Songs Are Meaningless Without Words

Many would agree that music itself has its own value, but there are kpop songs out there that are really strange. Even if we don’t understand the lyrics, the song itself with/without the music video should be able to convey the meaning to us but that doesn’t seem to be quite happening in songs like Exo-K’s ‘Wolf’ and Big Bang’s ‘Love Song’.

Usually people would think wolves in relation to lonely howling, hunting, full moon, and snow. Or at least something along those lines, you get the picture. And even perhaps, due to Twilight, people may think of werewolves, which seriously this song wouldn’t make you think of that (dumping the lyrics aside). Even David Guetta’s ‘She Wolf’ would surely suit better in relation to wolves. Why? Well, already we are given the really weird imagery of a rainforest or savannah from the music. And honestly, their voices don’t sound so great. Howling like either some half-drunk guys, or off-key high pitched howling. >< Overall, this basically is no song that people would want to go listening to twice. I don’t think this song really would fully convey a message of something about a wolf, hence thus failing to express much meaning. You can be the judge. 

Click me to listen to the song Wolf !!! 
  

“I love you~ (,not)!” It’s alright that the song title may have a contradiction to the lyrics singing “I hate this love song” in Big Bang’s ‘Love Song’, since I guess that’s the irony of it all. But the music video for it is rather confusing. Their voice and the music have a sense of some sort of defeat but the pain or anger is missing. And there isn’t any love either. So unless the chaotic mess in the music video is meant to reflect their previously lashed out anger of love-hate, their voices and the music lack the connection, hence don’t quite convey the message of whatever it is they are trying to sing. 

Click me to see the MV Love Song !!! 

All images credited to the YouTube official MV ~

A Picture Says 1000 Words

Let me ask you all a question. Do you feel love, or do you hear love ? Sure people can hear love and everyone can open their mouth and tell you they love you, but does that really mean anything to you ? Would it make you breathe heavier and your heat beat faster from a mere three words, or would it be more important to feel the meaning of those words in your heart ? This time the topic that I will discuss is how K-pop touches your heart even without us understand the lyrics just by the raw emotions of seeing the MV and the emotions from the voice of the singer.

I cried. I know it may seem like I'm exaggerating but I'm not. I cried softly the first time I ever heard 'Don't Love' by FT Island, just soft little sniffs into a tissue but then, I bawled my eyes out later. Now I'm not trying to say that the lyrics of songs don't mean anything. That would be a lie because I admit, I cried harder than before when I saw the English translation of the lyrics. I just don't agree that music is meaningless as soon as the lyrics could not be understood. The lead singer Hongki has ... this voice that just taps on my heart panels and my brows automatically start to meet into a frown and ... I just start feeling like some kinda leading actress in some tragic drama. You know, one of those scenes where a couple stare at each other not moving a muscle and there's this background music that plays and distracts you from the fact that the two people haven't moved for like 5 mins now. My point is, music itself is already filled with emotions, and with the song being fortunate enough to be sang by an emotional singer, words may not be the most important aspect of the song anymore.

Click me to listen to the song Don't Love !!! 

It would be a rather good question to ask if ‘This is War’ by MBLAQ is an MV or a mini drama. A short 5:37 clip was enough to tell the story of how an assassin fell in love with his target and went against his organisation to protect her instead. Sadly while asking for help from a childhood friend, a love triangle was formed. A fight rose up and the assassin brought his gun into the story, aiming it at the two people he loved the most and firing the bullet. That’s probably enough of me retelling the story now. My point was that the MV itself had managed to create the mood and atmosphere and even if I didn’t know what the lyrics were saying, I bawled my eyes out when the assassin twisted the bullet to return to himself, killing himself instead of the two people whom he loved and felt betrayed from. The ending scene showed him taking out a cheque which was the reason why he was absent so much, because he was trying to earn money to support them. Just in a few minutes, I was drawn to tears from an MV and a song which I knew none of the words to. A picture really says a thousand words. 

Click me to see the MV This is War !!! 

All images credited to the YouTube official MV ~

My Eyes Are Burning With Passion !!!

So I heard someone tried to convince you guys that K-pop MVs were both visually unappealing and lacked content ? What. A. Joke. Don’t mind me, I’m just going to go and roll around in laugher in that little corner over there. Now, I don’t mean to sound rude but people these days should try and not be so spoon-fed by whatever the general media throws at you. The only thing people think of whenever anyone says ‘K-pop’, is the ever so famous ‘Gangnam Style’ but that would be the same as thinking the only American singer is Rebecca Black. Just because things go global, it doesn’t mean they are the best.

I’m sure most people would agree with me that ‘Gangnam Style’ pretty much ruined the expectations of ever seeing anything visually pleasing in a K-pop MV. Well you people really ~ need to check out the MV for ‘Trouble Maker’ sang by Hyuna and Hyunseung. Long-legged beautiful model ? Tick. Well-dressed dancer dude ? Tick. A touch of mysterious undercover spy theme ? Tick. Even if the pretty lady isn’t really your style, you gotta admire her for dancing in those heels and that extremely long singlet ... or it could be an extremely short dress. Either way, someone throw her over to model for Victoria’s Secret please ! The guy, oh my goodness ... how does he pull off all that guy-liner ? Ok, seriously now, his dance moves were both clean and crisp & lingering and sensual. Come on guys, you can’t see this kind of dance in every MV, savour the moment ! I believe just those two should be enough to convince anyone to give K-pop a try and throw all that ‘K-pop MVs are visually unappealing’ out the window, into a hole, and deep down to the core of the earth where it can burn ~

Click me to see the MV Trouble Maker !!! 

 

Oh yes, there was also this ‘K-pop MVs have no content’ issue floating around. Catch this statement in a net, seal it in a glass jar and throw it into a black hole up in space. Or, I could just drown that comment in my own personal sea of tears I produced when I saw the MV from ‘Brown Eyed Girls’ called ‘Cleansing Cream’. At first I thought the song was about something stupid like washing your face. I was never more wrong. The MV shows a sad 3:38 minute story of how a blind girl wanted to find comfort from her sister but was meet with jealousy and hatred because under all those layers of makeup, was a grown woman who lacked in self confidence and trust. No more words can be touching enough to explain this, just watch the MV and get your hands on the translations of the song and you will now that the MV wasn’t made just to have something to show on the screen while the artists sings. It really gets you thinking about yourself and the world. Just how much are you hiding underneath your mask, and what are you sacrificing ? In this case it was family, but what about you, will it be something more painful than family ?

Click me to see the MV Cleansing Cream !!!

All images credited to the YouTube official MV ~

My Eyes are Burning from Loathe

There have been many occurrences where the music video for the song doesn’t make any sense to what the song is about, and/or worse, the scenes of the music video are really disturbing. Two examples of this are PSY’s Gangnam Style, and Xia Junsu’s Tarantallegra.

 
Usually the music video would being out the meaning of the song even more, but that’s not always the case. Ever since PSY’s international break through with his song ‘Gangnam Style’, the world has been dancing the moves. Remember the famous ‘horse riding’ dance move while swinging around an imaginary lariat rope?  But does anyone really get what he’s doing? Before he even starts singing, we see a guy who keeps lolling his head about as if he’s dying from dehydration due to the heat. Does that make sense to anyone? :/ During the video, there were also scenes of the guy with his arms around a couple of girls walking through flying rubbish (romantic much?), and suddenly some guy in a yellow suit wanted to stop by with his car and join in the dance? And also, as if the guy screaming while staring at a girl’s arse isn’t disturbing enough, is the ten seconds of that seriously disturbing hip thrusting, in an elevator, over another guy! >< Enjoy having someone between your legs much, let alone perving on a guy going to the bathroom?

Click me to see the MV Gangnam Style !!! 

“As much as I love you, I can’t stand by and watch.” We might as well go grab the iPod and listen to the song if the video is unbearable, just like as in Tarantallegra. Although the name ‘Tarantallegra’ may mean a curse to dance uncontrollably, the dance moves, etc, are visually detached from the song. Already, the dance in general, simply is disturbing—it’s not merely ‘sexy’, but a lead on to erotic. Excessive hip thrusting, girls snaking and slithering all over a guy, even feeling him?! Isn’t that epically random clear tube already entangling them enough? It’s like grabbing a transparent garden hose from the backyard, play around with it like it’s a python and dance around crazy! Anyhow, to a less disturbing side of the video, there were rather random scenes to have been recorded for the video, for example, the thousand hands Buddha pose, a bunch of girls holding cameras, like a paparazzi, to a guy lying down on a couch who pays no attention to them. At least they aren’t as disturbing as other scenes, but they are still pretty random to the song. 

Click me to see the MV Tarantallegra 

All images credited to the YouTube official MV ~