Loser (BigBang song)

Did You Know?

• The song was created within 2–3 months in late 2014 and early 2015.
• It won a total of ten music program awards, including three on Inkigayo, making BigBang the artist with the most songs achieving a Triple Crown on that program.
• Akdong Musician covered the song on Weekly Idol.

Composition and lyrics

"Loser" is a melancholy hip hop and R&B song with a slow melody, composed in common time in the key of E♭ major at a moderate tempo of 90 beats per minute. The vocals range from F4 to B♭5. Billboard compared the track to earlier BigBang songs like "Bad Boy," "Lies," and "Blue," noting that it stripped away trendy elements for an acoustic-leaning approach to exploring deep consciousness. The lyrics are confessional, describing feelings of doubt and unhappiness in everyday life, including dissatisfaction with one-night stands and forgetting the importance of love. G-Dragon explained that the song offers a universal theme, stating that everyone lives in different situations and the song could be anyone's story.

Reception

"Loser" debuted atop the Gaon Digital Chart with two days of tracking, selling about 256,000 digital copies, and remained at number one for two more weeks. It finished as the month's best-performing song with 770,000 digital copies, spent eight weeks in the top ten, and left the chart after 24 weeks. The song ended 2015 as the second best-performing song, selling 1,505,163 digital units. It also topped Billboard's World Digital Songs chart on May 7. The music video was the third most viewed K-pop video in the U.S. and worldwide for April. The song received critical acclaim; fuse named it one of the best songs of 2015, the only non-English track on the list, and Billboard called it the best K-pop song of 2015. "Loser" won Best Pop Song at the 2016 Korean Music Awards.

Music video

The music video was directed by Han Sa Min, who had previously directed "Blue," "Bad Boy," "Monster," and "Love Song." Filming took place secretly in Los Angeles between April 2 and April 8, 2015. Each member has a storyline: G-Dragon appears in a lift with a neck tattoo reading "Truth + Dare" and walks alone; Taeyang struggles with faith, holding a cross inscribed "Sin will find you," and apparently commits suicide; Seungri, unable to control his anger, kicks a car and destroys his room after seeing his loved one with someone else; T.O.P cannot commit to relationships and kills a woman; Daesung is attacked by a group and ends up covered in blood. The video ends with all five members walking away from the city. On YouTube, "Loser" became the most viewed K-pop group video within 24 hours with 4.5 million views, and reached 100 million views in June 2016.