Format Digital download Length 3:40 Writer(s) Teddy, G-Dragon, T.O.P | Genre dance-pop
trap Label YG Entertainment | |
Released June 1, 2015 (2015-06-01) | ||
"Bang Bang Bang" (Korean: 뱅뱅뱅) is a song recorded by South Korean boy group Big Bang. It was released digitally on June 1, 2015 by YG Entertainment, as the third single from MADE Series, and the first from A. This song won "Song of the Year" at 2015 Mnet Asian Music Awards, making the group the second act to be awarded this prize for second time. Gaon Chart announced "Bang Bang Bang" as the best-selling and most-streamed single in South Korea of 2015.
Contents
Background and promotion
The first poster titled "Bang Bang Bang" was released on May 27, YG Entertainment producer Yang Hyun-suk commented that the song was "the most powerful music you have ever heard before." Before its release on the first of June at midnight, the members hosted a live streaming on the app V from the news portal Naver, where the talked about the new songs and answered fans questions. The first televised live performance was made in the Mnet music show M Countdown along with We Like 2 Party. The group also appeared on the talk show You Hee-yeol's Sketchbook to perform the single.
Japanese version
The song was translated for Japanese to be included in their album Made Series. The Japanese version gained a music video, that is essentially the same as the Korean original, but edited to be shorter in length. This version was performed in the Japanase tv shows Music Station, Momm!!, Space Shower TV, among others.
Music video
"Bang Bang Bang" music video was directed by Seo Hyun Seung and choreographed by Parris Goebel, who makes a appearance on the video. The video was well received by critics. Jeff Benjamin from fuse described it as "an over-the-top affair, with the guys rocking a slew of wild looks, hairdos and fashions in a neon-tinged world," while Eric Ducker from Rolling Stone claimed that "nothing from [this year] really beats the explosive grandiosity of "Bang Bang Bang" from genre legends Big Bang." Billboard highlighted the members' "boundary pushing" high-fashion. Stereogum hailed it an "insanely epic video," and admired the video's "beautiful, absurd riot of glitter and pink hair and hydraulic low-riders and flamethrowers and tricked-out motorcycles and grenade launchers and studded leather and androgynous models on leashes and anti-aircraft guns and cowboy hats and Buckingham Palace guard hats and assault vehicles being driven like chariots." Stereogum also ranked "Bang Bang Bang" as the fourteenth best music video of the year, the only non-English song on their Year-End list.
The music video was the most viewed K-Pop group video of 2015 and second of all time, only behind their own "Fantastic Baby." On January 19, 2016, it reached 100 million views on YouTube. It became the second K-pop group music video to surpass 200 million views on January 11, 2017.
Controversy
The group was criticized for appropriating Native American culture because of the war bonnet, worn only by those who have earned the highest honors in their tribes, Seungri wears in the video. The Muse described the incident as "another example of K-pop appropriation" stating that "Western culture’s various racial stereotypes" are "consumed and blown-out" by the genre "that it almost seems like an avenue in which to decentralize and possibly even defang some of those."
Commercial
"Bang Bang Bang" had the best first-week sales in 2015, selling 339,856 digital copies. It peaked at number 1 on the Gaon Digital Chart. By the end of June, "Bang Bang Bang" was number 1 on the monthly digital chart, with a total of 681,111 digital sales and 26.472 million streams. On July, 2016 the song reached 2 million downloads in South Korea.
The single held the two top spots of World Digital Songs along with "We Like 2 Party", the second time for the group after the previous release M, which led them tying with Psy's record, for being the only K-pop act to hold the top two slots on World Digital Songs twice. "Bang Bang Bang" was also the biggest K-Pop song of 2015 in the World Digital Songs chart by Billboard.
In France, the song debuted at number 194 on the singles chart, marking the first time a male K-Pop act managed to do so. In Japan, the song peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 and charted for 63 weeks. The song ranked second as the best 20 Korean singles in 2015 in Taiwan. In 2013, The Japanese version of the song ranked first place on the top 10 tracks of the year in Japan by KKBox, that praised its energetic sound, and called it a classical song from the band.
Critical
Billboard named placed the track at the tenth spot in their best Big Bang songs list, calling the single "impossible to ignore," stating that, even though "the sudden shift in pacing throughout the single come off as jarring upon first listen," the track's "stuttering rhythm," "chaotic environment" and "frenzied energy" makes the song "all that more compelling." Sun-Times included "Bang Bang Bang" in their unranked list of ten best Big Bang songs, claiming that "this club-ready track takes classic Big Bang swagger to new levels of sophistication." The Muse felt that the single "savvily hits every note, including anthemic trap breakdown" describing the song as "literally, lit."
Cultural impact
"Bang Bang Bang" topped the Gallup Korea annual poll of nation-wide koreans between the ages of 13 to 59 for Song of the Year. The song was chosen by the South Korean government to be a part of the loudspeaker propraganda broadcast into North Korea borders, in response to the January 2016 nuclear tests. It was also sang by Seoul university students during the 2016 South Korean protests for the resignation of the president Park Geun-hye.