"Bad Love" is a song recorded by South Korean singer
Key serving as the second single for his
2021 extended play of the same name. It was released on September 27, 2021, through
SM Entertainment
SM Entertainment Co., Ltd. () is a South Korean multinational entertainment agency established in 1995 by Lee Soo-man. It is one of South Korea's largest entertainment companies and has been responsible for fostering and popularizing the car ...
as the album's lead single. The song was written by
Kenzie, who also handled the composition and arrangement with Adrian McKinnon.
Background and release
On September 6, 2021, SM Entertainment announced the upcoming release date of Key's first Korean-language
extended play
An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...
, ''
Bad Love'', led by the single of the same name. The first single from the EP, "
Hate That...", had already been released a month prior. Key showcased the song for the first time at his
Beyond Live
Beyond Live (commonly stylized as Beyond LIVE) is an online live concert streaming service and concert series by South Korean entertainment company SM Entertainment in partnership with Naver. It is a paid concert streaming service. It provides ...
concert, Groks in the Keyland, on September 26, 2021, before releasing it alongside the album on the next day. Two music video teasers were released on September 25 and September 26, respectively. The song together with the music video were released on September 27.
Composition
"Bad Love" was written by
Kenzie. Musically, the song is described as a
dance-pop
Dance-pop is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit ra ...
song that creates a retro mood with a strong
synth
A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
sound and a lively beat. The lyrics revolve around "a tale of ecstatic love turned toxic".
Critical reception
Accolades
Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes for ''Bad Love''.
Studio
* SM Big Shot Studio –
recording
A record, recording or records may refer to:
An item or collection of data Computing
* Record (computer science), a data structure
** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity
** Boot sector or boot record, re ...
* SM Yellow Tail Studio – engineering for mix
* SM Starlight Studio –
digital editing
In mass communication, digital media is any communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronic d ...
* SM Concert Hall Studio –
mixing
* 821 Sound –
mastering
Personnel
*
Key – vocals, background vocals
* Junny – background vocals
*
Kenzie – vocal directing, lyrics, composition, arrangement
* Adrian McKinnon – composition
* Lee Min-gyu – recording
* Jung Yu-ra – digital editing
* No Min-ji – engineering for mix
* Nam Koong-jin – mixing
* Kwon Nam-woo – mastering
Charts
Release history
References
{{Key (entertainer)
2021 songs
2021 singles
Songs in Korean
SM Entertainment singles
Songs written by Kenzie (songwriter)
Key (entertainer) songs