Kevin: This is the part where you just look up,
and not quite at the sun, because you can't look into the sun, but you're like wow,
it's so nice to have something like this in my life.
Jordan: Now you're reacting to the five-member girl group Red Velvet and a b-side off their first mini-album 'Ice Cream Cake'.
Umu: A quick summary about 'Stupid Cupid' is that it is about criticizing a cupid for not shooting his arrow at the person you want to be with.
Jordan: It was composed by Andrew Choi, 220, Hayley Aitken, and Cha Cha Malone.
Peyton: Oh, there it is. I was like, where is the beat?
Seiji: It's like a beach rock vibe. Stephen: I was gonna say, it definitely reminded me of beach rock.
Probably just cuz of the tremolo. Seiji: Yeah.
Melissa: I love her voice. James: Yeah, I like this already.
James: Ooh!
Isaak: (singing)
Kevin: Okay. B major. Seven. Mixture.
I like the sound of the electronic synth with the voice--the blend.
Peyton: I love them cuz their groove is so tight.
???. they're in the pocket.
Woo!
Oooohhh!!
Isaac: We're going into major.
Kevin: It's interesting modulation. I wish they'd set up a dominant and then went into it. They just kinda like tonic, tonic, E major.
Two, sev, one.
Collin: Dude, okay, so they reversed the gliss. That's sick. That's so simple and it's so effective.
Kevin: I feel like this piece deserves its own music video. There's so much attitude.
Isaac: (singing)
Jarod: I love their group sound.
Collin: What was that? Jarod: I love their group sound.
Collin: Yeah, Jarod: Just like the way they all work and sound together,
it was like... Collin: It's really satisfying, yeah. It's really good. Jarod: Satisfying's a great word, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Peyton: (singing)
Charlotte: Oh, we're major, okay. Peyton: It's just tonality change. It's like Charlotte: I don't like it.
Peyton: first we're major, now we're minor, then back to major, then minor, major, minor, major, minor.
Seiji: It's like a gospel. A gospel progression. Stephen: What's that? Yeah.
It's just really funny when you hear all the influences in a K-pop song.
You've got beach rock, you've got gospel. You've got kind of like techno, sort of, like... Seiji: Yeah, yeah.
Melissa: I like that the harmonies are really important here.
Like it's not just all about one person singing the melody.
Stephen: Dude, it's just funny. Seiji: There's a lot going on. There's a lot going on.
Stephen: Which is funny.
It's just a lot of different things.
Seiji: It's a roller coaster.
Stephen: Sometimes I wonder if it's like a buffet. You know, and you go like, I want some of this,
and I what some of this, and we just put it in the blender and just like stir it up, and we get this.
Collin: Oh! (singing) See, I can hit that! Jarod: Love it.
Collin: No, but I like how the end, instead of it just like repeating the same chorus,
Jarod: Yeah. Collin: and then they're like, oh, look, I'm embellishing in the background,
there was actually different lyrics
and they still did the embellishments a little bit. Jarod: But it sounded...the embellishments were like, good. Collin: Yeah, it wasn't just like (singing). Jarod: Cuz I loved how it was like
you know, you have this one section... there'd be like the new section, but some embellishments still carrying over into the new section,
but it worked. Collin: Um-hmm. Jarod: So it helped continuity, instead of it feeling
like bricks. You know, like here's a section.....But it flowed.
Collin: That was sagacious. That was good writing. That was cool.
I really liked what they did with syncopation,
especially with that synth noise in the background. Cuz first of all, it worked well in the context, and they did a good
job with the instrumentation and
bringing all of the surf guitar in the beginning, or I mean, it's like, almost surf guitar, but that worked really well.
It was surprising. And then you emphasize, or
input this synthesizer sound. They also syncopated it, like (singing)
and it just helped drive it forward. Also, yeah, the lyrics are very clever.
They're just kind of like, cheeky.
Charlotte: You know, besides that key change that I just absolutely hated, I'm cool with it.
Umu: Why'd you hate it so much?
Charlotte: I don't like how it...I don't know. That's a personal taste thing. It's not like it's bad or prepared poorly or whatever,
it's just that I was enjoying the key that we were in.
Peyton: I'm also not a huge fan of when minor tunes go major. It kind of like
ruins the vibe, cuz when major tunes go minor it kind of adds this extra bit of grit like oh,
where are we going? You know what I mean? Charlotte: Um-hmm.
Oeyton: But like, I guess when you're in a minor groove, it's just kind of good, you just want to stay there.
Kevin: You know, for a song that's so edgy
and it sounds so badass, for the chorus to just switch to major, it feels a little unwarranted.
It confuses the tone. Not the literal tone,
but the undertone, the mood, quite a bit.
It's one of those b-sides where I'm like, yeah, I'm glad that they took the musical strides they did, but
something about it doesn't quite come together for me.
James: I was getting such
strong Christina Aguilera vibes from this. Not like Christina Aguilera now, like Christian Aguilera in
burlesque, or like Lady Marmalade. Maybe it was the key area
they were singing in was similar to one of
the..like, it's reminding me of another song. But also just like their whole kind of attitude, like they're very kind of badass
kind of women, like strong women.
And just some of the techniques they were using, like there were some vocal slides in there.
Melissa: Yeah, and I liked that the harmonies were important. James: Yes! And it wasn't ju,st dumb little cute harmonies, either,
it was like, there was a lot of cool stuff happening.
Jordan: Next you'll be comparing 'Stupid Cupid'
to Red Velvet's b-side song, called 'Sunny Afternoon' from their 2016 'Russian Roulette' mini album.
Umu: The members describe the lyrics as a lovely story depicting a day with your significant other.
It is composed by Andreas Oberg, Simon Petren, Charlotte: Oh, him! Umu: Maja Keuc, and Kim One.
Jarod: Yeah, go on. Collin: It's your turn, boy. Jarod: Playing Russian roulette with my significant other. Sounds great!
Collin: On a sunny afternoon!
Jarod: Oh, yeah, one of us is gonna f*ckin' die.
Three, two, one...
James: Ooh!
Melissa: Oh, this is so cute!
Collin: Ooh!
Oh, yeah.
Jarod: Woohoo!
Jarod: Oh, that was cool! Collin: Holy sh*t!
Seiji: Here comes that bass. Let's go.
Stephen: Dude, I'll give them credit for...
Yeah, I love the sounds they use. Seiji: Yeah.
Kevin: Oh, my God.
Give me that Dorian.
Peyton: (singing) Charlotte: Oh, okay.
Get it girl. Go all Aguilera.
Melissa; I love that it shows off their voices. James: Yeah.
And they have voices to show off. Melissa: Exactly. James: Yeah. Melissa: Love that.
Peyton: I love your face!
You did like....Is that major I smell? Who put major in this song?
Charlotte: I just don't....
Peyton: Ooh! Charlotte: Where are we going?
I was so enjoying the first vibe. Peyton: On a journey. On a journey!
Charlotte: Well, I wanted to continue on the one that we were on. Oeyton: Let Red velvet take us.
Collin: Aaah, I love it man.
They did such a good job!
Kevin: Oh, the bass moves! That's so cool.
And it's chromatic, too: C, B, B-flat, A.
Melissa: Wow.
She sounds great
James: Okay!
Jarod: (singing).
Oh, man, that's so good! Collin: Oh, Jesus Christ.
Jarod: I love the way the keyboard decorates the atmosphere here. Collin: Yeah. Dude, it's like what a good jazz pianist does in a big band.
Stephen: You gotta love how they can use different instruments to evoke different mood changes, right? Which is why you probably laughed right there.
Oh, man!
Seiji: That and just the key change is abrupt.
Isaac: (singing)
Kevin: The C sharp goes down to a C. It's kind of like, does it work? Of course it does.
Nice.
All right.
This is the part where you just look up,
and not quite at the sun because you can't look into the sun, but you're like, wow,
it's so nice to have something like this in my life.
Peyton: Cue 97 harps!
Yeah!
Ohhhhh!!
Yeah!!!!
Kevin: Well, I want to notate that, just to see what the syncopations look like on a sheet of music.
Nice. Oh, yeah, one more repeat.
Peyton: Yeah, I would eat this up if I knew how to play bass.
(singing)
James: That keyboard. Melissa: Yeah! I think it's jazzy.
James: Oh!
Oh!
Excuse me. Melissa: Yeah? James: Did they really just end the song like that? Wow.
Collin: Yes!
They did it again!
They did the same thing with the form, not as much, but at the end...Basically, so there's the chorus, and It's well established by the end - obviously, it's the chorus - but
there's a buildup, and then all of a sudden,
well, you expect the chorus and it's not there, and instead they build up. And then it goes to the chorus,
but I think it's even on an offbeat.
Jarod: Yeah. Collin: So it's like you kind of slide into the chorus instead of, "here it is".
It's so much more subtle. Jarod: It slowly adds more instrumentation, piece by piece. Cpllin: And then at the very end, they change it. Yes, good!
Oh, sh*t! They incorporated so many instruments.
There was like...okay, there was a little bit of brass. There was a Hammond organ. There was plenty of guitar.
There was that cool chromatic motion
in the bass. Jarod: Yeah.
Jarod: Dude, the melodies were cool, there was a lot of cool intervallic stuff that they did.
Collin: The singer that kept doing the embellishment also has a very
agile choice. Jarod: Agile, yeah.
Kevin: I feel like every time they do the "sunny, sunny"
the mixing is a little different. Like, every time I hear it in any of the choruses,
something is just a little different about each one of them.
I mean, when I think of sunny afternoon,
I definitely think more of like your coffee shop folk singer with a single guitar.
Maybe a bit more AKMU.
For this song to make sense to me, you have to be having so much fun.
You have to just be really out there in the park, just having a good time
for the sunny afternoon to go so funky. Isaac: Yeah, I really got the sense of sunny afternoon. It's very, like, afternoon.
It's not...the sun's not too hot. So they kind of emphasized just the ease of it with the bass line,
so I thought it was nice.
So with just that one clip-it moment with the synths, I think that's a very joyous moment to cherish,
simply because maybe it's like, maybe that's the coolness of the wind or a
nice breeze as you're sitting on a park bench enjoying the park view.
Peyton: It got progressively better as it went along. The second time,
I don't know, I feel like they were doing a lot of stuff with space, you know,
like leaving a little bit more room getting the texture out and then bringing it all back in, and like,
adding a lot of different effects.
It wasn't like a normal recap, you know.
There was a lot of the same material vocally, but the backgrounds were a lot more interesting, and they were moving around and like,
you know,
flourishing, and it was more active.
Seiji: That's the Dirty Loops guy, right? Stephen: What? Seiji: It's the Dirty Loops guy that wrote that, right? I think.
Jordan: I think so.
Seiji: It sounds like it. Jordan: I'm not completely sure. Stephen: Yeah, it really does. Seiji:Yeah, it sounds like it.
Stephen: Yeah, I liked it. It has a nice balance to it,
so that was good. Yeah, the hits were very effective, because I lost where beat one was, which is cool. I love it when that happens.
Seiji: That doesn't happen to you very often. Stephen: It doesn't happen very often. So that was nice.
Yeah, really interesting use of how the orchestration evokes different moods, and sometimes really sharp mood changes,
so that was really cool.
James: Their voices are amazing. The way they layer all of their voices is amazing.
Melissa: Yeah, the way they prioritize harmonies in both of the songs,
it was like, all about the harmonies James: And sometimes where they don't prioritize harmonies.
There were parts when the harmonies would split off would be really nice, and then they would right after that sing
a unison of something. Like, it wasn't harmony all the time.
Melissa: That's true.
James: They knew where to put it in, and there was a lot of crunchy stuff, too. Crunchy, meaning like dissonant sounding, chords
which I also really appreciate. Melissa: Like, honestly, .
I think these songs are more similar than different, because they were super
upbeat, and very focused on harmonies and vocal riffs.
Jarod: I think I liked the
the group set, like the voice. I think I liked the singing and the voice melodies in 'Stupid Cupid',
but I liked the instrumentation of the one we just listened to more.
I feel like with 'Stupid Cupid' it was more highlight on the singing and Red Velvet's group sound, and then with
'Sunny Afternoon' the highlight was more of the instrumentation.
Collin: Ah, dude, nah, definitely 'Stupid Cupid' for me. Anyway... Jarod: Wow. Well, one of us has to be wrong...
Collin.
Collin: No, no, no, no.
Jarod: And it's never me. Collin: And it's you. Jarod: It's never me.
Helo everyone, I'm Umu, React to the K channel creator, and I'd like to thank you for watching this video
I really hope you enjoyed or learned something from it.
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