Raffi: Did he just hug a skeleton?
[Rossini's Semiramide Overture playing]
Jason: Before we jump into reacting to AKMU we wanted to let you know that
we were able to film and edit this video thanks to our Patreon.
And now to Ju with the weather.
...
Ju Young: Thanks, Jason!
Since we are unable to monetize any of our content uploaded to this channel
it's our Patreon that provides us the funding
to continue making our channel bigger and better.
Back to you, Jason!
Jason: Listen, I told them that I didn't want locks on my b-
Oh, I'm live? O~
We have a lot of interesting and exclusive content uploaded to our Patreon
which includes uncut reactions to this video,
reactions to Japanese releases, live performances and more.
The full list of exclusive videos is pinned in the comment section below.
Back to you, Ju!
Ju Young: If you enjoy our content we would really appreciate it
if you can support us on Patreon at:
patreon.com/reacttothek
of course joining our patreon is completely optional,
you can also support us by subscribing or
leaving a like and comment on this video.
Back to you, Jason!
Jason: Hope you enjoy the reaction!
Umu: You are now reacting to the brother and sister duo AKMU
Rafael: Well this is about to be so wholesome. Umu: and their 2020 single, 'Happening'.
Umu: It's so wholesome -
Well okay, it isn't wholesome, it's heart wrenching.
Rafael: Okay, well then, sh*t. (Umu: HAHAHA!) Here we go.
Umu: So, when we start a relationship,
we always hope for it to have a happy ending.
But not all relationships end that way, some end badly
with regret and painful memories. (Henry: Mhm.)
'Happening' is a story about those who have been hurt and wounded
from relationships that have come to an end
and act like nothing happened,
even though they continue to have those persisting emotions.
Sam: That's really sad ... (Umu: Yup.) oh man.
Raffi: That's what happened to us.
And I just pretend that nothing is wrong, but...
[reserved giggling]
Umu: And then the cc's are on. (Raffi: Oh good.) Sam: ...But nothing was wrong? - No I'm just kidding.
Umu: The song is composed by MILLENNIUM, SIHWANG,
and the brother of the duo, 이찬혁 (Lee Chanhyuk).
He's the one who plays the guitar in the track.
Even though the music video doesn't show it.
The music video is more of a story. But yeah!
Sam: 3 2 1
Sam: Oh.
Owen: I love those chords.
Cloud: Oh, it's so like... (Henry: Hm)
Henry: Reverby, yeah.
Raffi: Ah, it's so soothing.
Sam: Yeah.
Jason: That's a really nice melody on top of the guitar, too.
It's very flowing.
Oh I hear, there's like a wub-y sound on the guitar, too.
Henry: The doubling?!
Cloud: Hehe, spooky.
Henry: Now we added drums.
Kevin: Okay, it's easy going, it's,
it's definitely a melody I have heard before.
Rafael: That's terrifying.
Jamal: Oh.
Stephanie: Aaawwwww.
Kevin: Interesting.
Owen: I like going back to the guitar, I like that a lot.
Kevin: Yeah. Uh, kick drum.
Raffi: Come on, sing it.
Raffi: Hm.
Owen: It actually kinda feels like an underwater sound
with the fishes, I love it.
Kevin: Hm, oh it's true.
Owen: With the synth especially, up high, doing the counter melody.
Raffi: The straight tone is so effective, too, I'm really enjoying that.
Sam: Right? Raffi: The straight tone is so effective, too, I'm really enjoying that.
Raffi: The straight tone is so effective, too, I'm really enjoying that.
Sam: It has just like a soft texture that's so effective.
Raffi: It's attractive.
Sam: Right?
Sam: And it also leads to such a beautiful blend
between the two of their voices, right?
Henry: I like how they cut back at the end - Mh!
Raffi: That's so beautiful: "You're just my happening"
Henry: Got a guitar!
Jason: That just sub bass is good, with the guitar...
OOOOH!
Stephanie: Hm. :)
Wooow. Hehe.
Leon: Hmm.
Raffi: Did he just hug a skeleton?!
Sam: Wow, do you see the words? Raffi: That meant something.
Sam: Look at the "Happy Ending",
Sam: But they took away the "y" and the "d", so it's "Happening".
Raffi: Aaaaaooowww! Sam: But they took away the "y" and the "d", so it's "Happening".
Sam: That's crazy. Raffi: Aaaaaooowww!
Sam: That's crazy.
Raffi: Happening (whispering)
Sam: Wow, I really really liked that. Raffi: That is a beautiful song.
Umu: Thank you, you are the first reactor to notice that
without me having to point it out.
Sam: Really? Umu: Yeah.
Sam: Wow, what do I win? Raffi: Yey, Sam!
Umu: Uuuuuh... Raffi: Oh yeah but, but I should win, too.
Henry: It's a really interesting sound.
Also, the acoustic is going like "wub wub wub" the whole time,
are you hearing that, how it's like kinda panning... (Cloud: The reverb?)
I feel, no, I feel like it's also panning forwards and backwards.
Right? To give you a sense of uncertainty?
It's not going between ears, it's like, it -
Cloud: It's more like front to back. Henry: I feel like the (...) -
Henry: I don't know what the sound engineering term is,
it's either panning forward and back, or like
some of the top high frequencies are getting wallowed
and the low ones are getting wallowed,
so it sounds like "wow wow wow"
Leon: I think it's the harmony that makes it successful.
The harmony is so f***ing good. (Stephanie: Mhm!)
Umu: Why is it good?
Leon: Like that kind of progression, especially in the chorus,
is the exact progression like 'Creep'. The Radiohead 'Creep'.
Leon: And that song is like one of my favorite songs.
Umu: Ah. So you have like a hidden nostalgia tied to it, almost.
Leon: Yeah, yeah. And also the music video like
really matched with the whole vibe of the song,
like the sunlight goes into the train and it's really beautiful.
Stephanie: I like those like chromatic movement
(Leon: Mm, yeah.) I could hear in the progression, and I also like the melody.
Leon: Yeah, I can hear the guide-tones, haha! Stephanie: YAA, yes, the third and the seventh, moving.
Leon: Like chromatic movement.
Umu: When you listened to the song, did you get happy vibes or sad vibes?
Stephanie: Oh, more like happy for me, honestly.
But I can definitely see like the mix of feelings,
maybe I'm just trying to brainstorm, maybe this is stretching,
but yeah, what stood to me the most was those chromatic movements
and you know, when you think about the word "chromatic" and "chrome"
[Greek: χρῶμα = color] that's like the colors, you know,
so maybe, because of all those color- or chromatic movements,
that could represent that mix of feelings, like happening,
you know, going to many places, like the progression, maybe?
Rafael: Yeah, like if I shut my brain out to what is going on lyrically
and just listen musically, it sounds like really cheerful, pretty upbeat.
They had some like Beatles-chords with some like
major chords going to the same bass note, but a minor-major,
so like put the minor third on that.
But then lyrically it was like, it was pretty dark, it was like:
You're better than I am and I messed up, so like I am out.
And then the video, they were just like
having like a ego-death or something like,
every time they thought the reality was something,
it changed to a different scene, and there are all these...
skeletons around them and it seemed pretty dark,
and like even the like font or the text at the end,
they like write "Happening", it's kind of like all spooky.
I don't know what the reasoning behind that is
but I just thought it was an interesting juxtaposition
of cheerful sounds with darker content.
Jamal: And I liked the use of how
both of the two characters in this story line
were kinda experiencing something, seeing something,
but it was actually something else, so
it plays into how a relationship can turn into, or how emotions can...
you can, you can be showing some emotion or conveying something,
but it can come across as something totally different,
or that you experienced something
that you think was something in the moment
but looking back at it you see the pain or the,
Umu: Uuuh. but looking back at it you see the pain or the,
the skeletons that were there all along.
(Jason figuring out harmony) Ju Young: Oh wait, this song is actually really sad.
This song is really sad! Oh wait,
so the person that's singing this is like done,
is kinda like done with the relationship, but the pers - I guess like
the other party is still like attached to the person singing this.
Jason: Yeah, so and I think that's accentuated by the chords Ju Young: That's so sad, wait...
Jason: immediately, like, you have like right in the beginning:
[Plays D major chord] Ju Young: Sorry, wait!
Jason: So like that.
That's 6-5-6-5 like of scale degrees, so it's just like:
and then you have:
[D minor / F]
You have it again still, so it's like, um,
[same melody (B-A-B-A) over different chords] that kind of like the juxtaposition of the same guitar patterns,
it always gives you this sonic sense of longing for something that was,
so when you go from major - oops -
[D major to D minor, both with B-A-B-A on top]
it's kinda like: Wow, we heard that before, we experienced this before,
in like a very positive, non-toxic setting, like nothing, it's like
accentuating kind of what they're speaking about in their relationship,
and then it goes into this unfamiliar territory that, you know,
minor, in psychology, is kind of associated with sadness,
[A(add9)] and then it goes down into A,
from D minor to A, it's kinda giving us this falling feeling of
ugh, we're staying in this solemn place from -
in the beginning we heard it very happy,
but we're staying in this solemn area.
Owen: I feel like AKMU has an ability to convey effortless emotion
and just like some sort of positive melancholy
throughout a lot of their songs, and this definitely also had that.
Kevin: And I like how the brother does the falsetto with the
*Kevin hitting them high notes*
I would say more like a head voice (Onew: Yeah) but
I can tell that in this song he is not the most comfortable with that.
Yeah the break, I heard the break a little too much, I think,
and it felt like he was trying it but ugh,
but I feel like he has the vocal prowess,
he has the capability of doing stuff like that,
but this time it sounded a little awkward, maybe it's the key,
maybe they should have set it in a different key,
but I kinda get why they chose this key,
'cause that guitar sound at the beginning was so nice.
(Owen: That was beautiful!) 'cause that guitar sound at the beginning was so nice.
(Onew: It was perfect, yeah!) Yeah and I don't think, I think they must have toyed with it and then be like:
Yeah and I don't think, I think they must have toyed with it and then be like:
No, it should be in A, that's the way to do it.
Henry: In the chorus they add on an upper harmony
which adds this kind of thickness to their sound,
compared to their pre-chorus, verses,
which is usually just focused on them,
and I really like that choice cuz the balance of it is so, so nice,
it's not overpowering, it's not showing off, it's just there,
and they add in the percussion, too, like right on the chorus,
whereas before it's just the guitar,
and then sometimes when the girl is singing
they have an electric (guitar) underneath it
that just adds like this great contrast to her
really light sounding, high pitched singing voice,
with *distorted electric guitar impression by Henry*.
Kevin: Okay first they do the big guitar sound,
which I thought was blended very nicely,
and then the drums kicked in,
and I liked how it was more upbeat and uplifting
but those drums just sounded really poppy,
it sounded like if a country artist or some folk singer,
like a modern folk singer,
wanted to suddenly do a song that features like a,
a three piece or four piece rock group,
and so the drums are there,
but they want to keep the drums in tune with the rest of the album,
so they mix it in really sneakily,
and then when we get to the drum fill, it just sounded like pretty flat.
Owen: The chords and the rest of it still had that momentum,
but yeah, the drums can do so much for this sort of song,
and really didn't make it up there. Yeah.
Sam: I love the chords.
But just how it's very, it's seemingly only three chords,
but they're able to make something so simple
but have just one alteration in the chord progression
that's a constant pitch that you hear, it's almost like a droning,
and then as soon as they take it away to double the chorus,
or to double the melody in the chorus, you just,
the first thing that you notice is:
Oh wow, something is really different,
and all of the sudden I am paying attention to this line
that I wouldn't have noticed and I wonder why, well
it's because they took away something
that has been in your ear the entire song,
and it's really really cool.
(Umu: Okay, what are your thoughts?) Raffi: That was brilliant!
Yeah, I thought that the straight tone was super effective with this,
and it - but there was like splashes of vibrato in the tone,
but overall I just thought it was, it captured the text really well.
I don't know, it just, it was really catchy, I would listen to it all the time.
Ju Young: Their voices flow very well with the instrumentals,
and the - ugh - I just -
organic, that's what I think AKMU is, like organic.
Jason: But I do have to say something about the beginning and the chorus.
[D - D minor - A - C♯] So we have this, it goes into D minor, and it drops and goes to C[♯!],
so in the chorus they're saying, like,
it's kind of like a recollection
of all the things they've been talking about,
they're going from A back to C [♯!] and then bringing it back to D and D minor.
It's building us back up from what we just, the ladder we just fell down,
so they're saying: Okay, these things just happened
because of our naivety, because of our, you know,
inability to have seen what was going on in the relationship
or to see what's happening presently at the moment,
but like harmonically it builds us back up,
Ju Young: Amen. Amen. you know, like just the way that they tore us down in the beginning.
Henry: I think it's a beautiful song.
I think it creates a great atmosphere for feeling those feelings,
it's ver- cuz that cloudy *imitates*,
like the acoustic that kinda founds wubby,
immediately puts me into a trance-y kind of listening state, I'm like: OH! (Cloud: It's got the pondering atmosphere.)
This is that - right right, this is what I wanna just vibe to, it's -
the chorus is so well timed with the percussion dropping, it really-
that was exactly the right, feelings-wise,
that was the exact time where I needed like a bit more drive,
so I thought that was a smart musical choice.
Um.
It was great.
Sam: Oh, CACTI!!!
Oh my gosh! Sorry, my... [Raffi laughing]
[Sam basically crying]
Umu: What? [proceeds to crack up]
Sam: I miss Arizona.
Raffi: WUAHAHA!