The quintessential bubblegum pop genre at its best, this video gained my attention after gaining 1 million views on YouTube after only 3 days. That is impressive, considering they're a rookie group and from a smaller management, Starship Entertainment, also the home of SISTAR. So here it is, Boyfriend's "Don't Touch My Girl"!
First of all a little comment on their group name. I'm okay I guess with the name Boyfriend, because it signifies the boys being boyfriends to their fans. A little opportunistic, if you ask me, but okay. My question is why not name them Boyfriends considering there are 6? 7? of them. And then their fan club is named Bestfriends? Whoa, that's like one step back in the world of relationships, don't you think. But whatever. I'm not asking K-pop to have an A+ in grammar anyways.
Just as I've mentioned before, this video is the quintessential bubblegum pop ala Korea. Synthesized beats and melodies with an added touch of piano, very reminiscent of anime music of the 90s if you ask me. Definitely not complaining. Their voices are okay. It's a little sad that all of them are mediocre in this song, considering most K-pop songs will have two seconds of voice gymnastics from one of their prized lead vocalists. I'm not sure if they're just trying to make the group more equal or perhaps there's a lack of talent in the vocal department?
The dance is good. I really don't have much to say about it. It's not lazy, but it's not superb either. It's very safe, but it matches the similarly safe song. I say it's fair. Their outfits though is a big question mark. I'd like to compare their costume choices to SHINee's whole career. First in the beginning of the MV the boys were the perfect noona killers with their sweet, sweet smiles and thoughtful gestures. Then they start dancing in those infamous rainbow skinny jeans which I believe should be banned. You can't scream prepubescent louder than colorful skinny jeans. No you can not. Then the boys don an army inspired costumes in black, red, and navy. Then finally they wrap it up with more friendly neighborly boy smiles that theoretically will melt the hearts of noona and yeodeongsaeng fans everywhere. Observe the 1.1 million views as of today.
The video consists of the Boyfriend boys making "love" prepubescent style with their respective girlfriends. They were seen cutely playing music, listening to songs, taking pictures, and brushing each others' teeth. Wait, what?! Who in the world brushes each others' teeth? Like maybe a mom to her 2 year old but two grown kids? Like seriously? My question is, does that get the job done? Will the teeth even come out clean? I question your mental health, oh K-pop MV directors.
I haven't paid much attention to Boyfriend and I intend remain that way for the next few years or millennium. I'm not blown away by what they've pulled out so far. It's very gimmicky if you ask me. And very safe, which is not someone you want to keep producing in the competitive world of K-pop. Cute noona killers are not my style anyways. It makes me feel terribly old and it's always a mystery to me whether the boys were willing or forced to do all that aegyo. Although, considering the viral numbers of the video, I'm pretty sure the company succeeded in marketing them as such and they're not showing any signs of backing away from this concept.
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