Kayla: Eyyy!
[Rossini's Semiramide Overture playing]
Umu: You are now reacting to the debut
of the 5 member girl group 'NewJeans'.
The reason behind their name:
Min Hee Jin, the chief executive of their label,
explains in a press release:
"Pop music is a culture that is very close to our daily life
so it is like the clothes we wear every day.
Just as jeans have withstood the test of time
and found popularity among many, regardless of age and gender,
NewJeans aspires to become an icon of generations,
one you never grow tiresome of putting on."
This music video was dropped with absolutely no warning,
they didn't, say, announce the debut of this group at all,
they didn't say anything about the members,
they just like dropped it out of...
Stephanie: Oh, interesting.
Umu: And people were like: "OH MY GOD!?"
Like, "What's happening?"
The lyrics for this song are about developing a crush
and they're trying to make it so obvious to their crush's that they like them
that they're like, "Come on man, I'm showing you that I like you."
"Just give me your attention!"
Jason: Sounds familiar.
Brian: Ehehehehehm. :')
Umu: Oh... Did this touch something that happened over the summer?
Jason: No. Brian: Me, yeah.
Jason: Yeah? Brian: But it's okay.
Umu: It's okay?
Brian: Everything is FINE.
~They ask you how you are, and you just have to say you’re fine~
~when you’re not really fine, but you just can’t get into it,~
~because they would never understand~
Umu: This song is composed by 250, Duckbay,
and the member Danielle participated in writing the lyrics.
Jason: Oh.
Umu: Cool, Danielle, go you!
Jason: Go you, Danielle.
Adam: Do you think it's crazy that I've never-
I don't own a pair of jeans.
Umu: Woah?
Kayla: Wait- Oh I've never seen you wear- Adam: Like, I don't...
Kayla: You're usually in like Dickies... Adam: You'll never see me in jeans.
Adam: I went to school with a uniform
and we always had to wear khakis (Kayla: Yeah)
so like, I have never...
Kayla: I'm from Florida, I don't really like wearing jeans...
Adam: Yeah.
Kayla: Cuz it will sticky.
Adam: But maybe after this I'll get some.
Adam: Okay, 3 2 1
Jason: Only one of them is wearing jeans!
Brian: If I see a single pair of khakis...
Liam: Is this a club?
Rachel: It's like a concert, I think.
Liam: Oh, that makes sense.
Jason: So like...
Elliot Smith or something?
Some very, like, grungy...
Liam: I like that beat.
Kevin: I definitely think they matched that indie movie vibe very well.
Jason: I like this, it's like a movie.
Where my popcorn?
Adam: Wow! Kayla: Ooh~
Adam: Oh, it wasn't real. Kayla: It's giving 'Never Have I Ever'.
Adam: Ooh...
Jason: Very cool cinematography already.
Brian: Reading in the bathtub!
Jason: AY!
WAIT A DAMN MINUTE!
Will: Yeah. Jory: I f#&king love it when they beat switch like that.
Rachel: The bass!
Liam: Oh these chords are so great.
Rachel: They're so nice, right?
Kevin: It's so different.
Oh!
Is that a half-diminished chord?
Oh!
Resolving to I.
OH!
Jason: 1 2 3 AND - Oh great!
1 and-
OH!?
I'm a fan!
Adam: This is so fun!
Jory: Oh~
Liam: Yeeeeeaaah!
There we go, ♭VI - ♭VII - I [chords].
Kevin: It's such a neutral sounding high B♭.
Owen: Even though they went up an octave.
Kevin: Yeah I know, right?
Owen: The soft timbre definitely contributes to that.
Kayla: Eyyy!
[t/n: The jamming begins...]
Jory: That chord is so unexpected.
Rachel: Ah, I just love the contrast between the chorus and everything else,
like the articulate like crunchy chords,
and then you get like this super like...
nice sounding resolution. (Liam: Oh, it's just-)
Liam: It's just sparkly.
Rachel: It's so pretty. Liam: Like it's just glowing.
Jason: This is so off-beat heavy.
I think it's great.
It's definitely, it's kinda like that upwardly thing,
like having butterflies for somebody,
it's like that, you're always kind of up.
Adam: The phone! Kayla: Oh!
Kayla: Not the phone!
Adam: Damn...
Jason: Okay, instrumentation change, higher frequency...
Great...
Kevin: A-t-t-e-n-t-i-on! Owen: i-on.
Ali: Mm, that was smooth.
Jason: What-?
I wanted it to go somewhere.
That's okay. It was good.
Rachel: It's like high school drama, right?
Jason: F#%k that guy.
Umu: He didn't give her the attention!
Jason: F#%k that guy.
Ali: I really liked it.
Umu: Why was this all vibey?
Ali: We talk about this in harpsichord a lot
where you have dry versus wet,
where you have very articulated, percussive things
versus like letting the sound bloom.
And like in this song there is definitely a contrast
where it doesn't feel like you are listening to the same thing over and over and over,
where like the verses, the shortness, and the percussiveness,
and the play between like the synth and the drums
and also the percussiveness of the actual like spoken verse,
versus the chorus where the synth has more sustain
and you can hear more bass and it's more like melodic,
but that contrast, to me, was really fun to go through, like in the song,
cuz contrast is what makes people listen.
If you change texture you change how dry or wet,
or how smooth something is,
that's a different stimulus, and so that's when you draw people in.
So good for them.
Umu: Can you have your headphones on your legs or something?
Cuz it will block the mic.
Adam: The chorus is so fun.
Kayla: Yeah, the chorus is super fun.
Adam: All I'm picturing is like,
you're like rolling down the windows in your car
Adam: And the wind is kind of like... Kayla: Yeah, in your hair.
Kayla: Like, LA vibes.
Umu: Maybe the drawn out notes or something, the "Aaa~" whole notes?
Kayla: The chorus is very, very catchy.
Like you can remember it and like take it with you.
Adam: I mean how long is it,
Attentiooo
Attentioooooo
Attentiooooooooo
Attentioooooooooooo
Attentiooooooooooooooo
Attentioooooooooooooooooo
(Umu: Keep going, keep going, keep going!) Attentiooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
(Kayla: Support, support! Give it, give it!) Attentiooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
(Umu: He's dying, he's dying- oh?) AttentioooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOoOOOoohHhh
AttentioooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOoOOOoohHhhn!
*BREATH!*
*Pause*
Umu: Well...
Adam: -oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-
Brian: I kind of get tired of the "Looking for attention" a little bit.
Jason: I think too
Criticism:
I thought that it was gonna go somewhere.
And it started changing,
like things became higher frequency and things became a little different
and I thought it was gonna start building somewhere
and the bass was gonna come out,
but then it just like stopped. (Umu: It just ends.)
And then also, yes, it just kept doing:
*G♭-A♭-B♭*
Brian: Yeah. Jason: Over and over and over and over and over again.
Jason: They did some things,
but I wanted more like, like a,
*G♭ major - A♭ major - G♭ - A♭*
Like, give me something where it reiterates it or...
*G♭ major - A♭ major - B♭-A*
or *B♭sus*
Like something, something a little tastier.
Umu: Their goal, because so much K-pop is like change(x6)
is to create like a lush, like repetitive,
Brian: Like jeans! A staple to the wardrobe! Jason: Yeah, and even- Like jeans, but- Umu: that people can rely on- like jeans-
Brian: Anybody's wardrobe.
Jason: But even when they went to minute 3 or something,
when it was like less vast and it was like quiet,
they stayed like that too long,
like they didn't add anything for a while and it was just like
the same quietness saying the same words.
I liked it but then at one point I was like, "come on..."
"Where are we going?(x3)"
But then they built it and then didn't do anything.
That's what bothered me.
Umu: At any point, when they were repeating that over and over,
did you ever get tired of it?
Or did you just kind of bask in the sound of it?
Brian: The chords behind it were so good too. Kayla: Yeah, kinda, it was very chill-laxed.
Kayla: Like I just kind of laid back and like,
it was just very chill,
and I liked the buildup of the different notes
and like, all of the singers were just very like cohesive and clear,
like, no one stuck out and it was like a very uniform tone.
Kevin: Full disclosure, I have heard this song
and I have been obsessed with it.
Owen: Nice.
Kevin: I am a big sucker for octave leaps in songs,
it's like, any time a song does that,
no matter how repetitive it is, I'll love it.
But yeah, underneath that the harmonies are (♭)VI-(♭)VII-I,
but it doesn't sound like that,
it doesn't sound like the Marion fanfare,
because there is a lot of crunchy R&B stuff that are added to it,
that makes it interesting,
and then every time they go here *B♭*
there is a little voice that goes *D♭-C-B♭*
[t/n: The minor 3rd from the voice (D♭)* and the major 3rd in the chord (D♮) give crunch. (* Or C♯ in the sense of a ♯9 over the B♭ major chord)]
Leon: But one thing that I find really interesting,
now that I think back, like in the chorus,
it's like G♭maj7 to A♭maj7 to B♭maj7, right?
And then I feel like the most clashing chord is actually the B♭maj7.
And then:
I don't know, this sounds like not right.
Umu: Hmmm.
Leon: It's really interesting because it's like the root.
Umu: Yeah.
Leon: But then I think it's because they add the 7th
Leon: and then just kind of... Umu: Aha, and the vocal line is hanging on the 1.
Leon: Yeah...
Umu: Okay, so let me sing.
*B♭*
*G♭maj7-A♭maj7(add9)-B♭maj7*
Umu: And that has the most clashes in it. Leon: Yeah, yeah...
Leon: It's like when you are getting used to too many 7ths and 9ths
and then suddenly like, hearing a 1 and 7 together is kind of weird.
Umu: But then, doesn't that make it extra satisfying to go from
that one chord, that one chord, to the *sings second chorus melody*?
Leon: Yeah, that one is good.
*Same chords as before, with new melody*
*E♭7 - E♭ minor*
And then it goes to minor.
And back.
Umu: So in the end it kind of creates this large loop of tension and release, almost.
Jason: Well there is some suspension going on.
So it makes it: *G♭-A♭-B♭sus*
Really nice.
And sunny.
Suspensions, especially in a progression that goes major-major-major,
when you have like a suspension in there it just adds butterflies,
that's like a little trickle of something,
I mean like,
*SUS*
When you have a chord like that in Broadway, or when you have these-
I mean you will recognize this:
Wicked.
You know, anytime you have like a 4 or 2 suspension going on anywhere,
it's like Mmm~
something a little sunnier.
Umu: Speaking of chords,
there was one that you said that's very unexpected
and it happens right before the pre-chorus at the end of the verse,
can we talk about why that is?
Will: This, yeah, this whole section,
that section feels weird to me, harmonically.
Because the melody doesn't match the harmony, like at all.
Um...
Umu: Dissonance!!!
Jory: But I mean like, Will: It's like not even...
Jory: It kind of works because the chords are really short.
Will: Yeah, so it's not, there is no direct clashing,
but it's just, it's one of those things where it's like...
huh...
strange...
What it is, which is actually kind of hip, it's cool,
The verse chords are like this:
So like a C half-diminished,
going to B♭,
and then in that second part of the verse it goes up a step.
It goes to D half-diminished going to C.
It's the same chord progression but up a step
but the vocal melody stays down a step.
So it's like you have this weird:
[t/n: Let's call it polytonality]
Will: I don't know, I don't know how nobody noticed that.
I don't know how nobody was like,
"Huh, doesn't that sound a little strange?"
Will: You know, it's a B♭ minor pentatonic over a C major.
Ju Young: I'm just gravitating towards this chord
just cuz like it doesn't come anywhere and it,
for some reason it felt awkward for me,
in the best way possible.
I love feeling like awkward and...
Umu: Like questioning, "Why did they do that?"
Ju Young: Yeah, like...
Liam: I love like four bars before the chorus hits.
Like that, that is perfect.
Liam: That's like my favorite part of the song. Rachel: It's just like, oh my god.
Brian: Was it synth, or like the synth bass?
Sometimes it made me nervous, I don't know why.
Umu: I wonder if that came in when they sing like "I have butterflies..."
Brian: Yeah, it gave me that, that gave me butterflies in my stomach. Jason: I was listening- the harmonies-
Jason: You give me butterflies in my stomach.
Brian: Well...
Umu: Awww.
Brian: EXTERMINATE THEM!
[t/n: Is Brian a Dalek?!]
Owen: I liked the vibe of it.
The entire thing felt like something I can play and just enjoy.
I am always pleasantly surprised when there is a constant rhythmic motif
that you think is on the downbeat
and then the beat comes in and it's on the off-beat.
Kevin: Mhm.
(Owen: It just-) Umu: Is that what happened in the beginning?
Kevin: That definitely is what happened. Owen: That's what I heard, I heard:
And then it was:
And I just, I like that.
I loved the mixing of that in the chorus,
when it stayed there, but just underneath the surface,
in the right level to keep it jamming...
It was awesome. I liked it.
Kevin: I think there is a lot of momentum.
Owen: Yes, that's a great point.
It feels like there is nothing holding the song back
but it's always going, it's just being pulled
without any sort of effort, just towards the future part of the song.
Kevin: Yeah, I agree.
Owen: It's great.
Umu: Why does that melody sound so good to listen to?
Rachel: I don't - because it has motion, that's why.
Like we're going towards that,
and we are going towards it both like in the way that they are enunciating in, like,
the way that they are saying everything
and the way that the chords are, like the chord progression.
I love all of the vocal stuff in this song, like so much,
cuz it's so thought through but it doesn't sound like it,
it sounds so effortless, you know?
Liam: It really just flows, like the whole song. Rachel: It just flows so well, yeah.
Adam: It was just like so sweet.
Umu: Does that come from like the timbres or the melody or...?
Kayla: It was giving like candy, candy sweetness,
if I went to like the sugar factory that would be playing,
I would be, it would just be a party.
Adam: It's like light and sweet, their tone isn't abrasive or anything.
Kayla: I feel like they have a very chill airy tone-ish,
it's not like, we're always saying like "Focus, focus your tone"
"Spiraling, spinning."
Theirs is just like, *demonstrates*
Kayla: It's just like free. Adam: Easy.
Kayla: Easy.
Owen: That's what I like about it, the song is effortless.
That's why the octave is so good,
it's because they sang it, probably within their technique,
whatever a vocalist would describe it
someway to feel really comfortable on making that octave,
but all of it, when they sang,
and the instrumentals, how simple they were,
made the song feel like it took no effort at all.
And of course it did, obviously.
But listening to it you just feel very at ease
because of that effect.
Jason: I'm just gonna dive in the ocean- Brian: Oh!
Jason: Yeah, that was kind of sick, Brian can we do that? Wait-
"A t t e n t i-"
Wait, how did they do it? We're gonna do it, you ready?
Brian: How did they do it?
Both: "A-t-t-e-n-t-i-on"
Jason: FIRE!!!
That was so sick!