"Monster" is a single by South Korean group Big Bang. It was released on June 3, 2012 by YG Entertainment, as the only single from the repackaged version of their extended play Alive, Still Alive.

After the success of Alive, YG announced that the EP would be repackaged as a special edition with additional songs and re-titled as Still Alive. The special edition and its single "Monster", were released June 3, 2012. Daily music video teasers were released from May 25 untill the day before the song's release.

The music video was shot in a blockbuster scale in a collaboration with Hyundai Card, with use of special effects that "took a month to perfect". Big Bang and Hyundai Card started a project called "Re-Monster" to promote the music video, aimed to give opportunities for indie bands to reinterpret the song. The new redefined songs were uploaded onto Hyundai Music, where they were judged and the winning musicians would have a chance to release a digital single.

A Japanese version of the song was included at the Japanese studio albums Alive and the greatest hits album The Best of Big Bang 2006-2014. This version was promoted in the tv show Music Japan, which was the only live performance of the single on television.

Composed by G-Dragon and written by the rapper with Choi Pil-kang, with additional rap parts penned by T.O.P, "Monster" was described as "as a modern interpretation of the late 2000’s sad, upbeat" Big Bang songs, such as "Lies" and "Haru Haru." The instrumental was noted for clashing an "gentle melody against orchestral cacophonies" and for flipping "pensative verses" with an "aggressive chorus." The lyrics "depicts a denial of one's own nature."

Billboard named "Monster" Big Bang's eighth best song, writing that the track shows the group "at their most dramatic" and that the "sneaking, subtle intro and outro refrains from T.O.P and G-Dragon" provide the song "the perfect touch of eeriness."Sun-Times also named the the single one of the group's best songs, stating that it proved "they could do upbeat songs with a heart."

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Wikipedia