Pharrell Williams-produced song features on group’s recently released Happy Burstday album
Seventeen just wanna have a good time, or so they claim on “Bad Influence,” a midtempo new pop-rap song produced by Pharrell Williams. The song features on the group’s recently released Happy Burstday album.
Watching the video, directed by Beomjin, it’s clear that the definition of a good time is subjective. There are robot dogs, blank-faced decapitated mannequin heads, a plug that says “only fun shit is allowed” (but they look a little too chill after plugging it in), a room of repeating funhouse mirrors, and what looks like the complete opposite of anything resembling a good time, a black & white M.C. Escher stairwell on which the group walks aimlessly not talking to each other even when they sit down. (They do dance though, and that looks like fun.) Don’t get us started on the tire pile.
A closer look at the lyrics reveals everything they want and don’t want. Things they want: a good time, a good, good night, to luck up (sometimes), to get fucked up (when under the bad influence). Things they don’t want: “it at all.” This perhaps explains some of the contradictory imagery in the video, and it kind of hints at what the “bad influence” is and how they maybe don’t want to admit that having a good time itself is the bad influence.
What’s completely clear, however, is what a good influence Pharrell Williams has been on Seventeen. “We are happy and honored to collaborate with Pharrell Williams, whom we have deeply admired for a long time,” the group previously said collectively. “We truly enjoyed the creative process which showcases a new side of ourselves. We hope to connect with more listeners worldwide through this collaboration.”
