Immediately after the win on SBS MTV The Show was televised, fans of the groups competing for the trophy that week as well as haters questioned the validity of Kang Daniel’s win, citing the streaming points from the other groups were better and with Daniel not having physical sales to add to the points, his win was impossible. However, instead of only demanding the music show for feedback, many jumped on the opportunity to insult Kang Daniel and his fans.

That evening Kang Daniel posted a set of alarming posts on his official fancafe that had fans worried for his health. The next day, KONNECT Entertainment released a statement that Daniel would be taking a break from activities to focus on recovering, as the singer had been experiencing poor health due to a weak immune system as well as psychological anxiety. The agency went on to say, “Though Kang Daniel did his best to stay grounded and not falter in a constantly changing environment despite his state, he recently expressed more severe symptoms of anxiety. Thus, we reached the conclusion that sufficient rest and stability is of the highest priority for the artist’s health and safety.”^[soompi]

On December 4, SBS MTV’s The Show and Gaon Chart clarified the data that led to Kang Daniel’s win on December 3.

According to Gaon Chart, Daniel’s score was four times higher than the runner up’s. A source from The Show clarified they used untouched Gaon digital scores. Gaon said they do not aggregate chart rankings from specific music companies such as Melon. Their index is calculated from download and streams from 12 music platforms. Streams and downloads are weighted differently.^[soompi]

The data collected by Gaon Chart from November 23-29 showed that Kang Daniel’s “TOUCHIN’” had 48,728,828 digital points on Gaon, while AOA’s “Come See Me” had 10,877,791 and ASTRO’s “Blue Flame” had 6,941,875. In addition, Gaon also provided The Show with YouTube data. They shared that the YouTube score for “TOUCHIN’” was 2,024,601, and “Come See Me” had a score of 2,718,739 while “Blue Flame” had 3,773,435. Daniel was the clear winner based on the metrics.

Following the ‘80s and ‘90s pop sound of the song, the concept for the “TOUCHIN’” music video is also a homage to the ‘80s, especially Hong Kong noir films and Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”—which MTV ranked as one of the 100 Greatest Music Videos Ever Made—and “Smooth Criminal”. Both music videos were released as short films in 1983 and 1988 respectively.

The storyline shows the color version of Kang Daniel sitting in his living room and watching a VHS tape of a black-and-white film on a vintage TV. The VHS tape has the film’s title in the hanja characters 陀 (ta): cliff, 離 (chi): depart, and 人 (in): person. Some fans interpreted this as “This person is departing from a cliff or leaving a crisis behind”, perhaps in reference to Kang Daniel coming to a settlement with his former agency LM Entertainment on September 27 after months of legal dispute.

TRIVIA: The brand of the old TV used in the music video is RCA, which is a major American electronics company and pioneer in the introduction and development of both black-and-white and especially color television. Nowadays various RCA trademarks are owned by Sony Music and Technicolor.

The majority of the music video is the black-and-white film itself with Kang Daniel playing the hero helping a woman that seems to be in danger. The film starts with the introduction of the woman as the co-conspirator, the villain, a cat named Kong2, and Kang Daniel. The name of the cat is a word play of the cat’s real name 콩이 (Kong-ie) since 이 sounds like “two” in Korean.

Moon Theory

Although it wasn’t confirmed to be a direct reference, fans now know that the room with dark cyan walls was a hint to Kang Daniel’s mini album CYAN, which includes both “TOUCHIN’” and “Adulthood”.

CYAN was digitally released on March 24, and the physical album has two versions: Sun and Moon. March 24, 2020 happened to be the start of a new moon in the lunar calendar. In astrology, the new moon signifies the start of new beginnings and possibilities. “TOUCHIN’” was a pre-release single as part of the album CYAN, which Kang Daniel confirmed is the start of a color concept album trilogy.