[#40] Red Velvet - Happiness

From: "Happiness"
Released: August
Territory: South Korea
Previous Best of Entries: first appearance
Other notable song(s) from 2014: "Be Natural"

This will probably be the first "controversial" entry on this year's best of list, but for what it is I do have my reasons for liking "Happiness". While certain aspects of Red Velvet's debut were problematic and many of us know that SM could have done so much better, "Happiness" was a safe debut. And considering how SM has handled their "daring" debuts recently (EXO), safe is a better place to be.

The song itself is passable. It's a strong composition arrangement and production-wise, which is to be expected from SM. It's catchy yet melodic, with just enough gimmicks to sustain listeners throughout. While middle 8 is really out of place, the rest of the song is cohesively dynamic -- I wouldn't mind listening to this a few times in a row. As far as the actual melody is concerned, it's very young SM girl group with the chanting/talk-rapping laced with some purely melodic sections that are still simple enough to be sung by a wide range of vocal abilities.

What I like about "Happiness" is that SM clearly took into consideration Red Velvet and the fact that, well, they're the ones who will actually be performing it. I watched a few performances of it, as well as some dance cuts on variety shows, and the one thing I noticed was how effortless it looked for Red Velvet. And not the lazy kind of effortless -- the effortless that they were clearly trained for, so much so that it shows in their performance. And that's what I look for in debuts -- material that the rookie group is comfortable enough with that it brings out their strengths.

1 comments:

AnonymousDecember 7, 2014 at 4:42 PM
I think the choice of inserting this song in your countdown list is not controversial whatsoever because when I read comments on its MV in Youtube, a lot of people actually like it. The choice of a good music is subjective and this is your countdown list, so I see no problems putting this here :) anyway, I'm also one of those who really liked this song when I first heard it because it made me smile when I first listened to it. A lot of people complain about the rap/talking part of the song, but I feel that the rapping done in this song is one that is not annoying and very enjoyable. The whole song feels so cohesive despite the seemingly polar opposite parts which are the singing part and the rapping part, except for the belting bridge part (which I assume is just there for the showoff, as other SM singles also have it in the past). And the live performances are even better. Really shows how good RV can be when they're comfortable. Keep up the good work!

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