Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
EXID have dropped the music video for “Ah Yeah“, their much-anticipated follow-up to their viral hit “Up & Down“, and while it has some flaws as a song, it’s still catchy enough and the music video is essentially perfect.
Even from the snippets in the teasers, “Ah Yeah” immediately reminded me of “Up & Down” sonically, but it was different enough where it wasn’t plagiarizing their own work. I feel like I should dock the song a bit for the similarity, but from a business perspective it just makes sense to me … and if I’m being honest with myself, I liked the immediate callback to what worked so well before.
It was clever on LE‘s part to have not just “singing verses” and “rapping verses”, but to intersperse the two within the verses, especially within the context that dynamic was used in the music video. Hani is passable enough a vocalist to justify giving her all the camera time, but while LE is better rapping in this than in “Up & Down”, I still think she’s overrated mainly because fans give her a pass/extra credit for being one of the few songwriting idols out there. The actual stars of the song are Hyelin and Solji, who, despite being pushed to the back a bit, take over the track whenever they get the chance. Unfortunately, between the solid verses dominated by Hani and LE and the vocals done by Hyelin and Solji, the pre-chorus was given to Junghwa, who kills a lot of the momentum building that goes on. Quite frankly, it just would’ve been much better without her parts in it.
Don’t get me wrong though, because while “Ah Yeah” isn’t a perfect song and it’s sort of a re-tread of their last single in a way, I can already tell this hook is going to stick with me. I’ve only watched it twice so far and it’s already dancing in my ears, and at the end of the day, that’s what’s actually going to matter.
The music video? The music video simply couldn’t have been bad, at least since the moment they released the group teaser photo.
Denim and Timbs? In.
After seeing that, it was only a question of how far above average they were going to take this concept, and they answered the question soundly. In “Ah Yeah”, EXID as a group looked amazing, they had the “Tootsee Roll” dance that I can see catching on (also very “Up & Down”-esque), and even the concept was smart and well executed.
The concept is essentially one been jab at the censors, presumably over them banning their dance for “Up & Down” and the constant questioning of the message/lyrics of the song. The music video revolves around playing at that “controversy” throughout, and it culminates with the 19+ rating ticking down lower and lower as it’s revealed what’s actually going on behind the censorship.
In terms of the choreography, I’m not sure if it was a purposeful nod to the 69 Boyz‘s “Tootsee Roll”, but the dance sure seemed like it. And quite frankly, just the possibility that a girl group’s choreography was inspired by a 90s rap group named ’69 Boyz’ gives them five billion bonus points from me.
Visually speaking, I mean, what is there to say about this? Nothing, so look.
I dunno if this meets the FASHION ELITE ARTISTIC HIPSTER standards cause they aren’t dressed in garbage bags with donkey cocks sticking out of them to represent the world’s wastefulness and animal rights or whatever, but goddamn they look hot as shit.
A+++ would watch again.
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The music video for “Ah Yeah” was about as perfect as one can get, incorporating a cool but simple dance, flawless visuals, and a cheeky concept with the execution to match. While the song had its share of flaws, the chorus and the repetitive “ah yeah” hook is probably going to end up stuck in my head.
Thus, I’d like to apologize to EXID fans, because I’m a fan of “Ah Yeah”, which means it’ll inevitably bomb in Korea.
R.I.P.
