Let's start with the good. The dance, I think, is better than previous dances of Girl's Generation/SNSD. I'm actually pretty surprised the dance is somewhat complicated. Being a very popular K-pop idol, SNSD needs to keep their dances pretty simple and follow-able for the rest of the less coordinated population. While I think that's good for them and their fan base, it's not good in terms of showing off what they've got. SNSD is no SHINee. But I think they can do more than what they did in, say, 'Gee'. SM Entertainment really upped their choreo department recently so good for them.
Now for the confusing. Music. It's everywhere. Why are you doing this, K-pop? You have a whole album to prove your broad versatility, you have to scrunch it in one song now? It starts out with a hip-hop-ish sound then shifts to genres varying from diva power pop to trashed tracks of Dream Girls to Bollywood meets dance floor anthems. Okay I may have made that up. My point is it's everywhere! Maybe this is the trend these days? I think separately these parts are good, but this song is not the case where the whole is greater than the sum of its part because I just can't see a cohesive whole. Sorry guys.
Then the set. Oh the set how you make me shiver. There's just so many! And so many colors shooting out of my screen all at once. When I say overwhelming, this is it. Maybe the concept is a bunch of random girls finding similarities in themselves (industrialized beauty) coming together from all backgrounds despite all odds to form this very large girl group hanging out in most cheery of hoods and the brightest of air hangers. I've also never seen army jackets worn so ironically. Maybe I have, but this is up there.
This song to me, also, separates the good vocalists from the bad. Just see who gets a singing line. They're the good. The people who are thrown into rap-dom is the bad. I don't really know how this happened. To SNSD to say the least. They were doing fine with sub-par singing parts but now they're taking the world of rapping too? Oh God.
I don't really know why every time I do a First Take on Girl's Generation it comes off as if it's such a bad thing. They have millions of fans in the world but why don't I ever appreciate their art? Uhm.. product? Just in case anyone might come at me with pitchforks, the song is better when it's heard sans the video. It's less crazy that way. You can thank me later.
I'm kind of embarrassed that I contributed numerous times to helping this video become the fastest vid to pass 10k, and now 20k watches on youtube.. Mostly because I was just too curious not to watch, and then I had to share the jaw dropping epic-ness with everyone else in my house. The weird part is, it's not even the kind of bad that makes you laugh.. just the kind that makes you think, "Okay....?"
ReplyDelete*not a fan at all* Though I will admit that a few of the girls Can sing (TTS subgroup) but yeah, this song doesn't do anything for me. At least Gee puts a smile on my face, if a rather goofy, kill-me-now (or later) smile.. Lol.
Wish I'd read your advice to not watch the MV first ^
Oh I watched the MV first. Then I regretted it. My eyes were spinning from so much rainbow.
DeleteI feel like whoever is in charge of SNSD is just trying too hard to make them cool or edgy because seriously they can't. They're not 2NE1. They're not f(x) who was marketed to be the quirky weird group. They're the girl next door group. They shouldn't deny it, they should accept it and embrace its glory. And while I probably won't love that either, it's probably better than this.
Totally agree with you here. Even though I can get what it's trying, the song is an utter mess. The entire time I first listened to it I was waiting for the song to make sense. It didn't. And it is not even the girls' fault, it is entirely the fault of the producers. It's too bad really, because I looked at the teaser photos and thought that they would come back with a new and more mature concept.
ReplyDeleteFunnily though, if you search Youtube there are several better edited versions of the song, made by fans.
If the song was divided into each verses and was listened to separately, I think it might actually be good. But the producers are so smart to just mush everything together. Apparently not just the music directors, but the MV director too. Poor them.
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