I figured I would end up doing some sort of follow up for Run It, since I did my first post just a couple days after the song and M/V dropped. At the time, of course, we didn’t have a behind the scenes of the M/V and we didn’t have an album intro video. We didn’t even have music show performances or Talkers to get insights from. We had the music, the lyrics, some of the choreo, and the music video. And I still found SO MUCH to say about it.
(Check out Part 1 here.)
Now, a month and a half later, we have the behind the scenes of the music video, we have live performances from the Run It Tour kickoff stops in Seoul, we have the album intro, and, of course, we have the full album. And I debated doing just a little update, maybe an edit to the original post, but I think I have too much to say (shocker). So, while this will be a bit shorter than other posts, I did decide to do a part two.
First up, the music video behind the scenes. I really love these. I love seeing them on set. I love watching the process of how the MVs are shot and then how the final product comes out. And I love seeing how the members are involved. They’re constantly monitoring, constantly tweaking things, talking things through with the director and staff.
I especially loved seeing Seungmin participate in this one. He has, of course, been dealing with his ankle injury for the last several months and couldn’t do the full choreography. But they worked so hard to still have him in the music video and involved in the shorts content. And, of course, the members are there playing baseball with him on set. We know they take care of each other, but it’s always so sweet to see it so clearly.
Second, we got our first live performances at the first tour stops in Seoul. And it was just as epic on stage as I thought it would be. It’s big. There are so many dancers on stage. There’s so much energy.
And the whole setlist for those shows echo the themes I talked about in part one. They performed at least one track from almost every single one of their albums. And almost in order.
And the VCRs during costume changes have the same feel. There are tributes to past eras and past music videos and a look toward the future. Run It really is the perfect song for this tour. They’ve put it all together so well.
Third, we got the album intro. Another of my favorite pieces of content. They show so much of the process of the songs, even as they’re intentionally vague about songs that haven’t been released yet. And because Run It had already been released by the time they recorded and released this video, they were able to talk a lot about it.
The very first thing that Changbin says that if they hadn’t done it as a prerelease single, he would’ve wanted to keep it for a later title track. He wouldn’t have wanted it to just be a b-side. And I agree. This is a big song. A title track song. It makes a lot of sense as a title track or as a big prerelease/tour name and theme like it is.
It’s big. It’s grand, is the word Lee Know uses. And Changbin agrees that it may be the grandest song they have. Hyunjin says that it feels grittier than their other big songs, “like a mud fight.”
And then Han talks about how he didn’t think they’d be doing songs like this so far into their careers. He always imagined that they’d be a bit more laid back, established, grown up instead of “we’re gonna go even further.” And that’s what I talked about in my original post, too, that it feels like they’re looking toward the future. They’re not backing down, they’re not cooling off. Even eight years in, they’re pushing harder and doing more.
We won’t have this pace forever, of course, as they talked about in the SKZ Log from STAY Week. It’s not sustainable forever. But right now, they can do it, and they want to do it. They want to do new things and get to new achievements while they still can physically and mentally. And I really do love that ambition. It’s a beautiful thing to witness.
And this isn’t the only song that feels that way from This & That! I’m really excited to dive in to the rest of these songs!
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