New Single from BE:FIRST

Following up on Salvia, their ending theme for “Baki Hanma - Season 2 The Father vs. Son Saga”, boy group BE:FIRST released a new single today.

The title track, Mainstream, is said to be a song born out of their determination not to follow trends, but rather, pursue their own style and create their own ‘mainstream’. To help convey the concept behind the song, a series of documentary videos was uploaded to YouTube leading up to release, showing the members exchanging ideas about the concept of the mainstream.

The song features lyrics written by the group’s producer SKY-HI, who also co-wrote the music with Ryosuke “Dr.R” Sakai and Daisuke Nakamura.

Links to download and stream Mainstream on various online music platforms are available here.

The song’s music video was directed by Daichi Yasuda, who has won awards at various film festivals, including the Gold Award at the Ciclope Festival. It features locations such as The Metropolitan Area Outer Waterway, the subway, an underpass, a highway that was under construction, a multistory parking lot, an escalator, and the rooftop of a 123-meter-high skyscraper, literally expressing the line “From the bottom to the top” from the song.

It is BE:FIRST’s most ambitious music video to date, featuring 154 back-up dancers, drone and helicopter aerial filming and VFX technology, and requiring over 720 hours of editing from Yasuda and his crew to complete the futuristic “Neo-Tokyo”.

The choreography in the music video was created by SOTA from BE:FIRST along with ReiNa, who is an internationally active Gen Z choreographer who has recently worked with Stray Kids and NCT U.

BE:FIRST member SOTA commented:

“This song pursues and expresses what we believe our ‘mainstream’ is. We’ve combined the dance moves we used to enjoy in our youth with our current style of expression. We obsessively worked on details and quality, which allowed us to achieve a somewhat ‘maniac’ choreography after all. Look out for how we will embrace our very own 'mainstream' in the coming months!”

SKY-HI commented:

“Most people chase after what’s popular and what’s trending. That tends to grow bigger along with the growth of entertainment and culture. I believe that the role of an artist is not to just chase such trends, but also to create them. By releasing this song as a lead track, people may think it’s ‘unusual’, ‘unexpected’ or ‘contrary’, but that’s not how we see it. We are not trying to grab attention or go against the majority. Rather, BE:FIRST simply continue to refine their own style, and now they are ready to present Mainstream as their classic in 2023. BE:FIRST define and prove themselves as a group that will create their own mainstream rather than following it.”

Director Daichi Yasuda commented:

“From deeper underneath Tokyo, the cameras chase BE:FIRST moving upwards. With that motion, I wanted to express them striving for ever greater heights by presenting Mainstream to the world. Aiming to create an original depiction of Tokyo that cannot be found anywhere else in the world, we negotiated with authorities for permission to film in unusual places such as a highway that was still under construction. Also, by applying top-class technology of VFX along with overwhelming passion from engineers and creators, we aimed to set a new global standard as a music video as well.”

The music video for Mainstream can be viewed below, followed by a dance practice video highlighting the choreography and one of the three documentary videos about the release. Enable captions to watch with English subtitles.