The single “Vibe” was released by The Black Label — a subsidiary of YG Entertainment — as a collaboration between YG Entertainment’s Bigbang member Taeyang and HYBE Label’s BTS member Jimin on Jan. 12.
The song focuses on romantic love, as demonstrated with lines such as “You don’t know I want your love (Know, I want your love).” In particular, it uses a series of metaphors and exaggerations to express the singer’s love for his partner, such as “I’m the movie, you’re the highlight” and “Before you my world was in disconnection.” Despite what might seem like hyperbole, these lines help to indicate just how much the singer loves his companion; they are the light of his life and he loves them with all of his heart.
A music video accompanied the song’s release. It depicted Taeyang — wearing a black and white outfit and black pants — in silhouette as the camera pans to his front side and the lights go up, revealing that he is standing on a stage. He dances on the stage as lights flash around him and spotlights him before Jimin appears wearing a black leather jacket and black pants.
Jimin appears in various environments, including a city background and a smaller, circular stage, before appearing with Taeyang. At this point, their outfits start to change, with Jimin wearing a red leather jacket, a white long-sleeve shirt and a partially-open black suit. Taeyang, meanwhile, wears a sleeveless black shirt with necklaces, a white cardigan and a closed black suit. The two of them pose as the camera pulls back.
In addition to the main music video, several supplemental videos were released to promote the song. One of the most notable videos released was a live video where the two of them sing the song in a well-lighted environment while accompanied by a band. This video is particularly interesting because it features minimal dancing, with the two singers sitting on stools. It has a more stripped-down mood, with acoustic-sounding instrumentation that is more subtle in some parts compared to the studio recording. Even the singers’ clothes look more casual compared to the music video, with Taeyang wearing a red T-shirt and Jimin wearing a tan sweater.
Several other types of videos were released to promote the song. One of these was an installment of YouTube channel 1theK’s “Look Me Up,” a series where prominent K-pop idols look up their names on various websites and remark on what they see, featuring Taeyang. In this video, Taeyang talks about how this collaboration came to be. After watching a video of Jimin dancing to one of his songs during “Look Me Up”, the singer informed the cameraperson that he met up with one of his labelmates who arranged a meeting with him, and the two of them eventually decided to do the song. Taeyang also talked about Jimin’s status as a VIP (Big Bang fan), he listened to their album “Alive” when he was in middle school, which ended up being the catalyst for his singing career. He was thankful for the chance to collaborate with him and his passion.
A third video related to the single was the third installment of the talk show “Get Drunk With Suga,” where the titular BTS member interviewed Taeyang in a bar-like environment. He predicted that the single would reach number one on the Korean charts and noted how dedicated Jimin was in practicing and working with him. This was followed by two clips of Jimin imitating Taeyang — serving as a testament to show how much of a fan he is. Taeyang also noted how much dancing the music video had and how he was very satisfied with the collaboration.
The song was relatively successful, as it hit number 76 on the Billboard Hot 100 — making it both artists’ first solo entry on the chart. By extension, Tayang is the first member of Bigbang to reach this chart. Despite a lack of promotion on Korean music shows, the song also won one award on M Countdown. The song also reached number five on the Digital Circle Chart,Korea’s main music chart, as well.
Looking for more English Bigbang songs? The group released an album titled “Number 1” that contains 11 songs sung in English. Taeyang also has three English solo songs: “I’ll Be There,” “Wedding Dress” and “Connection”.
“Vibe” is a collaboration between two legendary K-pop artists. Fans of both groups are lucky to witness a collaboration between these two successful idols.
Bailey Kanthatham is an A&E Contributing Writer. He can be reached at bkanthat@uci.edu.
