Textual Analysis - I Remember

I have been into Kpop for a very long time and I don’t remember a time where a rookie’s debut song was as influential and meaningful as this. Bang Yong Guk (BYG) is a rapper under T.S Entertainment and he was featured in Secret’s Song Ji Eun in her own solo song. He then debuted with “I remember” which features BEAST’s Yoseob. The mixture of Bang Yong Guks husky rapping and Yoseobs’s emotional vocals gives this song a unique emotional feeling where the fans are able to feel the exact emotion as to what they are singing.

The creativity used in this music video is unlike other music videos. It’s a mixture of a performance as well as a deep and sorrowful narrative. The story line is of a man is thinking about his girlfriend, whose image is shown to us. She’s smiling and it seems that they were on good terms. But the scene abruptly changes to where we see the couple fighting and arguing. It seems that the relationship is abusive but it’s not - it’s just how they loved one another. But where is the girlfriend? It turns out that she had been abducted by criminals, who are currently in a standoff and the boyfriend doesn’t know what to do. But he makes up his mind to go and protect her and takes a gun along with him. He knocks down the police officers, who end up shooting him and he fires at the criminals, killing them but taking in more bullets. Of course most relationships won’t be this extreme, but it shows the determination that course through the boyfriend’s body and how he wants to protect his girlfriend the entire time, despite the rough patches that they went through. The use of Todorov's theory in this music video is perfect due to the style of music and plot.

Dance – There wasn’t much dancing as it’s a mixture of a performance and a story based music video. It isn’t very surprising as BYG made sure to focus on vocals and story as he didn’t want the audience to loose attention to the meaning of the song.

Bang Yong Guk has red hair in this music video which always stand out against most of the location, the hair may connote danger or pain which he is feeling, this will reflect to the audiences own feelings too. The dark outfits which all the characters sport connotes death as well as seriousness. This fits perfectly with the atmosphere of the music video creating even more tension. The use of a brick house may connote that their relationship is solid and unbreakable unless an anomaly happens. A few of the bricks are black which may connote that there is a threat to their relationship.

We are first introduced to the music video by seeing and hearing police sirens this instantly alerts the audience that something bad has happened without giving away the narrative, this scene then fades out to black where we then see a close up of a piano using a pan. The piano is old and dirty with what looks like shot gun marks and blood splatters which may connote that this is the equivalent to what happens next or it could in fact be a metaphor for the guy. The use of high key lighting behind the piano suggests that he has ascent to a better place.

The next scene which takes place is when the guy finds his gun inside a locker which is red again indicating that something hazardous will happen. A long shot is then used to show the location where high key lighting is emitting from outside the door which may connote innocence and purity. The man then moves into the light and vanishes which may show how he will go to heaven for his heroic actions. 

Textual Analysis - Baddest Female

The ‘Baddest Female’ is by CL who is a member of 2NE1 the number one international all female idol group. She is under Y.G Entertainment which is one of the big three names in the music industry in South Korea. This song and music video is her first solo which instantly went straight to number one on the week of its release.

The sound and visuals play an important role in this music video as CL portrays multiple personalities expressed through various scenes and shots. The song gives a very powerful meaning about a woman’s independence for example she says “Geurae naneun sse aju sanapge” which translates to “Yeah, I’m strong, very fierce” during this part of the music video she is seen around a group of gangster-like guys and she’s standing alone wearing bold looking clothes with heavy jewelry which may suggest that she’s strong enough to provide for herself and also buy her own expensive things. There’s also a shot dance routine during this segment where a few back up dancers appear showing their fierceness to the audience where they make sharp and fast moves.

On the other hand the ending of the video she sports a sweeter and a cuter style which is the complete opposite to what she had been portraying earlier, this signifies that though woman are strong they’re also sweet and fun to be around which has been shown through the use of bright colours such as yellow, pink and green. Furthermore before each chorus accelerando begins and the dance routine begins again, this has been done as a “trade mark moves” for the song where people immediately remember the choreography.

The video has a few concepts which is used to convey CL as a solo artist. Although this is music video doesn’t represent a specific narrative but instead shows CL’s different personalities which has been portrayed through the use of different locations/environments and clothes. This allows the audience to see a versatile CL who can be alone without the rest of her group members. This performance music video allows her to showcase her other talents such as dancing. For example at the very beginning of the music video we see a A-list idol where she must act behaved and proper but this contrasts to the ending where she lets loose wearing shorts, vest top and Adidas shoes, her hair in a messy state shows that she’s just a young adult at heart who likes to have fun.

The camera shots and angles used in this music video helps shows the audience what’s going on in each sequence. At the beginning of the music video CL’s lower back is shown through a close up where she sways her hips exhibiting her sex appeal to grab the male audience’s attention. After the use of fade to black transition is used to show the next scene where she’s in a position closer to the ground ready to dance, the camera shot used is a long shot to show the establishment which is a black screen with her logo/initials in baby blue. The use of black as a background colour suggests that she’s hiding something from the audience as it’s very mysterious while the baby blue is known to be the colour of royalty suggesting that she’s at a higher status than the audience but this is balances out by the use of a normal angle. 

Texual Analysis - Rain Sound

Rain Sound - Best Absolute Perfect (BAP)
Record label - TS Entertainment

“Rain Sound” is a sorrowful song and to some may seem mellow. It consists of powerful and meaningful rap verses but balanced out by the slow and emotional chorus. The boys sing in a way that lets the audience feel their emotions through their words. This is uncommon in mainstream Kpop music videos as most idols fake a smile and show a neutral emotion. Rain Sound contains large amounts of rap parts which is not common in Kpop but the calming verses sung by DaeHyun blends the rap and chorus together. The vocals are clear, delivered in deep, raspy and rhythmical; the chorus is gentle and almost fragile.

The Music Video is inventively beautiful and emotionally provoking. Symbolism in relation to the lyrics is consistent throughout the video for example at 2:38 in the video they sport a white suite which connotes purity and innocence but the shooting of the members begin which represents how losing the girl is killing them emotionally and physically while the green rain portrays memories being flooded back instead of them being washed away. The use of constant rewind editing is used to illustrate the endless reminiscing of the girl.

The boys’ interactions with the set are also very significant and the implications are overlooked. Looking closely, the sets looks like a hospital or a mental institution complete with bleak lighting, IV’s and hospital beds this may indicate how the girl died but it can also be taken how the members are mentally unstable for instance Jongup is associated with an old bed and an ambulance, Himchan with a mannequin head and fire, Bang Yong Guk with a chair which he breaks and nothing else surrounding which connotes isolation, Youngjae with mannequins on stretchers and IV fluid attached to them, Zelo with a black rose signifying death and the vase filled with the green rain which he smashes  this signifies that he is emotionally broken hearted and finally DaeHyun with a dungeon like hallway and florescent light bulbs which breaks when he screams. The use of old film-reel and flickering florescent lighting effects adds to the emotionally imbalance of the song which also connote how the members are going insane without their love interest. The low key lighting used in the black and white scene makes a miserable atmosphere which links directly to the song; this also makes the readers visually emotional.

I personally adore this music video as it’s simply showing how humans can be broken easily and deal with the loss of love. It also deals with memories but not in an obvious way and the emotions that are connected to memories. In addition the use of symbolism is also a very smart as it makes the audience think.

Conventions of a Music Video

Narrative Theories

What is a music video?

The first Music Video was made during the 1980’s. A music video is a short film incorporating a song and a moving image which is done to promote the song as well as the singer/band. The purpose of a Music Video is to promote a single, album and artists in an attractive and creative way this has been done to increase sales. A Music Video usually has a narrative or delivers a message which appeals to the target audience to attract them and persuade them to buy it.

Music videos enable the Artist and Directors to be creative and unique. It also enables the artists to show off their other talents such as dancing or acting. Sometimes, Music Videos promote more than just the artists they get sometimes get sponsored by manufacturers or electronics like Samsung and clothing lines such as Boy London. This is called Product Placement.

Here is a music video sung by Jay Park(박재범) which uses product placement. The music video features many clothing ranges such as Channel, Boy London, Seattle Sonic Apparel and Vans. They have used product placement in this music video as the manufacturers have either the same or similar target audience, it also allows their products to get as much exposure on camera which will attract a larger range or people. This will then lead onto a higher or an increase in sales revenue.

Music Video genres?

What is a Narrative

A narrative is a story told where elements are structured to make sense to the audience, this is done in an organized way so that it doesn’t confuse people.

Todorov’s theory

This theory must have a transformation. The characters in the video must undergo a disruption.

There are 5 stages for this theory:

Stage 1 – Equilibrium : a stage where everything is going well and is “Flawless.”

Stage 2 – Disequilibrium : a stage where the equilibrium is disturbed.

Stage 3 – Recognition : Acknowledgment that the disequilibrium has happened.

Stage 4 – Reparation : An attempt to repair the state of disequilibrium.

Stage 5 – New Equilibrium : A new outcome.

Here is an example of a Todorov's Theory in Kpop. 

Storyline: Lee Minho is a rich boy who attends a party and makes a bet with his friends that he can kiss the bartender (Dara), he suceeds and kisses her cheek resulting her to slap him. After a few nights he still kept thinking about her and he sees her at a concert and they start to date. But then he starts to show arrogance and she finds out about the bet. She then find him and the kiss plays an important part of the Music Video (MV) as she is saying that Lee Minho wins the bet but lost her.

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Vladimir Propp’s Theory

This narrative is focuses on the variety and types of characters instead of an individual such as:

The Hero – the one who is on the quest

The Villain – the one who opposes the hero

The Donor – the one who helps the hero by giving him a tool

The Dispatcher – the one who starts the hero on his way

The False Hero – the one who tempts the hero away from his quest

The Helper – the one who helps the hero

The Princess – the one who is the reward for the hero

Her Father – the one who rewards the hero for his efforts

Here is an example of the Vladimir Propp's Theory.

Storyline: The music video starts with Top and the girl who is giving a ring to him from her previous relationship with GD. It seems like she broke up with G-Dragon to be with Top. GD and Top then fight due to her. GD then gets angry and starts to wreck and damage things around him while this is happening we also see clips of the girl loosing hair which applies she has an illness. The end of the music video is located at a hospital and she has planned to be put down. On the other hand GD doesn’t know while the rest of his friends does. The main reason why the girl broke up with GD is so that he wouldn’t be sad after she dies, she acted to be with Top so that he would be mad instead. We then see Taeyang on the phone to GD where he’s telling him everything. GD then runs to the hospital but he’s too late. Top then says “She loves you a lot, sorry for lying to you.”

Villain - The girl for lying and breaking GD's heart.

Hero - Top for acting with her.

The helper - Taeyang for telling GD.

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Claude Levi-Strauss’ Theory

This narrative focuses on the binary opposites for example:

Good and Evil

Past and Present

Normal and Strange

Heaven and Earth

Love and Hate
Dead and Alive

Here's an example.
Storyline: Joon a professional assassin who's hired to kill the girl he love but suddenly change his mind & now they run for escape from the another assassin. The girl gets shot and Joon fight to win. He took her on his friend (Thunder) then leave and promised to come back soon. But the two fell in love for each other, So in the name of the love he sacrificially shoot himself. In the end, he gives the girl a plane ticket so they can escape the country and away from all the violence. 

Conventions of different Music Video genres

Brief

After having a long thought about the two provided options I have chosen to do the Music Video. In order to complete this coursework I must create:

• A promotional package for the release of the Music Video containing:
• A Music Video Promo.
• A Cover for the Album.
• A Magazine Advertisement for the video.

Format of the practical:

•         20 marks – planning and research,
•         20 marks for the written evaluation answered as the Director.
•         20 marks on the overall product.

I have chosen this brief as I liked doing the AS Level music magazine and I am able to use the InDesign as well as Photoshop very well, I am also comfortable using Windows Movie Maker and other video editing software. Furthermore, I love music and I would want to be able to get creative and see what kind of music video I will create.

The genre I will be doing is KPop, this is because I am very familiar with the conventions and it's a unique genre to choose.

AS Reflection

Hmm…To be honest enjoyed the AS coursework this is because I picked a genre of music which I love and researching as well as making the magazine was fun. On the other hand, I was skeptical about the evaluation as I don’t think I did as well as I could have. But I want to stay positive about it. Making the music magazine was a little tricky at first as I wasn’t familiar with InDesign however after playing around with it and experimenting with the different features I’ve been able to create a semiprofessional Kpop Music Magazine.

The exam was alright and it was what I expected. The questions given to us was reasonable however, I’ve learnt that I need to write a lot faster as I only had a minute spare to roughly read through my essays. I managed to remember most of the key facts that I needed and the technical terms.