August 07, 2013
TS Entertainment has really been going strong with B.A.P this year with Rain Sound and One Shot starting off their year, then Coffee Shop and Hurricane. With them coming out with songs left and right like this, can we really say that they've made another "comeback" when they were never really gone? It hasn't even been a month since the release of Hurricane and B.A.P returns yet again with their latest song Badman. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out below.
I thought this would require a bit of a disclaimer because I had a lot to say about this music video. Sit down and buckle your seats kids because you're in for the ride of your lives.
The video: Though the music video is interesting, that doesn't necessarily make it good. I know there's supposed to be some symbolism going on here and some deeper meaning to it all but it's kind of hard to make sense of it all when B.A.P spends a lot of their time in the video interrupting each other and the plot line. Not to mention, there is a riot going on around them and they are just sitting pretty and singing. Plus, they continually cut away from the actual story line they're attempting to portray for either their beauty shots, or their rather unimpressive dance. If you take B.A.P out of the picture (literally), you can get a somewhat decent story going.
The video starts off with what is clearly a riot in a bad part of town with the cops there to try and detain the rioters. At first, they're all just taunting each other and escalating the situation until all hell breaks loose when someone throws a Molotov cocktail at the police. That is when the real fight breaks out. Now, the focus isn't really about the riot itself but the people effected by it. As the fight goes on, we get to see flashes of what the rioters' lives were like. One guy loved to play basketball; another guy was involved in gang activities; then there was the guy with a girl he loves back home; and finally, the guy who was a free runner. After we get to know the characters (so to speak) a little better, we have to watch as they get beat down and have their lives ruined by this one critical moment. The message about the fight against oppression could have been so wonderful and powerful if B.A.P didn't ruin it at the end when they caused the whole place to explode when they belted out their notes just a little too loud. In the end, everyone is dead and B.A.P just stands in the middle, still alive because they are just far too handsome to be killed by a few combustions here and there.  |
| Why are you falling down? That kick was flimsy! |
The song: I like B.A.P, I really do, but this song is a major disappointment. There is so much going on here that it's almost impossible to talk about it as a whole. There are parts that I do like but others that I hate. This is practically another I Got a Boy, making it possible to slice up the song in little pieces and have what sounds like teasers for several entirely different songs. Because of this, I pretty much have to break down the song piece by piece to make sense of it all.
The start of the song is actually great, with Deahyun's introducing the song in a dark, gritty voice. It sounded pretty awesome and seemed to be building up to something more, something amazing and then... "peace" - Yongguk jumps in and steals Deahyun's thunder with his sudden need to rap. Don't get me wrong, Yongguk is an amazing rapper but most of his parts in this song overall seemed tacked on and interrupted the other sections of the song. Yongguk's first rap segment has some terrible yelling/screaming that grows higher in pitch until the song is picked back up by Youngjae and Himchan.
The bridge leading up to the chorus calms things down a little compared to Yongguk's rather intense rapping. There has always been that kind of hard contrast that occurred with a lot of B.A.P's songs and it seemed as though they were starting to get better at blending them together. However, this song has taken a few steps back from that progress. Anyway, the bridge and chorus are actually pretty good with the exception of the cut off where they make breathing sounds, effectively ruining the flow of the first chorus.
I thought, from there the song would be steady yet intense, like most of B.A.P's other songs. I was proved wrong when Yongguk once again interrupts the song for
After Yongguk's last interruption in the song, the electronic beat returns and builds into what could have been the best dance break ever but wasn't whatsoever. After that disappointment, we get some... Indian chanting? And then some... Satanic growls? Really, this song starts to fall apart completely after the failed attempt at a dance break. They try to make up for it with a few vocal flourishes here and there but it really only made their situation worse.
Overall opinion: The song was way too choppy and erratic and the members of B.A.P themselves got in the way of their own music video. This could probably be chalked up to them having been releasing track after track throughout the year. They were bound to run out of creative juices eventually. Luckily, this is supposed to be their last song of the year. Hopefully, they'll be able to rest up during their hiatus and make another powerful comeback in the future.
What did you think of the video? Did you think it was as powerful as they were hoping it would be?
'cause we are not familiar to 'trap genre' (the genre they used for Badman) that's why at first, we could not grasp to like the song. But before the released of Badman, I anticipated that it would be different and then it was really different from their other songs. I embraced it that's why I came to loved it especially when I heard the song again without watching the MV. The arrangement is great and the lyrics is definitely has a message to tell. :)
ReplyDeleteI have no idea about that genre but nothing flowed at all. It would actually be better if BAP weren't there and just let the song and MV help to tell the story.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on liking the intro as well. When I first heard Daehyun's part at the intro I thought that the song would be literally "BAD MAN". But then, the music didn't seem to link throughout the whole song and it sounded a bit messy to me. However, as i read the lyrics while listening to the music, the whole songs made more sense to me. Still ,it wasn't the best song of BAP in my opinion... I just hope that BAP can just pace it, and make an impact after a year or so. Because they're quite well-known internationally, and i'm sure all of us have a certain level of expectation of them and it'll be great if they can keep us in anticipation instead of keep making comebacks which would become less exciting. Plus, i'm sure they'd have a limit to the songs that they produce. Yeap XD
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