TAEYEON (태연) - SOMETHING NEW
Can we even call this a music video? I feel like this may as well be a short film, cause godDAMN this is one gorgeous MV.
It's like if somebody decided to condense Kill Bill into a three-and-a-half minute rollercoaster - only in this case we're talking about the actual film Kill Bill... not the Wild West-esque concept Brown Eyed Girls did a few years back. (Although to be quite honest that song was, and still is, a HUGE bop. Miryo's rap is fucking phenomenal.) Being honest, this MV is the Russian spy movie Jennifer Lawrence wished she had been in with Red Sparrow. I'm serious. That film sucked in comparison to this.
To get back onto the main point, this concept couldn't have been a nicer change of pace for Taeyeon. She wasn't kidding when she said this would be different. The song is jazzy as all hell, and even though she isn't promoting it on music shows, the MV more than makes up for that! We get to see a sassier side of Taeyeon (that poor guy in the elevator had no clue what was coming), and there's even some messaging and symbolism about the music industry if you dig deep enough. It's surprisingly multi-layered and of a very high quality, and it really was a damn nice surprise. SM may be a piece of shit, but at least they give their artists great comebacks. 👏
BLACKPINK (블랙핑크) - DDU DU DDU DU (뚜두뚜두)
I have four words to describe my reaction to this MV:
BLACKPINK FUCKED ME UP.
BLACKPINK FUCKED ME UP.
And here I thought Taeyeon's MV was heavy on the symbolism! Not only is this video colourful as all fuck and positively gorgeous to look at (which is certainly helped by the girls themselves cause they're all stUNNING), there's so much here to analyse!! The tumblr theorist in me literally had a fucking heart attack when I saw Jisoo's section with the paparazzi in the second verse. THAT SHIT IS BEGGING TO BE ANALYSED AND GIVEN MEANING.
I'm not even going to begin describing all of the images BLACKPINK present us with in this video - there's a loooooot. Maybe I'll make a post breaking it down sometime. (That'd be fun, actually.) But this was the video that reeeeally got me thinking:
The fact that we got such a solid, well-rounded comeback from BLACKPINK more than justifies the wait for it, in my opinion. K-Pop videos are normally focused on style instead of substance - but when they do branch off into something more meaningful like this, it really does remind me why I need to watch more MVs. And hell, "DDU DU DDU DU" perfectly combines both style AND substance, if you ask me. The visuals are already gorgeous on their own, and they're definitely helped by that extra, hidden layer of meaning. It's by no means on the same level as something like K.Will's "Please Don't", but if this is the standard BLACKPINK is going to set? Count me the fuck in.
MOMOLAND (모모랜드) - BBOOM BBOOM (뿜뿜)/BAAM
...yeah, I really couldn't pick between these two, so I just decided to lump them together.
Let's take "Bboom Bboom" first. This MV is honestly so refreshingly unique, especially for a girl group who normally has a cutesy concept. Everyone and their mother has talked about the song and video, so I'll keep this brief: I don't know who decided to centre this MV around informercials, but it was a style choice I'm certainly happy with. On top of that, the colours just straight up pop out at you, far more than they do in other MVs if you ask me. I'll admit, there are certain scenes - especially at the start - that look kinda like a drug trip, but that's beyond the point when the rest of the video is so smooth, and especially when it flows together so well.
AND. Yes, there's an 'and' here. MOMOLAND (*cough* YEONWOO *cough*) even manage to mix in some darker, more sexy sections - while they're not broadcasting themselves as fitness instructors or trying to convince you to buy some fictional product (that we would all totally buy if it was real, let's be honest). While this sort of thing... probably wouldn't work if it were any other group, MOMOLAND are quirky enough to pull it off! And they manage to do so WITHOUT seeming like total idiots. That shit's hard to do. 👏
As for BAAM, it looks like MOMOLAND got the people behind "Mario is Missing" to make them a music video, cause that's the only way you can explain all this international imagery, right? 😏 I haven't actually had a chance to watch the behind the scenes video for this MV yet, but I can already tell how much fun the girls probably had filming this. I mean, they got to wrap Daisy up like a fucking mummy. That sounds fun as hell. Probably just as fun as the little game of hide and seek the editors decided to include in the video - a very nice touch!
It's not just even the locations that are funky and cool to look at - the costumes MOMOLAND are actually wearing really do deserve a spotlight, if you ask me. You've got Marie Antoinette-like French dresses, Egyptian gowns, traditional hanboks, and even some baro't saya and a Filipino flag for that sweet sweet fanservice (although, if you ask me Nancy looks NOTHING like that Filipino actress... I just don't see it 😑). Watching JooE shuffle like it's the 80s while holding up the bottom of a huge billowy dress made me laugh way harder than it probably should've. It just sums her up so perfectly, and I LOVE IT.
...also goddamn them glow in the dark shoes are fancy as fuck.
AMBER & LUNA (앰버 & 루나) - LOWER
So we go from BLACKPINK with their bright colours and symbolism, and MOMOLAND with their drug trips in video form, to... this. Which is starkly simplistic in contrast. But that's exactly why it's so damn good.
This video got released on my birthday and I couldn't have asked for a better fucking present. Not only is the song surprisingly sexy and classy, the accompanying video perfectly matches that same vibe! Not only that, the whole idea of walking around a really busy city at nighttime is a huge guilty pleasure of mine (maybe because I've grown up in the countryside), so that immediately got this video on my good side. But then we also had Amber and Luna bREAKING IT THE FUCK DOWN.
This video got released on my birthday and I couldn't have asked for a better fucking present. Not only is the song surprisingly sexy and classy, the accompanying video perfectly matches that same vibe! Not only that, the whole idea of walking around a really busy city at nighttime is a huge guilty pleasure of mine (maybe because I've grown up in the countryside), so that immediately got this video on my good side. But then we also had Amber and Luna bREAKING IT THE FUCK DOWN.
This is one of those videos - similarly to Seohyun and Yuri's secret - where I desperately wish we had gotten a choreography video to accompany it, cause I want to learn that dance please. To be fair, the original video itself IS mostly pretty good in terms of showing the choreography (due to its simplicity), but hopefully the upcoming SM Station concert will give us a nice, clear, full-length fancam? I can hope. 😢 But overall, this is definitely a case of minimalism done right, and the classy style suited Amber and Luna as a duo surprisingly well. I'm impressed. 👏👏👏
EXID (이엑스아이디) - LADY (내일해)
Y'know what I love? Throwbacks. AND THIS IS HOW YOU DO A THROWBACK.
Goddamn it, EXID have got to be one of the most stylish K-Pop groups out there for me. Every single comeback, their sense of style, concept and even fashion is just... top notch! With no faults! Even when they release a song that I maybe didn't like as much, like "Night Rather Than Day", the styling is still so goddamn pleasing to look at. And for "Lady"? They reeeeally went all in with the 90s concept.
I mentioned before that I love it when groups are so fully absorbed in their concept, with my example being Dreamcatcher. This is another fantastic example of that. The song is boppy as all hell, the dance is fun as fuck yet exhausting (and reminiscent of the 90s, for sure), the outfits are cheesy yet the girls still manage to look fly as fuck wearing 'em, and the video is just the cherry on top of that Backstreet Boys-inspired sundae. I feel like this video doesn't even need a VHS filter over it to create that nostalgic effect; it'd still look just as authentic and legit without it.
Sure, this isn't another "DDD", and that's always going to disappoint me in some way other another (That was legitimately one of my favourite songs of last year, talk about fucking nailing a comeback...) But y'know what? EXID decided to just have fun with this, and I'm all for it - especially when the MV looks the way it does. 😁
•••••
And that's that! That's all I had planned for the midyear lists - although I do have a lot of other post ideas coming soon, so watch this space. 😉 Plus we've got a great string of comebacks coming up, so... July is looking good!
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