Greetings Officially KMusic readers! We are back again with the second installment in the “It’s an Oppa Said Noona Said Kinda Day” segment. In case you missed the first edition, you can check out the article for yourself here.
Rafa and Angel had such a fun time doing the first article they knew that they would definitely have to follow it up with a second, and in fact they are already discussing ideas for their next article!
This time, keeping it fair, they decided to discuss male groups and the sexy concept, since they discussed the trend of female groups doing over the top sexy in their first article.
So without further ado, let’s hand this over to Angel and Rafa!
Angel: Rafa and I so enjoyed doing the first “It’s an Oppa Said, Noona Said Kinda Day” article, we knew we would have to do it again.
Angel: We tackled girls groups and the “sexy concept” in our first article and came to the conclusion even though we didn’t agree completely on all the groups we talked about, we both felt that girl groups were doing sexy wrong, and only for the rare occurrence were girl groups being sensual and not raunchy.
Rafa: Don’t get me wrong fan boys, I enjoyed the videos but to be honest some parts did go a little overboard.
Angel: Now in our second article, we have decided to make things fair and take a look at male K-Pop groups and the “sexy concept”. In prepping for this article we of course had to scour through male K-Pop music videos that fed into the “sexy” category.
Angel: I “tortured” myself for hours watching (chocolate) abs and (ovary exploding) hip thrusts.
Rafa: I, on the other hand, being not a huge fan of the male K-Pop group, was tortured by it.
Angel: Sorry Rafa! I tried to make it as painless as possible.
Angel: I did come to a startling conclusion, though. Sexy for a male K-Pop group is in a whole different ball field. It seemed to me to fall into three fields. One was where the idols stripped off their shirts baring their chest, while water or oil glinted off their abs.
Rafa: I find this to be the favorite among my female friends.
Angel: I plead the fifth!
Angel: Two was where the group performed body waves and hip thrusts continually throughout their choreography.
Rafa: Also a favorite among my female friends…
Angel: I should meet some of your friends, Rafa!
Angel: And last was the one that sort of surprised me, and I hadn’t really realized was such a big “thing” in South Korea, which was the female extras in the video being overly sexy.
Rafa: Needless to say I found these a little more entertaining, while my female friends not so much.
Angel: We had trouble finding videos for the first two that really screamed out to be talked about, we did find a couple, and we will be discussing them in a moment.
Angel: Most of the time if clothing was removed, there was little to no dancing and what dancing there was, wasn’t that sexy. And if the dancing was too over the top sexy, then the group was fully dressed and covered from head to toe.
Angel: I made the comment to Rafa partway though our research, “It seems like girl groups dance sexy and the clothing shrinks…..guys dance sexy and the clothes goes on”.
Rafa: I found Angel’s comment hilarious, yet right on the mark. Sexy for men is totally different than it is for the female groups
Angel: So we decided to tackle this a slightly different way. Not only will be looking at these videos and discussing if they are “too sexy,” but we will also be discussing the difference between “sexy” for male and female groups. So enough chit-chat, onto the videos!
Taeyang – Eyes, Noes, Lips
Angel: So I think after I finish saying what I have to about this video, I might just have to hire a bodyguard. Don’t get me a wrong, I love the song, and Taeyang, and Big Bang! But, let’s not get too excited. Here’s my problem….was it really necessary for him to be shirtless? I love me some chocolate abs, honest! But I’m really starting to feel that Taeyang doesn’t own a shirt. At least for his solo music videos, I believe, he always ends up shirtless at some point or another. “Eyes, Noes, Lips” is no exception, in fact, I believe Taeyang has taken it to the next level, no shirt at all. The video could have been just as poignant, if not more so, if he had opted to wear one.
Rafa: I think Taeyang works hard keeping his body in shape and enjoys showing his work off. I just wished he put the same effort into his music. I feel he uses this to stand out from GD and TOP.
Teen Top – To You
Angel: And here’s our first example of the dance sexy-cover up trend that seems to be the go-to format for male K-Pop groups. I am actually not going to complain about it. Honestly it’s a trend I would love to see be carried over into female K-Pop groups, but we know, unfortunately, that is not going to happen. While I didn’t really appreciate the whole body wave and hip thrust moves pulled off here by Teen Top, I can remember that at the time, fan girls were almost in riot mode. For me, I believe the boys were from like 17 to 20 years of age performing this, I just really couldn’t get past the age difference. Watching Neil thrust like that gave me the shivers more than an explosion of fan girl feels.
Rafa: Let me start off by saying I love the song and I enjoy anything produced by the Brave Brothers. That being said, I have to disagree with Angel here and found nothing really wrong with this video at all.
Dalmatian – E.R
Rafa: Let me start off by saying I am not a fan of this group. I did not enjoy this video at all, I feel they went to the shirtless look just to keep the ladies, and some of the fan boys too, from turning the video off.
Angel: I on the other hand am a fan, but thats not saying I disagree with what Rafa said. For the majority of this video, the boys of Dalmatian are pretty much all covered up. They start out in some pretty slick looking suits, move onto some low necklines and loosely buttoned (in one case apparently he lost all the buttons) shirts, and then almost out of no where “BAM” we have five very shirtless guys. I’m pretty sure when I originally watched “E.R” I rewound to this part about ten times. I have to say while it’s pretty blatant, it doesn’t bother me. I think in part it has to do with that whole dance sexy-cover up trend that we mentioned, but this time in reverse. Dalmatian aren’t really dancing sexy in this video at all. They are doing more contemporary moves, with leaps and spins and lots of large arm and leg movements. I’m not saying it isn’t sexy or maybe slightly over the top, but I think it’s that combination that allows this, to me anyway, to be sexy and not raunchy.
Gary – Shower Later
Angel: I’m not sure where to start….I was a little speechless watching this music video. Between the shots of the girls and the actually lyrics I’m pretty sure I watched the whole thing with my mouth hanging open. This music video isn’t about a guy being portrayed sexily, but the other stereotypical male singer music video where the female extras are being exploited. Now, I don’t mind this particular music video concept done right, in moderation, but Gary’s “Shower Later” is, to me personally, an example of why I stopped watching American music videos. The numerous phallic symbolism and over the top unnecessary close-ups and camera pans just makes me cringe. I’m not even going to talk about the ending.
Rafa: This reminds me of the Gangster Rap I grew up listening to in the 80’s and 90’s. Let me add not the good rap, but the bad rap. Gary is a talented guy and I really like him, but this video to me was made with the girls in the forefront to make up for a poorly produced and written song.
J’KYUN – Ponytail
Rafa: I really enjoyed this one. It was a fun flirty song, the ladies where not over sexualized, and to me, were there to accentuate the video, and not there just to be eye candy.
Angel: I agree with Rafa, in part anyway. This is what I meant about the female extras being sexy but it isn’t completely over the top! You have the girls wearing fairly casual clothing and having fun with both J’KYUN and the props. Now I do feel the song, once I found the English lyrics, is pretty much geared towards guys, and make me wince. I can’t really see myself listening to it very often but the video itself was done tastefully, especially when you consider the lyrics.
Jay Park – Welcome
Rafa: Let me start off by saying I am a big Jay Park fan. And he does not disappoint me in this song. Sure he is shirtless through out the video but I did not find it frivolous at all. After all, he is talking about getting the female extra into bed. The bed scene itself was alright, but I could have done with out it. All and all I see nothing wrong this video
Angel: Yup, he’s definitely shirtless, Rafa! Mr. Jay Park does not hesitate to strip off his shirt either in his music videos or on stage, much to the delight of his fans (which I am one of). For this particular song, seeing that is it about getting a girl into his bed it’s not completely “inappropriate” for him to be shirtless so in that regards I don’t fault him, though maybe he could have at least started the video with it on and led up to removing it. The other aspect of this video that got it on this list is the “bed scene” that Rafa referenced with the female extra. I disgaree with Rafa on this part, personally I found it very tastefully done. Just enough showing and going on to make the song’s point, without going into the realm of raunchy.
U-Kiss – Quit Playing
Angel: Possibly the most disappointing music video I have ever watched. I won’t deny that as a fan girl I spazzed over some things in “Quit Playing”, I’m human after all, but I’ve pretty much only watched the music video three times. Once when it was released, once for someone’s reaction video, and again for this article. The shots of the female extras would have probably been enough on their own to make me not want to watch this video again, but throw in how the boys of U-Kiss are filmed acting with the girls and I’m completely flabbergasted. I cannot even list out all the things I think are wrong in this video. Basically you can throw everything I’ve already said I didn’t like in the other videos into this one post.
Rafa: To be honest I don’t know where to start with this. I really don’t know what U-KISS was thinking when they did this video. The concept to me was “let’s take the girl group formula and try to apply it to a guy group.” This video just had so many things going on it that I could not keep up with all of the mini storylines. This video started off wrong and never found the right direction.
Rafa: So agree or disagree with me, the male groups have it a little harder than the female groups do in trying to niche out their place in the market. Let’s hope that the male groups can find the right balance and not have to rely on risqué concepts.
Angel: I think Rafa has the jist of it. Male groups, especially as they get older and can’t do the cute concept anymore, struggle to find a style their own. Instead of venturing out into unknown and untried territory, they fall back onto “sexy” and hope it works.
So, Officially KMusic readers, what did you think of Angel’s and Rafa’s second collaboration article? Did you agree or disagree with their thoughts on these music videos? Do you have any of your own observations about the differences between girl and guy group sexy concepts? Make sure you let us know in the comments!
Edited by: Laura Dees
- Excited
- Fascinated
- Amused
- Bored
- Sad
- Angry
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
RSS