Henry: Good song. Ha! You thought I was gonna dab. Ha!
Emiel: This is about *dab* the last drop that I can handle. Not gonna lie.
Fiona: We here at ReacttotheK, we have a drop allowance policy. And every drop just pulls one out, you know.
Henry: Every drop decreases the pleasure of the next drop. Fiona & Emiel: Yeah.
Fiona: So you gotta use your drop points wisely. Henry: And it's, like, it's exponential too.
Henry: Well I guess-- so it's negative exponential. Um...
Fiona: What was that? Henry: Oh shit. Emiel: Oh...!
Henry: That fucked me up. Fiona: That's was like a vacuum, like they just sucked the sound out of my ear holes.
Fiona: I'm like I don't know what to do. Henry & Emiel: [scandalized] lol
Henry: They sucked the sound out of your ear holes. Fiona: What the f*ck did I get on my shirt?
Gwen: I'm so easily amused. Umu: Yeah, thoughts on the voices so far.
Hugo: I like 'em. Gwen: Uh... pretty good.
Hugo: They're not like crazy-- like, nothing absolutely fantastic.
Hugo: But the opening riff, I don't know who did that, but there was an opening high riff that was really good, where you(to gwen) cracked up.
Hugo: *so much sass* You weren't listening. You don't know.
Gwen: I was listening!
Gwen: Yeah! It was right in the beginning when he was like [sings]
Gwen: It was, like, just the tiny turn before it moved back up.
Hugo: I liked it. It was good. Gwen: Yeah it was.
Naoki: Incomplete resolution. I'm disappointed. Shimon: [chuckles]
Umu: Where would you have liked that to go, Naoki? Shimon: *hums*
Naoki: I would've liked it to modulate into a higher key so it'd get even more hype, and then finish on one.
Umu: What did it finish on? Shimon: On the original one? Or the one of the higher key?
*deliberates*
Naoki: The higher key.
Naoki: Why would you modulate back down after hyping it back up? Shimon: Well why, why wouldn't you wanna come back down? Umu: Because you want it to be balanced...
Naoki: Yeah that's what I'm saying.
Umu: *frustrated sigh + thigh slap combo*
Shimon: Why don't you make it a, uh, a perfect Sonata form? Umu: Yeah.
Naoki: No, a perfect Sonata form would have the first-- the--
Naoki: in the exposition it would modulate, but it wouldn't in the recap. So you would modulate the start.
Shimon: So you'd come back down though.
Shimon: You'd come do-- you'd come down during the development. Naoki: Yeah, but you'd modulate at the very SA.
Naoki: You would never modulate at the start of a pop song. Shimon: Yeah, but then, but then you come back down to the development--- Naoki: Because you need a feeling of stability first.
Shimon: I know, I know, I know. But no, no, I'm saying-- well see, if you have an introduction then you would stabilize it.
Umu: *wisely decides to cut off discussion* OKAY. ANYWAYS.
Umu: What'd you like and dislike about that song musically?
Shimon: There wasn't much variety.
Naoki: There wasn't much variety, but I think it went on a little bit too long.
Naoki: But it was good besides from that. Like, it was pretty convincing--
Shimon: The rapping is really cool. Naoki: Oh, I hated the drill though. That was so annoying.
Shimon: The drill. Umu: The synth?
Naoki & Shimon: *mimic drill*
Umu: Okay. Naoki: Yeah. That was really annoying, but apart from that yeah...
Umu: The other synths-- Naoki: everything was pretty good. Shimon: I liked it.
Shimon: And it really fit the visual. Naoki: The really techno thing was pretty cool.
Shimon: I liked the rap. Naoki: Club vibe.
Lindsey: Yeah, it was just like... Umu: What do you feel like it was missing?
Lindsey: Bass. Davis: It was-- instead of a highlight I got more of a low dim.
Lindsey: lol
Umu: Okay. Lindsey: Yeah, like, I think it just-- (Davis: I dunno) it was, like, too treble-y.
Davis: Yeah, like I said, it just didn't seem like the investment up to the drop just was not there for me. Lindsey: Yeah.
Davis: So I felt like-- spread your efforts out to cover more of the song. Don't rely on just certain points of a song to get you through.
Davis: Maybe focusing on, like, the whole product you-- which is funny that I say that cuz as I write this minuet currently
Davis: I am very focused on just, like-- Lindsey: Okay, well, here's the thing is that all the-- that doesn't matter.
Lindsey: Like, you just have to follow an assignment and it doesn't have to sound good Davis: It's true! Umu: You don't have to make it sound good.
Davis: But you might as well make it-- might as well TRY to make it sound good if you can. Lindsey: I decided that I'm gonna call my minuet "Giant Question Mark"
Lindsey: and if anyone asks me why it's called that I'm going to say, "Because that's what went through my head when I heard that they were expecting wind players to compose string quartets and have them be as good as the string players."
*clapping*
Umu: What'd you think of that?
Kevin: Yeeeaaaahhhhh~~
Yunyi: [agrees]
Yunyi: Classic.
Kevin: Better than the other one.
Umu: We're in-- it's not in the same video. Kevin: Better than "BOOMBOOM".
Umu: It's not in the same video.
Kevin: Be-- Yunyi: Still better than "BOOMBOOM".
Umu: But what-- what about it was better?
Umu: Or what about it did you like specifically about this one? Yunyi: Dude that wasn't-- I, like-- that, that wasn't quite, like, Seventeen that we'd seen.
Kevin: EXACTLY. That's-- that, I would agree.
Yunyi: That, like, reminded me of EXO actually. Kevin: Yeah.
Yunyi: Seemed like something EXO would do. Kevin: Maybe even Infinite.
Yunyi: Yeah, just a little less, a little less quirky, a little bit more mature.
Kevin: Yeah, and a bit more club-y, dancehall...
Yunyi: I didn't think that would be THEIR thing, but they did it well. With plenty of flair.
Kevin: And highlight. And dan-- great choroegraphy--
Yunyi: And lovely lighting.
Kevin: Lovely. Lovely.
Naoki: Yeah.
Umu: Alright! So now we can move on to the hip-hop unit. It's called "Check In".
Naoki: That felt like hip-hop.
Shimon: Chicken?
Naoki: Chicken.
Umu: [so done with these puns] *sighs*
Lindsey: I like this one better.
Umu: Okay.
Umu: If you want the lyrics let me know afterwards cuz again, like, rap is-- David: If I need the lyrics I'll check in.
Lindsey: [counting down in Hebrew] Shalosh, shtaim Davis: [basking in the glory of pun]
Umu: Thanks, Davis. Lindsey: Echad.
Davis: lol
Shimon: Woahh
Henry: *gasp* Emiel: Whoa.
Henry: OOh. Fiona: Got me on the first beat.
Henry: OOH boy.
Lindsey: Aww this is-- omg. This-- these shots are SO GOOD.
Lindsey: The colours and like the accents Davis: Yeah, I know, it's like...
Lindsey: Oh my-- I was right! I like this better already.
Naoki: I'm liking that, like, keyboard synth
Kevin: "Apple juice"?
Kevin: "Watching sing street"!
*finger guns*
*CLAP*
*UGNGHHHH*
Hugo: Digging the instrumentals. Gwen: Mm-hmm.
Naoki: Except I need more bass though I think.
Gwen: This is actually very, like, not very k-pop-y. Like, it's very, like, just sounds like American rap.
Hugo: Yeah.
Lindsey: I would totally listen to this, like, in my free time.
Fiona: So many Chicago people.
Emiel: This song is, is good though. I like the beat, people are just rapping off lines...
Naoki: Did you see the Sydney Opera House?
Kevin: This reminds me of Lil Yachty.
Yunyi: Yeah, it does. It really does.
Kevin: lol
Shimon: Like, with them, like, displacing the beat it really unstabilizes-- Naoki: Yeah, the syncopation.
Henry: Where are they?
Umu: They're just checking in to different places around the world. Fiona: This is really cool!
Henry: That's so cool! And expensive. [yikes] Fiona: I wanna be them.
Yunyi: Oh, but the rapping is so good though. Kevin: Yeah.
Umu: It's probably when they were on tour for their group.
Fiona: This is so cute.
Yunyi: Like, this is, like... like the feeling that this gives off is, like, urban alternative. Kevin: Yeah.
Kevin: Whoa.
*woah *
Yunyi: I like that voice in the background. Kevin: It was pretty damn good.
Yunyi: Also is this filmed in China?
Naoki: I still want a bass. It sounds so empty with just the synth and, and the guy.
Davis: Yeah, I think I like this more (Lindsey: I need me a man who dresses like this) just, specifically because I like k-- or, hip-hop more, like, as a genre.
Shimon: Tokyo. Naoki: Yeah. Shimon: Osaka.
Shimon: And-- was that Osaka? Naoki: Yeah. Well, they SAID Osaka.
Shimon: Yeah, but I thought it was -- Naoki: It was Shibuya.
Shimon: Yeah it was Shibuya, yeah. Naoki: Shibuya Crossing, which is in Tokyo. Shimon: Maybe not.
Henry: MMMMM.
Fiona: His hair is the colour of (Henry: MMMMM) the (Henry: MMMMM) carrots that they are.
Emiel: These shots are just, like, really cool in general.
Fiona: I'm finding this one on Spotify.
Fiona: Cuz it's worthy of...
Henry: Actually, I would listen to this. Fiona: Yeah, like, I would...
Kevin: All the rolled r's that they do. Or lip trill. One of the two.
Fiona: I just love how, like, it's not too, like, too thick with all the synth-y stuff. Like it's so hollow.
Lindsey: I like how it's kinda minimal. It's, like, kind of minimal. Davis: Yeah, I'm trying to figure out this, um...
Lindsey: And then their voices, like, really take over and, like, the, the drumbeat, like, is, like, really killin'.
Lindsey: Like, it's really tight.
Kevin: Ohh! Yunyi: Oh we got a beat. Oh not it's gone.
Kevin: It just starts. What...?
Yunyi: I like it. Kevin: Yeah, I like it, too.
Yunyi: This is just kind of cruisin'. It's through-composed.
Lindsey: Oh that makes sense. (Davis: *wahwahwah*) So it's like, they're like, checking in in all these different cities and, like--
Davis: I wish I-- I wish I knew what was exactly making that sound, but... it's dope. Lindsey: It's a synthesizer, Davis.
Davis: Well, yeah, but, like you have to do something specific TO it.
Emiel: Seventeen is the best group out there. Fiona: Gonna find this on my phone.
Henry: This is the-- this is the first song that I'll ever actually go out and try to listen to.
Fiona: I like it. Henry: This one's really dope. Emiel: I'll listen to "Highlight".
Umu: There you go. What'd you-- you talked a lot about rhythmic and-- with the beats and synths and stuff.
Shimon: Yeah. Naoki: Yeah. No, it was good song. I just felt like there was no bass to, like, really solidify it.
Shimon: Mm-hmm. Naoki: It just sounded too empty with just the piano and the vocals.
Naoki: I think it needed something to ground it, but it was still pretty good, so...
Yunyi: Okay. Strophic form is when a piece basically has, like, sections that repeats itself.
Yunyi: You know h-- Most pop songs are strophic technically by that definition.
Yunyi: Not, not, not in the sense of, like, a strophic Schubert song but that's what strophic means.
Yunyi: It's just there's repeating sections.
Yunyi: Um, and through-composed is when it seems, like, from start to finish, like--
Yunyi: a piece will start with an idea and then just go with it without repeating much. Like, there's no, like, repetitive structure to it.
Yunyi: So it kind of, like, starts and then evolves.
Yunyi: So it's more like a (Umu: I like that.) So it's more like a, like a, um... ongoing narrative type deal.
Yunyi: This was through-composed in the sense that you know, we didn't really know what came next right?
Umu: Right. You didn't really have a chorus.
Yunyi: Yeah. I mean we had, like, a, we had, like, a grounded beat, you know?
Umu: [sings] "Check In" might've been the chorus.
Kevin: Oh yah... Yunyi: It was very-- the chorus was very minimal. I don't really count that as a chorus.
Yunyi: I count that more as, like, a [adopts pompus tone] "theme".
Umu: lol
Yunyi: [pomposity continues] Or a "recurring motif."
Yunyi: Sips wine.
Hugo: Yeahhhh~~
Gwen: Yeahhhhh~~~~
Hugo: Yeahhhhh~~~~~~
Gwen: Yeahhhhh~~~~~~~~
Hugo: Yeahhhhhh~~~~~~~~~~
Hugo: But it was good. I mean-- Gwen: Like, the back-- the background didn't change the whole time.
Hugo: Yeah, the background, it-- (Gwen: Which-- you-- it shouldn't change in a ??????????) the background was good.
Hugo: No. Yeah.The background was good it just didn't-- it was just the same thing, which is fine.
Hugo: It's, it's exactly what the song needs. It's very American as Gwen said halfway through.
Gwen: Yeah. Hugo: Um, but it was good.
Gwen: I was getting full Kendrick Lamar vibes. Hugo: Yeah.
Umu: What do you think could've made it more k-pop-y?
Gwen: If they weren't rapping.
Umu: lol
Gwen: Like...
Hugo: If it had a brighter beat. The, the, beat-- Gwen: If it was dancing... yeah, it was just very, like
Gwen: *wubwubwub* Hugo: Laid-back.
Gwen: Like, here. Hugo: I mean you saw us going like [chill head banging]
Umu: Mm-Hmm.
Gwen: This is the one it reminded me of. Umu: Oh.
Umu: So same beat type of thing?
[Kendrick Lamar - "PRIDE" plays]
Hugo: Yup. Gwen: lol
Hugo: The thing is-- is what I've noticed about Korean is that you say more words.
Hugo: Or I guess in English we say less to get the same point across.
Hugo: Um, so for example he can rap slower whereas they have to say more.
Hugo: Like, they have to get more out of their mouth to get the same thing across. (Gwen: Yeah, cuz their syllables are--)
Gwen: Yeah, well, I think part of it's just the amount of syllables and part of it's that we are such a consonant-driven language that, like, you can rap basically only on consonants.
Hugo: That's mostly what people do.
Gwen: Like, supercagafra-- like, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious versus suuuuuuuuuuuuupercalifragilisticexp--
Gwen: Like, other than, like, riding on the vowels, they'll like-- Hugo: [does vocalist thing]
*proud cat*
Umu: Woah. Gwen: What the--
Hugo: That was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious without any of the consonants. Gwen: [does the thing]
Gwen: Here's---
*both do it*
Umu: Amazing. Gwen: Oh, another, another fun vocalist trick is sing-- saying words just on an "ng" vowel.
Hugo: Oh yeah. Um.
*do the thing*
Davis: Um... Lindsey: It was just so, like, tight.
Lindsey: Everything just-- woah. Davis: It's just hip-hop. Yeah. Really tight beats. Lindsey: That was so good.
Davis: You know it was hitting, like, in all of the right ways, you know, like, the, the, the flow of the lyrics was really, really good.
Umu: Okay! So which one did you like better? "Check In" or "Highlight"?
Henry: "Check In". Emiel: "Highlight."
Henry: Whoa. What?! Fiona: "Check In".
Henry: You did? Emiel: Yeah. Fiona: "Check In" Henry: Oh damn.
Henry: I definitely liked this one better.
Fiona: CHECK. IN. Umu: Alright.
Naoki: Wait, which one was "Highlight"?
Umu: [sings] I'm like a bird. Not a turkey lol. Shimon: I liked the first one better.
Shimon: "Highlight".
Shimon: Not a turkey?
Umu: They say something in Korean but it sounds like "not a turkey".
Naoki: So they talk about turkey in the first one and chicken in the second one.
Shimon: Yeah.
Naoki: So they're just fascinated with birds.
Gwen: I liked this one better. Just cuz I was like f*ck me up.
Gwen: I was just, like-- it was-- Hugo: It was, like, a nice-- it was a good, like-- if I was stoned I would listen to that song.
Hugo: Not (Gwen: yeah, that's a good drug-- ) to say that we should all go get stoned. And I'm not promoting illegal substance abuse but--
Gwen: I mean, as singers we definitely are not gonna go smoke something. Hugo: Yeah, exactly.
Hugo: BUT. If I WERE...
Gwen: I would listen to this song. Hugo: This would be the song to do it to.
Hugo: The other song was very hype and I kinda liked it. The beat drop was really good.
Yunyi: Ooh, I like this better. I like "Check In".
Kevin: "Highlight".
Umu: So which one do you like better?
Lindsey: That's funny.
Lindsey: Hmm, I'm gonna have to think about that for a little while. Just kidding.
Davis: "Check In". Lindsey: The hip-hop one.