First Take: INFINITE's BTD Japanese Edition

So in case anyone's wondering, INFINITE will be leaping over to the land of the Japanese, following just about every other Korean idol that ever existed. And also like those other Korean idols taking a chance at the biggest music industry in Asia, INFINITE will be releasing Japanese remakes of their songs. It's the same songs with only Japanese lyrics. Exciting, I know. And with that comes the release of "BTD (Before the Dawn)" in Japanese. Boy, oh boy, this is going to get interesting.

The video is 97% exactly like the first version, aka the drama version, of BTD Korea. Which is so boring. Not the actual MV, but the fact that they're recycling. Not even trying, really. But actually, I'm glad they didn't just throw up vomit hoping it'll taste like chicken stew. BTD was far from under the radar when it was first released. Which is a great big shame. I've mentioned before so many times, even a whole post about, how much I love BTD. It's the most epic song in the K-pop market. And the video was the most badass I've seen idols do in a long time. So even though it sucks that they didn't even try to make a new MV, it's also good that this super cool video is back under the limelight. Because we all know, at least I do, that this video deserves it. Not because the boys worked their sweat and blood in it, even thought that tear-inducing itself, but because it's so awesome.

The thing that I hate the most about this particular version, just like any other Japanese version of any other K-pop song, is that it sounds so awkward. Songs doesn't really translate well crossing languages. I read in an article somewhere that melodies and beats of songs are coherent to the way the people speak the language. I don't really know the details into it. But this phenomena is what causes Middle-Eastern music to be so different from Western music, for example. The way they speak the language is very different. Even though Korean and Japanese has a similar language in terms of the sounds used, the actual tone is very different. A Korean song just never feels right in Japanese and I'm pretty sure vice versa. Also, because the boys are Korean and speaks Korean in their everyday lives, they know which word or sentence to intonate. This is particularly visible, or audible?, in the rap. I would say that Dong-woo and Hoya are quite good in rapping, maybe even among the best in K-idol world. Every time they rap, in Korean that is, you can feel the emotions flowing through. They know which word, which syllable to stress and to play around. It's different in Japanese. They sound very flat like, well, other idol "rappers" out there. I know they're not like that but the language barrier forbids them to do so.

I'm actually not that concerned song-wise because, hello, this is the glorious BTD. It's just that because it's not Korean. Oh and because I can't sing along with it. Just so you know, I memorized the whole damn thing,  even the rap. Trying to show my dedication here. But aside from that, it's great. So proud of the boys trying to take over the world one country at the time.

Except for the concept picture. Holy guacamole when I first saw it I didn't know what to say. In a bad way. The concept picture looked like it was made last minute. It didn't have the grand feeling of the original BTD concept pictures. It felt hurried. And forceful. Even the cropping and photoshopping is choppy.They wore the same outfit and the same facial expression, but different hairstyles man! One thing I loved about BTD was their hairstyles which was perfect, sans L in a few performances. But "Be Mine" hair with BTD clothes just seems weird to me.