The next collaboration that I wanted to quickly cover was the final release of 2020. Dropping on the 31st of December 2020 was Switch To Me, a collaboration between Rain and JYP. Rain, for those who don’t know, is a well-known soloist in the KPOP music industry and his famous physique that he has flaunted in his musical releases on numerous occasions (the most iconic being Love Song). More recently, he saw a resurgence in his fame through the remergence of his 2018 track Gang, collaborated with Zico for Summer Hate and collaborated with Yoo Jae Suk and Lee Hyori for SSAK. JYP is a male soloist who we all know, thanks to his old school hits (which are considered classics in the industry) and more recently collaborated with Sunmi for When We Disco. But today, we are hear to have a closer look and listen at Switch To Me.
Switch To Me delves into the new jack swing genre, bringing forth a strong retro appeal for their new song and collaboration. It is super jam packed with energy, which is representative of the genre. And knowing Rain and JYP’s style of music, this energy driven song is totally both their styles. In hindsight, Switch To Me is a pretty straightforward song. But there was a few elements that really made this a collaboration enjoyable. Aside from the energy that I have already touch upon, I really liked the chorus of this song. It was quite memorable and catchy. I particularly liked the way they ended their choruses, giving us a little more than a hard finish would have. I really liked their voices in this song. JYP’s sings in his signature style, while Rain employs a little more huskiness than what I remember his voice contains. The rapping in the second verse was quite nice and adds a burst of exciting energy into the song. I don’t have much else to say about Switch To Me, aside from the fact that it is a strong collaboration track and one that I am sure fans of both soloists have enjoyed.
The music video starts off with what feels like a K-drama scene of two frienemies or rivals praising one another by keeping tabs on one another’s recent achievements. I also like how their dialogue touches on the point that Rain used to be an artist under JYP’s guidance and that he learnt everything from JYP himself. Enter in the actress, who Rain and JYP spend their time throughout the music video competing against each other for. There are abs being flaunted, horse riding and expensive cars being driven. But the ending cracks me up with an unsuspected contender turns up. The ending shows the actress walking towards Rain and JYP, with us suspecting that she will choose one of them. But she ends up going for Psy, whom she was very pleased to see. I loved Psy’s face in response to the two singers and Rain’s reaction to the event.
The performance was pretty good. Despite their age, both Rain and JYP commit to the energtic side of the performance. It is really enjoyable and helps liven the song up a lot more than just the instrumentation/song itself. There seems to be a tiny hint of comedy in the performance from how I see things, no doubt a play on Rain’s recent trendiness and JYP’s usual outrageous performance style. I also quite liked the ending, with both singers going for that half split.
Song – 8.5/10
Music Video – 9/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 8.6/10
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