Greatest Hits:: Seo Taiji (Seo Taiji and Boys): Christmalo.win

 This wasn't going to be the next one I did, which means the one I started will need to be moved further down the schedule for a little bit more variation, but I absolutely could not resist this glorious insanity. 

An article from 2014 popped up on my radar about this track. I took a listen and immediately knew I had to cover it. First of all, this guy is the reason we have K-Pop as we know it. There were a couple of groups who debuted earlier according to Kpopping, but this guy popularized it with his little trio. Even if their music didn't do what it did, Seo Taiji and the Boys was where Yang Hyunsuk got his start, or, as I like to call him, YG the Dude. Lee Sooman might not have gotten the same start he had, nor would J.Y. Park or Bang Sihyuk. You should recognize all of those names as SM the Dude, JYPapi, and Hitman Bang. The number of groundbreaking groups and artists that have come from those four companies might not exist the way they do and K-Pop in general would look completely different if Seo Taiji hadn't gone "Let's do cool music with a focus on dancing for the kids." But in Korean. And probably less chill. 

But he didn't just drop off the planet after the group disbanded, although he did retire like twice. This song came out in 2014. Six years after 2PM and SHINee. Two years after NU'EST and EXO. A year after BTS. A year before Seventeen and TWICE. "But author," you might protest, "NU'EST and Seventeen debuted under Pledis before the acquisition. And most of the members of those groups were picked up off the street like stray cats, so they weren't even trainees at the Big 3 companies." And you would be correct, but you also have to remember that a significant number of early Pledis staff, the ones training NU'EST and Seventeen, came from SME originally. This guy deserves credit for creating a path that allowed others to build upon it, whether directly or indirectly.

• Group: SEO TAIJI and Boys
• Debut Date: 1992 March 23
• Company: Bando Records
• Status: Disbanded (1996 January)
• Artist: Seo Taiji
• Album: Quiet Night
• Song: Christmalo.win
• Release Date: 2014 October 20

Before I actually get to the song, I highly recommend you look up the group. They were wild back in the day, y'all. The number of times their songs got banned? Absolutely crazy considering they only released four albums as a group, and a lot about G-Dragon and BIGBANG make a lot of sense now.

Also, Seo Taiji? Pretty good-looking. He aged well considering that was over twenty years after he debuted. 

The article I read described this music video as "Santa Claus meets Jack Skellington" in a creepy, haunted dollhouse. So, realistically this would actually be better suited to being a Halloween song, but also, if Nightmare Before Christmas can get away with being both a Halloween and a Christmas movie, I don't see why this song can't either. Insert the "both is good" meme here. And it literally is both in the title. It just took me looking at the Hangeul before I realized it because I was pronouncing the "win" with an English short i, rather than the Korean romanized i. 

Both the Battle of the B-Sides and my Greatest Hits segments have the same purpose: to remind or introduce listeners to songs that they may have forgotten or never knew existed. Which is exactly what is going on here, at least for me since I've never actually listened to anything by him or the group , because I imagine that if more people found out that this song is what it is, it would suddenly explode. As it should. The song is a serious bop.

Also, I recently saw a clip being circulated of YG the Dude dancing, and everyone was surprised at how good he was and how attractive he was in his younger days, so this also feels like a good time to bring up his leader.

The amount of eyeliner on display in this music video brings me back and reminds me of Panic at the Disco, Fall Out Boy, and Paramore. The hairstyles too. This is emo punk-rock styling at its peak. Plus, all they need are more feathers, and they could be the Weird Sisters from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It's deeply entertaining for those of us who are me. And the keyboardist is my favorite. He's hilarious. I know it's not supposed to be funny but intense and serious instead, but his expressions are so incredible that I just find it funny. 

The entire music video is very de-saturated, which helps with the gloomy, spooky, creepy vibe. The set is just awesome. It legitimately feels like one of those Christmas villages my grandma had, but the Halloween version of them, pumpkins and skulls everywhere instead of presents and candy canes. Even though this is literally ten years old now, it feels instantly recognizable and current. I could see Stray Kids or ATEEZ doing something like this, and Stray Kids kind of did with Christmas EveL, so there's that.

I'm also going to hand over the translation video because it's hard finding an English translation, and the amount of tongue in cheek this song is impressive. 

I'm also starting to understand that the 2014 MAMAs was incredibly iconic. Between G-Dragon's legendary diss track and apparently Seo Taiji himself performing with IU and the 1001 other things happening, no offense to everything that happened this year, but the two don't compare. Yowza. Seo Taiji just vibes on stage and I really love that for him. Plus, part of the fun of the end-of-year award shows is seeing the other artists turn into fanboys/fangirls. This song starts about 5:05, but if you want to see the good artist reactions (including some from some now very famous faces) you're going to want to wait for Come Back Home, which was from their group's last album (not including the compilation farewell album in 1996), and we get a surprise visit from Zico.

This really is just a fantastic song. So I'm just going to toss some more stages at you and shut up.