Here is is folks, Paisley’s much anticipated fan account of what happened that night when Kyuhyun and Changmin sang to her! WOOHOO~
Where to start… Hm.. I’ve been asked a lot of questions and I’ve read a lot of rumors and comments about what happened and I hope this fan account clears it all up. I guess I’ll start from the beginning…
(Source: hityourheart, via contaemporary)
MUSIC
This song had me hooked from 00:00:04seconds. It’s got that R&B rhythm I melted over in TVXQ’s Before You Go and Super Junior’s Sorry Sorry Answer.
(Side Note: SM, I’m gonna be honest, on a shallow level all your guy bands sort of look alike, and now they sort of sound alike — how about shakin’ things up? let’s give Yoo Young Jin a break, yeah?)
It’s got a good beat, it’s catchy, it’s stuck in my head. And can we say power vocals? We’ve got Baek Hyun/D.O. in the Korean version and Lu Han/Chen in the Chinese version. Both rock it and give it their own flavour.
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LYRICS
Both Korean and Mandarin lyrics sound good and flow well with the style of song. It must have been a challenge for both composer and writer to take one song and make it compatible with two languages, but I think they did an excellent job. It’s a sweet song about a guy who’s fallen head over heels for a girl and wants to know if what he’s feeling is love.
- English
There was a fair amount of English scattered throughout the song, and surprisingly most of it was grammatically correct, made sense with the flow of the song, and didn’t sound like random words just strung together (let me in let me show you all my bling bling and my kicks kicks baby dance with me). The only line I have any problem with — and only because they say it so many times — is get in slow motion and it’s mostly just a ‘this sounds awkward’ kind of complaint.
Honestly, I always wondered why K-Pop music was full of such awkward English (Krenglish) lines, because even though they don’t speak English natively, their agencies have money to hire English-speaking people to fix their songs. Right?
SM, I’m gonna help you out: I will come work for you, I will fix the English in your songs and you don’t even have to pay me. It’s win-win.
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VIDEO
First, I know this isn’t an actual music video like we’re used to. I know it’s just a vocal showcase teaser and that the voices are the important part. That being said:
What? What was that? Did something happen or did nothing happen, I’m very confused. It seems like we’ve taken 1…..2…..4…..6….I don’t know, seven? eight? different story lines and spliced them together. But none of them have any background or make much sense. You’ve got that one guy who’s a serious rock collector, the two guys fighting over the last crescent roll, the guy that looks like Changmin(0:42), and the two chummy chums going on a road trip across America. Plus a bunch of other stories that stay disjointed until about halfway in when the eclipse blocks out the sun/moon and everyone turns to look at it. And look at it, and look at it.
Then at the end we get a nice shot of all twelve EXO members followed by the now instantly recognizable (after 50 something teasers) EXOPLANET logo.
I’m not saying anything about the song itself, because I loved that, but I wish the video had flowed together more or elaborated on one or two characters instead of being a jumble of half-told stories. Hopefully things will come together smoothly in their actual official music video.
(Side Note take 2: anyone else watch the fight scene in this video and instantly think of Infinite’s Before the Dawn?)
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DANCE
Korean Version:
Only one person really dances in this MV (if you don’t count the half-second of screen time the red shoes guy gets in the beginning) and that is Kai. Of course. To be truthful, I was a little surprised that he got such a short amount of screen time, because just from watching the teasers I’d been ready to rename the group ‘Kai and Those Other Guys’. Seriously, twelve teasers out, eight have Kai in them, four ONLY have Kai in them. Not that he isn’t awesome. Kai is a great dancer (and yes, screaming fangirls, he does look quite a bit like Taemin from SHINee), it just feels a little early in the game to be picking favourites.
Fourteen seconds, three different dances. As I mentioned earlier, this video is sort of a splicing together of lots of different things. Dance 1: Kai does this jacket dance that’s just….odd. Dance 2: the screen splits with Kai on one side dancing in a chair and some other guy in the other screen doing the same dance but standing. Dance 3: it’s back to Kai with some rhythmic popping and end scene. Individually each dance is well done, but I don’t see why they’re all being played at once.
Mandarin Version:
Basically everything in these two videos are the same except for the fourteen seconds of dance time (which is really just different teasers spliced together). This version starts with Kai and Lay sliding across the floor and beating their chest gansta style like the tough Asian guys they are (TEASER_12). Then it cuts to Lay dancing for just a few seconds (TEASER_10) then cuts again to a clip from TEASER_2 of Kai and Lu Han dancing in a ring of string (?). Again, dancing is fine, but the editing makes little sense.
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SHOWDOWN: Korean vs. Mandarin
YouTube is currently the stage of an epic battle between EXO-K and EXO-M, and right now EXO-K is winning in views (China’s YouTube block probably being a huge factor). And honestly, I’m not sure I can contribute either way. I’ve listened to both repeatedly since they came out and I really think you should too (at least give both a try). They really are basically the same song so to non-Korean/Mandarin speakers it’ll just be about deciding which one sounds better. I’ve listened to much more K-Pop than M-Pop, so Korean generally sounds smoother to me, but with this one it’s hard to choose. And truth be told, I don’t think you should have to. EXO is EXO whether it’s in Korean or Mandarin. I still don’t understand how SM is dividing the two up, whether it’s 6 and 6 or all 12 with alternating lead singers, but I think that those who support EXO-K should also support EXO-M and vice versa. Because they’ve all worked hard to get to where they are.
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So whichever side you choose, be on the lookout for more teasers from SM to be released soon, and keep checking back here for more information on EXO’s official debut.
Follow for updates! Tomorrow I’ll be reviewing Se7en’s comeback collab with JYP.
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