The band steps away for half a second on every 'youth': Xdinary Heroes' 'Obsessed with Youth'

This is the music video for 'Obsessed with Youth', the title track of 'IMPULSE', the ninth mini album Xdinary Heroes released on October 12. The Bugs album notes call it an EDM (electronic dance music) rock song where lyrical feeling and explosive energy cross paths. We split the sound into six parts, vocals, drums, bass, guitar, piano and everything else, and matched the picture to it in 0.2-second steps: every time the band drops out all at once for half a second at the end of a chorus, the picture changes too. Times follow the official music video (3:34).

0:37 · 'Incomplete youth' turns 'complete' in the second verse

The passage before the first chorus begins at 0:37 with '불완전했던 youth' (the youth that was incomplete). In the same spot in the second verse (1:33) comes '완전했던 youth' (the youth that was complete). That's how the Bugs lyrics read, and when we cut out just the vocal part and ran it through speech recognition again, the first verse still came out as '불완전했던' and the second as '완전했던'. In the first verse, the bass is out from 0:39 to 0:47 during this passage.

0:47 · A gold bass the moment the bass returns

After a wide shot at 0:46.6 of all five members standing in front of garage shutters, two people in mesh sleeves grab hold of each other, and from 0:47.4 a hand playing a gold bass fills the screen. The bass, which had been out, comes back at 0:47.5. The guitar joins at 0:48.1, and 'Never let them fade' follows at 0:48.8.

1:05 · Half a second after 'youth'

On 'youth' at the end of the chorus line 'So I wanna be obsessed with youth', the drums, bass and guitar all drop out at once, leaving only the voice. It happens three times, at 1:05.8, 2:00.7 and 2:50.9, each for about half a second. The picture changes on that half second too: the first time, the face of a member singing at the mic; the second time, the audience with their hands in the air; the third time, a member throwing an arm up, followed by the audience with their hands in the air. When the band comes back, the first one leads into a wide shot of the band in a dark parking garage, and the second into a person being carried over the crowd.

1:18 · 'I ♥ XH' under the shirt

At 1:17 two blond people grab a man in a suit, and at 1:18, as the shirt is pulled open, a white T-shirt reading 'I ♥ XH' appears. XH is short for Xdinary Heroes. At 1:25, as the lyric 'No matter, (cause) whenever' goes by, 'NO MATTER' fills the screen over the band, seen through a square frame made with fingers.

1:41 · 'KISS THE DAYS OF GLORY', one word at a time

While the first line of the second chorus, 'So kiss the days of glory', is sung, KISS at 1:41.8, THE at 1:42.0, DAYS at 1:42.4, OF at 1:42.6 and GLORY at 1:42.8 pile up on the screen one word at a time. From 1:40.5 the sound is just the drums hitting hard, and at 1:42.5 the bass and guitar come in together. At 1:43.6 the picture moves to a blue room whose walls are covered in a pattern of branches.

2:17 · 1.9 seconds without drums, and a green apple

Around the bridge line '빗속에 춤을 추고' (dancing in the rain) at 2:11, the bass and then the guitar drop out, and the drums grow quieter until they disappear from 2:17.6 to 2:19.4. This is where '이런 나를 좀 알아달라고' (asking you to understand me as I am) is sung. Meanwhile on screen, a member in a dark room holds a green apple. At 2:19.2 the picture moves to silhouettes of people running in front of a pink sky, and at 2:19.5 the drums return with '더 머물러 줘' (stay a little longer).

2:29 · A black screen where everything stops, and changed lyrics

After 'Just stay a little longer here', the whole band stops from 2:28.8 to 2:29.7, and the screen goes completely black from 2:29.0 to 2:29.4. In the final chorus that follows, 'So kiss the days of glory', the drums and bass take turns hitting in short bursts until everything comes back together at 2:33.2. The lyrics change in this chorus too. 'Never let them fade' gains an 'away', '스쳐 간 모든 계절이 / 낭비된 모든 젊음이' (every season that passed by / all the youth that was wasted) becomes '또다시 변할 계절이 / 시간을 달릴 젊음이' (the seasons that will change again / the youth that will race through time), and 'Keep me alive' becomes 'That's the proof of who we are'.

3:10 · An ending where only the voice remains

At 3:10.1 the band cuts off all at once, and only the tail end of the voice remains before it fades. From 3:16.5 there is no sound at all for 2.6 seconds, and from 3:19 the last scene plays over a sound effect separate from the song. At 3:31, after the credits, the words 'WE ARE ALL HEROES' appear. Apple Music

The Bugs credits list Moon Ji-young (문지영, lalala studio), Xdinary Heroes and collapsedone (이우민) for the lyrics, collapsedone and Xdinary Heroes for the music, and collapsedone for the arrangement. Electric guitars are by Gaon, Jun Han and collapsedone, bass by Jooyeon, and keyboards by Jungsu, O.de and collapsedone. The music video's end credits list director SOONSIK YANG, along with separate credits for the people in charge of visual effects made with artificial intelligence. Six earlier songs, from 'Happy Death Day' to 'Voyager', are collected in our Xdinary Heroes starter guide.