July ends. July was a good blogging month for me with the list of music videos posted being a respectable number. Here is the list;
2NE1
Can't Nobody (Korean)
9Muses
Figaro
Armi Aavikko & Ilkka "Danny" Lipsanen
I Wanna Love You Tender
B2ST/Beast
Beautiful Night
BoA
Only One (Dance Version)
David Bisbal
Corazon Latino
David Bisbal
Dimelo
David Bustamante
A Contracorriente
David Bustamante
El Aire Que Me Das
DC Talk
Luv is a Verb
Demon Hunter
Lifewar
GP Basic
Game
Jo Kwon
I'm Da One
MBLAQ
Y
MyName
As Long as You Love Me (BSB cover)
Play
Us Against the World
Super Junior
Sexy, Free & Single
Teddiefilms
Primeday
TVXQ
Android (Japanese)
ZE:A
I Want it that Way (BSB cover)
Taking live singing and covers out of the running, Armi Aavikko & Ilkka "Danny" Lipsanen's I Wanna Love You Tender wins. Their terrible/wonderful back-up dancers, epic retro-ness, and space theme were just so amazing that no one else had a chance. Honourable mentions go to David Bustamante's bad dancingEl Aire Que Me Das, GP Basic's Game, TVXQ's shiny bum patchesAndroid, BoA's Only One, and Super Junior's Sexy, Free & Single. Unfortunately for Play, Us Against the World was bad enough that it went past being good and went straight back to being bad. If that hadn't happened, their cryogenic transport tubes and ninja crisis would have been a strong contender. Too bad for them. Here's the winner.
It's great when Kpop groups do covers of 90's pop. Particularly when they are Backstreet Boys covers. ZE:A did a particularly good one of I Want it that Way. Here it is.
There's not point in doing a music video review just after Eat Your Kimchi does one, so I will beat them to the punch. Wha ha ha ha ha. B2ST/Beast's new song, '아름다운 밤이야', otherwise known as Beautiful Night, is out.
I didn't like it. Why, you ask. Beast is a solid group with good songs and dancing. How could I ever not like their music video?
Setting for one. I know that foreign settings are cool. However, foreign for the Korean market, and foreign for North America are different. Therefore, shooting a music video in New York did not impress me. I just thought about how much it would cost to shoot there the whole time.
Costumes. They were not attractive. It was like the costumes were mostly good, but each had a fatal flaw. The best pieces were the colour gradiated suits, Yeseob's surprisingly flattering pink 80's sweater thingy, classic leather shoes, and a red striped blazer. That's not very impressive. I expect more from Beast's stylists.
Next item - attitude. When did Beast get attitude? Are they gangsta's? Answer. No they aren't. For me all the attitude they exibit in this music video is on first thought repulsive, and on second thought misplaced and unnattractive. I don't like attitude that much.
Dance. There was no dance. Only the cars danced. This is usually not an issue for me because Beast can be thoroughly interesting without dancing, but I was so displeased that for me a choreographed dance could have saved the music video. It would have saved bad hairdos, my favourite member looking like a girl, over use of the back alley, bad costuming, and the unnattractive use of attitude.
The song was good though. I liked the song. It was a good song.
BoA's new single Only One is out, and watching the dance version there is only one word to describe it. Respect. BoA's got dance skills. She is one pop singer who doesn't hold her dance crew back (I'm thinking of you Bustamante, Billie Piper, etc.), and that deserves respect. Only One is also the single from her 7th album. ...More respect.
Only One is actually a slow song, so it is impressive that the choreography is as intense as it is while matching the song. The costumes are average, and succeed at what they are meant for - showing off the dance moves. Since the song is so well interfaced with the dance, it is hard to critic it. It is smooth and obviously romantic.
BoA's dance crew, made up of six guys, is interesting in that it is multiracial. Almost everybody in the world has a crew member that they can "relate to" from a cultural viewpoint. In my video viewing, the dance crews in Kpop are almost always uniracial/Korean, or there is one token white person who does not actually dance, so the way BoA does it so seamlessly is rather impressive. She's all like, "What? This isn't normal for music videos?" Good job BoA.
BoA is also one of the few people I've seen who tell a story with their dance duets. Other pop singers duets are more like "I'm sexy.", "I want you." with their dance duets. BoA's tell a semi-complex storyline. It impresses me every time I see it. Once again, good job BoA.
BoA's Only One gets top marks for being a good quality music video.
As it turns out, every so often Kpop groups do covers of classic 90's pop. MYNAME, that debut group who sang the wonderful Message did a cover of Backstreet Boys' As Long As You Love Meon Wave K (a tv show?).
As a Kpop/pop fan, this kind of thing is very exciting. It combines the nolstalgic past with the trendy dancing present. It's even more exciting when the singers can pronounce English well. However, since MYNAME does the chair dance in one camera shot so that all BSB fans can learn it all is forgiven. Good performance I say.
MBLAQ. Y. Reminds me of netspeak. MBLAQ's Y is a catchy tune that they released in two different albums. The music video goes a little something like this:
Awkward shower scene. Dancing. Cars. Dancing. Writing a note. Doing the robot. "Check out my clavicle." Cuddling. Crying. Sexy chin wipe. Dancing. Cuddling. Crying. Dancing. Cars! Dancing. Dancing. Dancing. Phantom girlfriend. Cuteness. Smooching. Sexy lip wipe. Dancing. Going to a party. Dancing. Fighting at the party. More dancing. Gun. ...Gun! Implied murder. Crying. The end.
So...I guess my question is, "why?". Almost everything made sense (in Kpop land), but why kill her? Edwards Cullens much?
As a music video Y gets an 'A' for costumes. While the costumes are weird, they're obviously futuristic and matching in theme/ they have two sets of the same outfit but in different colours. The one suit in the music video is nice and everything else is okay. Lots of the dancing is good, but come moves are...uninspiring, so I will give it a high mediocre grade for dance. All together, the first three minutes are good quality music video. It's the last bit that would lower the grade.
