Even though I’m a huge B.A.P fan and am biased towards Bang Yong
Guk, I’m often confused as to their musical direction they are taking and
the roles of their members. As most BABYs know, BYG was formerly an underground
rapper and I grew interested in B.A.P after listening to his music with Soul
Connection (a underground hip hop group composed of 10+ different rappers, such
as Still PM, Maslo, ect.) The album can still be purchased online, and if you
listen to it, it’s completely different from the music they’re making now -
some of the lyrics are 19+ (although not as provocative as that Seungri
teaser we all just watched, haha) and it’s more hardcore hip hop and
focused solely on the rappers. This brings into question - what exactly is
B.A.P’s concept and image, and what are the roles of the members?
So, here’s my breakdown of the positions they play in the
group:
HIMCHAN: As of my own personal
opinion, Himchan truly holds the one of the sadder roles the group. He actually
has quite a unique rapping voice, which is rather low and husky just like
BYG’s, but because the group already holds two main rappers there is no need
for another one, so he’s always left with repetitive lines and small hooks in
their music. However, despite Himchan’s impressive musical background, and his
ability to play various traditional instruments, that talent is generally
ignored in the group. For those who have watched the drama Heartstrings, the
OST was composed of music that mixed traditional music as well as modern guitar
shreds & beats, and they pulled it off amazingly. However, Himchan’s not
granted that freedom to integrate his musical knowledge into their music,
because their target is generally mainstream K-pop listeners. This restrains
his ability to really shine in the group, and because he doesn’t have a role,
he’s just placed as the “visual” because of his unique looks. Unable to
contribute on a significant scale to their music and barely given any lines,
although Himchan is extremely talented on a musical scale he’s unable to get
the spotlight because the other members often overshadow him.
ZELO: It’s obvious that Zelo
is a huge selling point for the group - being a quadruple threat in terms of
his abilities in dancing, rapping, singing, and visuals, Zelo is a major
“success” factor in B.A.P and often attracts fans because of his age and his
numerous talents. He’s also been in TS Ent for quite a long time, if you see
some of his rap practices from when he was 11-13, and so they’ve really
polished him so that the camera is often focused on him. Because Zelo is so versatile
in every single aspect of B.A.P, he often overshadows all the members,
sometimes even BYG especially when he gets major rap parts in their music.
Although I feel that Zelo would still be more famous as part of a group than as
a solo artist, (although he could probably be successful at both) I also think
that his presence sometimes detracts the attention away from the other members.
I remember when I first listened to B.A.P, although I am BYG biased and have
been since pre-debut, Zelo was what really caught my eye because of his age, as
well as his innate ability to be good at everything. A jack-of-all-trades, Zelo
is a powerhouse and completely dominates the appeal of the group - and the fact
that he’s only 17 means that he can be active in the entertainment industry for
an extremely long period of time before military enlistment.
JONGUP: Again, to me, despite
Jongup’s major experience with dancing as well as his flexibility in terms of
the dances he can perform, his talent is overshadowed because Zelo has been
trained as a dancer as well. I found it extremely disappointing how, when I
watched some live performances of B.A.P (the songs were ”What the Hell,”
and “Voice Message”) he would hold the mic in his hand, but he wouldn’t have a
single line in the music. Most members have at least one or two lines in a
song, even if they’re not strong vocally, but Jongup didn’t get a single one.)
He doesn’t always get to shine and the camera is often not focused on him, and
for example, in the Power MV Zelo got a dance solo even though he’s considered
a main rapper and not a dancer. Although Jongup is extremely talented and
there’s a reason as to why he’s considered the main dancer, he doesn’t get that
much cameratime. And for those who have just seen B.A.P, they wouldn’t believe
that he was the main dancer - they would just think he was another member -
because many MV’s are quite Zelo and BYG focused.
YOUNGJAE: Youngjae has mentioned
that he’s glad Daehyun entered the group to help him out with the vocals, and I
think that’s truly important because Youngjae has a unique voice, with its
higher tone as well as slight lisp, but it’s definitely not as strong as
Daehyun’s during live performances. Youngjae is really talented at making the
atmosphere especially during interviews, because of his friendly demeanor as
well as his talkative personality. Because BYG’s more reserved, Zelo’s still
younger, and Himchan and Jongup aren’t extremely good at variety shows,
Youngjae is really important in terms of making the group appealing during
interviews and shows. I also really like how Youngjae and Daehyun really split
up the singing lines in the songs, so that they both play a noticeable role in
the group. Despite B.A.P’s rap roots, however, I think that both of them are in
charge of an extremely crucial role in the band because of their leadership in
terms of the vocal parts of their music. Without their voices, despite their
talents, they would have been overshadowed by the majority of rappers in the
group and wouldn’t be able to carve a role for themselves in B.A.P.
DAEHYUN: The strongest singer as
well as his good looks, out of the whole group I personally believe Daehyun has
the most solid vocals. I also believe that Daehyun and Youngjae are responsible
for helping the group transition into mainstream music - because they can carry
out hooks and melodies with ease, this allows them to appeal to hardcore K-pop
fans as well regardless of their hip hop background. By combining both genres
of hip hop and pop music, this creates the group’s element of success - the
“fresh,” “wow” factor that made B.A.P rapidly rise in popularity. No mainstream
idol group had really contributed strong hip hop roots into their music -
although Big Bang is extremely creative with their music and has strong
undertones of rap, they were initially trained as a K-pop group although Yang
Hyun Suk held hip hop influences. (They’re more known for their member’s
abilities to compose and produce music and execute it in various different
styles, from rap to ballads to R&B.) In the same way that Epik High has
really advertised the underground scene, they weren’t really an idol group, and
so that detracted from their appeal towards K-pop fans. If B.A.P only had BYG,
Zelo, Himchan, and Jongup, they wouldn’t really have an “idol” concept because
we all know BYG doesn’t like the “cute” and “agyeo” factor in mainstream music,
and although Zelo’s good at everything he can’t sing as well as Daehyun and
Youngjae. And so both of them are extremely vital to the group in the fact that
they help transition the group from an extremely hip-hop influenced group to a
mainstream idol one, because they were trained to be part of an idol group and
not part of the underground scene, like BYG was.
BYG: My bias and my
ultimate, most favourite member in the group, I often question as to why BYG
chose the idol road because of his major underground influences. His old music
was very rap focused and he has an obvious passion for the genre - I admired
him a lot of because he often raps about societal issues (e.g. lyrics in
“Warrior” and “Badman”) in comparison to normal idol themes such as heartbreak
and love. He has an insanely unique voice which is extremely memorable, and
that also adds to the appeal of the group - you want to hear that voice again
and again. It’s not easy to forget and it’s so unique that the tone itself adds
style to the whole song. However, it’s strange how he decided to go from an
underground road into mainstream music - although I really love how B.A.P
differentiates itself from other idol groups because of their strong rap focus,
had BYG been still an underground rapper he would have never participated in
music such as “Stop It” because of its cute & lovely concept. I know that
TS is attempting to increase thier popularity by making them follow a more
traditional idol group pathway using those types of music, and then making
their own signature music so that at the same time, although they are an idol
group they must also depict their uniqueness, but I really hope this doesn’t
detract from BYG’s foundation as a hip hop artist. Being a huge fan of the
Korean underground hip hop scene, I really admire those rappers even though
they sometimes don’t make enough to support themselves or are unable to pursue
their interests in hip hop because it’s not as popular as mainstream music. I
love how B.A.P is attempting to combine the two genres, but I also hope that
they don’t lose the basis of the group and that BYG doesn’t forget his
underground roots.
All in all, I love B.A.P, but sometimes I feel as if their
musical direction isn’t reflective of all their members. I know that not every
song can be “Warrior” or “Power” - because then it would get boring and it
would lose its uniqueness. However, for example, I was slightly disappointed
with the “Hurricane” video because it didn’t really feel like them - it felt like they were trying
to be like another mainstream Kpop group. I also didn’t like the BADMAN song -
I loved the chorus but the break with the dubstep instrumental in between and
the singing parts didn’t feel like them, even though I knew that every song was
supposed to be a different genre. B.A.P has been one of my favourite rookies,
however, and I love them very much - I just hope that in the future Himchan and
Jongup can get more lines, and their music will continue to spread its
underground hip hop roots J
credits : kpopsecrets
