#kpop music videos

[hye-rim]

BANG YONGGUK (방용국) - BUSS IT DOWN [MV]

[stillsmvs]

red velvet; russian roulette (2016)

[belle-keys]

Sugar Rush Ride MV as a possible metaphor for predatory relationships (Meta)

I posted this piece on TXT’s subreddit, but they removed it because they said my subject matter is too triggering. Screw them. Reposting here because I’d like to share it nonetheless.

Thematically, Sugar Rush Ride is about the loss of innocence, about youth and temptation (as per the name of the chapter), and also about that niche intersection between trickery and seduction.

The music video conjures images of Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, but, of course, with a darker, and a more sexual twist. When I say this concept is sexual, I want to emphasize that I do NOT think that the MV and choreography are designed to sexualize the boys in the eyes of the audience at all. Rather, I see the choreography as an illustration or as a performance of sexuality, in as much as sexuality is typically a part of boyhood, and I see the MV as a depiction of sexuality in its adolescent or its "blooming phase" (note the vivid colours in the MV, the numerous vines and flowers, the clothes falling off their bodies; gardens and flowers are inherently symbolic of growth and sexuality). This MV is about eroticism and the relationship between the Ego and the Body. It's about the self-discovery aspect of sexuality and, by consequence, about the temptation and internal conflicts that arise during one's sexual awakening (especially if there are taboo undertones to it). We see multiple instances of the boys gasping, repeatedly touching their own necks and bodies, performing gestures that are explicitly reminiscent of being in the all-consuming throes of pleasure. Through this blissful awakening, the "devil" starts tempting the subject to give up even more of themselves, with the promise of a sugar rush (an emotional or sexual high) as a reward for further compliance. I find it hard to believe the devil isn’t a categorically older figure based on the lyrics, and based on how trust and deception form part of the narrative.

The boys are swept off their feet into a world of magic, of passion and fruitfulness, of wonder and pleasure, which all bring to mind the explosion of feeling and sensation that adolescence and self-discovery can evoke. I want to reiterate, the orgasmic motifs in the MV and choreography are not for the pleasure of the audience - it's more of a storytelling element in the context of the choreo than it exists for the purpose of sexualizing anyone. It aims to represent pleasure and sensation than to seeks to please or to seduce. The subject, in this case, the boys, is leaving childhood and entering a new world, now transcendant as they move away from childhood innocence into adulthood. Likewise, the sugar motif is quite obviously deliberate - it evokes images of hyperactive children, but also of Lolita's red lollipop. But this beautiful world of desire, symbolized by the Bali landscape in the MV, didn't come at no cost. We know they were brought there by the "devil", with his pretty words and with his promises. The boys have been tempted and they've been tricked. The devil beckoning the boys with literal, actual sugar speaks to the age old warning we give to childen: don't take candy from strangers. In this way, I believe devil is not another child or another adolescent. The devil, someone they've come to trust and believe in, is manipulating them with the “sugar”, with the candy, with the high of the sugar rush. Likewise, I think the outro where they directly call the devil who is their seducer "sugar" speaks to elements of fondness and of betrayal.

All highs have a comedown. The once wonderful butterflies (Nabokov himself was a butterfly scientist, by the way) are now pests and beasts. This world they've crash landed to like castaways is no longer a paradise or a welcome escape from reality; it’s actually turning against them. The subject, that is, the boys, has been precocious, and it's only the new pleasure of erotic tempation and sexual satisfaction that's keeping this charade going. Childhood is over by virtue of the sexual awakening and by the evident corruption of their innocence by the devil, and there's no deserting what they've experienced. What's also over is the sugar rush from the “sugar” they were tempted to swallow, and now is time for the crash, which is likely why they're leaving the island at the end of the MV. For this reason, I think the story of the Sugar Rush Ride music video speaks to having one's innocence lost and also simultaneously having a precocious sexual awakening by someone who's manipulative, and also likely much older.

[welcome2thetop]

Wow! Fantastic Baby

[haorbits]

🐟yerin baek - pisces (2022) dir. KEEPUSWEIRD

[eunbinism]

| ive, 'eleven ' music video stills ↯ pt. 6: wonyoung

ot6 | aesthetics | gaeul | yujin | rei | liz | leeseo

[fuckyeahlespleen]

parallelisms

jun - limbo mv / taemin - criminal mv

[yongsunsuniverse]

Solar in the Egotistic video 😍

[pink-horizon]

ㅤ۫ ㅤ⊹ riize — memories (2023)

[road-ramp]

ARTMS 'BIRTH'

[hye-rim]

BANG YONGGUK (방용국) - BAD ft. YOUHA [MV]

[stillsmvs]

h1-key; 'rose blossom' concept film (2022)

[belle-keys]

Music video stills from Nxde by G-Idle (2022, from the album “I Love”)

[welcome2thetop]

[kiwd]

(소원) crawling to get your heart.