i'm rly sorry for being this person i hope you like tl;dr
Click to view(This is the english subbed version of the music video and that's for a reason, but we'll get to that later.)
The common refrain when it comes to this song seems to be that it "sounds like four different songs smashed into one". I keep hearing that four! I can't pick out four. It sounds like seven or a gazillion or something when I try to pick it apart. I think I would like almost any of these songs on their own (maybe not 1:13 - 1:43 as much but then MAYBE) but as this song is you get WHIPLASH from the way it changes. That's not good. Mostly I don't think I like this song.
But.
I keep thinking about the fact that SM chose this as their single. It's a completely bizarre song, but... they wanted it to be. They could have just as easily picked a halfway catchy "normal" verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-chorus song, given it to SNSD, and had themselves an easy hit. They didn't want to do that. They wanted to do this instead.
When I was talking about this with cherise she compared it to Sherlock which was apt of her. I had honestly forgotten Sherlock was ~two different songs~ in the first place? It always sounded like one song to me. When I listened to "Clue" and "Note" they sounded incomplete, separated as some sort of dumb SM gimmick to fill up album tracks without buying more songs, tbh. But now I wonder if they didn't actually think they were innovating music somehow with Sherlock, if this is all some weird boundary of song they're playing with?? And I mean, it's not like smushing multiple songs together into one is a Brand New Thing that SM created. It's happened, t's called a mashup. But when you hear "mashup" you expect to hear two different songs that already existed mixed together, and this... obviously isn't that? I can't think of another pop song like this. I don't know if that means you can call it innovative. And I keep wondering -- did SM want to do try this weird-ass song for SNSD for themselves?? It could go either way. It could be something they've been wanting to try that they gave to SNSD because they were the most likely to be able to pull it off (because of their popularity), but it could also be that they wanted SNSD to do something ~fresh~. Or something. (Whether IGAB is actually fresh is SUPER debateable, but that's the thing about this song -- whether or not you like it, the intent behind it is interesting.)
Anyway pt 2 of this analysis is the lyrics, which seem as nonsensical and discombobulated as the song (if you don't speak Korean and you need to read them as words on a screen) until you watch it matched up with the video and realize it's meant to be a conversation. You guys, I LOVE songs about gossip. Remember this press release?:
The title song, “I Got A Boy”, is an electronic dance song that has a mix of pop, retro and urban genres. The hook’s addictive melody leaves an impression, and the main theme of the lyrics is “girl talk”. It carries small talk about everyday life between girlfriends, increasing the fun.
Usually you just have to lol at these but lol they weren't kidding this time with "mix of pop, retro, and urban genres", huh. BUT ANYWAY I was super excited about the "girl talk" thing when I heard it because I thought we'd be getting this:
A K A THE MOST UNDERRATED DESTINY'S CHILD SINGLE EVER?? I love girl group pop a LOT and it's interesting that almost always the groups are meant to come together as one voice instead of separating off into characters?? Anyway here they separate. Kelly Rowland has a shitty boyfriend and Beyonce and Michelle are here to help her see that because they love her!! AND I LOVE THE WAY THE VIDEO TAKES THAT AND ELEVATES IT BY PLAYING ON A SEX AND THE CITY THEME, basically it's magnifique. But ultimately not THAT similar to IGAB.
But I remembered another song about gossip that I feel like I bring up a lot:
Which actually is a lot like it. It's a bunch of people talking to each other, with dancing, and step-out lines, and it's a bunch of different tunes mashed together to make up one song. It repeats some themes and leaves others alone, just like IGAB. Sure, the themes are seamed together by the background music -- but so are the themes in IGAB?? IT'S THE SAME. So then I have to wonder why I immediately accept "Telephone Hour" as a song and why I don't do the same with IGAB?? It's easy to say language barrier, and like, I think that plays into it, because I was definitely even more ??????? wtf is this ??????? before I watched it subbed (it was all even more nonsensical when I just looked up the written-out lyrics). But we've seen the netizen comments: they think it's bizarro too. So what gives then?? Are the tunes they mashed together too dissonant or something?? I don't think it's that because like -- it isn't really that IGAB sounds BAD together it's just that there's so much going on that it's hard to... handle? I don't know. But anyway I think part of the problem is the story, or rather the lack thereof.
IGAB effectively has seven segments and this is what "happens" in them:
(1) Yuri, Sooyoung, Taeyeon, Jessica, Seohyun, and Sunny are judging a girl for starting to dress up especially for her new boytoy (with some breaks for Tiffany to tell everyone she's trouble)
(2) Taeyeon and Sunny are into a dude who hasn't made his move yet (?)
(3) Yoona is REALLY into this guy and he wants to know if he can see her face without makeup, Hyoyeon (and Yuri) are like GIRL DON'T DO IT YET
(4) Yuri and Sooyoung want to know ALL OF THE GOSSIP
(5) Seohyun and Tiffany are like, MAN YOU KNOW MY NEW BOYFRIEND??? He's so cute I like him. Yoona and Hyoyeon think they're crazy.
(6) Tiffany and Taeyeon are in shitty boyfriend situations and they don't know how to fix it
(7) Jessica and Seohyun are grateful for their friends and sure that ~everything will work out~
So then this is what happens:
Taeyeon: thinks (Yoona, Hyoyeon, or Tiffany?) is arrogant/ridiculous and is mad because (one of those three) called her ordinary. She wants her prince to come rescue her (I guess this could either be interpreted as irritation that a SPECIFIC BOY hasn't made his move yet or irritation that she hasn't found a boy yet). She's also unsure and doesn't know if she should make him jealous??
Jessica: thinks it's RIDICULOUS that that girl (Yoona, Hyoyeon, or Tiffany still... the fact that they play Yoona's ~boy scenes~ over Jessica's line makes me think Yoona though) is so in love with some dude, and is also super grateful that she has her friends to listen to her.
Sunny: has the inside track on this (let's just say) Yoona gossip, and she wants the guy she has her eye on to ~take her to the white sky~
Tiffany: IS TROUBLE, has a boyfriend who may SEEM like a dependable older guy but god he's so cute, but... he doesn't treat her like a woman
Seohyun: rly wants to ask Yoona for makeup tips because she suddenly got prettier now that she's got a love interest, has a boyfriend who is really smart! And she thinks everything's gonna get better thanks to her girlfriends and their advice
Yuri + Sooyoung: are basically just the gossip vulture duo tbh, TELL THEM EVERYTHING
Yoona: is having a breakdown bc her new love interest wants to see her without makeup, thinks either Seohyun or Tiffany or BOTH is/are crazy
Hyoyeon: is Yoona's wise unnie, also thinks Seohyun or Tiffany or both is/are crazy
HAHAHAHA oh man the reason I typed that all out was to prove that their individual stories are disjointed and contradict each other -- specifically Taeyeon seems to not have a boyfriend and then later on has a boyfriend, BUT SHE COULD TOTALLY ALSO BE ALL WTF I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO SHOULD I MAKE HIM JEALOUS?? about a guy who is not her boyfriend! And Tiffany's also seemed contradictory because one second it's all HE'S SO QT I LOVE HIM and the next she's seriously frustrated but. I mean, I don't know. It could still be the same guy I guess. hahahaha man I was totally going to argue that this song would be better if it had a consistent storyline and if they were allowed to play characters BUT MAYBE THEY WERE??? But honestly they really still weren't. You can't follow the thread of what's going on the way you can in "Girl" or in "Telephone Hour"?? It's meant to be separate conversations telling separate stories. I... think it would have been better if they had used all the girls as different voices to the same story??
GOD I DON'T KNOW I'm so confused what is this song how do I feel about it WILL I EVER KNOW
I will say that the Broadway angle makes me appreciate it more though?? Like in 15 years when somebody decides to Mamma Mia all SNSD's old songs into a musical, this is going to be the showstopper. And doesn't it kind of feel like a musical-style interpretation of hip hop more than it feels like hip hop?? Doesn't the harmony of the oh we oh oh's sound SUPER broadway when you're thinking about it that way? I feel like it's all even more pronounced if you watch it as a performance instead of a music video:
the choreo at 1:55, 2:15, 2:37 seems really Broadway to me BUT ALSO A LOT OF IT I DON'T KNOW?? I really love that they have Sunny sing her earlier part again at the very end, during the refrain. Idk I'm looking forward to seeing it performed without costume/set changes?
I don't know
I don't hate it anymore but that's almost worse because now I just honestly have no idea where I lie on the love/hate scale WHAT IS THIS SONG
hjalp
did you guys like the song?? DID ANYONE EVEN GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS???