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.