MV Review: Taemin's 'Press Your Number' Misses the Mark

Last week, Taemin’s MVs for "Drip Drop" and "Press Your Number" were released on the SMTown YouTube channel, and those of us who have been waiting for a follow up to "ACE" fell over ourselves a little bit. As one of my favorite solo artists, Taemin’s tracks are something I have been waiting impatiently to enjoy for months now. You could say I’m biased, and honestly I couldn’t really argue with that.

So, my bias being what it is, my reactions to the music videos are somewhat surprising to me.

The MV for "Press Your Number" is, putting it lightly, a mess. What they were trying to do is easy to see; there are some beautiful shots, the dancing is great, and this song has been stuck in my head for three days so you know I like it. Obviously the aim was to cut some clips together and put them out of order so that we get the sense that Taemin has found himself in some mysterious circumstances that need unravelling. This hasn’t, however, panned out. What we’ve ended up with is a confusing video with some things that make sense on their own but not as a whole. It doesn’t make the statement it clearly wants to make, and it’s a shame.

The plot (if it counts as a linear plot) is thus: Taemin is in a car with some friends, makes his way into a grocery store, and pulls a gun on the cashier. Then he simultaneously finds himself in a crashed car, a hotel room, and the set of Amadeus with some guys who are throwing money at each other (with me so far?). Taemin then receives a phone call, and then the cashier from the store is tied up and lying underneath a table, spliced with flashes of Taemin tied up in her place. Then some dancing on a rooftop, some running, and Taemin’s friends get captured. Taemin himself gets away, although his jacket takes on some magical disappearing-reappearing powers. We then see Taemin drop a blue rose into the Los Angeles River, and trading a roll of cash for a briefcase full of roses, so either Taemin was tricked or he has really specific, really expensive floral tastes. Then we see Taemin in the car with another Taemin, Taemin walking through the desert, and then more dancing in the desert. The final image is of Taemin dousing the car with petrol and flicking a lighter on, followed by credits.

If that seems a little confusing, then it’s because it is. I have no idea what the plot of this music video is, and honestly I’m not completely convinced it even has one. But in case I’m being unfair, I do also have a list of things I like about it. For one, Taemin is wearing a normal outfit instead of looking like SM threw half an H&M store on him and let him loose, which is something they have done to their artists in the past. The shots are gorgeous, and I love those blue roses. So that’s at least three things.

More than anything, I love the dancing in "Press Your Number." So I feel completely spoiled that there are two performance videos to go along with the full MV for "Press Your Number," as well as the performance video for "Drip Drop." I’m very partial to dance videos – I love dance practices, and so to have three performance videos is, to me, a great thing. Taemin is an incredibly dancer, and that’s so clear that I might as well be saying that the sky is blue. But watching him dance is hypnotic in the way that watching anybody who does something incredibly well is. The video for "Drip Drop" is great, and so is the second version of the "Press Your Number" Performance Ver. The first one is very pretty, but I have a couple of issues with it – the first being that I have no idea why Taemin seems to have snuck into his dad’s closet and stolen his clothes from the seventies. The second is that Taemin dancing in water makes his precise movements less easy to follow, and ruins the effect somewhat.

All in all, Taemin’s current MVs are very enjoyable, and both songs are jams that I’m going to be listening to for weeks. They may have missed the mark in some ways, but they fit Taemin and his particular brand of oily-jointed dancing and mature pop songs. Plus, he has that sweet waistcoat.

Helen Edworthy is a Sociology undergrad from England who got lost in the K-Pop machine five years ago. When not talking about K-Pop, she's talking about video games and lipstick. Her biases are VIXX, Royal Pirates, NS YoonG and Taemin, but she loves Epik High most of all.

Coping with the Inevitable Kpop Fatigue

Five years ago, a friend of mine who knew that I listened to a lot of J-Pop sent me a link to an MV entitled "SNSD – Gee." Actually, it might have said "Girls’ Generation," but either way – it was a long time ago. At that point, I didn’t think anything about the MV other than it was colourful, fun, and I liked the song. My friend then sent me SNSD’s "Oh!" MV, and I loved that too. Without being cliché, it was like nothing I’d ever seen before, but was still somehow familiar. It had the fast pacing and bright colours of J-Pop, but with a much more familiar pop sound to what I was used to as an English teenager. It was so different, and yet not. I loved it immediately.

It all spiralled from there. I listened to SNSD endlessly for a few days, and then I found Super Junior and their most popular sub-group, Super Junior M. I listened to "Sorry Sorry" on repeat for two hours the day I first listened to it. My first ever group comeback was MBLAQ’s "Mona Lisa," and three years later I was into so many groups that I didn’t even have time to watch all the comeback performances as well as everything else I had to be doing. My first ever Kpop CD was Super Junior’s Mr. Simple, and I got the Heechul cover as well as the military-style B Version. My first year of university, the first article I wrote was about cool Kpop tracks to listen to other than "Gangnam Style," which as everyone will remember was everywhere at that time.

What I mean by all this Kpop nostalgia is that, over the past five years, listening to Kpop, talking to other people about it, and engaging with it on so many levels has been a major part of my life. I’ve been in various fandoms for the past ten years, and Kpop had me from the start. I honestly never really thought that how much I loved it would wane.

But, as with all things – fatigue set in. When I first started chatting to other Kpop fans online at the age of seventeen, they – like I – were in crucial stages where growing up was happening and life was getting busier. It’s difficult to be in an all-consuming fandom like Kpop when that’s happening, and once you take some time out of it you end up behind on a ton of new songs, new groups, new shows, and new scandals. Trying to catch up and get back into it is exhausting, and this is something I like to call Kpop Fatigue. Trying to listen to new groups and new tracks ends up becoming tiring, and everything starts sounding the same – and not least because 2013 and 2014 weren’t particularly great years for Kpop.

So, what happens is you lose interest. In October of 2015, I went to see my then-favorite group UKISS. I have been a fan of UKISS for four years, and at the start I loved them intensely and wanted to listen to them exclusively. But by the time I saw them in concert, some of the sparkle had gone. They were great, of course – and I had a great time. But in a way, it felt like the final part of a love affair. I still listen to UKISS, of course – I still wait for comebacks when I remember and I still follow them all on twitter because I still have a soft spot for them.

But I can no longer follow UKISS, and Kpop, the way I once did for a multitude of reasons. The first is that I am about 200% busier than I was when I was seventeen (I have definitely worked this out mathematically, alright?). The second reason is that I am more used to what Kpop has to offer, and I’m generally less impressed than I used to be. I have three groups I generally keep an eye on these days, and they are RP (Royal Pirates), VIXX, and EXO. I have a fourth whenever a group has a comeback that I like.

Fandom fatigue is nothing new, and Kpop Fatigue isn’t anything new either. In a fandom as sprawling and massive as Kpop, it is inevitable. Some people genuinely face a sense of loss when this happens, and that is to be expected when something is your favorite thing to think about for a long time. People engage in fandoms because they want that sense of community, and a need to talk about the things we love with others who will understand in a similar way. When fandom fatigue sets in, there is a partial loss of this.

What needs to be remembered is that this process happens to most of us, and it doesn’t mean we have to let go. For many of us, we go through feelings that tell us we have to let go of all of our fandom ties. This isn’t true, even if fandom makes us feel this way. Fandom is what we make of it, and even if it feels like there are rules, in the end they aren’t being enforced by anybody but ourselves.

Also, Taemin has a solo comeback next week that I need to be ready to have feelings about.

Helen Edworthy is a sociology undergrad from England who got lost in the world of Kpop five years ago. She tweets at @hm.honeybee and her favorites are VIXX, Royal Pirates and EXO.

How to Build a Kpop Girl Group

Here at CriticalKpop, we love our girl groups. From cute to sexy to everything in between, girl groups have tried almost everything to stand out in a world of Generations, Brown Eyes and Wonder. As the public jumps to Melon and Olleh for catchy songs and fans crowd concert venues and record stores, the question must be asked — what makes a Kpop girl group stand out?

Is it a catchy song? A pretty face? A killer choreography? Maybe a great vocal? How about a variety star? The problem with that question is, well, the answer could be anything. Girls’ Generation slayed with a cute tune and some skinny jeans, while EXID became relevant with a fancam, of all things. Considering these facts, we should probably revise our question — what sustains a Kpop girl group? What builds a fan base, and keeps them interesting comeback after comeback? And there’s only one answer to this question: everything.

That’s right — dynamic is the true key to a girl group’s success. Every member brings something, whether it be talent, personality, or visuals, to make the group well-rounded and likeable across the board. Without it, the group will undoubtedly flop after that one catchy song falls off the charts. The importance of group dynamic seems to be a constant over the years, from legends like Girls’ Generation to new trends like TWICE. Let’s take a look at how dynamics have affected groups, both in success and failure, over the years.

Girls’ Generation making their debut with “Into the New World” (Image Credit: AllKpop)

From August 5th, 2007, it was clear that Kpop had a dynamic rookie monster in its hands — 9-member Girls’ Generation, who would, a few years later, become Kpop’s most powerful group, transcending music and permeating into Asian culture itself. But it wasn’t just good looks or “Gee” that made them the girl group they’ve become. The group was designed to succeed, with four strong vocalists (Taeyeon, Jessica, Seohyun, Tiffany) all with varying ranges, specialties and tonalities, four talented dancers (Yuri, Sooyoung, Hyoyeon, Yoona), an in-between who specializes in aegyo (Sunny), variety talents (Hyoyeon, Sooyoung, Sunny), and mind-blowing visuals (Yoona, Taeyeon).

The group could handle almost any song, from using lollipops on stage in “Kissing You” to rocking caps and ripped jeans in “I Got a Boy,” because of the wide display of talent and ability. Members of the public were bound to be interested in one way or another — if you didn’t like their song, you might have liked the intense choreography, Yoona’s latest CF or Sooyoung’s recent variety appearance. The group had a monopoly on what Kpop was all about: charm. Not just talent, but charm — the ability to captivate an audience through whatever means available. And that charm didn’t leave with Jessica in 2014. The group was not only so established, but also strong enough with the mix of personalities, vocals, and dance that it could carry on without one of its central members just as successfully as it had before. SNSD is the poster child of group dynamics, gathering both public recognition and a gigantic fan base in the 8.5 years since that fateful August.

2NE1 reintroduce themselves at the 2015 MAMA Awards

Fast forward to 2009, and you get a slightly different story. 2NE1 debuted to immediate success, with all-around talents from CL and Minzy, vocals and long legs (they were so notable that they seem to serve as a charm of their own) from Bom, and visuals from Dara. Despite horrible management after 2012, the group was able to make its notable share of accomplishments through a well-rounded display of talent, as well as a ton of personality through 2NE1TV, one of Kpop’s most-watched reality shows.

You also have f(x), which is another dynamic masterpiece and consequential success, with vocals (Krystal, Luna), visuals (Krystal, Victoria, Sulli), and rap (Amber, occasionally Sulli). The group has repeatedly received heat, however, for Krystal’s seemingly cold personality, and Sulli’s alleged lack of professionalism. Seven years in, f(x) has seen some loss in popularity as a result, losing “trend” status to newer groups like Girl's Day and AOA. It ultimately demonstrates that showing weakness in one of the many components of a girl group’s charm can significantly affect success. Following the same line of logic to 2010, Miss A can push Suzy’s charms all they want, but she alone can’t make 4-member Miss A one of Kpop’s legendary girl groups — a claim proven by their repeated hit-or-miss comebacks over the years. Despite the other member’s talents, they don’t make a dynamically full girl group in the public’s eyes, which hurts their album sales and chart rankings time after time.

If we keep going forward in Kpop history, the trend is continuously prevalent. Yeah, Hyeri can act herself to fame on Reply 1988, but Sojin’s vocals, combined with visuals from Minah and Yura and a newfound sexy concept, maintained interest in the group for years to come, ultimately making them one of Kpop’s biggest success stories. SPICA’s vocal-heavy lineup works well for the ear, but doesn’t do much for the rest of their appeal, which shows in their long hiatuses and lack of top 10 hits. Hani can “wi arae, wi wi arae” to her heart’s content for the fan camera, but it was ultimately great music, Solji’s vocals and the group’s unique variety color that gave them notoriety instead of disbandment.

TWICE: the ultimate package of Kpop charm (Image Credit: wowkeren.com)

As we dive head-first into a new year of Kpop, the same pattern unfolds before us, but even more noticeably than before. TWICE was designed almost exactly like Girls’ Generation (arguably better, depending on who you ask). You have one power vocal at the center (Jihyo, like Taeyeon) with two other strong singers (Jeongyeon and Nayeon, like Tiffany, Seohyun and Jessica), great dancers (Momo and Mina, like Hyoyeon, Sooyoung and Yuri), an in-between that knows how to put on a show (Sana, like Sunny), and a beautiful visual (Tzuyu, like Yoona). The slight differences actually make TWICE even stronger as a dynamic group, with versatile rappers (Dahyun and Chaeyoung) and multi-national members from both Taiwan (Tzuyu) and Japan (Momo, Sana, Mina). And the incredible dynamic in this group is bringing them incredible success — their debut song “Like OOH-AHH” lurks at the edges of real-time top 10 on Korean charts 5 months after release, and their mini-album, The Story Begins, has sold 55,000 copies, more than albums from more established groups like Red Velvet have ever sold.

GFriend in recent hit release, "Rough"

GFriend is another new girl group finding success, becoming the year’s first act to hit a perfect all-kill with their song “Rough.” But the difference between GFriend and TWICE is clear — TWICE is getting known for its wide variety of members, building a large fan base and public popularity in the process, while GFriend is getting popular off of a few slips on stage and a good song to follow. GFriend’s success is nothing to laugh at right now, considering that even Taeyeon came nowhere near climbing over them on the charts this past week, but their continued relevance is questionable. Without members being known to the public, will the world get bored of their musical color (which notably takes after Girls’ Generation’s iconic debut song) and look for a group with a more exciting dynamic (a group possibly like TWICE)? A seeming lack of dynamic endangers GFriend’s popularity in the same way that a strong dynamic ensures TWICE’s success.

So, if you ever had a slight inclination to, oh, I don’t know, build a Kpop girl group from scratch, be careful. Don’t pick just anybody — make a group that catches your attention with not just one gimmick set to expire in a comeback or two, but everything. In the world of Kpop, a girl group that defines a Generation, one that makes you think about them Twice, can sing into a microphone, dance under the lights, pose for a camera, laugh on screen, and much, much more.

Kushal Dev is an Indian-American writer based in New Jersey. He discovered K-Pop through friends and YouTube, and has been an avid follower of Korean entertainment for 4 years. He biases 2NE1, Girls' Generation, f(x), MAMAMOO and EXID.

Review: Winner Returns with ‘E,’ First of Four Albums in 2016

E opens with Taehyun crooning “Baby baby, I don’t like this night / I don’t wanna be alone.” And that feeling, that intense loneliness that begets an equally intense need, is an accurate description of the entire project. “Baby Baby,” one of two lead-singles written and produced by Taehyun (the other being “Sentimental”) sets the tone for the album as one of pleading. Pleading with the listener, with YG Entertainment, with themselves.

The music video matches the song, reminding the viewer that the life of an idol isn’t fulfilled by fame and fleeting relationships. The members of Winner, just like you and I, need love. And Winner’s seventeen-month exile seems to have affected them immensely. As Mino raps after the first refrain, “I’m curled up in a ball, I’m feeling smaller / The silence is louder than any noise in the world.”

At midnight on February 1 (KMT), Winner dropped E, their first mini album of four anticipated in 2016. (Don’t tell, but we managed to snag the album before its official release!) After a seventeen-month hiatus, a veritable lifetime in the world of Kpop, Winner’s return to the scene guarantees them some much-needed spotlight.

The footage we see at the beginning of the MV (Winner presenting the 2015 MAMA Award for Best New Artist after having produced no music in 2015), then, becomes a subtle critique, maybe, of the extended period they spent out of the spotlight. It’s no wonder they claimed to have written this new batch of songs “to help people release their stress and worries.” It seems obvious they had quite a lot to worry about on their own this past year. But hardship, more often than not, produces amazing art. And for my money, “Baby Baby” is the song that will have me coming back to this album again and again.

As a whole, the album is noticeably Taehyun-focused. That might indicate that future albums will focus on other members (but E + X + I + T does not add up to 5), or it might be a sign that Taehyun is taking over as the group’s lead producer of music. Either way, YG claims to be only releasing songs that were written and composed by members of Winner, and the five guys noted on their live show, “ENTRY NIGHT” that they had written over 100 songs in the last year and a half. Of those songs, we can expect about 20 to be released in 2016 alone. That’s good news for fans who desperately missed Winner in 2015.

The other obvious storyline with E is the release cycle that mimics and builds upon (if that’s even possible) the pioneering 2015 release cycle of fellow labelmates BIGBANG. There’s an easy parallel between each group releasing four mini albums that collectively spell a word. Where Winner goes further than BIGBANG, at least so far, is in the inclusion of even more music videos (three compared to BIGBANG’s two). This appears to be a YG strategy, as indicated on their website: “Unlike other music labels which usually produce one music video for an album title track, YG Entertainment expresses multiple songs in an album through music videos.” Is this YG’s own way of countering SM’s recent news? Potentially. It will be interesting to see who comes out on top at the end of the year.

“I’m Young,” the fourth song on the album, picks up where the MV for “Baby Baby” left off, with Taehyun traveling to visit his French-Canadian boo. It’s an emotionally overwrought music video, and one that completely overshadows the song. More important should be Nam Taehyun’s solo. The song is gorgeous, and Taehyun’s silky-smooth voice pairs easily with the soft keyboards. To the question of whether future X, I, and T albums will feature other members more heavily, Taehyun’s performance here suggests to me that he might be the consistent leader. It’s almost a shame that most of us will be talking about the music video which, aside from a funny line about ridiculous hair, was over-acted. Coupled with his duet with Mino on “I’m Pricked,” the pre-release single, it’s hard to deny that Taehyun has something special to offer. Let’s hope YG continues to explore his talents.

“Sentimental” is obviously the most playful song of the bunch on E. The loneliness is still present of course, in lyrics like “My tiny room is so wide today / For me to lie alone in.” But whereas “Baby Baby” and “I’m Young” were hopelessly bleak, “Sentimental” manages to have some fun. The MV is emo, but kind of hilariously so. There’s an awareness in the ridiculous nature of teen angst, here, which makes it palatable and even enticing. The art direction and cinematography (especially those top-down views) make this the best MV of the album by far.

As for the song, it has a refreshing pop-rock feel. You can tell it was composed with actual instruments in mind, a trait I find all too rarely in Kpop these days. The same can maybe be said for “Baby Baby” and even “Immature” to a slightly lesser extent. Overall, Winner might be the first Kpop group in a long time to understand and utilize the structure and instrumentation of a basic rock song. And I dig it.

@zstachniak

Zander Stachniak

Co-founder / Executive Editor

Zander Stachniak hails from South Carolina, the Show-Me-Your-Accent-and-I'll-Show-You-Mine State. He currently lives in Chicago where he writes about all things Kpop and dreams in spreadsheets. His bias is f(x).