Monster (Exo song)

"Monster" is a song by South Korean–Chinese boy band Exo, released on June 9, 2016, as the second single from their third studio album Ex'Act. It was released in both Korean and Chinese versions by their label SM Entertainment.

Background and release
Composed and arranged by Kenzie, LDN Noise, and Rodnae "Chikk" Bell, with the Korean lyrics written by Kenzie and Deepflow and the Chinese lyrics written by Kevin Yi, "Monster" is described as a "dark and intense" medium-tempo dance song with lyrics about a man's "excessive fixation on his lover". The song served as one of the "double title tracks" for Ex'Act, the other being "Lucky One", and was released together with the album on June 9, 2016. Exo began performing the song on South Korean music TV shows on the same day.

Music videos
The Korean and Chinese music videos for "Monster" were released one hour after the song itself. Apart from Exo's performances of the song at various settings, the videos also depict the members as rebels that were eventually captured but ultimately released from a prisoner transport vehicle by Baekhyun, who has been disguised as the driver. The Korean version was the fourth most-watched K-pop music video on YouTube in 2016. An additional music video exclusively showcasing the song's choreography was released on June 15, 2016.

On June 8, 2018, the Korean music video exceeded 200 million views on YouTube, and on November 13, 2019 it exceeded 300 million, becoming their first music video to achieve both milestones, as of now, the music video reached 400 million becoming their 2nd highest watched music video on Youtube.

Reception
"Monster" topped both South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart and the Billboard World Digital Songs chart, becoming Exo's first number one on the latter. The song won first place nine times in total on South Korean weekly music TV shows, and was the most awarded song by a boy group in 2016. It was nominated for Song of the Year at the 18th Mnet Asian Music Awards, and was named the second and third best K-pop songs of 2016 by Dazed and Billboard respectively.

Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from album's liner notes.

Studio

 * SM Blue Cup Studio – recording
 * SM Big Shot Studio – digital editing
 * SM Yellow Tail Studio – mixing
 * Sound Pool Studio – recording
 * Ingrid Studio – recording
 * Sterling Sound – mastering

Personnel

 * SM Entertainment – executive producer
 * Lee Soo-man – producer
 * Exo – vocals
 * D.O. – background vocals
 * Chen – background vocals
 * Chanyeol – background vocals
 * Kenzie – producer, Korean lyrics, composition, arrangement, vocal directing
 * Deepflow – Korean lyrics
 * Kevin Yi – Chinese lyrics
 * MQ – vocal directing
 * Rodnae "Chikk" Bell – composition, arrangement, background vocals
 * LDN Noise – producer, composition, arrangement
 * Jung Eui-seok – recording
 * Jung Ho-jin – recording
 * Jung Eun-kyung – recording
 * Lee Min-gyu – digital editing
 * Gu Jong-pil – mixing
 * Tom Coyne – mastering