Monday, September 30, 2013

Girls' Generation is Out of This World! (but of course in a box...)

In their latest comeback, Girls' Generation still looked very youthful and spry... the very epitome of magical Korean girl idols. As a plus, their song "Galaxy Supernova" was one of their best; bubbly, effervescent, sparkly, and very Girls' Generation (SNSD). However, every great song has a few points that could use improvement... here's the review:

The Song
It was catchy and SNSD-like all the way. I figured that even though the girls tried a bit more of an outer-spacey techno beat, and incorporated some obvious auto tune into it, it still came off as normal and quite KPOP-ish.  After all, who doesn't use auto tune these days? Not to mention 9 girls in one band, where half are more visual and extras than vocals, and the other half are there to add a bit of sorely-needed talent to the group... oh, that's right! 9 doesn't divide equally... I guess I can say Jessica and Seohyun are a bit of both. However, as a whole, the song was decent: a bit of cutesy Oh! mixed into it and some static Run Devil Run vibe as well.

The Music Video
Ok... I guess even if you're SM Entertainment's top girl group (I mean, they're about as popular as KPOP girls can get... a 100,000,000 viewed mv on YouTube and tons of endorsements...), you still get the traditional box set... maybe just some bonus flash and design. Compared to f(x), their box was probably a tad better... but not that great all the same. I guess if you have about 9 girls, you don't need background dances, but to give them some credit, they almost didn't make the box feel crowded....... bigger box maybe? And let's not get into the dresses. The silver top and jeans were ok, and if you ask me, the girls did look like some hot humanoid sci-fi people. However, the dress... when I first saw it, I thought, major wardrobe malfunction. I mean, look at that! What are they wearing around their hips... fishnets? And if it's possible for Girls' Generation to look fat... well, they kinda did. Yoona managed to look okay in her dress, and so did Sooyoung, who basically looks skinny in everything. But seriously? Yuri and Sunny? I mean, I have never seen Yuri fat, but I totally felt like she grew in that neon green fishnet dress. And so did Sunny, whose short scene was enough to make me wince. Maybe it's just them getting old... or me getting tired of sparkly dresses. 
Basically, as good as the song was, the music video kind of killed it. I mean, please SM, could we just have another Oh! or Gee music video? Where even if they do have dancing scenes in a box, the video actually has a story line? Or even Paparazzi, one of their more glamorous pieces (well, actually all their songs are "girly and glamorous"). That was a decent video at least. I'm starting to think the girls need to step up their game a little, what with the rookie/new-ish groups starting to slowly close up a few gaps. And one last thing... SM, get a new fashion adviser. I mean, seriously, after those I-don't-even-know-what dresses in f(x)'s Rum Pum Pum Pum, you hit me with spiderweb-like fishnets?! I mean, I guess it's supposed to be a fashion statement, but at the very least, you could just give them the white t-shirt and blue jeans and be done with it. Or better yet, just stick a little extra money into the music video making department... they really are underpaid...



























Thursday, September 26, 2013

f(x) Lost Their Function

If any of you are familiar with f(x)... in mathematical terms, it means function. In KPOP terms, it means a 5 member girl group. Hence the title of this blog...




I really did admire f(x) up until the point when they released their new album titled "Pink Tape." Some of the songs were catchy, but really, what kind of killed it for me was their title song, called "Rum Pum Pum Pum." Yeah, that's a unnecessarily long name, I mean, if you're going to write "pum" three times, might as well get mathematical like your name and make it "Rum Pum3 (as in Pum times 3)." So as you can see, that title is quite a stupid title, and I'm not sure if SM (their company) wanted people to die of boredom while checking the music video out.

Speaking of SM and boredom, f(x) released yet another BORING mv. SM is already well-known (not to mention, despised) for their signature dance-in-a-box music videos. At least groups like APink and 2PM have some kind of storyline to their songs... whereas f(x) basically did an entire dance routine in a flashy orange cube. Might as well rename your song title yet again to "Rum Pum Pum Pum in a Box." And that's only the beginning...




If the music video wasn't enough, let's talk about the song. Please, I know I'm venting my disappointed feelings into this pointless blog post, but it does paraphrase the truth. The song was, I suppose, meant to be a techno bass kind of tune, and it did ring of unique queerness, something I have to give f(x) for pulling off... kind of. Seriously though, the song was a bit awkward... Amber's rap was funnily squished in, and Sulli was more visual than vocals as she normally is. The kinda half rap by Sulli was done mediocrely and the only interesting thing in the music video was the glass panels. But I mean, it was as boring as a dance-in-a-box could get...

Overall? It was..... not that great AT ALL. Formerly, and still kind of, an f(x) fangirl, I have to say, they really disappointed me this time. Hope their next comeback will make up for this fallback, though I have to say, I don't have the highest expectations for that. After all, we all know SM is great at brainstorming boxes.