Pumping Up

The song first appeared in the third Pump It Up release at 135 BPM. There it played a special role in Hard mode: it sat on the second stage, and choosing it caused the track "Taedong" to appear on the third stage instead of Final Audition 2. The stated unlock condition was simply playing a BanYa song, but since Pumping Up was the only BanYa track available on that second Hard stage, it effectively became the key to that branch. The song was cut in Prime alongside several other classics, then revived in Prime 2, where it has stayed in rotation through PHOENIX.

True to its name, this single was composed solely for Pump It Up rather than lifted from an outside album. Vocalist Lee Yoon-jung, formerly of Ppippi Band and later a solo artist, took part in the recording, voicing the section that the blue female character in the BGA lip-syncs on screen. The song's overall progression resembles "Trouble" by the group Shampoo.

In PHOENIX the track carries Single charts S5, S10, and S13, plus a Double D15. The S10 was added in update XX 2.07. The S13's signature was a sudden 24-beat burst at the end of each verse; in PHOENIX that passage was replaced by a two-long-note twist, which dulled its identity. The D15, introduced in Prime 2 patch 1.06, is a Double expansion of the old S12 and shared the same burst, likewise softened in PHOENIX. Back in Prime 2 it was cheap to unlock: just 900 PP after clearing the S12 with rank A or higher. Finally, the old 3rd Hard-mode S5 chart was removed and can no longer be played, a fate shared by many legacy charts.