KARD – Don’t Recall
KARD’s song titled Don’t Recall was released on March 2, 2017. Actually, the English version of Don’t Recall was officially released as the hidden ver. for “Don’t Recall”. It was released, added to the original single in Korea, and as a separate single for other markets. Meanwhile, “K.A.R.D Project Vol.2 “Don’t Recall”” is the second pre-debut digital single by KARD. It was released on February 16, 2017, and is the second release of their three-part pre-debut project.
BTS – Mic Drop
BTS’s song titled Mic Drop wasreleased on September 18, 2017. Mic Drop is a song recorded by South Korean boy-group BTS for their fifth extended play, Love Yourself: Her (2017). The song was first released by Big Hit as a B-track on September 18, 2017, in South Korea.
The song was remixed by American DJ Steve Aoki, featuring rapper Desiigner and was released to American contemporary hit radio as a single. The remix by Aoki was released with a music video.
Mic Drop really got good reactions from fans, especially the English version remixed by Steve Aoki. The music video director, Woogie Kim, stated in an interview, “Listening to the song, the first thing that came to my mind was that I wanted to lock BTS in an interrogation room. Then I wanted to show the viewers how they managed to escape and free themselves with music.”
On November 16, 2017, they released a teaser for the song. After the original release date of November 17 was pushed back due to their American schedule, the video was released on November 24.
The clip opens with Steve Aoki DJ-ing as the group dances the song’s choreography in various settings. Some of the imagery features burning cars and military references. As Desiigner doesn’t appear on the clip, his part is replaced by the Korean version’s original intro by J-Hope and Suga.
The music video for the Japanese version of the song melds the remix visuals with the original beat. The set is almost identical to the remix music video, but subtle differences take shape when Aoki’s looming figure is replaced with a silhouette with glowing red eyes.
Some of the key personnel that worked on the music video were Cathy Kim, who served as the producer, Andy Iere Kim, the production supervision, Kwak Doori, the directing team supervisor, Nam Hyunwoo, the director of photography, Song Hyunsuk working the gaffer, Kim Sangseon, the art director, and Yoh Dongho,o the VFH director.
A.C.E – Cactus
A.C.E.’s song titled Cactus was released on May 23, 2017, by Beat Interactive and distributed by Sony Music. In order to promote the single, the group performed on several South Korean music programs, including Music Bank and Show! Music Core. A music video for the song was also released on May 23. The single album peaked at number 24 on the Gaon Album Chart.
A few months later, in September 2017, A.C.E teamed up with phone company LG Phones to record and release an English-language version of their debut single. The project was first rolled out to LG Phone users within South Korea as an exclusive, with LG customers able to access an interactive music video of the English version. Beat Interactive confirmed in September that an official release of the song would soon follow on all of A.C.E’s official channels.
