SEVENTEEN Drops the Music with “HIT”
After almost eight months since January’s You Made My Dawn, SEVENTEEN returns to the scene with their digital single “HIT,” a high-energy EDM anthem where words like “powerful” and “mind-blowing” just feel like gross understatements.
Known for their reputation as self-producing idols, the group has been pushing their creative boundaries since last December’s “Getting Closer,” a track which offered fans a much darker, sexier side to SEVENTEEN. “HIT” follows that energy but kicks it up more than several notches with its crazy tempos, power-anthem lyrics, and earth-shaking bass.
After the announcement of the Ode To You world tour earlier this summer, fans began to anticipate a new release from the group. Following the cryptic “An Ode 1: Unchained Melody” prologue video, Pledis Entertainment steadily began posting teasers of “HIT” which could only be described as intimidating, as even just the short clips foreshadowed that this would be SEVENTEEN’s most powerful concept yet. Though most of the group’s discography pulls from the EDM genre, they had yet to venture into true EDM territory; this left fans wondering how the comeback would pan out as some other groups’ EDM releases have fallen flat, but leave it to the dream team of Woozi and fellow producer Bumzu to deliver.
The song starts out with Jeonghan’s cherubic voice, an unexpected and incredibly satisfying contrast to the fast-paced dance rhythms backing the vocals, but the first real punch of the song comes with Vernon’s rap verse where he declares SEVENTEEN is charging only straight ahead like a buffalo. The melodic pre-chorus from Joshua (and later Seungkwan) gives the song an almost haunting quality, but heavily autotuned declarations of power from S.Coups, Wonwoo, and more leading up to Woozi’s explosive “Let me drop the music” bring us right back to the main point: SEVENTEEN is here to dominate.
Save for the rhythmic chanting, the chorus is notably absent of lyrics, instead letting the performance speak for itself. The song reaches a pseudo-peak at the bridge, featuring all 13 members chanting about overcoming their obstacles before blasting into the final chorus, but the true climax of the song is, undoubtedly, the ending dance break.
As an EDM-based song, “HIT” is naturally geared more towards the group’s Hip-Hop and Performance Teams, especially compared to You Made My Dawn’s title “Home” which featured the Vocal Team more prominently. A notable absence in the new track is main vocalist Dokyeom, though this is likely due to his involvement in a musical. Everyone, however, still gets their time to shine in the music video, particularly Performance Team members Hoshi, Dino, The8, and Jun, with the latter two centering much of the dance portions. SEVENTEEN has always been known for their difficult and extremely synchronized choreography, but “HIT” blows their past performances out of the water. Between what may be 2019’s hardest dance break and the visually stunning solo cuts from Hoshi and The8, the energy in “HIT” is quite literally jaw-dropping.
While the music video is driven by the choreography, there’s still definitely something to be said about the visuals. Whether it’s Jeonghan’s seductive gaze, the black-suit-no-shirt wardrobe, or Mingyu’s general existence (his part 45 seconds into the music video is literally breathtaking), this video is just as shocking as the song it accompanies. So take a listen and if you’re feeling daring, give the music video a chance. It’ll leave you saying nothing short of, “Wow.”