The Singles Jukebox

In which K-Pop pops!

[Video][Website]
[7.23]

Anthony Easton: All of the points are for the phrase “boom shaka laka” and the deep hope it will become a regular thing. 
[8]

David Moore: In 2012 I finally clicked with K-pop after a rocky start learning the language — not “Korean” but “context.” I’ve never been on board with European pop appreciation: that breaking down of a uniquely American self-loathing of its own populist teenybopper impulses that keeps teenpop booms brief but cyclical. (Despite our three singing shows, I can’t imagine America getting behind its own Eurovision). The only time in my life when America had what Korea has now — its golden age of so-called “teenybopper pop” that wasn’t actually (just) for teenyboppers — was the TRL boom of 1998-2001, when the lines between adult contemporary and Top 40 and Radio Disney started to blur in interesting ways. Maybe we’ve had a bit of re-blurring lately. But for my money the best & truest pop experience I’ve had in 2012 is eating at a great Korean fried chicken place in Philly, where K-pop blares from the main screen, muted sports are on all the other screens, and the whole place just acts like, yes, this is how it’s supposed to be. Young college hipsters, tween birthday parties, yuppies with pitchers of beer, parents with young children, all laughing when they occasionally glance at the “Lipstick” video and getting excited when “Gangnam Style” starts up for the second time. The proprietors even slip in some American pop that makes a lot more sense in this context — LMFAO, of course! They aren’t nearly as interesting as the ladies, who seem to have more flexibility to try things out. Here the boys hold their own, even if it can’t quite compete with classics from T-Ara, After School, Orange Caramel, 2NE1, Sistar…I’m learning slowly but surely.
[7]

Edward Okulicz: When I tell people how much I hate “Gangnam Style,” part of it’s because something like this has, in its own way, just as much WTF Factor in how it sounds and would be far more deserving of being the worldwide hit. It doesn’t have a stupid video with a dude riding a horse, but it has the same aggressive, addictive electro-dance thrash (more like “thresh” in this case, actually), and of course the requisite titular line in English to chant along to like a moron. And “boom shaka laka” hits my 90s retro button and brings much joy. But more than that, “Fantastic Baby” is as good as song as it is a zany confection. I would totally buy a rap song made by some sub-set of this lot too based on that second verse – so why haven’t I?
[8]

Iain Mew: “Fantastic Baby” has a lot going for it. Great hulking blocks of synth noise, a succession of verses which make good use five different voices and vary between playing similarly aggressively and playing against the grain, and a great build-build-build-whoosh-intone-DANCE structure for the chorus. And an enjoyably over the top video. Seeing a group of people scream in response to that video at a Japan-focussed event in Paris was my first experience of public K-Pop mania and it was an exciting thing for the song as much as the novelty.
[8]

Alfred Soto: or “Not Bad Baby.” Hysterical polyphony though.
[4]

Patrick St. Michel: The Western world is probably through the looking glass at this point and “Gangnam Style” is probably destined to be most people’s introduction… and only exposure… to K-Pop.  That doesn’t paint a fair picture, though, because Psy’s galloping opus is more like the conclusion to a great trilogy courtesy of record label YG Entertainment.  It started with 2NE1’s chokeslam-through-a-table number “I Am The Best” and concludes with “Gangnam,” but between those sits “Fantastic Baby.”  Like the other two, it’s a song that does a great job introducing the artist while also establishing each member’s personality .  It could be lazily compared to LMFAO if that’s your thing (though Big Bang bring a lot more to the table).  It has a great video.  Yet for all the similarities, “Fantastic Baby” still packs in touches not present anywhere else in the YG family – the pitch-shifted vocals, G-Dragon’s ad libs, the boom shaka lakas that seemingly tried to beat Psy to the soundsystem’s of America’s arenas and ballparks.  Fantastic indeed.
[9]

Jonathan Bogart: I’ve gotten more pure enjoyment out of G-Dragon’s solo records this year, but I’d be a fool to deny the falsetto oooh-ooh-oooh-oohs in the chorus.
[7]

Sabina Tang: Let’s talk about BOOM SHAKA LAKA. Sonically, BOOM SHAKA LAKA plays the same pivotal role in the song as G-Dragon’s variable-length dip-dye side-flip does in the accompanying music video: it’s the straw that tips the camel. Whether you speak Korean or not, “Fantastic Baby”‘s lyrics are all crisp Dadaist onomatopoeia, for the benefit of drunken party-goers making inspired nuisances of themselves on the dance floor, on the sidewalk, in the subway — mama, just let me be your luvva, na-na-na-na-na, dance-dance-dance, woo-oo! — just as the outfits and hairstyles belong to the recognizable 2NE1/Gaga/Minaj Haut Ridiculous school of #seapunk turquoise and oversize chrome accessories. BOOM SHAKA LAKA, though (and the side-flip), is the je ne sais quoi that turns mere pop flamboyance into the conflux of agog admiration and acute comedy that results in “online sharing” behaviour. Gifsets from the video delighted me by fully blanketing my Tumblr dashboard on release day, a feat unachieved since “Bad Romance.” Not bad for a club ditty in which each boyband member merely shows off what he does best in 15-second rotations (from Daesung’s powerhouse belt to T.O.P.’s James Bond purr).
[10]

Brad Shoup: Their “baby” is phrased like Pitbull’s, but articulated flatly. But how else to make electro-house interesting? With the ancient magic: T.O.P’s boom-shaka-lakas and New Jacking rap, Taeyang’s Italo-flavored pre-chorus. It’s not a song so much as an event, or a series of set pieces. Words can be spilled, maybe not drinks.
[6]

W.B. Swygart: Cybernetically enhanced Backstreet Boys develop evil superpowers after being hit by rocks from the dark side of the moon; decide to demonstrate might by revealing that will.i.am could be responsible for some decent records if he had absolutely no involvement in any aspect of their existence whatsoever. Sean Bean dies in the first 30 seconds.
[8]

Jonathan Bradley: It lives and dies on its English interjections: “wow, fantastic, baby” is just cocksure enough, but no one need ever hear the words “boom-shaka-laka” ever again.
[4]

Alex Ostroff: Not quite I AM THE BEST, but that’s certainly not for a lack of hooks, stunningly attractive men or visually striking fashion choices. I’m  not as familiar with the individual members’  musical personalities as I should be — G-Dragon and T.O.P. aside — and as a result, I might prefer some of their duo rap output to ‘Fantastic Baby’. But really, what’s holding this back from a [10] is the fact that as wonderful as they all are, nobody from Big Bang has as much swagger as CL.
[8]

Ian Mathers: The first time through, I kept hoping the chorus would be more… explosive and hugely melodic (“Bonamana,” “Be My Baby,” and “She’s So (Outta Control)” are three of my favorite Jukebox tracks ever, and may have unfairly skewed my perception of singles from attractive Asian people singing in languages I don’t understand), whereas here it’s more wubbly and centered around what certainly sounds like a deadpan-ranging-on-passive-aggressive delivery of “wow, fantastic baby” plus a “boom-shacka-lacka” that reminds me fondly of Scooter. 
[7]