Underrated Kpop: Great Guys – Blind Love & More

Oh, the titles ya girl went through before landing on this one.

These titles included:

A Great Guide To GreatGuys

• Cheesy but fun

How I Accidentally Became A GreatGuys Fan And Why You Should Too

• Sounds a bit Buzzfeed-esque, but it accurately explains my last two weeks or so

REVIEW: GreatGuys – Blind Love & More

• Closer to what the actual article is about, but not eye-catching enough for me tbh

Underrated Kpop Groups: GreatGuys

• Also, closer but still missing their current song deets
• I like that this could become a series on ATK, just replace groups with soloist when needed

Underrated Kpop: GreatGuys – Blind Love & More

• Heavy on the more considering I listened to all of their songs available on Spotify, made a playlist of my faves, listened to that playlist for about a week, then saved my main 4 songs to my Fave Songs ATM playlist. I’m still alternating between the two.
• This title covers everything I need it to
• Really liking the idea of making this a series here on the blog going forward. I’m already thinking of groups and soloist I could cover under this series, omg.

So after that 30 minute or so freak out, we got a title. Let’s get to the actual post now, lol.

Oooo we got a collab!! A few weeks ago, I got an email from DNA Entertainment’s PR about helping them promote GreatGuys’ recent comeback.

After my first watch through of the music video for “Blind Love”, I had numerous thoughts running around in my head.

I’ve seen GreatGuys in passing in the Kpop subredit and some other places online, but I never had a desire to check them out.

After watching “Blind Love”, my first interaction with them, I felt like I was missing some context.

Like, have they always been vampires? Are they now security guards after finding love? Are they just vampires and security guard for this music video?

Is there more GreatGuys lore I’m missing? I had so many questions.

I needed to find out more about them. Then I had an idea, what if I did a little bit of a deep dive into GreatGuys.

I’m sure y’all have just as many questions about them, too. So let’s start with getting to know GreatGuys, my favorite songs while learning more about them, and their new songs.

GreatGuys debuted on August 25th 2017 with “Last Men”, a digital single. I like this song. Wikipedia describes “Last Men” as synth pop. Idk how I missed it when it released.

There are eight members, Horyeong, Haneul, Daun, Donghwi, Dongin, Hwalchan, Uiyeon, and Baekgyeol. Jae I left the group August 23rd, 2022 due to health issues.

The average member age is 26.8 (international age) as of writing.

To be more specific, birth year wise, we got members born during 1993-1997. They’re under DNA Entertainment.

The fandom name is Grace, and according to Kprofiles, they don’t have a fandom color(s) at the moment. In my research, I discovered each member has a type of guy associated with them.

Not sure if they still use this concept or like introduce themselves with these titles, but I have to share this information.

So for example, Jaei is charming guy, Horyeong is reliable guy, Haneul is nice guy, Daun is lucky guy, Donghwi is pretty guy, Dongin is tough guy, Hwalchan is energetic guy (the unhelpful guide to GreatGuys video I watched was like, ”I don’t know why they gave him this nickname considering all he does is sleep.” hgdskgd), Uiyeon is loyal guy, and Baekgyeol is innocent guy.

If I were to describe GreatGuys sound, which I will, poorly, but I’m doing my best.

I’d say their music has a clubby disco, retro vibe to it, like “DANG!”. Elements of R&B (Be on you), Hip Hop and Rock (Illusion), and sooo many other genres. I kept trying to think of what they reminded me of.

A little bit of Second Gen Kpop, like Beast and Infinite. Very 2011-2013 Kpop. Personally, I love that. I was a big fan of mainstream Dubstep back when that was popular around 2011-2013.

I miss that Far East Movement (Like A G6), LMFAO, David Guetta party era in mainstream Pop, that was fun.

I guess it was only natural for me to now be interested in deep house and whatever Sirius XM Chill plays when I’m not listening to Kpop.

Anyway, I also thought a little bit of SF9 too, my nightclub dance kings, while listening to GreatGuys.

I noticed GreatGuys tend to have a lot of drops and different electronic instrumentals along with like actual instruments like horns, keys, and guitars.

“Oh Yeah” doesn’t have much of a vocal chorus, it’s mostly instrumentals with a high pitch oh yeah repeated.

But it comes together so nicely. The instrumentals in the beginning kinda remind me of hold or elevator music, but in a good way.

One word choruses are common in GreatGuys music as well. My favorite part in “Oh Yeah” is Jaei’s “Wait up wait up I do this all day.” I’m also a big fan of the “hold up hold up” parts earlier in the song as well.

My favorite GreatGuys song (currently) “Black&White”, has this wonderful build up starting with the pre-chorus and once the chorus hits, you get this like casino slot machine instrumental.

I stumbled across a dance practice video they made back in 2019 when they first released the song.

This is one of those songs I knew, from the first few seconds, I was going to enjoy.

One of my favorite things about the way GreatGuys songs are typically structured, is by the time you get comfortable with the beat and instrumentals, they switch it up on you.

It keeps your ears engaged, and you can’t help but wonder, okay, what’s next? There’s just so much going on. The production is so good.

They use background vocals sparingly, so when you catch it, it doesn’t feel over done.

There’s a great balance of vocals vs instrumentals on their songs. “Black&White” is one of the main examples that comes to mind. I’m still learning who’s who in the group.

But I had to figure out who does the pre-chorus and chorus.

My understanding from a fan cam someone uploaded to YouTube and color coded lyrics, the order goes Jaei, Donghwi, Baekgyeol (my favorite vocals), then Daun.

That order and arrangement had me hooked. Then I love the flip for the second time, the pre-chorus and chorus come around.

It goes Baekgyeol, Jaei, Donghwi (who in both fan cams I watched looked like he was having so much fun during this song) and Horyeong (I really enjoy his voice too).

I love Both Dongin and Uiyeon’s raps and their rap styles. I noticed Dongin has a lot of writing influence in their music. Love that for him.

Hwalchan and Haneul don’t have as many parts in “Black&White”, but for what they get, they slay their sections.

Everyone is just utilized so well in this song and live performances of it. The choreography in “Black&White” is wonderful.

Okay, so after listening to all their songs and then narrowing down my faves and listening to those songs for a little over a week, now I feel like I have more context to “Blind Love” and GreatGuys’ style.

GreatGuys released a special album, called AGAIN, back in April 2021. The title track “Touch By Touch” has a Korean and English version.

There’s also an instrumental version on the album. On July 20th 2022, GreatGuys came back with their final part of the We’re Not Alone series, We’re Not Alone Final: Only You with “Blind Love” as the title.

I looked further into GreatGuys lore, and I didn’t find much of a reason to why vampires, specifically vampire security guards.

Other than being one of the best concepts in Kpop. Vampires, not security guards. Sorry, Paul Blart.

You can’t go wrong with it. We love a sexy vampire moment. And the idea of protecting Grace (the fandom) is super sweet.

Now y’all know I love fashion too. So we gotta discuss the clothes. If there’s one thing about me, is that I’m gonna talk fashion. Fashion wise, “Be on you” and “Run” (parts one and two of the We’re Not Alone series), both have similar concepts.

Both are group uniforms with dark colors and either harnesses (Run), or bejeweled blazers and chains (Be on you).

All blending together in “Blind Love”. Watching out of order, you miss that detail. Another thing I noticed, too, both “Be on you” and “Run” look like they were filmed in the same mansion.

One was inside and the other outside. I like that subtle detail.

Anyway, back to “Blind Love” fashion. They mixed the harnesses, chains, and blazers from the first two videos with long sleeved flowy shirts for this one.

You get more of the Victorian era vampire styling here. There’s also red outfits.

Red is an important color in this music video and era. Red just symbolizes a countless amount of things showed and implied in “Blind Love”. Most obvious is red with roses, love, sensuality. But also blood. Cause like… vampires.

Even the text “Blind Love” is written in their album cover is red. The symbolism wasn’t lost on me. I see what y’all did there.

There’s more outfit changes in “Blind Love”. Which is always great. Fashion wise, too, I’m here for GreatGuys styling.

I guess when you’ve got some of the tallest idols ever in one group, it’s pretty easy to put them in whatever and know they’re gonna kill it. I think Dongin used to model prior to being in GreatGuys, if I remember correctly.

But I’m a simple lass, put tall guys in suits or a uniform look, and I’m good. I love the drama going on in the music video.

The styling is on point, the guys look great. When it comes to the song itself, it’s not one that you’re doing a Tiktok dance to.

“Blind Love” is structurally the same as most of their songs. The chorus is mostly the words blind love being repeated, with other lines sung.

I’d call the instrumental, something close to an orchestra like sound to it. It kinda reminds me of “Fantasy” by VIXX, but less dramatic vocally. But similar delivery in the emphasis on emotion. Very theatric.

This one doesn’t have that earworn beat that captures me in like their previous songs. But this isn’t supposed to be like those.

Actually, looking closer at the lyrics, this feels like a parallel to “Illusion”. But instead of GreatGuys captivating Grace, it’s Grace captivating them into following Grace blindly.

“Blind Love” is a dramatic, serious song where the protagonist has fallen in love, gained confidence and strength in themselves and because of that love, they’re willing to risk it all as long as Grace is there with them. My interpretation, at least.

So…that not being something I can vibe to, dance to, that’s on me tbh. I have other GreatGuys song to do that to, lmao. So it’s fine. I say all the time, not liking a title track doesn’t make you any less of a fan.

But what I am saying is sometimes not liking a title track but being curious in seeing if there’s something else a group or soloist makes, does pay off sometimes. In this case, I found quite a few new songs to add to my playlists.

Despite “Blind Love” not being for me, I’ve been listening to their other songs nonstop. But I still think “Blind Love” worth checking out.

There’s sooo much, potential with GreatGuys. They’re so underrated, and I’m thankful, to DNA Entertainment to bring them to my attention.

So I hope this encourages y’all into checking them out as well. I’m super excited to see what else is up their sleeves.

I’ve been watching some of their Tiktoks that they’ve done with MyMusicTaste. Now I just want to watch more GreatGuys content while I wait for more music. I’ve definitely become a fan after doing all this research.

My full list of fave GreatGuys songs goes like this:

Black&White

Be on you

Oh Yeah

Illusion

TOUCH BY TOUCH (Korean version)

DANG!

In Summer (Deux Remake with a city-pop sound added to it)

LAST MEN

Run

So if you’re looking for a few songs to check out from them after “Blind Love” and “Sweet Night”, these are a great place to start.

OMG. I forgot to talk about “Sweet Night”. “Sweet Night” is the b-side on We’re Not Alone Final: Only You.

It’s also different to their previous songs in a way. There’s more autotune, but it’s not a boring ballad. It’s a midtempo song as well. But slightly slower paced.

I really need to look into what you call a song that’s in between mid and slow tempo, omg. I feel like this album is just GreatGuys experimenting more with their sound. I do love that.

Keep what works, but switch it up just enough, so people don’t get bored. That’s my mini review on “Sweet Night”. Okay, I think this article is long enough.

I hope y’all enjoyed today’s post. It’s slightly different from my previous posts, but I had to do a deeper dive. I couldn’t just listen to “Blind Love” and call it a day.

Let me know if y’all want some other deep dives on other groups. I had so much fun working on this article.

One of the reasons why I made ATK was to help promote groups and soloist that aren’t known as well as other mainstream Kpop artists.

So if you’re a PR manager, in marketing, or an up and coming Kpop artist, hit me up. Thanks to DNA Entertainment for putting GreatGuys on my radar. I hope I helped with spreading the word!

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-Ash 🧛🏻❤️