Greatest Hits:: EXO: Tempo

 This is why I laughed last month during the month of chaos when Love Shot was chosen because this was the first song I picked when I decided on the theme for the month. I wouldn't have done two EXO songs back to back because I like more variation than that. The other really funny thing is Love Shot is the title track from the repackaged album and Tempo is the title track from the original. The other reason why I laughed. There were a lot of EXO songs available and that one was picked. I don't know what to tell us. But! This song is the focal point of this month's theme because there's something very specific about this song that is the most known thing about this song. It's the first thing I learned about this song. I listened to it because of that thing I learned about it and swooned.

EXO originally debuted in 2012 under SM with twelve members split between two subunits. Fun fact, I have a friend who used to be an EXOL back in the day (AKA when we were in high school, though I don't think I knew it at the time), and she has since fallen away but I discovered this little factoid recently when I started doing my thing of making my interests my friends' problem I do every time I get a new fixation and she told me she used to be an EXOL. My response was "Oh! This is a great time to get back into them! They're about to all be discharged!" And now she's picked up Stray Kids (the Felix Effect is real) and I'm working on her for ATEEZ as well.

You're welcome.

Tempo is the first and title track of EXO's fifth album, DON'T MESS UP MY TEMPO, released in 2018. Song of the Year for the 2019 Soompi Awards and a Triple Crown from Music Bank. For almost all of the songwriters, they have done multiple songs for multiple of the SM groups. Okay, so, our lyricists and our composers are two different lists with no crossovers. For the lyricists, we have PENOMECO (NCT, Gray, ITZY, Zico, millic, BOYNEXTDOOR, Jessi, pH-1, Hwasa, FANXYCHILD, TNX, Crush, Dawn, BADVILLAIN, Dynamic Duo, IU, Red Velvet, Block B, GOT7, LEEBADA, ASTRO, BIGONE, Jeong Sewoon, Park Jihoon, Verivery, and DinDin), JQ (Red Velvet, NCT, Shaun, ITZY, Wheein, EVERGLOW, Enhypen, TWICE, Girls' Generation, Wanna One, KiiiKiii, Kang Daniel, Monsta X, Yoo Jae Suk (I knew I recognized his name and this post is next on my list to update), ZEROBASEONE, LOONA, CIX, The Boyz, SHINee, VAV, f(x), Jongho, izna, IVE, EL7Z UP, Loossemble, B.A.P, Cravity, KARA, gugudan, BoA, Yeeun Eric Nam, Tempest, Weki Meki, Eunkwang, Weeekly, Victon, Younhwa, 1THE9, WINNER, EXID, TRCNG, LeeHi, Momoland, WJSN, UNB, VANNER, Super Junior, KNK, Fantasy Boys, Melody Day, Ailee, 8TURNH1-KEY, TVXQ!, INI, BerryGood, Ken, DIA, MAP6, YOUNITE, SE7EN, Feverse, NOEL, and Shin Wonho), and Yoo Youngjin (NCT, Red Velvet, SuperM, aespa, SHINee, Girls' Generation, GOT the beat, A20 MAY, S.E.S, TVXQ!, Super Junior, Shinhwa, BoA, TWICE, S.M. The Ballad, Fly to the Sky, H.O.T, Paul Kim, GFRIEND, TraxX, Momoland, f(x), Big Mama, CJH The Grace, Gummy, Lee Sang Soon, Jamie, and Gwangil Jo). For the composers, we have MZMC (NCT, Red Velvet, Girls' Generation, RIIZE, LOONA, VVS, Kang Daniel, Yoo Jae Suk, SHINee, TAN, CIX, GSoul, EPEX, The Boyz, Super Junior, Bumkey, Ren, TVXQ!, Yuju, BoA, and Ailee), Adrian McKinnon (NCT, SuperM, Red Velvet, Hearts2Hearts, PLAVE, RIIZE, f(x), SHINee, Enhypen, Monsta X, Alpha Drive One, ASTRO, aespa, GSoul, 1VERSE, Kim Wooseok, MCND, EPEX, TVXQ!, N. Flying, NEXZ, Victon, Super Junior, BAE173, KickFlip, Nam Woohyun, Spectrum, and OWV), Tay Jasper (SuperM, NCT, Red Velvet, RIIZE, f(x), Enhypen, KickFlip, SHINee, Taeyeon, Monsta X, IDID, Crush), Leven Kali (LE SSERAFIM, NCT, Red Velvet, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, Taeyeon, SHINee, The Boyz), and Digi (Red Velvet, NCT, Taeyeon, SHINee, Kang Daniel, Super Junior, BoA, and TVXQ!). 

• Group: EXO
• Debut Date: 2012 April 08
• Company: SM Entertainment
• Status: Active
• Album: DON'T MESS UP MY TEMPO
• Song: Tempo
• Release Date: 2018 November 2

Almost four minutes of song. I'm so satisfied.

So there's a YouTube compilation video channel that I really like (@topopiko) who, in one of their videos, mentioned that they wanted to do a video about bed squeaking in K-Pop songs but they needed to collect more songs. I do not remember which video it was and I'm not going to rewatch all of the videos I've watched to figure it out. I apologize for not being able to be more precise.

If Tempo is not on that eventual video, what are we even doing here?

In all seriousness, using the bedsprings squeak as an additional beat instrument during the chorus, almost like a metronome, allows the vocals to roll with that beat as a strong structural base. Then, of course, there's the other reason to sing "Don't mess up my tempo" while hearing bedsprings.

Ahem.

This also has a fascinating blend of the solid and the delicate. The majority is in a fairly predictable hip-hop style that focuses predominately on the beat, with a BPM that you could do CPR to, until you hit the bridge.

At which point we transition fully into something almost on the other end of the spectrum. That slight air of aggressiveness shifts into something a lot more sultry. And while a lot of the music video uses a lot of red lighting, this is where we get green, red's complement. It's a visual trigger that something has changed to reinforce the aural landscape change, and literally a visual trigger for that clue comes at 2:27 the red lighting flickers and turns green and Baekhyun gets the green light over his eyes like a visor, which also makes his blue contacts turn bright green.

Then when the a cappella section starts up, we get that gorgeous bit of piano, and then the lighting goes full red like an emergency alarm when the a cappella starts up. The harmonies right there are incredible.

Now, I have to say, that while I did have someone over on Reddit give me a rundown of some of the SM lore (through the lens of the TVXQ! lore), I don't know a whole lot about EXO's specific lore other than they're superheroes. But I can analyze what we have here. 

So. 

Each member or pair of members has their own room, where it doesn't feel like they're imprisoned, necessarily and more being held, like storage. I'm also inclined to say that the nine of them also aren't actually real people. The biggest hint of that comes at 3:21 when they're glitching. They feel more substantive than just holograms because they seem to be waiting for a signal or something and holograms wouldn't need that to be let out of their rooms. 

It's hinted at at 2:14 as well with the extreme close-up of the eye. I'm reminded of 2001: A Space Odyssey for some reason with that shot, but it's so science fiction. As the old adage goes, eyes are the window to the soul, and these windows are mechanical. 

At 2:49, Kai is playing a piano that is only partially real and partially hologram. 

There's another glitching figure watching the members, like a guard of some sort. 

But it's only once that last cube gets activated that the members actually leave, and they each have one. So it could be some sort of a security deactivation, or an activation signal to trigger their departure from wherever they're stored.

And then at 2:38, we've got a Rorschach Inkblot Test being administered, and I'm almost thinking this is supposed to be representative of the Turing Test but then Baekhyun (I think) is part of the test. 

And I'm sure there's deeper symbolism when we look at which members are together with regards to their powers. But I leave that to the EXO-Ls to figure out and let me know, because I'm not there yet. 

I was a little worried because the lyrics didn't show up for a while. 

Starting off with EXO in uniforms on Music Bank, from the day the album was released, I can see why this performance has had ten million views so far.

Also, the mics sound like they could be live because if you listen at 3:27, you hear what sounds like the pins and such on their coats and jackets clinking, which you probably would only be able to hear because it's a cappella.

It being a cappella is helpful, because obviously the snapping is still part of the backtrack, but that would be easy enough to leave in there so that they don't have to worry about accidentally losing the beat. Although now, that problem could be solved because of how Big Ocean performs with their wristbands the pulse with the beat, but the choreography doesn't really allow for the snapping to be performed by the members and picked up by the mics clearly and easily. 

And then of course there's Suho at 1:06 with his "Baby girl". Sir, please.

And just generally, I love Xiumin's hair. I feel like a lot of the time he's stuck his finger in a socket or he's just incredibly surprised, but in kind of an adorable way. Oh! You remember the troll dolls? That's what his hair reminds me of, and it's a good thing he doesn't have orange hair. I had a couple of them when I was young and loved playing with them. One of them was dating one of my Barbies.

Okay, SBS Gayo Daejeon. Oh, and they're on bikes. Sehun and Baekhyun get an opening dance break where they get to just show off before everyone else joins them to play. Also, watch D.O's expression while Baekhyun is dancing. D.O is the one in black jacket, white dress shirt, and red shirt underneath that.

And I'd like to point out that the most replayed parts of the performance create a valley. The dance break at the beginning, a magnificent display from the maknae and the main vocalist, gets the first big bumpy bell curve. The second one belongs to, you guessed it, the bridge. The camerawork could have been better, I'll be honest, because we get some weird angles and long shots, instead of having wide shots to focus on the group choreography or even the individual actually singing at the time. And during the bridge? Forget it. It's baffling and I'd love to hear the logic behind what we got for the song.

We don't get the dance break following the bridge in this rearrangement, which is fine because we introduced the song with a dance break. It is cute that the group on stage left had to jog a little bit in order to get to the thrust stage in time for the last tiny bit of the song and the fireworks bit. 

Now we've got an SMTOWN Live, and we've got some new ad-libs. Is this live? I can't get a good look at anyone's throats to confirm, but it sounds like there's a very high possibility that this could be because the ad-libs sound different and Baekhyun's vibrato is slightly different to the studio recording. 

I want this to be live. I want this to be live badly because that a cappella section is stunning. The harmonies and the way the vocals slip and flow into each other, effortlessly handing the song to each other. And about the bridge, I think we're missing two of the members for this performance. I think we're missing my favorite stuck-my-finger-in-a-socket Xiumin and my favorite foodie D.O. Military service? Hopefully it was military service and not hiatus for something like an injury.

We're going to do this a little bit out of order and go with a cover by Oneus, and please note that they have six members to cover eight parts and are a much younger group. Every time I see them do something, I'm just impressed. And this was performed only a year after this song was released, which means that they probably really liked it to pick this instead one of their earlier songs (side note: Oneus doing Mama would probably ascend me). Or instead of Love Shot. 

Are we sad that the a cappella section got cut out? Yes.

Are we happy that Oneus got as much time to perform this as they did being rookies? Also, yes.

And look down in the comments. Yes, there are quite a few TO MOONs in the comments, as there should be, but this cover of the queen that is Tempo is EXO-L approved, especially with the knowledge that Tempo is not the one that gets covered because of the high level of difficulty and complexity.

With how often the EXO-Ls get a talking to from the members (read: D.O) about their singing, they would have a high standard for vocals, so the fact that they're appreciating Oneus for this is an incredibly big recommendation.

So this is a bit of an interesting reaction video because it's classical and jazz musicians reacting to this song. They're more qualified to talk about the instrumental than I am, and they spend a lot of time cooing over the a cappella. It's a different perspective to listen to people whose job is instrumental music talk about music. 

Charlotte and Peyton were my favorite duo though. One of the bunch reminds me of my older brother, who is a tuba player. I'm not sure how I feel about the interpretation of that song being what was given, because the lyrics don't support that, but whatever. I'm not here to argue with that.

And Sehun's vocals got complimented! Our maknae!

Our next interesting reaction video is an opera singer and a music producer. Again, it's different professional perspective, and I'm happy to share this one because he's more qualified to talk about stuff than I am.

I like using sources.

And this guy is very appreciative of the technicality of the vocals and talks about the physiology of singing, and the cleverness of the production, which I am so here for. I am here to learn with this one. But his face at the start of the a cappella section made me laugh.

I was going to use this for the dance practice section because this was kind of as close to one as I thought I was going to find. It's only part of the song, but I don't think Knowing Bros has full performances a lot anyway.

But I found a solid replacement! So just enjoy this!

If you've been around for a while, you'll know that I'm very much into A.C.E and I will die on the hill of their excellence. They did a dance cover. And we're going to use this as the dance practice to look at the choreography. It is only about half the song, but A.C.E regularly covers EXO songs.

And they said that it only took them four hours to learn this choreography, which, if that's true, is deeply impressive.

And there are EXO-Ls in the comments here too giving compliments.

So while I'd love to talk about how amazing A.C.E, let's look at the details of the choreography and try to focus on that instead of the group.

There are a lot of very sharp movements in this choreography, especially in the synchronized group sections. Sharp movements, sharp angles. I actually have spent a lot of the video looking at their feet, when they're on camera because the camera is moving. 

We don't see those details a lot in most of the above stages because they're focused on the faces and expressions and not the feet, but the footwork in this song is almost constant movements, and they're little, readjustment movements and I would still be falling over. They've got so many tiny hops and steps throughout that it's just fascinating to watch.

And since this is only the first third or so of the song, the rest of the song is going to be filled with those little movements. This feels like it's a surprisingly exhausting song, and it's a testament to EXO's training and skill that they make that entire song look so easy, you know?

And that's the end of the month! Did you figure out what the theme was?

Drum roll please!

The excellent architecture of bridges in K-Pop! Bridges come in all forms, ranging from being the undisputed highlight of the song to a late song texture change to the connective tissue through the end of the song. We've seen vocal excellency and choreography excellency abound in that section all month, topping it off with the queen that is Tempo. 

And this is why I hate the two minute songs. Where are my bridges?

If you've got another song you'd like me to cover, or even another theme for a month with a song as the backbone, feel free to leave a comment or fill out The Form for me. An obvious one that's coming up that I want to start planning is the October Spookening, so especially if you've got a song that is some sort of horror-coded that you think would be fun, I'd especially like those. Thanks all!

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