Greatest Hits:: HOTSHOT: Watch Out

 Hello, everyone! I decided to go back to my origins and use the old roulette wheel to decide on a Greatest Hits from a third gen boy group I have not covered yet. I've been circling around the group quite a lot, ever since the first time I saw their name written in Hangeul and was the first group I read and figured out before I knew them. I did of course check to see if there was a boy group called "HOTSHOT" to see if I'd read that correctly. So, yeah. I'm very curious about this group. They seem really familiar for some reason though, like I should know them more than by name and from After School Club.

...Ah. I just remembered where I knew them. Produce 101. They were one of the other debuted groups that had members join, and I think the only other group to have members debut in Wanna One. Imagine me looking into the camera like I'm in The Office with a "Welp" expression on my face. That realization as I was looking into them for this section dipped my mood down a little, not going to lie. Anyway. Actually, you know what's funny about the timing for this then? Wanna One just started their reunion, which means that once again, the universe has been hilariously on point yet again. Hotshot debuted as a six member group in 2014 under K.O Sound (which then became Ardor & Able, and then finally Star Crew Entertainment. That company, by the way, had all four of the original members of FIFTY FIFTY as trainees as well as one of the members of W!TCHX, but I digress.

Watch Out was the title track for their first mini album, Am I Hotshot?, which was released in 2015. It's actually got quite the lineage for the writers, namely coming from the same hands and minds that did Growl by EXO. The songwriters were Park Yongjun (NCT, Lee Hyori, The Classic, Golden Child, IU, Lim Young Woong, Stella Jang, Kim Yongjin, Jung Joonyoung, Ji Jinhee, and Jang Pill Soon) Hyuk Shin (Justin Bieber, EXO, CLC, NCT, Misamo, Dean, Heize, Monsta X, SF9, A.C.E, Billlie, Super Junior, UNIQ, tripleS, Weki Meki, LOONA, MCND, SHINee, Oh My Girl, Red Velvet, Girls' Generation, VIXX, GOT7, GFRIEND, UP10TION, Oh My Girl, Sumi Jo, Ha Sungwoon, f(x), The Boyz, TEEN TOP, UNINE, Girl's Day, AOA, Wheein, WJSN, TEMPEST, BXB, PENTAGON, Max Changmin, Fiestar, SPEED, Sonamoo, 100%, OnlyOneOf, History, and Boys Republic), Beat&Keys (EXO, Block B, UP10TION, UNIQ, and Boys Republic), Jayrah Gibson (Jungkook, Dean, NCT, EXO, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, UNIQ, P1Harmony, Monsta X, UP10TION, Oh My Girl, SF9, Nomad, SHINee, VAV, BewhY, Boys Republic, Pentagon, GOT7, Super Junior, and History), and DK (unsure of exactly who this is, but there is a list here) (EXO, XLOV, Heize, Taeyeon, GOT7, SHINee, Oh My Girl, Nomad, f(x), VIXX, Norazo, UP10TION, AOA, GFRIEND, UNIQ, Girls' Generation, PENTAGON, Kim Jaejoong, Super Junior, Max Changmin, Fiestar, BOYFRIEND, SPEED, and Vanner). 

• Group: HOTSHOT
• Debut Date: 2014 October 29
• Company: K.O Sound
• Status: Disbanded (2021 March 30)
• Album: Am I Hotshot?
• Song: Watch Out
• Release Date: 2015 April 24

Before I have fun with the song and the music video, so I don't have to repeat it again later, it is a reality of the K-Pop industry that many rookies, if they're lucky enough to get on a music show to perform, do not get to perform full songs and instead have to cut them down to about two minutes. Which is ironically about where song lengths are now in a lot of cases.

I just wanted you to be prepared for that once we get down to the stages.

This is so 2015. It's that particular mix of edgy and eyeliner that immediately catapults me back to high school. And the skinny jeans with the hightops. Speaking from the experience of watching my friends, the ones that they're wearing have to be very stretchy. I had a friend who had a pair that were so tight with so little give that she had to kind of shuffle to walk in them (she loved those pants though. She cried when she snagged them on a door handle and ripped them). These obviously have some elastic in them because the members are actually raising their legs and dropping it like it's hot.

I've gotten to the point where I can look back at the fashion with fondness, but I still maintain that how eyeliner looked at that time is superior to nearly every other fashionable style. 

And speaking of things that were in style in 2015, I had to go find the lyrics because it sounded like they said "on fleek", which threw me for a loop because I haven't heard that phrase being spoken in eighty-four years, to quote Old Lady Rose from Titanic. They did not. They said the word "flick" as it should be pronounced with a Korean accent, not "fleek" which is some now very uncommon Millennial slang for being smooth or perfect. 

There you go. Your cultural lesson for today. And for my fellow Millennials, I apologize for bringing "on fleek" back into your memory if you too had forgotten it.

And speaking of the lyrics (link to Color Coded Lyrics), this is a love song of the swaggery, peacock variety. This is a strutting song, an "I could be so much better for you" kind of song. A youthful seduction song that's all energy and bluster, that's not necessarily unpracticed, but it's lacking the smoothness of maturity and experience. And you know what? For a rookie group, I am all about that vibe and energy. 

There's also a spot at 0:52 (and all other subsequent starts to the chorus) that reminds me a lot of Dami's iconic part in BOCA, which I immediately love for the song. It's a very heavy stomp to the song and a great way to start out the chorus by announcing that the chorus has arrived with much emphasis. 

And the bridge? It sounds almost uncertain, shyly looking up through the eyelashes. With the lyrics, it's also the least aggressive part of the song, where some of the bluster from the verses and the chorus shifts to something that's softer and less of a demand. It's a very pretty bridge, easily recognizable for being what it is. 

Just as a largely unrelated side note, I love how much use out of the colored smoke grenades the music video gets. It adds a very strong flavor to the music video that makes me laugh a little because this is a love song and it's not a music video of the Fantastic Baby or Wonderland variety. 

The entire music video is kind of just the members going "We know we're awesome." To which I have to respond: "Yeah, you are." 

We're going to start off with a Simply K-Pop performance, this time, which is new and exciting for me as I don't normally start with this one, but there were a couple of fun things I noticed while I was watching it.

First of all, the blond one that starts it off? He's apparently Junhyuk, AKA leader boy, and I should have known because I immediately liked him. Why? Because following his part at the first chorus at :49, it became quite evident why he was one of the ones with the expensive hand mics rather than the headset: he sings along. The other blond one was also singing along, also with a hand mic, but Leader Boy was the one who spent so much time singing along when it wasn't his part. His vibrato at 1:04 also caught my attention because it doesn't sound like the studio version and it sounds like it's fighting against the instrumental a little bit. I can't get any clear shots of his throat, but given that fight, I'm willing to say that he's likely singing live. 

Ah! Okay. The other blond one is the one who ended up on Wanna One, Sungwoon. Again, that makes sense. 

And the other member of the group who ended up in a survival show temporary group is Hojung, who you can find at 1:19. I don't know if this is part of the actual choreography, but I love his nod to Yoonsan at 1:25.

Lastly, listen to those fans. They're so loud at the beginning for the fanchant and they're just screaming with hearty lungs by the end. 

The feed apparently started late for this episode of Show! Music Core, and they were up first. So this one is by that nature not going to have quite as many views as some of the others, but 

For the most part, I really like the styling of this stage, although we're not going to comment on Junhyuk's shorts. Again, we have very loud fans, and I'd almost rather be hearing that for the younger and smaller groups than for the big ones because the small ones need the confirmation that they actually have fans. 

But there's also some really cool camerawork happening for this one. At :49, at that first chorus, the camera actually shakes a little, which, combined with what's going on with the screen behind them creates quite the jarring effect that's suitable for the chorus choreography. 

We have a radio recording! Let's get these live vocals! (And it also looks like they did another song from the mini album on here, so if I ever want to do a BBS post for Body Language, I've definitely got a performance.)

I also deeply love that Hojung was playing with the little pointer stick right before they started. Full maknae energy here, and I love it. If you watch him, he spends most of this with one of his ears uncovered, which had me raising an eyebrow. He may not get as many lines, but that's an excellent sign in terms of his musicality. 

Kid Monster, who was also on Produce 101, genuinely sounds almost exactly like the recording. I thought for some reason he wasn't singing live, but there's literally a single word between 1:10 and 1:12 where he's slightly flat, so you can hear that it's not the correct note, but that's it. And then I paused it on 1:38 and giggled because of his expression, but he's clearly lip syncing there because he enjoys that part, not because it's his part. 

The other one who is just fascinating to watch is Timoteo, the one with the purple hair. Hold on one second. I want to go check something because I have a sudden suspicion. He was the one who was supposed to debut with EXO and left SM, but I don't have any evidence that what I think happened happened. But if you watch him, he's feeling the song. He's not doing the choreography, but there's some clapping on beat, there's some head bobbing, there are some quick expressions, there are some gestures. He's responding to the song in a different way than the others. The only one who is sort of responding like him is Yoon San, who turned into a writer and composer. If Timoteo is also doing that, quietly, I wouldn't be surprised. If he didn't, I'm a little sad because he feels the music in a way you often see with the songwriters and producers in groups.

Dance practice time! And they've got their names pinned to their shirts or sweatshirts so you can tell who is who. We need more of this again, but this was back when the dance practices were still actual practices and still pretty casual. And I notice that Junhyuk is practicing with the mic, which means he's constantly on a hand mic.

This choreography is actually really cool. I did get confirmation that the nod is part of the choreography, but that's fine because I still really like how it looks in the Simply K-Pop performance.

The lead-in to the chorus has them in a line (that does not have perfect angles here, but it's charming anyway) to set up the rotated diagonal that lets them transition to the chorus formation without too much of a fuss, and then the beginning of the chorus choreography has fancy tappy feet.

I genuinely love the footwork at the beginning of the chorus. Actually, the chorus choreography in general is just fun. We've got the footwork, we've got windmilling arms, we've got some very sharp movements, and we've got the money shuffling move that took me forever to figure out how to describe it other than simply "the money move". It's still not a great description but I fear the only other way to describe it is "making it rain", and I also fear that's a bit too Vegas in description. 

I also really love how Yoon San gets slotted into the back, and then he pops out for his verse at 1:13 while everyone else drops. Attention immediately goes to him, and that's such a good way to redirect the eye with sudden movement. 

I also really love the part at 2:23 where as Sungwoon is crossing in front of the line, each member strikes a pose. That's such a great detail.

Would anyone else like TWS to cover this? No? Just me? What about RIIZE?

Thank you, everyone, who wandered into this song with me. I'm remarkably amused by the timing and by the fact that the universe keeps giving me weirdly appropriate songs. I think I'm off to go add this song to my workout playlist.

If you've got any songs you'd like me to cover, feel free to drop a comment or toss the suggestion into The Form for me so I have it in a single spot just for organization's sake. Even if you don't have a pressing song, thank you for reading all the same. You're beautiful. Hmmm. Maybe that should be a month I do.

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