This is what I want out of music.
            No punches pulled, no sugar-coating, no undue simplification . . . just taking the world as it is, representing it in a dramatic form of art, making a statement, enacting change in a call to action that if nothing else makes people think for a moment. There are two schools of thought on the issue, one that says 'Ars Gratia Artis' and holds that the only way to achieve true Art is to make art for its own sake, and one that says 'Vitam Ars Causa' and holds that life is itself Art, is caused by Art, and is reflected by Art (ie, that Art simply IS). I'm in the second camp. I think that Art must be good on it's own and held against it's own self to determine if it's good, but at the same time, whether or not art is good, it can be valuable, particularly in terms of how it relates to and affects culture.
            What Bangtan Boys has done here is changed the game for kpop. Making statements about culture, and about how it needs to change, in music isn't something new, not even new to kpop really. (Seriously, I mean, F.cuz had Dreaming I... pretty recently, which actually gets at the same idea as this release from Bangtan Boys). But what this video does that the other statement-making attempts in kpop have failed to do is that it has made the issue at hand hurt to ignore. It's directly challenging the status quo, explicitly calling out the problems therein. In most other cases, in the kpop that I've seen at least, the subversive comments are made quite quietly, layered in thematic metaphor and a storyline that distracts any unfavorable critics. Bangtan Boys have released something that refuses to be ignored or brushed aside like that, and that is something to really applaud. It's a ballsy thing to do anywhere, but South Korea's pretty dang conservative . . . MVs can be banned simply because people with weird haircolors are shown as being successful in school with 'normal' kids. This . . . makes a pretty bold-faced argument, one much more aggressively controversial than anything I've seen in the past like it.
            I really hope that this does actually influence a new era of Kpop music, pushing kpop to move beyond performance art and transcend into protest art that is Art in and of itself, and good art at that. It's possible. Big Hit Music's little slogan is something like 'Music & Artists for Healing' right? Well, here's a chance for others to latch onto the idea and start healing society from the inside out.
            That having been said, including the fact that I cannot lavish on enough praise for this in a twenty page analysis, let alone a quick review, I do have some critiques of it. The song is okay. It's got a decent dose of drama to it, but mostly in what it's saying, not how it's saying it. I love the orchestral elements, but the overall form is pretty simple and there's nothing to really make it stand out as a track. The Pre-chorus vamp is fantastic, real tension is built and energy and angst, but it all falls sort of flat in the chorus. I'd have liked to hear a more heart-wrenching, aching sort of summation to it all rather than the rather less than dramatic release . . . My thoughts personally went to GD's chorus in Crooked, how the aggressive call and response in that one feels so much more intense than the one found here, and how it keeps the energy up better. These angsty sort of real-world pain depictions shouldn't have the release of tension found in other sorts of songs, there's nothing to warrant a release of tension until the final resolution. The chorus should be a culmination, a breaking point, the limit reached just before everything falls apart and tumbles into the bridge before a modified chorus fully releases the tension for the outro.
            Lyrically, it's fabulous. And it makes an excellent point. There's something truly broken about the world's educational system these days . . . some places are better than others, but seriously, once we started being more concerned with the grades than with the actual experience of learning and developing a viable skill set, 'school' as an institution began to decay. It's tricky to deride the educational system without bad-mouthing education as a whole, and I feel that NO does a pretty solid job of it. (I also particularly enjoy the irony of the situation that is the reason I'm late in posting this is that school is working me to death and taking over my life and what I'm posting is a review about a song explaining how it's not right that school works you to death and takes over your life...).
            As for the MV itself, the visuals are definitely striking. There's a fantastic drama to it all, a staging meant to really draw a viewer in and to force them to acknowledge the state of the real world by over-playing it in a metaphoric world. I'm not a terribly huge fan of the way the sets were incorporated into the plot-line (especially the hands and the clouds one), but they're not too terrible. And I would have had the boys develop more as characters; they start out as identical robots, and they pretty much end up nearly as identical... a few hats are added, sunglasses, some jewelry, but not really enough to delineate them if you don't already know who they are (as I found out quite acutely in trying to show the mv to a friend...) and I think it could have benefited thematically from more marked evolution. The choreography is glorious. Bangtan Boys is definitely my Baby Band of the year, I've decided. The choreography here is spot on perfect for this MV; it's aggressive, it's emotive, it's perfectly in sync and fantastically worked into the plot and the lyrics. I love it.

                This video is so spectacular, I can barely find words to describe how profoundly and acutely affecting this piece is. It's so beautiful and it's easily G-Dragon's best work to date. I went on a little rant about it on tumblr right after it came out (see HERE), but it's not the critical evaluation this amazing video deserves.

                First of all, the song is incredible. It takes the artificiality of synthesizers and uses it to make a statement about reality and the feel of fakeness inside the real world. The song moves melodically because of the vocal line's relationship to the pitches in the synth line, since he's really only singing in a nearly flat line. I love it because it makes the mundane and simple and dramatizes it like the lyrics do to real life. It's also been recorded repeatedly and double tracked to achieve a chorus effect (mostly in the chorus) with distortion and warping that pulls thematically at the idea that there's a ton of other people feeling this exact same loneliness. There's also a cool call & response element that adds to that same theme. It really is fantastically well made.

                 That the video starts with GD walking away from us is a nice touch, giving insight to the fact that as alone as he's feeling there are people following him and concerned. He just can't see them. When he's running away from te camera, he's felt the concerns of those people and is trying to escape them, the guilt of being unhappy around them despite the effort, the annoyances they pose in trying to make him feel better . . . And when he's running towards the camera, he's chasing those same people, wanting to keep up with them and just be normal again, but be can never keep it up for long. A timeline is something that doesn't exist here, playing off the idea that none of it matters, when and where and why are just questions used to attempt to impose meaning and order on a world eternally caught in painful chaos. It's really beautifully done.

                 GD looks gorgeous throughout, the styling is spectacular, and his acting is fantastic. Honestly, I don't even think a lot of it is acting. Kwon JiYong the person and G-Dragon the performer are very different people, as GD has repeatedly tried to explain, so I'm sure that this isn't any sort of cry for help or thinly veiled explanation of how he feels right now, but at the same time . . . there are certain things you can't act without having first experienced. The sort of pain this song is talking about is one of those things. This sort of wracking physical pain is found in a very unique, very deep rooted, traumatic loneliness that stems from the idea of being different from other people on a fundamental level; this isn’t just the ‘weird one out’ syndrome, this is the absolute extreme: the ‘how the hell are you people even people, or am I the one not human’ syndrome. It's a violent, vicious feeling and it just plain hurts. His posture kills me; through the whole MV it's just so perfectly on point, so heartbreakinly defensive and wounded and lost . . . there's no way he was just trying to act out a feeling he's never had before. He's put so much emotion into this MV and I think he's absolutely fantastic for it. He's not sugar coating reality, he's not sensationalizing or fictionalizing the pain, or dramatizing the scenario into something worthy of a kdrama. He's taken a very real, very human emotional state, and has displayed it with a frank honesty that is both artistic and guileless. 

*(nota bene: if you see any of this sort of behavior in your friends, particularly the posture thing, be aware that they may be going through a tough time. Please, do not call them out on it. Don't make them want to runaway, don't make them feel guiltier than they already are. Just be there, be supportive by simply refusing to let their ill treatment of you, others, or themselves, push you away. Don't try to fix it, or them, or anything. Just be there and smile. It will be the stability they need to pull themselves together and it could just save their lives.)

             After a long wait, though no longer than any wait that we could possibly expect coming from SM, the drama version (episode) of Growl & its companion tracks was finally released! All in all, I like Ep 2 better than Ep 1, if only because I know the characters slightly better, which partially excuses most of the lack in character development that is pretty much the trend of this dramatic story-thing. I have been left no less confused than I was at the end of Ep 1, but I'm much more satisfied with it because frustration is a thing you can sometimes get over when the story's got enough potential. Seriously, the fanfiction that this whole thing is generating is phenomenal. Also, I'm pleased with it because even though the ending was not at all an ending, it hints that Exo will be returning with yet another comeback this year, presumably with several new songs as all of the ones on XOXO have now been utilized. SM might be milking their one big cash-cow pretty hard these days, but hey, at least Exo is keeping us all interested.                   Again, this MV needed to be about 5 minutes longer than what we ended up with, and honestly I'm hoping SM has a horde of footage that is going to be attached to each of these episodes at the end of next year (or whenever they get around to the finale piece) and they'll release an hour and a half movie-ish drama thing that combines the properly made versions of each episode into a single massive thing that they can sell on DVD. I would totally spend real money on that DVD, a lot of real money.
            In terms of confusion in the second one, a lot of my concerns are actually carry-overs from the first one. I still don't quite understand the whole point: like who are the bad guys? And why exactly are they the bad guys (I mean aside from the fact that wanting to beat up on any member of Exo is a crime against humanity)? Kris gives Luhan this special mission thing, and that mission thing is . . . ? And why are they the only to with the glowy hand thingies? Don't all of the Exo members have super-powers? Does Luhan turn human at the end of this one? Is that supposed to be a good thing or what? And why is Kris pissed when he comes back at the end (and where on earth did he go to begin with)? When Luhan escorts the girlie out and is more or less assaulted by her friend . . . she just goes home? And our mysterious bad guy appears again . . . Why doesn't anyone walk this chick home? Seriously, there's currently ten perfectly healthy, theoretically masculine & protective guys revolving around this one girl and NONE OF THEM WALK HER HOME IN THE DARK WHEN THERE ARE CREEPY THUG-GUYS ROAMING ABOUT? Even the bad guys are carrying flashlights for heaven's sake, someone should have realized that letting a teenage girl walk home alone in the dark in the middle of a city was probably a poor life decision... Why do the bad guys have Luhan's cell number? (This one can be excused supposing that the chicka had his phone number, but there's really very little to make that idea logical. They've known each other for maybe a month, and he hospitalized one of her older friends, getting his number in my phone would totally be on the top of my list of things to do this week, were I her.)  Why exactly does Luhan lose control when he goes into super-power mode? He's telekinetic. He moves objects with his mind. In no definition I have ever heard of is telekinesis connected to rage-monster. An how on earth does Kris have any idea what's going on? His power is flight. He can FLY. The whole magical wave-hand-over-bed-and-know-mission-aborted is not a part of flying. (Granted his hand-sign is a a dragon and dragons are supposed to have super sagely wisdom, so I suppose that could be a part of it, but still . . . It would be nice to have that explained.
And then perhaps the most important question of all: When is Ep 3 going to surface?
            Good points about Ep 2 include the fact that Luhan is adorable, Kai is macho-man protective & and has a nicely dramatic moment with Luhan, Kris has more than 3 seconds on camera, and well, part two came out after all so we can be pretty sure that we'll eventually get part three... Also, the part where our leadin lady follows him home is fabulous, it conveys concern and fear in equal parts and it shows the building trust between them well. And how it transitions into the next scene is another great moment, easily the best part of the video, cinematically speaking.
           Over all, like Ep 1, Ep 2 falls flat on a a story with some epic potential. However, Growl's dance version (at least the 1st one) is fabulous, where as Wolf's dance version is . . . sub par. Unfortunately, as they are separate MVs the dance versions have no impact on the grade here, so this is another from Exo that fails to score high.

                This was my favorite song off the Secret Garden EP. It's well constructed and catchy. The melody is a high-line adorable thing filled with the girlish innocence that Aegyo tracks are known for, while at the same time having an energetic spunk that give the whole track a much more engaging feel than most of the other tracks on this release. It's just a fun song that's easy to sing along to.
                 Speaking of singing along, I loved the karaoke-sub aspect. The font was adorable and it was fun to attempt to read fast enough through them to keep up with the lyrics, though that may have just been me. Otherwise, the MV was just plain fun to watch. The girls goofing off could make anyone smile. It's not a terribly deep video, but it's not trying to be. All it's attempting to achieve is to make Pink Pandas, and other viewers alike, smile. Which I think it did perfectly. It's one of the only Aegyo-centered MVs this summer that didn't make me roll my eyes.

Also, I'm sorry about the sudden lag in posting. My 21st birthday was on Monday and this week has been full of festivities (and then with catching up on school-work ignored due to said festivities...). I have a back log that I'll be posting this weekend, and then I will be back on track and posting as releases are actually released.

In recent years, KARA has been teasing Kamilia quite terribly. Their teasers have been incredible, hinting at sounds that they've never tried before, concepts new to the whole of the industry . . . and then the release is just your basic, moderately catchy Sweetune sound with fun, sexy choreography that makes them look pretty. They have this perfectly Jpop sound, and honestly I would love them to do more Jpop music, but it's just not well suited to what Kpop can be. In terms of music theory, they really sound like Jpop. The Korean industry puts a stronger emphasis of vocal power and rhythmic thrum than Jpop does, and the lack of those two elements leaves many of Kara's songs feeling hollow. The electric guitar is really cool for the first few measures, but then it disappears and the sweet-synth pop comes back and completely kills the drama.

Conceptually, this MV is pretty basic, it reminds me a lot of After School's Because of You but only in the barest sense. There's no real power behind any of the imagery in Damaged Lady, just a banal femme aggression that frankly undermines the 'woman scorned' motif. Sure, they embarrass the men in this video, ruin a wedding (or other such party, I'm not exactly sure what this is, it could be super-rich speeding dating for all I know)... but they don't actually harm the men, let alone KILL them (which the 'damaged lady' in a psychotic fit idea would easily lend itself to. I think it's a waste of the concept. That there is something of a story is a great improvement upon their last few releases, so I'm taking that into account, but it still just feels wasteful. Admittedly, at the same time, the KARA girls all look absolutely GORGEOUS, but that's rather beside the point in this case.

First of all this song is spectacular, incredibly energetic, and it's so bright and light that you just have to get up and move, be it running a mile or just dancing around. The build overtime is gorgeous and all of the best motifs from the intro carry through to the very end.

The use of color is brilliant, because the MV is shot with all of these bright and beautiful and bold colors and then all of them are desaturated just a bit in the editing, it's still this beautiful vivid scene, but it's just slightly vague and dream-like. The smoke and the chalk-powder and the feathers all give the MV an immediacy, a sense that the present moment (and the passage of time through it) is what's most beautiful. It's all very artsy an suits the song incredibly well, and besides, it's just plain fun to watch. It's also incredibly sexy, the sensual movements, the outfits, the skinship . . . all of it contributes to a great idea of personal liberation, including sexual freedom and comfort with that sexual freedom. It's great because very few music videos period, let alone the ones in Korea, express that not only is it okay to be a sexual creature, but that being so is not strange or special, it just is and we can just accept it with ease and comfort as an aspect of the world in which we live.

It's beautiful to watch and it looks gorgeous, so my only real complaint is the lack of an active narrative.

And yet, I'm actually fairly disappointed in this release. First off, I hate his hair. Normally I'm the first to say I think GD's hair rocks, because even when it's weird, it's usually kinda cool. This style, though, is just Beethoven meets Sweeny Todd in all the worst ways. Aside from that I think the styling rocks.

There's a ton of great imagery in Coup D'etat and it all connects very well to the idea of the MV and the song. It's a bit high-concept though, and therefore rather inaccessible unless you take the time to sort through each and every illusion as it comes up. I think it's nice how that High-concept idea, inaccesiblity included, actually links well thematically to the idea that the whole thing is all inside his head. And there are some images that are pretty relatable; the unfinished peace sign for one, how that means his Coup is entirely inside his head and also entirely ongoing, inner peace, if it's ever found, is eternally unfinished, unstable, new revolutions must always be launched to reaffirm, re-evaluate, and restore one's own mind. That idea is also supported by the wrecking ball inside the tower (the tower being the mind, the wrecking ball being reconstruction, the fact that the tower keeps standing under reconstruction... etc), and by the skin-removal section. It's also enforced by the tower's eventual demise (or perhaps it's a different wall, a mental block hidden away somewhere deep inside the main tower), one little stone, one idea that upsets a world-view and changes everything. It's very cool, very deeply dramatic and connected, but I do think the rest of the ideas could have been linked a little more obviously. The its-not-blackface-but-I-don't-have-another-word-for-it section was also really cool, the idea of literally being coated in the sludge of humanity's worst, how that can define a person if they let it. The blind-folds and the ninja-ness can be seen as a comment that questions whether we're walking through a world that refuses to see us, or are we the ones at fault for walking along while keeping ourselves invisible. It's all very cool, and beautiful to look at, but while it's high minded and high meaninged, it's not terribly engaging to follow. Sure most people will watch to the end, but most people would be watching just to see what other crazy visual pops up, not because the story has really caught them.


It's also musically subpar, at least for the Kwon JiYong I know & love. Don't get me wrong, the song is fantastically catchy and I've had it stuck in my head for the last few days. Honestly, the chorus and the bridge are both fantastic, very chill and yet also high-tension. But there's a lot of musical pulls to his One of A Kind album, a helluva lot of pulls. The rhythm of a few lines comes straight from Crayon, there's a few melodic shifts yanked from Missing You, and the tension-vamps and over-all structure link closely to One of a Kind... I'm not saying an artist can't remix or re-purpose elements of other tracks, but I'd prefer that they didn't do it quite so obviously, or as close together as this.