Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
BTS released a music video for “Not Today,” which I actually didn’t know was coming since they had only just released “Spring Day.” I was glad, because paired with TWICE‘s release earlier, it meant I had the potential to piss off the maximum amount of commenters on my own site, and I think I got my wish.
For better or worse, my initial sonic impression of “Not Today” was “my god this is gonna be fun at concerts”. That’s not always necessarily for the best, as it could just indicate a track that is loud for the hell of it instead of for any particular musical reason. “Not Today” toes that line carefully, but the busy chorus is more of an earworm than an earsore. Obviously the beat during the verses just bangs, but the driving, dirty synth that comes in for the chorus is what defines this track and what makes the instrumental excel.
The hook almost has this militaristic marching theme to it, with “not today” being chanted over it, which is menacing and appropriate for the tone. I loved how that made me want to kick through doors and shit. Aside from the chorus, the vocals are a nice reprieve from the constant aural attack, and when the rappers are allowed to do their thing instead of going melodic they also predictably do well. My main complaint (besides some of the distortion) is that they go melodic more often than I prefer, especially since that kind of stuff is usually done to cover deficiencies when I think BTS has the rappers to do it right.
Whether “Not Today” tickles your fancy or not will likely come down to what the individual thinks of the instrumental. I quite enjoyed the blaring, hype nature of it, so despite its flaws, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this offering.
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I’ve always loved how BTS have shot their music videos, whether it’s one of their story gems or whether it’s a hype track like this, and “Not Today” is a solid addition to their library with its use of colors standing out in particular.
BTS have a lot of great choreographies, but this one has to be up there among their most fun. In a rare moment, I’m actually looking forward to a dance version from a boy group.
Somebody replace those with panties, thanks.
That said, I have to mention how obviously terrible the lip synching was. Usually, like a little cheese in my K-pop, I just gloss over these minor things, but it was distractingly weird in this music video. Surely out of all the things to not be able to execute, this is one of the weirdest.
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“Not Today” wasn’t perfect and doesn’t come that close to my favorite BTS tracks, but if “Spring Day” was a bit uninspired to me, then this served as a nice remedy with much better production and was a quality wake-up call of sorts. It feels like it’ll be even more effective when experienced as a performance, and though the replay value of this kind of sound isn’t the highest, “Not Today” is one of those tracks that serves its purpose of hype when called upon.
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‘You Never Walk Alone’ Album
“Not Today” Song
