The campaign for BTS’s ARIRANG album continues unabated with the release of another music video. This time, Hooligan gets its time in the spotlight. This track was promoted with dance challenges even before the debut of its video, making it feel like a co-lead track with Swim. For those looking to recapture the boisterous energy of BTS’s past, this might be the song for you. However, I find it one of the lesser options from an already underwhelming album.
Right from the start, Hooligan hinges on a few sonic gimmicks, from jeering laughter to the sound effect of sharpened swords. In this way, it reminds me of a Stray Kids song (and no, I’m not trying to start a fan war for the ages!). This brash opening is almost immediately softened by a strings-heavy track that blends old-school instrumentation with modern influences. Given a better song, I imagine this contrast could be quite compelling. It reminds me of the mid-00s, when hip-hop started to pull heavily from retro soul samples.
Unfortunately, Hooligan isn’t all that fantastic of a song. The chorus is quite obnoxious even before its incessant snickering. I appreciate how the flow of the verses is more diverse and nuanced than the monotony of 2.0, but too much of the track feels downright lethargic. This is at odds with Hooligan‘s taunting energy and quickly becomes uninspired. There are a few moments of melodic warmth that work well underpinned by those seesawing strings samples, but overall Hooligan is a hodgepodge of ideas that never fully click together. It’s probably best played in ten second snippets on TikTok and other SNS platforms.
| Hooks | 7 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 7.25 |
Grade: C
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
I liked this one from the start; the opening strings reminded me of Bad Bunny’s Monaco (or rather, its sample of Charles Aznavour’s chanson classic <<Hiers encore>>). But then it chops it up, and the sword samples come in. I get why people aren’t crazy about this album, and while it’s not the drop-dead classic of previous work (for me, the pinnacle being The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever-era), I still quite enjoy it.
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I think one’s enjoyment of this track comes down to how you feel about the main hook in the chorus since it repeats like four times? It’s not the most unique or complex hook, but it doesn’t strike me as obnoxious or annoying, so I’m able to enjoy it. The back and forth between the heavy rap sections and soaring vocal/strings sections is seamless and well done and the vocals are really enjoyable, as always. Not the best track from Arirang, but totally solid. Probably an 8 from me!
Also, imagine a sold out stadium of 100,000 people going “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA” in unison
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It’s funny, that scene you imagined sounds like a nightmare to me 😅
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Fair 😂
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‘HAHAHA’ in a stadium is better than barking, I suppose!
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Do people really enjoy hearing knives clink, clack and clatter over a song for 3 minutes straight? This sounds obnoxious
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I actually did listen to the whole album through once when it dropped. I suppose we should expect a video every week if they keep up the release schedule.
This song to me sounds like posing personified. 14 composers listed, including several from BTS and the original music composers.
I am old so my experience with fan wars was the original American Idol boards, wayyy back when before gmail existed, there was such a time. The one I frequented most frequently had the subtitle “Star Wars good, fan wars bad”. Remember kids, don’t argue with strangers on the internet! I say that because I too am hearing mid-tier Stray Kids here.
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I can’t take this seriously as a hip-hop song. The hook is just so unserious, I don’t know if they were trying to make a funny song but this is so not it. I remember listening to this when it dropped, going like “oh no.” The beat is a massive mess.
For some reason, it sounds cheap, like it was poorly-produced (which is insane, coming from El Guincho). Then there’s the sound of the knives, just overstumulating in the worst way possible.
I agree with the Stray Kids similarity, but that’s not a compliment by any means because their discography has gone downhill for the past two to three years. I still can’t get over how overproduced and bad Karma is, (at the very least, they kind of picked things up with Do It) but that’s besides the point. I think both SKZ and BTS are pulling from Kanye West from the Yeezus era or possibly Tyler, the Creator. Regardless, the producers are lacking the finesse to put these influences and ideas together in a way that sounds compelling and not overproduced or grating.
I don’t want to be harsh or excessively mean, I just felt so dissapointed by the big names in K-pop right now, especially third-gen groups. I said this before but did we really just have EXO, BTS, and BLACKPINK returning and they’ve all released some of the worst material in the history of their discography?
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‘oh, no’ was my exact reaction when listening to Arirang for the first time, too.
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This might be my favorite song from the album and the hahahaha part is the best part. It might be because I love both BTS and Stray Kids, who knows!
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I wasn’t a massive fan of this song (nor the rest of this album) but yesterday I discovered their hidden track on this album, ‘come over’, and it was everything I was looking for in this comeback (the melody, not super aggressive rap, a lot of korean, good lyrics) 😭 too bad it’s not available for streaming. I’d say it’s comparable to ‘louder than bombs’ which is one of my favorite bts songs.
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