Ever notice? The Super Junior’s Dance Room Edition!

NOTE: I originally posted this on my wordpress blog back in November 2011. I am trying to make the transition here to Blogger, so please bear with me. :)

This weeks Ever notice? edition asks: Did you ever notice that Super Junior always seem to be dancing in huge, brightly lit rooms no matter what the lyrics are about?

Super Junior dance videos stick to a very strict formula. So, what would you have imagined the music videos to be like if you knew the lyrics? Well, whatever you’re thinking, WRONG.

Check it out~

First is Super Junior’s A-CHA. Now, A cha! means something like “oh my gosh,” “oh dear,” “oh my,” and even “damn it.” According to the lyrics, the story is about a guy in a relationship with a scornful girl who seems to always walk away from him and he keeps telling her that he can’t lose her, that she needs to wizen up because in the end she’ll be saying “oh my gosh!” when she realizes what she walked out on and how much she hurt him. Something like that~ But in the video…they all just look really angry and annoyed; and dancing around in big shining rooms does not help get the message across! Perhaps they should have included this:

ACHA! NOW I get it!~

Second is Super Junior’s Mr. Simple. Here’s a translated bit of their song that I think sums up the meaning: “Don’t worry now, good days will come next. Leave serious stories behind/Smile brightly for today, with your bright smile, everyone will be lightened up.” It’s a song about putting away your troubles and going out to vent some steam with your friends. Wow. I DID NOT get that from the video. How was I supposed to know any of that?? Especially when you see the promo for it (0.o):

You're Invited to Our Fabulous Halloween Party~

Third is Super Junior’s (MeeInah) Bonamana. In this song, Super Junior adamantly tells this girl, the always invisible girl, that she’s really beautiful and they want to go out with her, buy her presents blah blah blah. What does the title mean? Well, MeeInAh means “beauty” and bonamana means “obviously.” This fits with the rest of the lyrics as these boys dance for the girl that is so obviously beautiful. But would you ever get that meaning from their music video? Nope.

I just found the invisible chick! She's so BONAMANA there!

The last one is Super Junior’s Sorry Sorry. They’re “sorry sorry” because they’ve fallen head over heels for the invisible babe again and even though they are dying to know everything about her and to be with her, they also say that they would be even more satisfied just to be her friend so they can know every secret she has. Or something like that~ The point is, after I was done imitating their awesome da da da da da da da da dancing that they’ve been using ever since, and is widely known to almost every Korean, I did not ever think that I was singing about that sort of thing! Maybe something like this would’ve made it clear?:

"Aw, I love you so much!"/ "Let's be friends!"

Super Junior stays true to their time tested method of rising to the top of the Asian pop star universe by dressing extremely well, dancing around in brightly lit rooms, and getting close face shots for their fans. Ever wonder why there’s never a girl in there? Most of their songs are about girls, but they never show up, there’s no story line and unless you understand Korean….eventually, all their videos start to look and sound the same:

A-CHA

Bonamana

BONAMANA

Mr. Simple

Mr. Simple

Sorry Sorry

Sorry Sorry

Here’s the groundbreaking formula:

2 huge rooms, lots of lights, good-looking dancing men, and lots of facial close-ups!

They’re not the only ones who do it, though. Girl’s Generation also does it and I think if you look hard enough, you’ll see that almost every artist has danced in a huge, brightly lit room which are completely epileptic unfriendly~

SNSD

TaeYang

Brown Eyed Girls

2NE1

B2AST

So why single out Super Junior or SM for the whole big space thing? It’s because you can almost always predict how a Super Junior dance video would turn out to be: it hasn’t changed much, especially since Sorry Sorry. Other artists, like B2AST, also dance alone, but their music videos have story lines, so it’s not just dancing guys leaving no clues as to the meaning of the song. SNSD is guilty of doing the same as Super Junior. Remember their MV for “The Boys?” Think about it….were there any boys in the video? Not a one.

So did you notice? What else do you notice in KPOP music videos?

I Don’t Care~ Keeping it C-REAL!

NOTE: I originally posted this on my wordpress blog back in December 2011. I am trying to make the transition here to Blogger, so please bear with me. :)

C-Real’s Debut is a couple of months old by now, but when I came upon it, I really liked it, the concept and the lyrics!

"Five member IU!"

What stood out for me right away was a few similarities with a couple of YG artists concepts and costume accessories for past MV’s, namely, G-Dragon and 2NE1.

First, the easy one. Did you notice Effie’s (?) glove?

I hadz it first!

Ok~ now for the really amusing part…did the similarities to 2NE1′s “I Don’t Care,” stand out? I’m not saying they plagiarized anything, not at all. Different stories often occur similarly, but these two stories are pretty close to each other in some ways.

First, both C-Real and 2NE1 visit Voodoo Mama JuJu in order to find out what their boyfriend(s), are doing because they suspect them of cheating.

VooDoo Mama JuJu

She appears in 2NE1′s video, but it seems that C-Real borrowed the crystal ball…or maybe they are apprentices of VMJ? (They do seem able to do magic, more on this later).

In 2NE1′s video, all four girls see their different boyfriends cheating on them:

Oh Hell Nah!

In C-Real’s video, the girl’s see the one guy, who happens to be Sandara Park’s brother, Thunder (They got the sibling in theirs! HAHAHAHA).

I am Sandara's Bro! Sup?

Heh heh heh

Whose boyfriend is he? As in many K-Pop videos, it’s all for one and one for all:

NYA!

Their lyrics are also pretty similar:

2NE1

Every day, your phone’s always off
It doesn’t seem like you’re going to change oh oh

My friends say that you’re not really worth it
You even went to your wolf-like friends for advice but
I’d rather keep it simple, I’m too good for you
I believed you were my love but oh oh

C-Real

Every night at 11 PM your phone is off
Where are you and what are you doing – I am mad

My friends tell me to break up with you right away
They say that I should never trust a guy like you
But what do I do, what is wrong with me?
I like you more than I like my friends

Still, I’m not saying they plagiarized! Here is the deal: 34% of Korean men cheat. Simple. So there’s going to be lots of songs that sound the same because lots of women go through the same thing. Even MinWoo warns women to not trust men:

The difference in the songs comes out in how the girls handle their cheating man.

2NE1′s Solution:

From today on, I’ll be a bad girl who makes guys cry
Now without a single tear, I’ll laugh at you
Loser who’s inside a game called love
Get on your knees and take me back
If not, get out of my sight right now

I don’t care, I’ll stop caring about what you’re doing wherever you are
From now on I really don’t care, I’ll get out of the way
From now on don’t come to me and cry, and cling on

C-Real’s Solution:

Again, again I meet you and smile
Again, again, I cry as I wait for you
You’re always this way and that way
Everything is upside down, inside out
Your every expression makes me feel up and down

I’m not lying – yes, I guess I’m a fool without you
Every day and every night I think about you
If I don’t kiss you, I can’t fall asleep

Please wipe my flowing tears                                                                                       Please warmly hug me                                                                                                   That’s all I want but why do you pretend not to see me                                         But you know my love But you know my love                                                         If only you will hug me like the first time                                                             Will you tell me every day that your love is only me

It could just be the personality of 2NE1 that makes them so strong, but as I am going through my own break up with a Korean guy, I often feel like C-Real~ I just really want him around again. I should be strong like 2NE1!

Chemi (18), Re Dee (17), Effie (17), Ann J (16), and Lenny (15), the members of C-Real, convey a more vulnerable  feeling in their music video. The landscape is very bright and conveys a sense of innocence.

Trippy place for a Korean wolf :)

2NE1′s video, which is darker as the girl’s go around and catch their men in the suspended act, is meant to convey a sense of toughness as the girl’s repeat that they don’t care about what their man does anymore (because they are through).

I'll get CHU!

I have a suspicion, as I mentioned, that the girls of C-Real might be witches in this video. And I mean it in a positive way…like in a Harry Potter sense :) I definitely think that they were trained to use the crystal ball by VooDoo Mama JuJu :) In other reviews, I read that they were fairies~ yeah, fairies don’t use crystal balls. They did use magic though! They knocked Thunder right on his cute butt when he was spying on them through the keyhole:

Caught you!

Oomph!

There were a lot of question I had about this video though…like, what does the parrot have to do with anything?

Don't Touch Me!

Because he just randomly disappears when Thunder tries to touch him~

NOOOOOO!!!

Also, they don’t show him really cheating or ignoring their phone calls or anything like that. In 2NE1′s video, they caught their men in the act…Most of my questions have to do with the significance of all the scenery…I really did not think this was a cheating video at all.

Overall, I think this video was cute and catchy. What do you think? Was it similar to 2NE1′s song to you too?

About th

BANNED. Part 2: Speed Thrills but Kills

NOTE: I originally posted this on my wordpress blog back in December 2011. I am trying to make the transition here to Blogger, so please bear with me. :)

Chance takers are accident makers. — Author Unknown

Driving around in Korea is pretty tough and totally crazy. Koreans have the craziest driving skills I have ever seen and traffic can be so daunting:

Being a pedestrian can be dangerous as cars fly around corners and speed through crosswalks. So, it makes sense that Korea’s interests would be in reducing accidents and keeping their drivers from going crazy. Major broadcasters, namely KBS, want to make sure that young potential drivers don’t get any funny ideas; therefore, they ban ban ban!

Lee HyoRi’s, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

The offending traffic violations:

No Seatbelt

Dancing in a truck while the truck is in motion

Dancing in the street

Huh…They banned it for this? Why not….

Hitting someone with you car?

Not using the turn signal to switch lanes?

Not pulling over during a police chase?

Or how about the number one reason that bans anything: the sexuality. They banned Rainbow’s tummy dance, but somehow they failed to ban HyoRi for showing, not only her stomach, but her bra??

Something strange is afoot here…why not just ban it for the cleavage instead of citing traffic violations when she is a runaway alien in the story and the crazy driving is essential to the plot because aliens [supposedly] don’t know human traffic laws??? 

This video wasn’t banned by the MOGEF. It was banned by KBS and got a 15+ and 12+ rating MBC and SBS, respectively. However, Rainbow showed less skin and they got a blanket ban on their choreography. That doesn’t seem fair :(

Rain’s, Love Song

So what could possibly be banned in a love song mv?

The shirt ripping?

Nope.

The sexy half-naked dancing?

Nope.

Breaking and entering, AND being on a bed with a girl at the same time?

Nope.

Wanna know what it was? He.was.sprinting.in.the.street. Jaywalker!

May I add that this sequence was in the first 3 or 4 seconds of the song and did not play again after? But KBS did not stand for it citing, “Rain’s disregard for traffic regulations by running across the road was inappropriate to be shown on their channel.”

Yoo Seung Chan’s, Chemistry

Again, KBS just doesn’t like crazy jaywalkers. Their message: no running on highways or streets! That would not be good for the viewers!

But wait a minute…this doesn’t look like Korea…

It seems like they filmed this in…California? That’s my guess. So be warned, if you want your music video on KBS, you have to watch out that you don’t run amok on streets and highways abroad or in Korea ;)

Psy & Kim Jang Hoon’s, Ring For Me Once Again

Really KBS? It’s a song about being excited about the World Cup! They also cited this for “walking in crowds on the highway.”

I believe this MV was released in 2010? But the story focused on the World Cup in 2002. Wasn’t Korea FAMOUS for it’s HUGE crowds in the streets that very year???

Did they ban themselves from showing this? I am going to think NOT. Hypocrites.

So what do you think? Should k-pop songs be banned for “traffic violations?”