Stray Kids- 'Circus'
What can I say, EVERYTHING thy do is so interesting and exciting! Thanks for this one STAYS, so fun!
Comments (14)
So excited to see you react to this song. It is so fun to listen to, I love it! The song is such a good mood raiser.
I was fineally able to watch this reaction! Its fun to see how excited you still are eventhough we allready watched a bunch of skz
I love that we are doing some classics this month! Also love that Binnie is connecting fandoms one drink at a time😂😂
You can hear elephants and tigers and lion sounds in this instrumental as well which definitely ties into the circus theme.
Thanks for the reaction! Enjoyed watching you have fun with it. I am surprised you didn't mention the elephants , lol. The m/v was Japanese and the lyric video Korean. The Japanese songs just hit different, I'll be looking forward to you discovering the rest!
Circus is such a fun song! As others already have pointed out, many groups have Japanese songs/albums and release Japanese versions of their Korean songs. And in turn when they do Japanese songs they often have Korean or even English versions of the same song (for example the colour coded video you used had the Korean version of Circus while the MV was the Japanese version). I don't know where they've said it, but iirc they've mentioned they usually write their songs in Korean and then translate them to Japanese. Fun fact, Lee Know is considered to be the best Japanese speaker of the group (or so people say... I don't speak Japanese, so correct me if I'm wrong lol). Since Chan and Felix already got English covered and Lee Know finds English to be quite difficult, he focused more on Japanese instead and spent a lot of time learning Japanese. He's also one of the most popular members if not the most popular in Japan (it maybe helps that his facial features look quite Japanese, he's mentioned before that he often gets mistaken for a local when he's visiting Japan)
Circus is such an amazing song! Also, yay for Lee Know voice appreciation! Unfortunately only Lee Know, Han, Seungmin and I.N have been on Lee Mujin Service.
Looooove that you did this song, it's definitely one of my top fave SKZ songs! FYI I don't know if you noticed when you pulled it up, but this song is a Japanese original and the MV is in Japanese, but the color coded lyric video is the Korean version. :) Not that it makes a difference for the vocal quality and technique and it's the same song, but it's just very noticeable as someone who is fluent in Japanese and listens to this song a LOT!
🫣😂😂
"It's like beat boxing" Who is gonna tell him
Not only do they release songs in Japanese, they are signed to a Japanese label and release entire albums in Japanese (or perhaps EPs is the more correct word). Circus, Hollow, Giant are the big ones that come to mind for me. Social Path / Super bowl as well. When they perform these songs outside of Japan they will frequently do a Korean version instead (or even English in the case of Super Bowl). Their Japanese DominATE concerts are really interesting because the song selection is different in order to highlight their Japanese songs, and they also have a few songs that were originally in Korean that they translate to Japanese for those performances. It seems like they do the translation work themselves as well? I'm sure they have help if they need it but from the behind-the-scenes content it seems like Chan at least is pretty fluent. It's very interesting.
The reason for singing Korean or English versions of Japanese songs is the Japanese label contract. As Dani mentioned, the Japanese market is the second biggest in the world. They're also very protective. So the Korean artists who release Japanese albums/singles are not allowed to perform them outside of Japan. That's why they have several versions of some songs. And why we've never heard Skz perform songs like Hollow outside of Japan, because it does not have a different language version. The "exception" are Japanese groups for example NiziU (who are JYPE Japanese group) and &Team (Hybe Japanese subsidiary group) who perform their Japanese tracks outside of Japan (their discography is also mainly in Japanese). NexZ are considered a "global group", I'm told they're allowed to perform Japanese songs outside of Japan but mostly perform their Korean releases. That is why reactions to Japanese releases often even get copyright claimed on youtube, their Japanese distribution label is more strict. And that's why the Skz Japanese channel videos very rarely have English subtitles when Korean channel nowadays always has them. Another complicated market is China. There are political reasons at play aswell. As far as I understand kpop was or still is essentially "banned" from national TV and concerts in mainland China. The exception to that are the special administrative regions Hong Kong and Macau. For over 10 years kpop concerts have been only in these two regions and international award ceremonies that kpop idols also attend such as The Fact Music Awards (TMA) was held in Macau last year. And Asia Artist Awards (AAA) that features Chinese artists alongside other Asian artists has not been held in China yet. Lots of labels have Chinese subsidiaries and Chinese groups. Like WayV (NCT Chinese subunit) or Boy Story (JYPE Chinese sublabel group) who do perform in mainland China but their discography is mainly in Chinese. And I believe the members are also mainly Chinese.
I know, this is a SKZ reaction, but just a little side note, the Japanese music market has always been very attractive to K-Pop groups. Even before trying to conquer the US music market. So there are many groups that release music specifically catered to the Japanese market. They don't simply release Japanese versions of previously released Korean songs.
I'll add something. The Japanese music market is the second largest in the world. BoA's success in Japan (she debuted in Japan in 2002) is considered the first successful K-pop artist outside of Korea. Since then, many artists have attempted to achieve success in Japan. Next TVXQ, who were the first Korean artists to perform at the Tokyo Dome. Many groups, when they debut and are asked what they'd like to do as a group, say their dream is to hold a concert at the Tokyo Dome, and if they do, it's considered a huge success. The members often cry on stage. Kpop artists who have achieved this include TVXQ, Super Junior, 2PM, Bigbang, G-Dragon, KARA, SNSD, SHINee, EXO, TWICE, BLACKPINK, NCT 127, NCT DREAM, BTS, Seventeen, aespa, enhypen, stray kids, TXT, IVE, Le sserafim, and riize. There are Kpop artists whose Japanese discography is as large as their Korean discography. There are also many anime songs sung by Kpop artists. The most famous are the two opening songs to One Piece, sung by TVXQ, and BoA, who sang the opening song for the anime Fairy Tail.