RESPECT. Review: PENTAGON Points Out They’re Still "Young" in MV

PENTAGON, a ten member Korean boy-band from CUBE Entertainment, released a music video for their first official track “Young.” However, on this song, only five of the members sing because it was part of a team mission (two teams of five) on episode eight of their survival reality program called Pentagon Maker. Nevertheless, all ten members do appear in the new music video.

The song opens with a strong rhythmic percussion that reciprocates with clap beats which creates a strong start. Then, one of the rappers, Wooseok, sings, “Young, young, yeah” and does three lip trills. It continues with the first verse sung by three of the members, Kino, Yeo One and Hui, respectively. It is followed by a simple hook, “We’re still young, young, young,” which is repeated twice. The following verse is Wooseok’s rap and the chorus again. The bridge is only Wooseok repeating the hook once and Hui vocalizing to the instrumental as it is the dance break of the song. The last verse is Yuto’s rap, with the chorus repeating once more to end the song.

One of the lines I liked is “Err’day we live for freedom (freedom)/ We’re like stains in this pitch-black world.” This part of the song is relatable because most people try to live as “freely” as they can. To live is to be able to enjoy freedoms and without liberties, we may not be able to live the way we desire to. Frequently, it seems like the people that crave to live freely, and those who are more adamant about creating new freedoms or protecting past ones are the youth. The line “We’re like stains in this pitch-black world” may be referring to how youths are the ones to leave an impact in the world that is already very dark and seemingly hopeless.

Another line I liked was during the rap, “We don’t obsess over success, I have a lot of time before I turn old/ Money’s good, but doesn’t matter, I do what I do and it will roll right in/I wouldn’t have started if I aimed to be average/ A new leaf’s turned and it’s nothing like you’ve seen.” These lines are meaningful because for many, parents and older generations constantly express the importance of finding careers that provide high incomes. However, for new generations and many younger people, they value their passions more than financial security or are able to combine both with self-made businesses and entrepreneurship. Also, I like how the lyrics “I wouldn’t have started if I aimed to be average” reveal Wooseok’s personal ambition and aspirations, as an eighteen year old, to be the best at what he does as a rapper and idol. The next line “A new leaf’s turned and it’s nothing like you’ve seen” may be referring to himself as well as PENTAGON’s upcoming debut and how they will be an original group with refreshing charms. This song proclaims powerful encouragement as well as a message that speaks to the strength and reiterates the resilience of the youth.

The music video is a parody of the popular and only Korean hip-hop survival program in South Korea, Show Me The Money or SMTM for short. This concept was probably chosen because the song was produced by Dok2 (pronounced Dok-ee), a well-known Korean hip-hop artist and producer. He is also the co-founder and co-CEO of independent hip-hop label Illionaire Records. He has been one of the judges for SMTM – for season three in 2014 and this year’s fifth season. So as a spoof, instead of Show Me the Money or SMTM, they changed it to Show Me The Young and SMTY. More specifically, they only parodied the first and second rounds of the survival program.

The music video is humorous because there was a grandmother and grandfather-aged contestant (which has happened on the real show) and while they were able to pass the audition round, getting gold necklaces, some of the “young’ members of the group were unable to pass. They as participants parody the exaggerations of some of the contestants on the real show who throw tantrums or become upset when they don’t pass. Another amusing highlight from the video was the random guy who was cartwheeling while other contestants were waiting for their turn to be judged.

If you’re interested in how this song was created, you can watch it here:

They also had a live performance of the song:

Unfortunately, these boys have not yet made an official debut as a whole group, but will be debuting soon. You can keep track of them with the following links. Please anticipate their debut!

https://www.facebook.com/pentagon.unitedcube/

https://www.instagram.com/cube_ptg/

http://www.vlive.tv/channels/F2C18D

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