Heya, it’s ya elusive boi Jonathan and welcome
back to my channel.
Today, I’ll be reviewing BLACKPINK's pre-release
“How You Like That” and its music video.
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Now, let's get into this video.
Initially, when the teasers dropped, I expected
something different altogether - something
much darker.
The teasers that they hyped throughout their
social media accounts made it look like it
would be an electronic-driven song and not
what was given to us.
My first impression of the song was that it's
decent and extremely catchy for sure, although
it didn’t hit me as hard as DDU-DU DDU-DU
did.
The song had some parts that I enjoyed.
The first verse was really promising and I
really enjoyed the production behind it before
the hook kicks in.
There was this bouncy-synthy beat in the background
that made it so irresistible to listen to.
The second pre-chorus had that similar vibe
and honestly, I wished there was more of this
throughout the song.
The production in those parts felt different
from their previous releases which made it
really exciting, to be honest.
Now, let's talk about the breakdown of the
song since that's pretty prominent.
In some ways, the breakdown of the song reminds
me a little of 4Minute’s Hate.
That breakdown from How You Like That felt
more midtempo-ish compared to 4Minute's Hate
but it had that similar vibe nevertheless.
To be honest, I did get a little annoyed by
the hook (look at you, now look at me) at
times due to the repetition.
Don’t get me wrong though, that part was
catchy as hell - but it also got annoying
as hell after the first few listens.
Another gripe I had with the song was that
it felt really similar to DDU-DU DDU-DU and
Kill This Love structurally.
Honestly, I would’ve really loved to see
a proper chorus for their next release because
their last release that had a proper chorus
was As If It’s Your Last, which was released
in 2017.
These breakdown drops have been plaguing a
number of K-Pop releases lately as well for
some reason (Twice’s More & More, Everglow’s
DUN DUN, etc.) but the producer of this song
(Teddy Park) just seems to love this formula
more than anyone because this structure just
feels so overused for BLACKPINK at this rate.
Lyrically, I thought the song was kinda basic
bar a few lines here and there.
My favourite part lyrically was the bridge
of the song, where Rosé sings about losing
her wings back then, and how the other party
should've ended her when they had a chance.
After that, the bridge followed with the "Look
up in the sky / It's a bird, it's a plane"
line, which I found kinda genius since it
was taken from the Adventures of Superman
series.
I like that sample because it showed that
nothing would ever bring them down since they
have reached higher heights.
Now let's talk about the music video of the
song.
The How You Like That music video was honestly
stunning and it made me enjoy the song a little
more.
Every outfit change in the music video was
beautifully executed and it did feel like
a high fashion concept music video.
Despite having the least lines in the song,
I felt like Jisoo really stood out in the
music video.
I was really captivated by her in every scene
that she appeared in.
So that's why it isn't surprising that my
favourite part of the music video was the
second pre-chorus where Jennie and Jisoo were
singing their parts.
There's the whole umbrella thing going on
- which really reminds me of one scene from
the DDU-DU DDU-DU music video where Jisoo
was carrying a black umbrella while sparks
could be seen falling down on her.
However, instead of protecting herself from
the sparks, Jisoo seems to be embracing the
sparks in the How You Like That music video
and it made for a beautiful visual.
That being said, I felt like they overly reused
props from their old music videos with some
subtle changes here and there, because some
of the textures and concept designs felt like
they were reused from their previous eras.
I've already mentioned the umbrella scene
but there were other scenes that felt like
a callback to their previous videos too.
The intro of the music video reminded me of
Kill This Love's music video outro scene.
Then you had Lisa in this Middle Eastern market
during the second verse of the song, which
was reminiscent of some of the scenes from
their BOOMBAYAH music video.
You also had the ending parts bridge leading
up to the outro scene section in the video,
where parts of the structure in the hallway
reminded me of the structure from the DDU-DU
DDU-DU music video.
Reusing and reworking props isn't necessarily
a bad thing though, but I do hope that they
switch that up a little bit more in the future.
To conclude, I found the song good in hindsight
but I really expected much more than what
was offered.
Had this been the title track though, I would've
been really disappointed.
That said though, since this is a pre-release,
it gives me hope that the title track is going
to be much stronger and better.
If you enjoy the video, be sure to click on
that like button and drop a comment down below.
Thanks guys and I’ll see you in the next
video!
Peace xx
