Greatest Hits:: After School: Bang!

It's a testament to my self control regarding these posts because this was the first girl group that I really vibed with and some of their songs (including this one) have found their way not into just my general listening playlists, but also some of the specific playlists, like my pre-work playlist, that I have. I just really like the Pledis groups, y'all, and even though I will be one of the first in line about their management issues (exhibit...basically all of their groups), they generally have a track record of picking very good songs for their groups. This song was one of the first ones I picked for the theme for the month and I slotted it in specifically to be released today, because Happy Mother's Day, everyone!

After School debuted in 2009 under Pledis Entertainment as a five member group, formed around and because of leader Kahi, who formed the group alongside HSS, the company CEO. Because of their graduation concept, they've had almost as many line-up changes as a first gen group, but this particular lineup included Bekah, Kahi, Jooyeon, Jungah, Uee, Raina, and Nana, and Lizzy. And it's a testament to After School specifically that they, a group from a brand-new company with no other groups before them, managed to become one of The Girl Groups of second generation. They're not a legacy group like 2NE1 or Girls' Generation, but they're always included with them. And I'm excited for them to get a new grand-dongsaeng group this year if the rumors are true. The new Pledis girl group has a legacy of powerful vocals, sharp dancing, and general beloved-ness to live up to, and I wish them all the best and that they're as talented as their predecessors and given songs as excellent as the groups before got. And also maybe as long.

Bang was the title track and second track on their third single, bang!, released in 2010. The composer for the song is Kim Taehyun (T-ARA, UKISS, SS501, Son Dam Bi, B.D.U, HELLOVENUS, NU'EST, KARA, LABOUM, Lee Hyori, Favorite, Jewelry, 9Muses, Co-Ed School, Q6IX, V.O.S, and Fly To The Sky). Lyricists are Kim Heesun (Lay, IZ*ONE, FIFTY FIFTY, Son Dam Bi, NU'EST, Mighty Mouth, HELLOVENUS, VO.S, and Sun Ha) and Bekah. 

• Group: After School
• Debut Date: 2009 January 2009
• Company: Pledis Entertainment
• Status: Inactive
• Album: BANG
• Song: bang
• Release Date: 2010 March 25

I'm giving you all the official one. However. The fans did a better job of making that HD, so you're going to get that one, and that's the one I'm going to be referring to. 

This song is older than some of the idols debuting now. Yowza.

Alright, now that you've got the better one because there were so many flashes in this music video, let's do it.

As a side note, I am delighted that God of Music echoes this a little. Woozi may have been at Pledis when this was released, so I'm unsurprised if this embedded itself into his brain. At minimum, they probably learned this as trainees

The amount of potential this song has for a majorettes cover. Thank you, Kahi, for the concept where they got three separate fully matching uniforms, and they apparently spent five months training specifically for the drums (an example of this: 1:46). The choreography? Sharp. The lines? Sharper. The shininess of the material? Brighter than my future. I'm genuinely not sure which of the uniforms is the most iconic, because they come in with the blue ones and the drum major hats, but that one looks so dance team that I can almost see my friends who were on the dance team wearing it. 

Then we've got the red uniform with all sorts of tassels, also with hats, that feels a little bit more military to me. It's unknown why that one feels a bit more military, but it's fine. Actually, the military/drummer sound was popular right around this time, which is how we ended up with entire groups around that concept, like Baba, but I think the red one may have been the nod to that subgenre. 

Last but not least, we've got the light pink catwalk uniform that's blinged out with tassels and jewels and knee-high white socks. Uee at 1:22 in particular looks absolutely magnificent, but they're all showing off some insane visuals. 

And then you know I have to talk about Bekah's rap. Her hat is a bit low on her face when she starts it off at 1:38, but no one does it like Bekah. When she leaves, others fill in well for her, but it's just not as smooth as when she does. That's her part, and she owns it completely.

But then it leads immediately into one of the best bridges in K-Pop and one of my favorite bridges I've ever heard, and it's for one of the same reasons that Pray by BTOB is my favorite song of theirs. I love the big vocals. You know it (hopefully by this point; if you don't, then welcome! It's nice to meet you). I know it. My dog knows it. In this case, it's such an auditory reset that even if you're not paying attention, that immediate and sudden change will catch your ears, and then you're graced with Raina and Kahi passing the lines back and forth to each other in beautiful, flowing angelic vocals, before you also get Bekah rapping that gets added back into it to add another layer of texture and rhythm. The instrumental changes as well from that heavy-on-the-drums beat, but as the bridge goes on, pieces get reintroduced to create this fabulous increase of energy to lead into that final chorus and refrain. And we also get a very soft, fourth outfit that also completely changes the energy by taking them out of the intense, performative uniforms and into white t-shirts and jeans. And the soft lighting and glamour lens and just the softness of the bridge's visuals is great.

Hey, so remember when I just said that they got five months of training for drums? The beginning of this performance shows off that training well. The formation changes and shifts and the choreography as they're drumming? Amazing.

I'd also like to point out that when this stage was first performed, Kahi (the one who opens the song) was twenty-nine. The closest one to her age was Jungah, who is three years younger. The reason it was so late after the song came out is because there was an incident with North Korea, so the music shows got canceled. In case you were wondering why this was a month and a half later.

You can also tell that these are live vocals because of Kahi specifically because of the bridge at 2:45. Kahi goes a little off-pitch with her first section, then when it's time for her next section, she's messing with that in-ear as a direct response to the first section. Then Raina has a little bit of a wobble at 3:20. Considering how they've been dancing up until this point, and how challenging that part is after everything, it's really a testament

I mean, obviously you can also hear the difference between when it's backtrack and when it's them especially during the chorus and the refrain.

But at 3:42, you can hear the sounds of their clapping getting picked up by the mics as well with that part of the choreography.

And I decided to pause it at 1:43 to check on their synchronization, something that Pledis groups are well known for. Only one of them has her arm up at a different angle it looks like, and with regards to the feet, the one on the right has a bit more of a bent knee, the second from the right has two straight legs, and the one on the left hasn't turned her hips enough. Why did I pause it here? Because something looked off about it, which tells me that up until that point, they're synchronized enough that having a slight breakdown in their synchronization messed up the look and caught my attention.

Considering how big the group is, that's pretty impressive that they're really just slight differences that I'm looking at. 

And they're doing this in heels.

Respect. And major respect to Kahi because apparently she is a militant leader. Pun mostly intended.

Listen to that fanchant, y'all. And it sounds like their fans are predominately female, which is a bit of a surprise considering often, but not always, the boy groups have female fans and the girl groups tend to have male fans. MAMAMOO, for example, is an exception to this. And judging by the screams and the fan chants, After School may also be one.

So funny story, I only know what Bekah looks like when she's older for some reason, and I have to mentally rewind from where I know her to what she looked like, except for this stage for some reason. She looks like the Bekah I have in my head here.

Hello, live vocals! Raina goes a little bit sharp at the end of the bridge, which would have been evidence enough, but also, you've got Bekah (if you haven't noticed, I adore Bekah. She'd probably be my favorite if it weren't for Kahi) adding onto her rap at the end and it very much is an addition, but you've also got the very obvious composition differences during each of the refrains. Because those are live vocals, the balance of the vocals is different on each refrain and you can so clearly tell. There are differences in the chorus as well, but because the refrain is a chant, that makes it more noticeable.

And the reason why there's seven here is because Uee (Yui) was filming a drama. Pledis seems to have taken a bit of a leaf out of Super Junior's book, which is understandable considering how many of the early Pledis staff (including BoA's former manager, HSS himself) came from SME originally.

Okay, let's pop forward a little bit in time to 2014, with Kahi rejoining the group for Show! Music Core's 400th episode.

As a fun fact, if anyone cares, After School and Orange Caramel both are still listed as active groups on Pledis's website. I check every few weeks. Their younger brothers are still on the website as well. So even though Lizzy said they're disbanded, according to Pledis, they aren't. They're being weirdly stubborn about that.

The visuals of this group, y'all. And they're all pretty tall too. Pledis has a type, and while there are a few exceptions across their groups, they definitely have a type.

You see what I mean about Bekah's rap though? The one who does it now does it well, it's just not the same, which is a reality of what happens when you have line-up changes.

This is also one of my favorite outfits they were for this song, because the blue of their tops is actually the exact shade of my favorite color. And Kahi especially looks amazing in it. Our OG leader came back!

That ending choreography is so satisfying though. 

This one has a bit of an interesting camerawork choice of having the drummers be the main focus at the beginning and not highlight the beginning choreography and the members for a performance at a year-end concert. I'm not sure that it was the correct choice, but it certainly was a choice.

I just have to laugh a little that there are people in the comments arguing about who the visual is for this line-up. Uee and Nana are mentioned, then Jooyeon, then Raina and Lizzie. That's about half the group. Oh, K-Pop fans. Never change.

Okay. We're going to do some interesting things now.

First up, I found this video with some teen girls reacting to various After School performances. The one knows them because her parents listened to them a lot. I do recommend the entire video, but for these purposes I'm going to drop you off at 6:37, which is where Bang! starts.

Jaws are dropped. The disbelief. They love Uee and Kahi, by the way and started doing the choreography for this even though they're unfamiliar with this one.

And there's also a lot of praise for Bang! specifically in the comments, as it should. (Also, one of the comments brings up a performance that is the exact reason why I decided to do this song now). It was blocked from hitting number one on the charts only by Girls' Generation, which is one of those things that you can't really be mad about, especially not since the song in question was Run Devil Run, which is one of my favorite songs of theirs.

Okay, everyone. We're about to get into one of my favorite mini segments of this post: Pledis lineage. Pledis pulls from the SM playbook and makes sure the younger groups and artists know the big hitters of their seniors, and I'm going to share them in order of debut date, not performance date.

So that means that we're going to start with Ren. It's only partial.

All I'm going to say about this is that Ren has always taken girl group dances very seriously, and the After School members adore their younger brothers. Even Kahi starts giggling at him.

Next up in order of debut, we've got Seventeen doing a compilation at KCon 2016, shortly after their first anniversary and also shortly after their first win.

I'd like to gently point out that the compilation is After School and two of the older SM groups, who were at minimum trainees when the original Pledis staff was at SM. 

And this is where Seventeen's famed synchronization shines. I paused it at :54, and while several of them are kind of blurry because of motion blur, it definitely looks like all of their knees are at the same angle. The fun thing about this is though you've got multiple members mouthing the words with their mics nowhere near their faces (SCoups is one of them, who showed up at Pledis after JR did as the second boy trainee, but he would have been there while they were learning and practicing the choreography). I love to see that. It's one of my favorite things. 

I'd love to see them do it again now that they're older and bigger because they handle the power of the choreography so well. And they do the big ending choreography!

Next up, we've got a slightly earlier performance from the same year, but everyone, say hello to the future Pristin members! We're not going to talk about Pledis and Pristin too much right now.

As a reminder, yes, that is Kahi, the militant former leader of After School, as one of the judges. This isn't a proper cover of this because it's a little bit more of a compilation, but we get both a version of the bridge (which you're not always going to see), and I love the way that Kahi shows off her dimple when they come out and while they're performing. 

But even though my Korean isn't great, even I can tell that Kahi says something like "Wow, Pledis training is no joke." She wasn't trained by Pledis. She was a back-up dancer, then in another group, then joined HSS to form After School, so every idol that gets trained at Pledis, especially the ones trained and debuted at Pledis, is her specific legacy as much as it is anyone else's.

And here is actual Pristin covering it pre-debut, and again, we've got a compilation going on. But this is incredible. I love the changes to the bridge here. This captures the sprit of the original bridge even if it's different, and the members are showing off that they are in fact a group and a team. Whatever else happened with this group, they had the potential to live up to the standard set by After School.

Hi, TWS! I watched the streaming for this, and I was really tired, but they started and it was like a sleeper agent being activated. I also love that for Seventeen, the Pledis trainees, and TWS, the song was rearranged and adapted for the respective groups to show off something specific about them. Bang! is Pledis's Hope. 

You can also hear the little puffs of breath as they're singing and doing the chanting.

And can we be proud of Shinyu for dancing like that while rapping?

But we get the bridge! Youngjae's vocals are no joke. Not that any of the others are not aggressively stable either, as they should be, but Bang! bridge Youngjae is an entirely different monster. The bridge is the most viewed part of this video, as it should be, and we get vibrato from multiple of the members!

And just as another "Look at Kahi's legacy!", here's a screenshot I snagged at 2:28. Look at those angles, even with the motion blur.

Seriously. That's pretty impressive.

So now, we've got a couple of other covers. 

We'll go with another survival show almost ten years after the Produce 101, only instead of this being the audacious audition song, this one was a challenge song. It's one of the best things about the survival shows: we get a lot of covers.

This one had two of the six debuting members in it (Youngseo and Iroha, even though Youngseo did not debut with them and is currently after at The BlackLabel) but Woozi was also on hand as a judge for it. 

I don't know how happy I am that the bridge was removed in favor of a dance break, but some of the choreography changes were interesting and this was apparently for the dance focused section, so I suppose I understand it. It's a fitting song for a dance unit because this one has choreography that's hard as nails.

And here's another survival show where this was one of the challenge songs. I've seen this survival show as well and my eyebrows went up when this combination of group and song was chosen. It's a very different flavor of performance and another instance of this song morphing and changing (there is a form of the bridge in here, thankfully, because this song needs it), but even with the lighting like it is and everything, those men are very sweaty. They're nearly glittering at the end.

I could not find the actual performance from the Dream Concert that this was the dance practice for, which is fine. At least we have this. This is also our first taste of what that choreography looks like with a full roster of members without any camerawork.

They're lined up very well at 1:30. I paused it to check to see if they were all hiding behind that first member, and not quite, but it's close enough that I'd pass it off.

2:44 was also called out, and that's the final dance break. Agreed. It's ridiculously satisfying. And it's a testament to how hard this choreography is that right before the camera cuts, you see some of the Weki Meki members literally dropping to the ground.

Which is what makes this performance all the more impressive. Hello, everyone, and welcome to one of the pillars of this month and the sole reason why this one specifically was chosen for Mother's Day: the After School reunion in 2021 featuring members Kahi, Bekah, Jungah, Jooyeon, and Raina. Bekah and Kahi flew to Korea from overseas specifically for this, and both of them had to go through a month of quarantine before getting released two days before the performance.

 Kahi (who was forty and has two sons) is stunning. I love how you can see the marks of her laugh lines around her eyes anytime her face goes into anything approaching a smile because that means she's had a life well-lived in joy, and that's all I want. That, and her dimple comes out.

But as much as I love that Kahi did this as a mother, I love even more than Jungah was five months pregnant with her second kid. It's obvious which one she is, as she's the only one not showing off her midriff and no heels, but I love her "Kung kung kung" part. Yas, queen. She's not quite putting as much hip action into the choreography at the start of the bridge as Kahi, for instance, but I'm just impressed that she was likely practicing for the entire MMTG performance through morning sickness and all of the early pregnancy nonsense. Massive respect and kudos to her, and that kind of makes her daughter the youngest After School member, since she was in the performance too.

This is also at least partially live because you can hear live vocals breaking through the chorus and the refrain in parts. And then there's Bekah exposing that the mics were live, just turned down at 1:47. Her ad-libbed "Come on!" is there, it's just soft. "Whatchu know about it?" I love Bekah. And it sounds like Raina breaks through the backtrack as well.

And I love that you can hear some screams at 1:39 at the start of Bekah's part. Like I said before. Other people can do it well, but no one does it like Bekah. 

You know what's so cool about this performance though? It highlights the importance of line distribution and stage charisma and choreography. If you're asking why, go back to the ILLIT performance. It's the same number of members in the group, but this has the backup dancers to finish the formation so it doesn't look empty. Bang! needs to be performed by a group of 7-9 people, but because of the stage presence of these five members and the camera work, you don't notice that the remaining spots in the formations are taken up by the dancers. It's very impressive. 

And because I found it and I want to make sure that y'all know about it, here's a comment from the music video director for Diva and Bang! on this video. Translated with YouTube's autotranslate, but that's the link to the comment so you can read it for yourself. "I am the director who has been with After School since their debut, having filmed the music videos for "Diva" and "Bang." After watching today's broadcast, I was reminded of those incredibly intense days and the members' sweat and tears, so I am leaving a comment on YouTube for the first time. We danced and played the drums, constantly coordinating our movements to create the best... feeling apologetic even for the sound of the staff just watching... the last shot where the members kept crying, forcing us to pull our hats down even lower... the bruises on their thighs that couldn't be hidden no matter how much makeup covered them... Even though time has passed, this is a set I cannot easily forget, more so than any other music video location. I really wanted to tell you once again today that you were truly the best and that you worked hard. After School. I will continue to remember the members as the best and support them. Thank you, [MMTG]."

And I'd just like to give a shout-out to Jooyeon for being so unbelievably gorgeous. Every time she's on camera, it's like an actual attack right to my chest.

I'm not going to embed this video, but if you want a full cam version, that's here. They look incredible, and this also shows them after the performance, with poor Jungah doubled over under the guise of bowing. But she did so well. I'm so proud of her.

Here is the interview they did as part of this. It's so cute how Pledis keeps having deeply sentimental leaders because Kahi straight up cries. It's about sixteen minutes long. Not how long she cries. The entire video.

And here is Kahi's vlog for the entire thing. Seungkwan shows up at one point gifting them shampoo while singing Shampoo (one of their songs and it is gorgeous). And the second gen bonds are strong, which is lovely to see. We also get bits of them practicing. I'm giving you the whole video, but if you want Bang! specific parts, you want 9:50, 11:02 (where Kahi is practicing in heels because the militant leader is nothing if not deliberate in making sure this is the best performance; and for both of these two parts, they're practicing like they're preparing for handheld mics), 15:10, and 18:00 (when Key from SHINee shows up and they're getting into their Bang! hair and makeup). They had their debut staff join them for this, another reason why Kahi cried, and she got butt pats from her members.

Just a quick little clip that functioned as a teaser, but shows Minhyuk (Monsta X) and JaeJae absolutely fanning over this song.

And Bekah and Kahi both gave us the dance practice for this song, which is wonderful and makes this proper choreography time!

I paused it at 1:26 and those arms are completely synchronized and it looks like all five of them may be mostly in synch with the feet and legs as well. I'm giving Jungah a pass here because she's being responsible and taking care of herself and her energy levels so there are a couple of spots where she really stands out (like 1:56). It's just practice. She went out for the actual performance, which is where it counts, but Jungah is being safe with herself. 

I imagine that Kahi would have started to mother her if she wasn't. One of her original babies was having a baby. There's going to be some high levels of awareness and protective instincts going on.

But this choreography has everything. Massive amounts of sharp group choreography. Body rolls. Hip pops. The amount of body control that they have to have on display right at the start with the micro jumps and the shoulder movements. 

And notice that Jooyeon is doing this in her heeled boots? 

At 2:52, we get some incredibly satisfying claps and stomps during that section. It's probably my favorite part of the choreography.

But you want to see Pledis's famed synchronization?

That's impressive.

I also just want you all to know that someone commented on this video that After School needs to have a comeback and Bekah responded with "Right?" Keep in mind that she graduated in 2011 to be a designer, and according to Lizzy, After School was disbanded in 2019 (someone apparently needs to tell Pledis that) (that's a joke, I love seeing them on Pledis's website, I will be so sad if they're ever removed). But their twentieth anniversary is coming up here pretty soon, so maybe we'll get something?

As a side note and I waited until now to say it because I wanted you all to enjoy it, but the intro reminds me of the pirates from A Pirate's Life For Me. You know, the song for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland? I'm sorry if you now have that association. This is why I waited.

I love this song so much, and I love that I picked a theme for May that would allow me to yap extensively about how amazing this song is. Not too shabby for a first group from a tiny company. And as a special treat, here's a video where you can hear both 2010 and 2021 versions at the same time. Enjoy that.

If you've got a song you'd like me to cover, feel free to drop a comment or leave me something in  The Form. Y'all seriously introduce me to the most interesting songs, which means I get to introduce other people to them. Thanks for reading and indulging me while I yap! Happy Mother's Day!

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