Greatest Hits:: Dahye (BESTie): Bad Blood

 Remember remember the Fifth of November, the Gunpowder Treason and plot. I know of no reason the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot. November fifth is also the day that the city of Rapture from BioShock was originally founded. Why do I bring this up? Because the song was released on November fifth. This song was actually submitted a couple of months ago in The Form after I asked for some spooky songs for October and I went "Huh. I've never heard of her." And then I found out which group she was in and I went "Oh! That's one of my disbanded girl groups I like to listen to!" So I hope that whoever submitted it enjoys this when they read it, since they didn't give me any way to drop this post in their lap like a cat leaving a mouse buttF on the back steps. And I've definitely never had a cat who would do such a thing.

Dahye originally debuted in the girl group BESTie in 2013, and then debuted as a soloist in 2020 under World Star Entertainment about a month before this single was released. She's actually been fairly active since she debuted as a soloist, and her debut song was a remake of a Uhm Jung Hwa song, which is fun because I've actually been chewing on the idea of doing one of hers. Ooh, that's an idea for next year. Paired remakes.

Bad Blood was the title track of her second digital single released in 2020. For our writing credits, we have D'Day (tripleS, WJSN, NCT, cignature, TIOT, MAP6, WHIB, Sunny Hill, SKYE, Apink, Brown Eyed Girls, FIESTAR, OH MY GIRL, KOYOTE, MASC, History, Lovelyz, and JeA) as only a lyricist, Noise_bo2 (A.C.E, Punch, #Annyeong, cignature, and Lee Seok Hoon) as composer and producer, and KZ (Stray Kids, IZ*ONE, NiziU, tripleS, Kep1er, IZ*ONE, EPEX, MCND, CIX, BOY STORY, cignature, The Wind, 2AM, CSR, BVNDIT, A.C.E, Highlight, Forestella, Billlie, Red Velvet, NewBeat, Heejin, NEXZ, ME:I, LUNARSOLAR, Nam Woo Hyun, Soyeon, The Boyz, fromis_9, Apink, WJSN, Cravity, Sungjae, IU, TIOT, Ailee, WJSN, TAN, WHIB, MAP6, Cross Gene, DRIPPIN, D1CE, NouerA, Sunny Hill, BXW, Golden Child, SKYE, EL7Z UP, April, Weeekly, FIFTY FIFTY, WEi, n.SSign, Younha, JO1, FIESTAR, INI, INFINITE, History, Brown Eyed Girls, ATBO, CLASSy, Jamie, KOYOTE, Ken, OCTPATH, SONAMOO, Kim Boa, BUGVEL, Thunder, VARSITY, Hypeverse, and MODYSSEY)  and Jeon Dawoon (MAMAMOO, Isaac Hong, ONEWE, 2AM, J-Rabbit, Map6, Kyuhyun, Cross Gene, B1A4, Sonamoo, Skye, B.A.P, 15&, Infinite, and SPICA) as both composers and lyricists.

• Group: BESTie
• Debut Date: 2020 October 10
• Company: World Star Entertainment
• Status: Active
• Album: Bad Blood
• Song: Bad Blood
• Release Date: 2020 November 05

Wow, that's a dramatic violin.

So apparently Dahye usually rapped when she was part of BESTie, so once again we have another idol proving my boy JR's gentle admonishment during Produce 101 when he said "If you're going to be an idol rapper, you have to be able to sing too." But that also just goes to show how powerful idols can be with their versatility, because you're telling me that this gorgeous voice was tucked away behind the rapping like a hidden treasure? 

Be still, my soul.

Alright, so I mentioned in my Halloween Spookening post, 2026 Edition, that we've got an evil clone situation going on here in the music video. And that's something fun we're going to come back to in a moment. But the lyrics.

I know I have to rely on the translation for most of it. However. If the translation is correct, this song isn't just a song where the "good" side and the "bad" side are fighting for control as depicted in the music video, but it's that plus the resignation and spite that comes from accepting that you have become the villain in the story.

It's actually fascinating, because it's the recognition that there is something dark and ugly and "bad" already living inside you, literally like bad blood (title drop!), but trying to control it like bearing a cross through a bleak desert.

The imagery there. Like, I know I've said before about how I don't like poetry because a lot of the time it's a bit pretentious and overly complicated (even if I adore the vocabulary being used). However, when you can give me strong imagery, that's good stuff right there. That's a satisfying meal right there. That's a meal with a delicious sauce and enough spices to make my English ancestors weep at the abundance and dense enough to be filling but healthy enough that you don't feel weighed down. And yes, I know this is a dense food metaphor, but you know what? That imagery deserves it. 

Also, I highly recommend you listen to this song with headphones or both earbuds in because the stereo system is in use. I was actually slightly surprised by that, but that's such a nice way to start off the song. I say "Nice." It's actually dramatically eerie with how sharp that violin is. The entire song is gloriously cinematic in a way that we all need more of, and it's striking how similar this song is to Paradise Lost. There's even a very sultry dance break there at the end, of course the violin is also screaming a little bit there at the end as well, so that's fun. 

The music video is also incredibly striking. Our main colors here are white, black, and red. We have white and black in her costuming and the costuming of her dancers, which obviously symbolizes the dual nature of the wolves inside her, but her jewelry has red gems, there is red liquid on the banquet table, the designs on her nails are red, several of the walls are red, the fabric sticks the dancers have are red, and there is one very specific dress that is shadowed but very clearly red. 

I don't know how deep the red thing is past the obvious "red is connected to blood" thing, but I do think it's interesting that we get more of the red in her jewelry and the general set when she's in her white dress. Although she presumably is drinking the blood in her black dress. 

One of the most striking parts of the music video is the confrontation that starts at 1:59 and the video effects that flicker between the one in white and the one in black, until 2:08, when the one in black smiles.

Y'all. That is the creepiest smile. That's fully a horror movie antagonist smile, and with the dark red lighting and the shadows and all of it.

And then with the choreography, it's like the one in black starts replacing the one in white. After that confrontation, we see so much more of the one in black. The one in white is also the one who blindfolds herself, and if that isn't a metaphor, I know nothing about media literacy. The "good" one literally blinds herself by surrounding herself in the lace and gossamer and linen (I'm weirdly reminded of starched doilies) of the "evil" one, and that's a form of surrender as the one in black takes control.

And the dance break. There's a choreography version of the music video, which I'm going to give you and not really comment on too much because there's also a dance practice. But the views are low enough that I still want to share it.

Okay. Here's the choreography version. Again, I love the interplay between the two versions. Anyway. Yeah. Just enjoy that. It's really cool.

So I had to decide. I was only able to find a pair of performances for this song, and I'm going to share both of them, but I had to decide which one to go with first. Obviously, you're getting the decision after it was made, so I don't know how much you need my thoughts, but I decided on this Simply K-Pop performance because it happened first. It also has about twelve times the views of the other one.

I find it fascinating that she went with the black outfit for the first one. She looks stunning and what I think is so cool about it is the lace forming a sort of bustle for her.

The image of her kneeling amidst the fog at :32 is a little mesmerizing because she stands out so well in the black. 

Reminder that she was a rapper when she was in the group. I think it's worth the reminder because of how ethereal her voice is here.

So much of the lighting for the stage is purple with small little flickers of red, which softens the black so nicely. Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again. Purple and black is the witchy combination, and red and black is the vampire combination. 

That does give this stage an interesting reading. Up until this point, if you'd asked me what supernatural creature we were dealing with in the music video, I would have said vampire. With the predominance of the purple, I think we need to consider that this may also be a spell gone awry.

Fascinating. With the white outfit, the lighting is predominantly red with little flashes of purple. 

This is the second stage with Simply K-Pop and while it doesn't have nearly the views, that's fine because we don't care too much about views here. We worry about what's available. 

Actually, and the funny thing is this association is only possible because of what year this is, her white outfit here reminds me of the ultimate outfits at the end of KPop Demon Hunters. It doesn't have the pretty pastel patterns, but the styling and the white with gold accents is very similar and I wouldn't be surprised if this was one of the inspirations for it. 

Which really is one of the points of the movie, isn't it? Rumi also is caught between the golden light of the Honmoon and the reality of her own perceived darkness. The light eventually wins in Rumi's case, and it doesn't seem to for Dahye here, but it's a case of a similar character archetype taking divergent paths.

And the fact that we get so much red here is very telling .Also, if you look at the LED screen, the design is fractured glass, which reminds me of the line "I broke into a million pieces and I can't go back/But now I'm seeing all the beauty in the broken glass". This is actually fascinating. Not that I'm saying that there's a definitive connection here, but if there is I wouldn't be surprised because we know that the filmmakers did take inspiration from existing groups and stages, and Ejae has been involved in the industry for a while, first as a trainee at SM and then as a songwriter herself. 

Actually, now that I'm looking at it, the specific combination of that red and that purple looks a lot like Gwi-Ma's flames. Again, I'm not saying that this specific stage influenced the filmmakers at all. It's probably just a coincidence, but the thematic vibrations match so this is like if Rumi had joined with Gwi-Ma at the end. 

Fascinating. I love it when characters show a "What if" contrast. Or, well, I suppose because of the timing, KPop Demon Hunters shows the "What if" where Dahye's character chose not to succumb to the darkness inside her. 

All of this is, I think, a really long way of saying that I absolutely love her stage costume here because it reflects a strong archetype, combined with matching color schemes, that we're still seeing reflected in more recent popular media. 

Dance Practice time!

We've got a handheld camera recording it, so it's definitely a different experience from what the normal dance practice video with the static camera is.

The use of the dancers to block the view of Dahye while she's sitting down to get into position for the vocals to start is really clever. And the movement flow from :32 to :37 is just so elegant. There are different height levels and synchronized movements and it really just looks so pretty. And the way the dancers move through their own gaps at 1:14 is also really pretty. 

But I think "elegance" is an excellent word for this choreography. There's a certain element of modern dance to this that I'm a lot less familiar with, especially at the dance break at 3:01, but overall, this is the kind of thing I think of when I think of dancer choreography.

And the body control that she's got to look as good as she does at 1:11 and at 1:20 is very impressive to do the hopping with the tiny body roll at the same time. It's a very intimidating move in an otherwise fluid choreography, especially with her flanked by her dancers like she is. 

Thanks for reading, Champions! I wish this had been able to be promoted more, but with how small of a company she was at, it's understandable why she couldn't. Still, this is a wonderful song and I'm very excited to share it with you all.

If you've got a song you'd like for me to cover, I'd love to hear about it. Drop a comment. Submit it via The Form. You can yell it from the rooftop but I can't guarantee that I'll hear it that way. But, feel free to try anyway.

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