We’re back with our First Gen Friday feature after a little break, and this time we’re doing things a little differently. Rather than giving you the life and times of each legendary artist, we’ll be reviewing individual hits instead. So to kick that off, we’re starting with a little favourite of mine. Whilst I’m sure you’ve heard of H.O.T’s Candy, this weeks FGF will be focusing on its successor – We Are The Future!
[youtube id=”kQ8twlFOaWU”]We Are The Future is a techno-esque track that talks of the pressures that adults put upon young people, telling them how to live their lives and saying that they ‘haven’t lived’. H.O.T hits back saying they are going to live their lives as they please, and they’re still going to do well. They don’t want to live the life the adults have thrust upon them. At the time of release, H.O.T received much criticism from adults for releasing such a track, and many parents banned their kids from listening to them. However, it seems the message of the song got across, as fans continued to listen and they remained popular for a further 3 albums, releasing 5 albums in total before their disbandment in 2001.
What I love about the song is not only the message, but the fact that they put such a message in a disco/club type song. So whilst you’re dancing away to the catchy beat, you’re also listening to words that are heaps and bounds more inspiring than ‘like baby baby baby oh’, even if you can’t speak Korean. ‘We Are The Future’ is definitely up there on my list of top H.O.T songs, and with it being the title track of their next album after ‘Candy’ (We Hate All Kinds Of Violence), this song was a solid decider in their fate as a group.
Unfortunately, I don’t think these days H.O.T’s songs would fare well in the British market, though, that doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate them and try (and fail) to emulate their dances. I do wonder if we could bring baggy silk suits into style though…it’d be cool, right? Right. Don’t tell me you aren’t imagining streets of people wearing baggy silk suits now, though.
Would you believe that these deep lyrics are in fact the work of SM Entertainment? SM hasn’t always been the poster company of the gibberish lyrics we hear today. In fact, their early releases are completely void of phrases like ‘fantastic elastic’, although, they aren’t clear of dubious English. (Tony An you were supposed to be H.O.T’s English speaker.)
Aside from the lyrics and catchy beat, the MV itself although low quality from what we’re used to from SM – remember this is the 90s – matches well with the meaning of the song. The music video opens with a girl attempting to jump off a building, but the video freezes with her in mid-air and displays the message ‘STOP’. After a brief cut to H.O.T dancing, we are then shown a boy in class, whom a teacher is about to throw a rubber at, once again the MV flashes ‘STOP’. The next ‘STOP’ scenes show us a teacher beating students, a kid stealing, bullies beating up a student who then goes to stab them, however they are all stopped by a mysterious angel like figure. Presumably reminding them of the life they could lead.
The issues of societal pressure also appear in the 2012 movie Pluto, which we just reviewed. The message is similar in that pressure from society – whether it’s by parents or peers – often leads to a bad path. The fact there’s 15 years between the release of ‘We Are The Future’ and ‘Pluto’ shows this is definitely an on-going issue, we’re still fighting.
So whenever you’re feeling stressed from exams, or your parents, or anything in general. Find this song and blast it to your heart’s content, I guarantee you’ll feel better for it, if only because the loud music got on your parents nerves.
Our Score: 4/5
What would you rate ‘We Are The Future‘ let us know in the comments section!
