Kpop Review: Don’t Stop/Freeze by Block B (그대로 멈춰라)

Don’t Stop (also called “Freeze”, “Don’t Move”, “Just Stop”, etc) is their debut single from their 1st mini album “Do You Wanna B?”. They debuted April 15, 2011.

*UPDATE: added video at the bottom with english subs/romanization/hangeul, CREDIT KPOPSUBS

POINTS

• Pretty sick beat if you ask me.
• The song seems Western in comparison to typical kpop (about a girl? Check. About love? Not really..More about… Clubbing).
• Many find that this new 7 member group is unoriginal. I admit, they do have many striking similarities to other older groups. However, I believe there is no such thing as originality in the kpop industry. Read below, near the bottom, for my extended opinion.
• Sports cars. Is that sexual appeal in a way? As if these boys are rich? Maybe it appeals to guy fans (“Ooh! Car! SHINee“.)

OPINIONATED REVIEW BELOW

This song describes meeting a girl at a club and wanting her, so they (figuratively, not literally) follow her. Yet, when they come closer, she goes further away, thus they tell her DON’T go (STOP). This song’s incredibly catchy, and you’ll love it moreif you’re a fangirl and watch the video.

VOCALS: Being a pop song, it’s hard to distinguish who the better vocalists are. There’s one thing I really like about this boy band: the BASSES! Many boy bands I hear seem to have all tenors, with the occasional coloratura (aka they can sing as high as women). I think Block B’s got a few baritones from what I hear in Don’t Stop.

Taell is the lead vocal (if I’m mistaken please correct me) and he sings right before the Don’t Stop chorus (he sings the high “hajima”). Taell has impressed me so far.

Jaehyo is quite the singer too.

U-Kwon has a really catchy line (“Hey baby, negero, gakka iwa”). I’m guessing he’s more for dancing and looks than vocals, but he can sing.

B-Bomb has a lowish voice that strangely appeals to me. In fact, it somewhat surprised me when I found he’s more of a dancer than a vocalist (not that he’s bad at dancing. More on that in the DANCE review below. I just thought he had a nice voice).

RAP: There seems to be a lot of rappers in Block B.

T.O.P may be the Korean king of that bass rapping, but Block B’s maknae P.O is a pretty darn good competitor.

Their leader, Zico, is really good. It makes sense that he almost debuted with SHINee.

Kyung is also a great rapper. Overall, I find Block B’s rapping to be pretty darn impressive (this is their debut, I can’t find another word for “coming out strong and performing well as newcomers”).

LYRICS: I confess. I can’t really understand Zico’s English at the beginning of the song. I’ve spent a day pondering exactly what he was saying. Zico does NOT drop the F bomb in one of his parts. He is saying FOCUS. Also, there’s one part that B-Bomb says that sounds slightly awkward (“I’m serious serious. Mysterious, sterious”. It sounds… I’ll leave it at awkward). I’m happy this isn’t a typical kpop song about mushy romance. It has that Western, almost YG feel and uses common kpop clubbing (klubbing?) words such as “mirror ball”, “bass”, “drum”, “beat”, “dance tonight”, etc. It even has onomatopoeias, such as “kung kung kung”, “dung dung dung”, “zoom zoom zoom”, and “swoosh swoosh swoosh”! Ah, these lyrics are fun, I can’t deny it.

MUSIC VIDEO: All they do it dance and lip sync in front of a camera in weird rooms with or without cars. I hate when they make those huge rays of x lights in music videos, as if it makes it look cool. Effects like those are so STUPID! Their outfits are quite eccentric. I like B-Bomb’s complimentary red belt in the beginning (he looks so good). I question Zico’s turtleneck thing, however. U-Kwon seems to wear vests a lot? I wasn’t the biggest fan of their orange quilt outfits. Why does Taell wear hats? I’m guessing it’s a trademark, but I want to see his hair! Is it me, or does U-Kwon have a few moments where he… I don’t want to say it. He’s my bias, don’t get mad, but does U-Kwon seem to have awkward moments where he looks sort of… Gay? He’s my favorite, but it just sort of bothers me (curse my twisted American thinking).

DANCE: Personally, I ADORE the chorus choreography. They look like fighting dancing ninjas. B-Bomb’s “serious mysterious alien” part has this really cool dance too. U-Kwon and B-Bomb seem to be the better dancers.

ORIGINALITY DEBATE: As I said before, many people have already criticized Block B by calling them unoriginal. I can understand that a little bit: Zico has expressions and hair similar to GDragon; Kaehyo looks like a mixture of TRAX’s Typhoon, Super Junior M’s Zhoumi, Super Junior’s Kyuhyun, and heck I can see some SHINee Jonghyun in his face; the dance seems to incorporate some SHINee and U-Kiss like moves (I swear I saw something close to the choreography of V.V.I.P, maybe I’m crazy); Taell has some Taeyang like qualities; etc etc etc. However, they were born looking that way. This is a rookie group. Are people really going to start judging them based off of one song and one look they had? One cannot say that one group isn’t original because they have similarities to another group. Many songs are remixes of other songs, some songs have similar chord progressions, etc etc. Take Kanye West for example. He will take a line off an old song and turn it into a whole rap for another song. Can you call that original, since technically someone else said that one line before he did? Originality is taking something and changing it with ones personal tastes. Soda is all the same, but it comes in different flavors. A bunch of people can make orange soda, but each person will make that same orange soda differently. Apply the same concept to music. Bottom line: screw this “originality” concept. Block B is refreshing music. They may sound similar, but they give it their own taste which, to me, makes them perfectly original enough.

OVERALL: Don’t stop is a catchy soundtrack. If you’re into mainstream pop, and want a song with more rap than romance, this song’s the cake.

(Watch with English Subs, Romanization, and Hangul, credit kpopsubs)

Images and info taken from http://www.soompi.com (this thread).

http://www.soompi.com/forums/topic/362585-%E2%99%AF-%E2%99%AB-block-b-%EB%B8%94%EB%9D%BD%EB%B9%84-official-thread-%E2%96%A0-%E2%96%A0/?s=6f9eb3438f8da4a6a93e7ff8ab36a331