In a barren July, it seems that a glorified Pepsi ad will have to suffice when it comes to big-name K-pop comebacks. This Pepsi x Starship collaboration project has been going on for years now, resulting in eight singles. Most of these have been collaborations between two or more artists, but Summer Taste ups the ante, pairing performers from three idol groups with K-pop legend Rain. There’s a ton of talent involved, here. I wish that talent had been put to more interesting use than simply selling soft drinks.
As a commercial, Summer Taste isn’t half bad. At least it’s upbeat and energic! Any song that kicks off with the opening of a Pepsi can can’t be taken too seriously, but the track’s brisk pace and chant-along hooks don’t beg for credibility. Built upon a high-octane EDM backbone, Summer Taste careens from one segment to another. None of the hooks land particularly well, yet the song moves so fast you’ll hardly notice. It’s like K-pop sleight of hand.
The performers do their best infusing every bit of Summer Taste with personality, and moments of freewheeling fun poke through occasionally. But, the song’s strongest punches land when everyone gathers together to deliver a schlocky catchphrase or two. This may feel like damning with faint praise, and that’s kind of inevitable with a song like this. Still, if you turn off your brain and surrender to the chugging dance beat, it’s hard not to get swept up in Summer Taste’s sound and fury. You might even find yourself unironically chanting “wassup, wassup wassup wassup!”
…I guess it depends on just how much Pepsi you’ve consumed.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 9 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 8.25 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
I really like the instrumental [as expected of my myself lol] but the song just feels all over the place. I feel like it could have been much more explosive too, but I’ll take a nice EDM track anyday 😁
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Well, now that I’ve listened to this song a million times since that comment, I can safely say I’m absolutely loving it. I wish it was more prominent but I love the synth melody at the drop, especially immediately after the first ‘Woah, Woah Woah’. I’m being very particular, but it has a really nice descending [polyrhythmic?] melody. I also love the ‘What’s up’ part, where the synth is removed but replaced with a [percolating?] bass that’s common in tropical/deep house music and an additional warped synth sound or something. If I had to be very critical, I would say I don’t particularly like the vocals at 0:49 – 0:52 [Don’t be afraid 불태워볼까]. It feels slightly off. Otherwise, this is probs in my top 5 songs of the year, which is quite weird considering it’s literally an ad.
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I’m so jealous that you found something to love during this wretched dry spell of K-pop! Hahaha
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I was today years old when I discovered ‘So What’ by BTS. HOW HAVE I NEVER HEARD IT BEFORE. Oh well, time to play it on repeat for the next few years. House music for the win! 😎
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Wow, welcome to the club! I’ve always said that So What sounds like BTS if they were produced by Sweetune. One of my absolute faves.
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I like this! Didn’t expect that this would be one of the most summer sounding songs this month lol!
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I am not going to buy the song or pepsi, but for three and a half minutes I was entertained. Yes, it’s a bit all over the place and then some, but the instrumental is consistent enough to tie all the disparate sections together enough.
I was chanting what sounds to me like “We’re so danger” by the end.
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“K-pop sleight of hand” is a nice description of this song haha. It’s a good song. Very energetic and works for what it wants to do, though it still won’t be able to make me drink Pepsi. It just tastes awful to me.
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I enjoyed that perhaps a lot more than I should have? I guess part of that has to do with just the novelty of it all. It’s not everyday you’ll get all these top acts on the same song and you know, actually interacting.
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I guess I’m missing something. You put Rain, Monsta X, Brave Girls and ATEEZ altogether in order to make them sing “Oh-oh oh-uoh-oh oh-uoh-oh oh-yeah oh-yeah wazza-wazza”?! Uhm, ok.
At the moment I’m not that thirsty, but if I were I would for sure need a Coke.
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I’m honestly still not over project group YDPP knocking it out of the park for a promotional song that had no business being as good as it was, Love It Live It, which thankfully received love on this site a while back. I love the dance and that instrumental is honestly such a blast. I still look into releases like this because of that one setting such high standards 😉
Also unrelated side note but I’m commenting with my Twitter account, which I have never done before. Previously I just used my Facebook account, but I’m definitely not a newcomer to this site! That being said, I use my “stan account,” as you call it, way too much, changing my profile picture and my name from time to time, so I guess there goes any hope of consistency I hoped for ^^;;
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Yeah, it’s pretty fun but kind of a shame they didn’t do something more substantial or interesting with such a big collaboration. The taste of this one fizzes out pretty quickly for me.
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