Classical & Jazz Musicians React: Red Velvet IRENE ‘Biggest Fan’

[00:00:00]your biggest.

[00:00:01]>> Oh my, she's so like a girl.

[00:00:04]>> I am your biggest fan.

[00:00:15]You're watching React the K channel.

[00:00:20]>> Sorry.

[00:00:22]>> Are you going to make Irene react to Irene?

[00:00:24]>> Oh, it already happened.

[00:00:25]>> Oh, good, good, good. Okay, >> it already happened. That was probably yesterday. It was like you can't not have the namesake. Yeah. Oh, good, good, good, good.

[00:00:30]>> Yeah, yeah, yeah. Big bit.

[00:00:32]>> So, Irene, >> I'm your biggest fan.

[00:00:36]>> A for real?

[00:00:38]>> Yeah.

[00:00:39][laughter] >> Today, we're [music] reacting to Irene's first solo comeback. This is >> biggest fan.

[00:00:48]>> Congratulations on your comeback. Today, Irene's reacting to Irene's first ever solo comeback.

[00:00:53]>> I can't wait for you guys to hear it.

[00:00:55]This is huge.

[00:00:57]>> I think I'm your biggest fan.

[00:00:58]>> Yeah, you should be. It's a great song.

[00:01:00]>> The lyrics portray the process of acknowledging and accepting oneself as they are rather than trying to change [music] who they are. The song encourages self-love, self-acceptance, and finding strength through self-belief. The song is composed by Evan Gartner, Grace Bear, and [music] Samuel Preston.

[00:01:17]>> Evan Gartner.

[00:01:18]>> That sounds Yeah.

[00:01:20]>> If you're hearing this right now, that means this video isn't monetizable, nor is it sponsored. Instead, this video is brought to you by you, our YouTube members and supporters on Patreon.

[00:01:28][music] Patreon and YouTube memberships are how viewers like you can support our team and also gain access to tons of exclusive content.

[00:01:40][laughter] >> Thank you so much to all of you who already support us. We really couldn't keep doing this without you. And now back to the video.

[00:01:51]>> Three, two, one.

[00:01:56]Oh, okay. Oh, very modal. Oh, fun little mixo. I love her phone, by the way.

[00:02:05]>> All right.

[00:02:07]>> Oh, I like the fade out into the eye and one six. It's like [music] a disco vibe almost. Wow, the dip.

[00:02:19][music] >> All ladies on a subway. It's a safe space.

[00:02:24]>> Yes, >> that's a nice nice um lead in uh uh tones. Oh my. It's so like it girl. I am your biggest fan.

[00:02:37]>> This is so funny cuz it's got these really like expansive sounding synths but they're really tiny. [laughter] >> Like what?

[00:02:48]>> Look at me. There is a fun little pulley like sound. M. [music] Yeah.

[00:02:55]>> All right. I'm digging this. I'm digging this. I like it. [music] >> Pretty spacey chords.

[00:02:59]>> I wish there was another a different like something else. [music] >> [music] >> seems like she doesn't age.

[00:03:20]>> She's almost like [music] a boss clave in that last section.

[00:03:28]>> Oh, that rhythm was fun.

[00:03:32]>> I like how it started taking away the bass from bottom up rather than top. It was like took out the rest and then base went away from bottom up. That was really cool.

[00:03:40]>> This is very hype girl though. For real.

[00:03:42]>> Yeah. [music] I can get the hype. The hype.

[00:03:45]>> I like the guitar sound. It's kind of nice. Oh, it's [music] so plucky.

[00:03:49]>> This is such a fun beat.

[00:03:50]>> This is a very catchy.

[00:03:52]>> It kind of makes up for the lack of melodic line. [music] >> Okay. Uh L'Oreal commercial. Okay. Okay.

[00:04:02]Okay. Okay. Literally. Okay.

[00:04:04]>> I like that record scratch sound, but I think it's >> I think it's just her going. It's got a lot of like >> Queen is back. She is back. You're the queen. Duh.

[00:04:15]>> Your solo debut. [music] >> Is this the bridge?

[00:04:20]>> I guess so. It's not too different.

[00:04:22]>> Oh, the sign language bunnies.

[00:04:24]>> Oh, different outro.

[00:04:26]>> Different.

[00:04:26]>> Oh, wait. That's cute. That's good.

[00:04:27][music] >> Oh, no. This is the intro. This is the intro.

[00:04:30]>> Oh, yeah. Ultimate visual is also [music] correct.

[00:04:33]>> Mixturing the modal mixture now. Like they're trying to make it [music] one now.

[00:04:41]Cute. Yay.

[00:04:44]Do you like it?

[00:04:45]>> I'm your biggest fan.

[00:04:46]>> I worked hard on that one.

[00:04:48]>> Oh, she said she's your biggest fan.

[00:04:50]>> Yeah, obviously.

[00:04:51]>> Mhm.

[00:04:52]>> Yeah.

[00:04:53]>> Are you going in for a handshake or something?

[00:04:55]>> No, I was like, >> yeah. Very good. Very good comeback.

[00:04:59][laughter] Good job. Congratulations.

[00:05:01]>> Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All for you. All for y'all.

[00:05:04]>> That's nice. That's a cute song.

[00:05:05]>> Very, very cute. That was really fun.

[00:05:08]Shorty but goody.

[00:05:10]>> The fits were fire.

[00:05:12]>> The coro fire.

[00:05:14]>> Confidence fire.

[00:05:15]>> Yes.

[00:05:16]>> You know, >> it gave such like Irene style. [snorts] >> I think it suits Irene very well. Like um I really liked how >> it does suit you really well.

[00:05:24]>> Yeah. Yeah, I know. Because like I have such like a low voice. No, but really I do like a kind of lower um voice and so a lot of the song like the large majority of it I think is doubled by this high falsetto harmony on top often in thirds and it's very distant sounding and that contrasts a lot with her um chest voice tamber in the lower register. So yeah, I thought that was an interesting one mixture. She has this um range of vocal that she is like really good at. She is doing a great job with that range and getting all those different colors of vocal in the song.

[00:06:01]>> There's a one vocal line. Every now and then it's harmonized >> in the second half of the song, especially towards the the end. She does a lot of this kind of I would say it's more on the rapping side, but it has like some like uh contour in terms of pitch. She's very natural with it, which makes me think maybe it's a common thing in Red Velvet songs.

[00:06:19]>> Do you not know Red Velvet?

[00:06:20]>> Girl, I know Red Velvet, but I can't off the top of my head like remember like what her li Okay.

[00:06:28]>> Of course I know that. I'm in the group.

[00:06:31]>> Right. Right. How do you not know yourself?

[00:06:32]>> I was quizzing you.

[00:06:34]>> Oh.

[00:06:35]>> Oh. See, she's not your biggest fan. I am.

[00:06:37]>> No. No. She just ate. She just She knew.

[00:06:40]>> I I I knew. So, I am the biggest fan.

[00:06:43]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:06:43]>> Come at me. [laughter] >> I like that a lot. And I It suits her tamber. I feel like the visual element of this song was very catchy.

[00:06:53]Especially when she did the I can't dance for the life of me, but when the the when the the hands go like that, >> I was like, "Oh, like slay." The choreography matches up with the music in a very satisfying [music] way. Parts in the music where you kind of feel like, oh, you can you can feel the beat yourself [music] and then maybe there's a pause or something and it's like the movements enforce that. It's like the you you do a movement and then you and you stop and you do another thing, [music] but then like the stopping the action of stopping and then starting again is like so like smooth and I feel like it's like it's giving girl boss.

[00:07:29]>> Oh, >> sure. Does she say me or you when she does that?

[00:07:33]>> Okay, let's see.

[00:07:36]>> Oh, say you love me more.

[00:07:39]>> Louder.

[00:07:40]>> You love me. I'm a queen.

[00:07:42]>> Okay. It is a song about, you know, being like, is it like your own biggest fan and like exuding confidence?

[00:07:48]>> Like, I'm your biggest fan. So, [music] is that mean like I'm your biggest fan of you? Like, duh. Is that what it means?

[00:07:55]>> I think it could be a play on words like her fans are the biggest fan of her, but she's also the biggest [music] fans of of her fans.

[00:08:02]>> I see.

[00:08:03]>> And she's also probably the biggest fan of herself cuz self- loveve, you know? I think it might just be allencompassing.

[00:08:09]Like it is it is a very like like hype hype girl anthem. So it's just the ones you want to like dance in your room and go.

[00:08:16]>> Yes. So true. [laughter] >> So Aiden caught what I wanted y'all to catch.

[00:08:20]>> The viper slam. That's awesome. You know that's my favorite instrument.

[00:08:25]>> What? No way. Never heard that before.

[00:08:27]>> Oh yeah. Yeah. I have told you that a lot. I forgot. [laughter] I forgot there's a music YouTube channel actually. I thought we were just supposed to post [laughter] and play with sticks.

[00:08:36]>> What do you think like fibers sound like? like why do you think I add to this song?

[00:08:40]>> Sounds like a platypus and it looks like a sex toy. [laughter] And both of those things are true actually. But yeah, >> true.

[00:08:50]>> Yeah, it's actually so cool cuz it it does kind of look like a magical object when you're like don't think about the engineering behind it. It's pretty simple yet sophisticated in the way that it's like designed. It's it's it's got a ball on the end of it which is just supposed to have extra mass so that um it can create extra vibration. And then it's got a long metal rod that connects it to a resonance chamber. On the metal rod, all that does is it carries vibrations through from the ball to the resonance chamber. And then the resonance chamber has little loose like things that kind of can jump up and down when the resonance chamber is is vibrating. And what that does is it just creates this inside of inside of the resonance chamber and it's like such a cool sound effect and it doesn't look like it should really do anything. I think most people's instinct when they hear the things kind of rattling around inside of it is to shake it but then you hit the ball and it makes this like really cool sound. It's it's such a brilliant instrument honestly.

[00:09:48]>> What genre is this? What is this considered >> I think to be >> there was like a almost like a disco drum set groove the whole time. The percussion elements are just very simplistic. It's like towards the realm of minimalism except it's more like we don't need too much. We just have the baseline amount and [music] that's all we need. There's a spot where it went a little more like samba and I hesitate to call it that cuz there's like no resemblance to samba at all. It's just they added a shaker and a clave. So it feels >> it feels more like a relaxed like beach sort [music] of vibe. The reason I say disco is because the emphasis is on the upbeat. Like the whole time you have or that. And so like with disco a lot of the times they go.

[00:10:29]So it's sort of that vibe. I don't know what the exact genre is. Um but yeah, it sort of just gives it like an upbeat party like chill vibe. I guess >> it has some jam. It has some groove. The baseline is super awesome and funktastic. [music] >> It's just so bouncy.

[00:10:44]>> The bass is core to [music] what this is and the beat. I think it's the bass and the beat is what makes this what it is.

[00:10:50]I think it's sort of new discoy in a way. I think that's from the and you got so you have like a little funk guitar, but the but it's a boots and cats and boots and cats sort of rhythm which I guess maybe is maybe it's new disco.

[00:11:04]>> I liked the plucked guitar. It was very deep in the mix though. But it did have a a certain kind of bright character which all that all that kind of like adds to that kind of feeling of like candy candy music a little bit. It's got that that very sweet sort of jumpy aesthetic.

[00:11:19]>> It's not like too in your face. It's not so overwhelming. It's it's like a good amount. It's like it's like a It's like a There's like chocolate. There's like factory processed chocolate and then there's mega rich chocolate that you can't take more than one bite of. This was somewhere in the middle. Like is good amount of richness. Like you can keep eating it, but you don't need too much of it.

[00:11:38]>> I feel like the chorus though has more like the look at look at look at look at me look at me. which is like weirdly like like kind of electroop [music] like in a strange way or could be like I don't think it is in this sense but like I feel like that's kind of a like the repeated and also like syncopated like aspect of that which like kind of takes me out of like the like pop sound that like doesn't mean that like I don't think it like works well in the song.

[00:12:02]It's just like I feel like it's it's kind of >> like it's like kind of it own genre sound. Yeah, it it references a different genre. I see.

[00:12:10]>> It's a little bit creepy. Oh, >> I think that also has to do with the reverb on her voice in the beginning >> and it's just like where are we? That kind of feeling when you haven't settled on a scale yet.

[00:12:23]>> I think also because this [music] kind of harmony which sounds really open is so emphasized throughout the chorus. I think it sounds live to me kind of like lowkey chill. Whenever I hear these stacked thirds, [music] this major 7th, it makes me think of something that's really laidback and very open. The feeling is not of stress.

[00:12:49]I think >> there's a lowered seventh, lowered six.

[00:12:54]We're just kind of relaxing and there's no harmonic points of tension. And then the chords, it's like, yeah, we got spacey chords, but you know, we're not going just put them in there because they need to be there, but we don't need too much of it.

[00:13:10]>> It wasn't crazy chord-wise, but it's still a very interesting, I think, take on a maybe a pretty basic approach chord progression.

[00:13:17]>> The modal mixture is very satisfying.

[00:13:21]So, modal mixture. Yay. The three main chords that make up the chorus are [music] and in the scale of E major.

[00:13:35]Here's the six in [music] its normal scale degree. Here is the lowered six which [music] is the root of the lowered six chord.

[00:13:47]>> So it mainly uses I mean the major and minor modes which are uh Ionian and Aolon. The cool thing is is that later when I was like, "Oh my god, we're mixturing the mixture."

[00:13:57]>> It's going in back and forth.

[00:13:58]>> Yeah. But then they went into mixelyian, which is both a mixture of major or Ionian, which is just a fully major scale, [music] >> but also with the hint of um it's with a flat 7, which is in Dorian and Aolon, which is alien is minor. So, and it's only for like a little bit where they mix it, which is just nice that it's like a a round ending to the song. They go back and forth. And the way they emphasize this is the chords that they choose. They go start on E major. And they really emphasize the major 7 and the major third. And then they go to a C major chord, which is the flat 6 in E major.

[00:14:37]>> Major third, major 7th, major.

[00:14:43]So then they just completely totally emphasize the fact that you're going back and forth between major 3rd and major 7th and then minor 3rd and minor 7th which is really nice.

[00:14:52]>> What kind of atmosphere do you feel choosing those color notes creates?

[00:14:57]>> Uh and then the outro they start to include that >> yeah they add that like little aspect of like fringe or like a little like twinge to it.

[00:15:13]>> [music] >> It has like a like a sort of not I'm going to keep using this. I've said this in so many other episodes, but not a naivveness, but a sort of childlikeess to it, [laughter] >> which is literally a quote that I I I feel like I've said 5 million times.

[00:15:26]>> I I I think we have heard that quote before.

[00:15:28]>> It's interesting that it starts with this um we got some very clear modal mixture.

[00:15:35]So, we have Yeah, in E major [music] we typically expect to have a D sharp, but now we have a D natural.

[00:15:51]And then [music] she takes it a step further.

[00:15:57]So before we had now we have [music] so this G sharp turned into a G which sounds kind of strange considering that we're in [music] E major >> originally. So we got you got mix lydian and then to like maybe like a maybe more minor pentatonic sound perhaps there and then we just go straight to this like funky groove. So like kind of we don't know what's going to happen until the bass comes in. We're like okay this is groove central. And I do like how they do bring [music] that back at the end so it's kind of all full circle. At the end you started singing along like what inspired you to sing along with that ending melody?

[00:16:46]>> Oh the la.

[00:16:48]I thought it was really cool. I think it did it appear in the beginning too.

[00:16:56]>> Oh, it came in the beginning. So and then at the end it it was not muted and it was just like >> that's why I was like oh I remember that [music] melody from the beginning. I do like when it's a sandwich and what happens in the beginning comes back at the end. Very satisfying.

[00:17:11]>> It's a It's a It's a palendrome.

[00:17:13]>> It's classic. Classic.

[00:17:14]>> What can you gauge of Irene's character when hearing this song?

[00:17:17]>> That's a philosophical question right there. It has a certain maturity to it, but then at the end it's like, "Oh, we're having fun."

[00:17:22]>> Yeah.

[00:17:25]>> Oh, it's like going down as there's a riser going up.

[00:17:28]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:17:29]>> So, contrary motion.

[00:17:30]>> Ready whenever you are.

[00:17:32]>> I'm ready whenever you get off.

[00:17:33]>> Just go ahead and start talking and I'll get off my phone. I'm not going to start talking until you get off your phone.

[00:17:37]>> I would not react.

[00:17:38]>> Honor, can you take Isaiah's [laughter] >> going to >> If you get off your phone, take >> you give it to him too quickly.

[00:17:47]>> Take it from him. Take it from man.