Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Breaking records for the amount of comebacks made in a year, B.A.P are at it again. This time with their new single, “Stop It“.
Palpable irony aside, the effort to actually spice things up with ‘Stop It’ is more than appreciated, as it gives everybody something fresh to savor from the most ruthlessly persistent rookie group of the year. It’s quite obvious that B.A.P want to remain relevant, and this is one way of doing it. Is it wrong? Not at all. But it does have its minor repercussions.
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“Stop It”, the immediate relative to “Crash”, is a lax, light-hearted pop single that lays down a pretty strong hook to capture all the attention. It’s one of B.A.P’s softest songs to date and a pretty addicting one at that. The two tonal rap (Bang Yong Guk & Zelo) blend really well with the vocal leads, creating an interesting tune to jam to. Add in the fact that the song itself takes cues from the heart of the 90s, which surprisingly caters really well to B.A.P’s sound, and they’ve got a winner.
Of course, we do still get a bit of the B.A.P staple in “YESSIR“, the intro track, to which I’ll quote myself:
They have a pretty strong grip on the type of music that they’re aiming for, but I think they haven’t quite given themselves enough time as rookies to challenge their aggressive temperament in the proper ways to re-energize the listening experience. It shows in their lead singles and it feels like they don’t know how to leave a lasting impression without reverting to their old, tried ways and gimmicks.
Have B.A.P become less about uniqueness and more about gimmicks? Definitely. But “YESSIR” is a pleasant surprise to listen to, as it pretty much strips away everything that became extraneous in the last few months and fleshes out a hype song that actually functions as such for the style of the single release as a whole. It’s got a bit of 90s crunch with just a dash of the B.A.P energy. “Happy Birthday” is its exact opposite, pace-wise, as it closes this sucker on a light, airy note.
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‘Stop It’ isn’t particularly fascinating, but it is a step in the right direction for everyone. Daehyun isn’t overwhelming with self-indulgent belts, and neither rapper ever steps out of bounds in tangential nonsense. A controlled environment was set in place with this single, and by the sound of how polished things turned out this time, I think that’s exactly what this boy band needed.
this group needs to stop coming back with nonsense, and even if they did, they could have combined this single with the last single/mini album and it would have at least been more substantial. I don’t get the whole point of fans bragging about how these idols ‘participate’ in the writing/composition of their songs when they clearly don’t know what they’re trying to achieve with their music.
GET ON THE IU EUNHYUK thing…i want nasty article analyzing that photo
I think “Stop It” is totally fun. It’s a great throwback to the 90′s heyday of boy bands, but isn’t too old fashioned.
However, I do think we’ve been seeing A LOT of BAP, and I’m hoping they’ll calm down with the releases a little after they’ve established themselves so solidly this year.
I can’t say I like it much. It’s got a sound that annoys me. This track is not absolutely terrible, but it doesn’t sound particularly appealing to me. It’s kind of dull, too. I’m not too enamored with the MV either.
I actually had high hopes for them when they debuted.
They are from a small company and managed to create some hype while competing against EXO who were everyfuckingwhere.
I secretly rooted for them, probably because of their underdog status.
But after their debut single I started to lose interest, even though they got rid of their horrendous hair for a while. I guess they promoted too much without giving themselves enough time to mature.
I have to admire them for their determination to make an impression, but they aren’t improving with each release and I really want them to. I think they need to just take their own advice and stop for a bit and focus on putting out some more quality songs that fit with their image without being repetitive. Something like ‘Goodbye’ I think would have made a good title track.
The song is fun, but kind of forgettable. Daehyun’s in top form as usual though, probably my favourite rookie vocalist.
How’s it possible to have comebacks when you never go away?
ROFL, this is always relevant.
(D.O, omfg)
lol The whole mini-album isn’t bad, but speaking particularly on the title track. No. Just no. I love BAP, they’re my extreme bias. But no. For so many reasons.
I love bubblegum pop, the 90s, and cutesy stuff tbh. They just fucking failed at it. They looked like they were goofing off. That’s great for the occasional fan thing, but not for a title song, not to continue the BAP legacy. Fucking shit.
Also my favorite group used to release a music video every two months, I wish people would stfu about how THEY NEED REST. I’m not buying it.
Yeah, I don’t like their cutesy stuff. I thought it was ok with “Crush” as follow-up song just for fanservice, but now as title song… *sigh*
I like it. I think it shows versatility which is what groups need to survive. Especially with hundreds of rookies debuting all year long.
there’s a diff between showing versatility and basically just not knowing what your direction is, and i feel like its the latter that applies more. For a group that supposedly loves hip hop and wants to bridge the gap between mainstream with underground, their stuff is not doing it…and it confuses the shit out of me when they jump from one extreme to the other.
Yeah this. Plus I’m tired of the “versatility” thing because imo the fact of the matter is that this only proved they’re not versatile. They fail this image.
They used to be my favorite idol rookies of the year, what happened to them?((
Well, they still are, if I pretend like “Stop It” never existed, and songs like this won’t happen with them anymore.
I prefer them to be criticized for similar concepts every time than trying too hard to be versatile and come back with a concept that doesn’t suit them at all. I mean, this song is so generic and boring, it doesn’t have B.A.P feel in it, more like B1A4 or Boyfriend (who came back with much better song this time) or dozen of other k-pop groups.
B.A.P were one of the few who didn’t look too fake with badass concept. I hope their next release will be much more different from other groups than Hajima
I don’t really care about rookies boys band this year, but the BAP vs EXO fanwars is really funny. All the drama, all the wank.
I seriously thought they would never turn cute.
But they did. Oh dear.