Growl (song)

"Growl" (Korean: 으르렁 Eureureong; Chinese: 咆哮 Páoxiào) is a song recorded by South Korean–Chinese boy band Exo, released on August 5, 2013, for the repackaged edition of their first studio album Growl. It was released in both Korean and Chinese versions by their label SM Entertainment. The song is known as Exo's breakthrough single, with over two million downloads in South Korea.

"Growl"
Single by Exo
from the album Growl
ReleasedAugust 5, 2013 (2013-08-05)
Recorded2013
Genre
R&B[1]
Length3:27
LabelSM
Songwriter(s)Hyuk Shin, DK, Jordan Kyle, John Major, Jarah Gibson
Exo Korean and Chinese singles chronology
"Wolf"
(2013)		 "Growl"
(2013)		 "Miracles in December"
(2013)

Release and promotion

Composed by Hyuk Shin, DK, Jordan Kyle, John Major and Jarah Gibson, "Growl" is described as a dance-pop song with contemporary R&B and funk influences. After its release was announced, a video filming the group practicing the song's choreography was leaked online on July 27. Exo began performing the song on South Korean music TV shows on August 1 before it was officially released together with the album on August 5, 2013. They also performed the song on several Chinese TV shows.

The song was performed during the closing ceremony for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, along with their 2017 song "Power".[2]

Music videos

The Korean and Chinese music videos for "Growl" were released on August 1, 2013, four days ahead of the song itself. They exclusively feature Exo's performance of the song at a dimly lit warehouse and utilized the one shot style, appearing to have been filmed in a single take. Another set of music videos for the song, filmed at a different location, were released on August 20, 2013. On May 29, 2019, the Korean music video surpassed 200 million views on YouTube, becoming their fourth music video to do so.[3]

Reception

Music charts

"Growl" reached number 2 on South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart, as well as number 3 on the Billboard Korea K-Pop Hot 100 and World Digital Songs charts.[4][5][6] The song also won first place 14 times in total on South Korean music TV shows.

Describing it as "the crown jewel in EXO's fantastic 2013", Billboard picked "Growl" as the best K-pop song of 2013.[7] It was named Song of the Year at the 2013 Melon Music Awards and KBS Song Festival. The song is Exo's best-selling single to date, having accumulated over two million downloads.

Public reception

In July 2017, defectors from North Korea stated Exo has some popularity in North Korea, although people have to listen to them in secret and don't know what the members look like, and Growl in particular is used as a confession song amongst youth to confess to one's crush due to the lyrics.[8][9]

Listicles
Critic/Publication List Rank / Year Ref.
Billboard The 20 Best K-Pop Songs of 2013: K-Town Picks 1 [10]
The 10 Greatest K-Pop Choruses of the 21st Century 10 [11]
The 100 Greatest Boy Band Songs of All Time 58 [12]
2013's Biggest-Selling K-Pop Songs in America 5 [13]
The 100 Greatest K-Pop Songs of the 2010s 50 [14]
Dazed Top 10 K-Pop Songs of 2013 2 [15]
SBS PopAsia Top 100 Asian pop songs of 2013 1 [16]
Munhwa Ilbo Top 10 best K-pop songs of the decade N/A [17]
British GQ Best K-Pop songs of the decade N/A [18]

Accolades
Awards
Year Organization Award Result Ref.
2013 KBS Song Festival Song of the Year Won [19][20]
Korean Music Awards Nominated [21]
Best Dance & Electronic Song Won
Melon Music Awards Song of the Year Won [22]
Music Video Award Nominated
Mnet Asian Music Awards Best Dance Performance Male Group Nominated [23]
2014 Golden Disk Awards Digital Bonsang Nominated [24]
Seoul Music Awards Record of the Year in Digital Release Won [25]
World Music Awards World's Best Song Won [26]
Music program wins
Program Date
Music Bank (KBS) August 16, 2013
August 23, 2013
Inkigayo (SBS) August 18, 2013
August 25, 2013
September 1, 2013
Show Champion (MBC M) August 21, 2013
August 28, 2013
September 4, 2013
M Countdown (Mnet) August 22, 2013
August 29, 2013
September 5, 2013
Show! Music Core (MBC) August 24, 2013
August 31, 2013
September 7, 2013

Charts

Sales
Region Sales
South Korea (digital)[28] 2,023,254

References
  1. "20 Best K-Pop Songs of 2013: K-Town Picks". Billboard. December 23, 2013. Archived from the original on December 28, 2013.
  2. "K-pop acts CL, EXO wow at Pyeongchang Winter Olympics closing ceremony". Channel NewsAsia. 26 Feb 2018. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  3. "한번 들으면 헤어나올 수 없는 EXO의 '으르렁 (Growl)' MV가 유튜브 조회수 2억뷰를 돌파했습니다!". EXO. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
  4. "Gaon Digital Chart - Week 33, 2013". Gaon Chart (in Korean). Korea Music Content Industry Association. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  5. "Korea K-Pop Hot 100 - September 7, 2013". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved January 4, 2017.
  6. "World Digital Songs - August 24, 2013". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved January 4, 2017.
  7. "20 Best K-Pop Songs of 2013: K-Town Picks". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. December 23, 2013. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  8. "EXO's 'Growl' is popular in North Korea and used as a confession song". Allkpop. 6Theory Media. July 29, 2017. Retrieved December 2, 2017.
  9. "'이제 만나러 갑니다' 엑소 북한서도 대세 "'으르렁'최고 인기"". Naver (in Korean). Naver. July 29, 2017. Retrieved December 2, 2017.
  10. "20 Best K-Pop Songs of 2013: K-Town Picks". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. December 23, 2013. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  11. "The 10 Greatest K-Pop Choruses of the 21st Century". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. April 28, 2017. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  12. "The 100 Greatest Boy Band Songs of All Time". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. April 23, 2018. Retrieved December 19, 2018.
  13. "2013's Biggest-Selling K-Pop Songs in America: PSY, Girls' Generation, 2NE1 & More". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. December 17, 2018. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  14. "The 100 Greatest K-Pop Songs of the 2010s". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. November 25, 2019. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
  15. Glasby, Taylor (December 10, 2013). "Top 10 K-Pop Songs of 2013". Dazed. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  16. "PopAsia's Top 100 Asian pop songs of 2013". SBS PopAsia. Popasia. December 20, 2013. Retrieved January 8, 2019.
  17. "Top 10 best K-pop songs of the decade". n.news.naver.com. Munhwa Ilbo. December 11, 2019. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
  18. "The game-changers from a decade of K-pop". gq-magazine.co.uk. British GQ. December 20, 2019. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
  19. KBS 가요대축제, 엑소 올해의 노래 선정 '으르렁'. The Economic Daily (in Korean). 2013-12-28. Archived from the original on 2019-07-30. Retrieved 2019-07-31 – via MK.
  20. Kim, Min-jung (2013-12-28). KBS '가요대축제', 엑소 '으르렁' 올해의 노래 선정…2013년 빛낸 K-POP 다 모였네~(종합). EToday (in Korean). Archived from the original on 2017-11-16. Retrieved 2017-11-16.
  21. "Genre field result" (in Korean). Korean Music Awards. Archived from the original on 2014-05-03. Retrieved 2018-08-07.
  22. Jackson, Julie (2013-11-15). "SHINee snags 'Artist of the Year' at MelOn Music Awards" (An English version of the article is provided right after the Korean text, simply scroll down to view and read.). The Korea Herald. Archived from the original on 2018-08-07. Retrieved 2018-08-07.
  23. MAMA 2014 - Best Male Group Dance Performance Nominees (Online broadcast). KCON TV (via YouTube). 2014-11-25. Retrieved 2019-04-16.
  24. "Nomination for Digital Bonsang - Golden Disk Awards". soompi. January 16, 2014. Archived from the original on January 2, 2014. Retrieved August 4, 2019.
  25. Gye, Hye-sung (2014-01-23). 엑소, '서가대' 우뚝섰다..'대상' 포함 3관왕 "행복"(종합). Star News (in Korean). Archived from the original on 2019-04-16. Retrieved 2018-08-09 – via Naver.
  26. "Nomination for worlds best group". World Music Awards. Archived from the original on 2014-04-20. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  27. "Gaon Digital Chart - 2013". Gaon Chart. Korea Music Content Industry Association. Retrieved January 4, 2017.
  28. Cumulative sales for "Growl":
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