K-pop Goes February: Day 21- Beast/Highlight

Alack, ‘tis the last day of Second Generation week. It’s been super informative to listen to all the groups I’ve tried out over the last week, and thus far, I think I’ve found some of my favourites here. I’m pretty sure I’m an f(x) stan now, and I’ve discovered the gorgeous Lion Heart by Girls’ Generation as well. Going down the K-pop rabbit hole like this has unearthed some real gems, and I’ll definitely be keeping this up past February- though maybe with a little breather of some kind in March. But before then, there’s one more to go. As the last of this week’s groups, ladies and gentlemen, Beast/Highlight.

Who are Beast/Highlight? As you can tell, we’ve got another complicated origin story on our hands here. The group I’m looking at today was originally a six-member group called Beast, who debuted in 2009 under Cube Entertainment. Yes, another entertainment company I’ve actually heard of! If you having been keeping up with this project, you’ll remember that Pentagon, a currently active boy group, are under the same company. Beast originally had their name stylised as ‘B2ST’ but pronounced as ‘Beast’, though the name was officially updated before debut, presumably because everyone would have been trying to call them ‘Beetwost’. Or at least, I would have.

So why Highlight now? Well, in 2016, after member Jang Hyunseung left the group, the five remaining members launched their own label, Around Us Entertainment. As their original name was trademarked by Cube, they to come up with a new one, and Highlight was the choice. This basically means that the group is Beast up to 2016, and Highlight from 2017 onwards.

As you can see already, we’ve got some classic member fluctuation as well. After Hyunseung’s 2016 departure due to ‘musical differences’ (I would love to know if that’s industry speak for “I hate these basic bitches”), member Yon Junhyung also left in 2019. His reason for leaving was much more disappointing, as he had admitted to watching illegal videos sent to him by singer Jun Joon-Young, who was arrested for filming sexually explicit hidden camera videos without women’s consent. This guy is currently serving six years in prison for this, the details of which are even worse, and which I don’t want to dwell on. I don’t know the extent of member Junhyung’s actual involvement in this- he is currently considered as just a witness in the case- but nonetheless it’s sordid and unpleasant. But just so you know.

I can’t find much to indicate what specific style this group might have, though I see mentions of rock influences when scanning their Wikipedia page, and the group does have rappers, presumably meaning there may be some hip hop in there somewhere. Who knows. Let’s get into it and find out.

The First Song

I think I’m going to take the approach of referring to them as Beast when they released under that name, and Highlight when they were promoting with that. Seems logical. Ergo, Beast’s first single was October 2009’s Bad Girl. This song opens with misleading piano backing, but the heavily autotuned vocal lets you know that this won’t be a soft track. The beat bursts in after the first few seconds, for an upbeat track of eighties arcade-game synths, catchy hooks and a lot of autotune. Hey, if it’s good enough for Cher, I don’t care. It’s an energetic, drum-machine led track, and the video features some classic overly-accessorised outfits, questionable hair and nude lips that remind me of a simpler time. It would seem that Beast came out of the gate aiming for the electronic, dance heavy sound. So far, so standard for the time, and pretty good at it too.

Five of the Big Hits

You know I went to Reddit for this. I don’t know what I’m doing, these people do. From their suggestions, I went for Shock, Fiction, Breath and Midnight from the Beast era, and Plz Don’t Be Sad from their time as Highlight.

First up is 2010’s Shock. The first thing I noticed in the video was an amazing pair of what looked like black sequinned trousers, which, again, gets points from me. The song itself is, as I predicted, a dance heavy hype-style track. There is autotune, a rock-solid drum machine beat, busy synths, and a catchy chorus around the title of ‘shock’. The second verse gives us the rap, which is fine, and the vocals are steady, if not blowing my mind in any way. This feels like the absolute standard of the type of dance track second gen groups were making at this time, though without any flourishes that might particularly mark it out for me.

Next is Fiction, from one year on in 2011. This song feels kind of like the forefather of the ‘emotional mid-tempo dance track performed outside in natural scenery’ song that we saw so much last week with third gen boybands. It still has the drive of a dance piece, but the central electronic hook is a repeated melody, underlying the emotive vocals. Again, nothing that particularly blew my mind, but definitely evidence of the beginnings of a huge trend nowadays.

Breath, from 2010, worried me that it might be the more of the same, with its slow opening, utilising the beeping rhythm of a heart monitor under emotive belting. Luckily, the song swiftly cracks into another scratchy, synth led, bouncy dance track. It’s not vastly different to other songs I’ve heard from them, but I do like the speed of the main synth hook that studs the song. There are some playful little violins peeking in towards the end as well, and I feel it could have been fun to hear more of them over the whole track.

Midnight, on the other hand, is as feelingsy as Fiction. This 2012 song utilises acoustic guitars to slightly tone down the EDM elements, and is effectively just a medium tempo, medium energy effort. Honestly, it also left nothing with me, as I didn’t feel any sense of creativity or subtlety that would make this kind of mood work better.

Last up is the only song on this list that’s by Highlight: 2017’s Plz Don’t Be Sad. I was not enthusiastic about this title (why the text style abbreviation in 2017?? We don’t have Pay As You Go anymore guys), but luckily the song came through. Utilising a core beat that almost sounds like claps, we get a calmer, but still fizzy, upbeat track where the electronic hooks actually support the chorus’s joyous ‘woahs’ rather than having a life of their own. This is a song that’s comfortable in just being cheery, with no need for the bravado that seems to be woven in to so much boyband music in the modern era. It’s a left turn from the earlier Beast music I’ve tried, but one that I think provides refreshing music.

The Latest Song

In 2018, Highlight released their latest single, Loved. Unfortunately, it’s another heavier song, in the emotive sense, without the charm of Plz or the hype of Shock. There was a very interesting instrumental hook that formed the backbone of the chorus, and I couldn’t quite make out what it was. Perhaps an electric violin? Whatever it was, it actually took the place of any real lyrics in the chorus. Like I say, this is interesting, but I don’t really think it’s engaging. Obviously, this isn’t really my type of music, but I am still lacking a sense of energy to really make this click.

The Latest Album

Thank you Highlight, your latest work is an EP, not a full studio album! I might get to sleep earlier! Woohoo! In November 2018, the group released their most recent EP, Outro. The first song is Loved, and in fairness, on second listen, that mystery instrument hook is more appealing. It might not make the whole song a winner, but it is a nice creative touch. The EP actually only has three more songs, the final song being an instrumental version of Loved. Therefore, all we have to talk about are Wind, Leave Me Alone, and Nightmare, which, amusingly, could tell the story of an evening suffering from trapped gas if all read together as a story. I doubt that was the point though.

Once more, I have to be honest here, none of this wowed me at all. Wind is the slowest of the three, a slow-jam that starts off in ballad-esque fashion, before bringing in the nineties drum machine, and generic acoustic guitars. Nightmare picks up the pace a little bit for some more punch in the backing rhythm, but with a title like that, there’s so much potential for the grandiose, or the dark. Instead, we get another chilled-vibes mid-tempo song, briefly throwing in some jazzy piano at its most interesting moments. If the job is to make Loved stand out in comparison, it works. Leave Me Alone, the middle child, is the most fun of the three, with a full-on pop instrumental that actually picks up the tempo, even if just a little bit. We have claps underlining the pre-chorus, and whilst the chorus doesn’t fully answer this with the stadium-level big sound we’ve heard from so many other boy groups, it still adds excitement. It’s dancey enough, and more exciting than anything else on this EP.

Thoughts?

Hmm, well. I don’t want to be disparaging, but I don’t think I ever really found my footing with this group, either as Beast or Highlight. Shock and Breath were the most fun I had with them in their second gen days, and Plz Don’t Be Sad was a welcome burst of brightness in their more recent work. I guess, for me, the issue was that I couldn’t really pinpoint anything that made them unique, or anything that I will really remember. Given that they’ve been active for almost twelve years, there’s obviously a greater chance that I have just missed the songs that would really make me fall in love with them. Apparently, now that all members have finished their military service, there have been murmurings of a new comeback. I would be really interested to see how this goes, as these guys have a lot of experience and time under their belt now. If they can use it to do something really unexpected, or just well-crafted, it would be a welcome surprise in 2021.