BAP's concept ???

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