Category: Video Analysis

In this video analysis, the main characteristics of “party” will be introduced and analyzed involving self-breakthrough, sexual exposures, social media influences and cultural interactions.

 

“Party” is a music video recorded by Girls’ Generation as the lead single for their fifth albumLion Heart on July 7,2015. This mv was shoot in Ko Samui, Tailand and shows beach scenes in which members have happy party time. And soon after the release, “party” gained almost all first prize in major music broadcasting including KBS‘s Music Bank, MBC‘s Show! Music Core, and SBS‘ Inkigayo.

 

The breakthrough is undoubtedly one of the crucial reasons for success. The “party” used a lot of elements of styling and scene setting that is seldom employed in traditional K-pop music videos. The genre of this song is oriented to Bubblegum pop or electropop. Lyrically, it showsgirls are calling for an exciting and long-lasting seaside party. Group members are wearing Bohemian tops, denim shorts and hair accessories that match with the holiday beach style. These elements contribute to depict a warm and active party atmosphere that is very fresh and attractive for audiences. In the highly competitive k-pop industry, it is not an easy job to always come up with creative and novel production to grab audiences’ attention.

 

Girls’ Generation have already established great market impact and fanbase at the time this mv is launched, which means that body exposure is no longer an essential strategy for them to attract audiences and increase popularity. however, from this music movie we can still see some trails of K-pop obsession with long legs. Although it is reasonable to wear swimsuit and clothes with some body exposure in beach scene setting, we should be aware that bare female legs are being used as marketing tool and branding technique to build enticing female body images and “impeccably executed” Korea female idols in K-pop (Epstein and Joo 2012, 14).The physical perfection increase the anxiety and dissatisfaction about body image among audiences and build a transnational imagination for Korean ‘beauty’ and ‘femininity’ for international audiences (Epstein and Joo 2012, 2).

 

It’s worth noting that this is the first time that Girls’ Generation appears in swimsuit in official mv shooting since their debuting. This first try is proved to be successful. Immediately after the preview is published, “Girls’ Generation Swimsuit” hit the real-time search list. This suggests that the strong presence of K-pop idols on social media like Twitter and Facebook has accelerated the promotion of Hallyu transnationally. Also with the deployment of K-pop fans, messages from famous idols including photos and videos become even more visible in international social media spaces and become a dynamic how K-pop stars enlarge their popularity and influence (Jung 2015,74).

 

Apart from domestic success, “party” also acquires mass views on YouTube as well as substantial digital downloads in overseas market. This attributes to the internationalized elements of styling, music production and choreography. “Party” use Korean and English mixing lyrics and this strategy can be used in cultural hybridization to improve the globalization of K-pop culture (Jin and Ryoo 2014, 128). Besides, as suggested by Otmazgin, people shared the same living experience or cultural immersions are more likely to resonate even with transnational identity (2016,2). The “party” mv depicts scenes where young girls dressed up, party and drinking lemon soju, mojito and tequila. Although some mv scenarios are well-rehearsed and never happens naturally in daily life, audiences feel familiar and cordial

when they see these similarities. This is very beneficial in closing the gap between K-pop idols and transnational fans and therefore, enhance the power of hallyu.

 

Bibliogapghy:

Epstein, Stephen, and Rachael M. Joo. “Multiple Exposures: Korean Bodies and the Transnational Imagination.” The Asia-Pacific Journal10, no. 33 (2012): 1-24.

Jin, Dal Yong, and Woongjae Ryoo. “Critical Interpretation of Hybrid K-Pop: The Global-Local Paradigm of English Mixing in Lyrics.” Popular Music and Society37, no. 2 (2012): 113-31.

Jung, Eun-Young. “New Wave Formations: K-Pop Idols, Social Media, and the Remaking of the Korean Wave.” In Haley 2.0: The Korean Wave in the Age of Social Media, edited by Sangjoon Lee and Abé Mark Nornes. 73-89. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2015.

Otmazgin, Nissim Kadosh. “A New Cultural Geography of East Asia: Imagining a ‘region’ through Popular Culture.” The Asia-Pacific Journal14, no. 7 (2016): 1-12.

The existing gender ideologies in Korean continues to influence manifestation of masculinity and femininity in the production of music videos, specifically in the shooting techniques utilized and corresponding choreography to the songs. Sexual objectification of female artists in music videos has been one of the “most overt ways that K-pop reinforces sexist attitudes” as Lin and Rudolf pointed out (2017:31). Common issues include gender disempowerment in aspects of music videos and songs, as well as performance of winsomeness known as “aegyo”, and the perpetuation of gender inequalities. Though the production of many girl group music videos is merely an act of conformity to the existing societal hegemony, the influence on youth about gender ideas should be considered. Girl’s Generation’s debut music video, “Into the New World”, possesses uniqueness in its representation of group members, music video shooting, as well as its lyrics by steering away from common gender disempowerment traps in production pointed out by many scholars, and offers an alternative for girl group music videos to convey positivity and femininity at the same time.

First of all, the representation of members in the music video has avoided “dollification”, a sexual fantasy of presenting females as non-threatening, submissive dolls tailored to the male viewers’ interests (Lin and Rudolf 2017: 31) by assigning members with individuality. At first sight, the members are each presented as individuals with different strivings for life, and they participate in a variety of activities, some of which may not necessarily be conventionally viewed as very feminine, such as repairing and flying a jet, and graffiti painting underground. Viewers follow through with their strivings, and their encounters with difficulties is accompanied by confidence and positivity, unlike other videos in which idols show clumsiness to perform hypergirlish femininity. Moreover, the video does not include a day-saving male figure which enables females to use “aegyo” as a way of asking for help or negotiating their imbalance of power within patriarchal environments, thus perpetuating gender inequalities (Puzar and Hong 2018: 5).

Secondly, the shooting of the video is derived from non-invasive angles without the use of multiple exposures, and the focus of the camera is mainly on expressions on the face, rather than parts of the body. Though Girl’s Generation’s many other videos include substantial leg-focused shots, which are argued to be evidence of K-pop’s increasing investment in “corporeal qualities” through images of exposed flesh (Epstein and Joo 2012: 4), “Into the New World” centers around non-sexually appealing body movements and cheerful facial expressions.

The lyrics of “Into the New World” is also unique in its composition because it does not conform to gender disempowerment like many other songs. In their analysis of girl group songs, Epstein and Turnbull highlighted the overt appeals to a male listener with the excessive use of oppa, a way of referring to an older male by females, as well as a perpetual theme of desiring male attention (2014: 319-21). They argue that success of similar songs contributes to the increased sexualization of female idols through lyric compositions (2014: 331), which has potential negative influence on gender beliefs among younger consumers (Lin and Rudolf 2017: 29). However, “Into the New World” has a lyric composition in which no older male figure is referred to, and the theme pf positivity and support conveyed, though including the word love many times, extends beyond romantic relationships between a petty, submissive female and the dominant, strong male she desires.

“Into the New World” has significance in offering an alternative way of music video production because it does not objectify nor disempower females and shows how positivity and femininity can be healthily portrayed.

Bibliography

• Epstein, Stephen and Rachel M. Joo. “Multiple Exposures: Korean Bodies and the Transnational Imagination.” The Asia Pacific Journal, no.1 (2012): 1-24

  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-018-9327-3

• Epstein, Stephen and James Turnbull. “Girl’s Generation? Gender, (Dis)Empowerment, and K-pop.” In The Korean Popular Culture Reader, edited by Kyung Hyun Kim and Youngmin Choe. 315-36.Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2014
• Lin, Xi and Robert Rudolf. “Does K-pop Reinforce Gender Inequalities? Empirical Evidence  from  a  New Data Set.” Asian Women, no.4 (2017): 27-54
• Puzar, Aljosa and Yewon Hong. “Korean Cuties: Understanding Performed Winsomeness (Aegyo) in South Korea.” The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, (2018): 1-17

  http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rtap20

Video Analysis

“I Got A Boy” MV creates scenarios of girls’ talking about their feelings and moods after evolved in romantic relationships. Unlike traditional female idols’ MV which incorporating feminineness, this one introduces assertive and independent views in multiple ways. I argue this MV influences people’s sexual attitudes including gender egalitarian towards a positive way, especially women’s.

The most outstanding attribution is the lyrics. The song is composited of mixed Korean and English. In Korean parts, one phrase is “I am angry because my man does not see me as a girl” in direct translation. Relating to the scenes, idols dress in street styles which subverting the sweet image, thus “her man” has the concept of “not girl”. Lin Xi and Robert Rudolf explains clothing-style prejudices, “sexual suggestiveness often balanced with an innocent, fragile, and childlike Lolita concept that was designed mainly to satisfy ajeossi (middle-aged men’s) fantasies” (2017: 31). Criticizing females due to violation of appearance stereotype is definitely discriminational behaviour, and this is something women should be angry about. Putting forward this idea by lyrics advocates women that they have rights to dress as they like, and makes them more assertive about themselves. In English parts, my argument is supported by “I got a boy”, which is the constant refrain and also the title of the song. It states relationship from women’s self-perspective, blowing against the objectification of women. Moreover, comparing to Korean expression “oppa” while calling a slightly oder male who female interested in, the English lyrics addresses independence. Although “oppa” means “elder brother of a female” literally, Korea has “age-based hierarchy, the term by definition subordinates the females” (Kim and Choe 2014: 319). To persuade gender equality, these kinds of words should be decreased to a minimized level. Also, case study examined in Phil Benson’s article indicated “asian language work projected softer, more feminine and less sexually assertive identities” (2013: 28). Thus, replacing these Korean words by less sexism-ambiguous English words, has subtle influence on audiences’ attitudes towards gender egalitarian.

Secondly, the combination of appearances and performances is another reinforcement for my argument. I want to propose one more point in addition to idols’ appearances. There are multiple scenes’ stylings using full-legged tattoos which creates rebelling images. With Hyoyeon’s aggressive behaviours appeared in 4:41 in the MV united together, idols boldly challenged the traditional gender roles which “women wherefore likely to be presented as weak, dependent, submissive, and nurturing” (Lin and Rudolf: 30). It is important to blur the boundaries between sexual categorization in order to overcome the stereotypes.

Thirdly, the practice of interspersing plots among dances supports my argument. There are few plots that idols’ body gestures and performances have distinguishable differences from other scenarios. In these plots, the main background is pink, and idols’ body gestures show a tendency towards “Aegyo” which is “tantrum-like movements” and “appropriation of pet animal behaviours” (Puzar and Hong 2018: 1). It is just the opposite way of other scenes! Combining with the lyrics, this contradictory started to make sense. These plots portray girls in the relationships while they suppress their true identities and interests.  Once lyrics point out the conflict “Here comes trouble”, idols suddenly style totally differently, their face expressions appear to be indeed and joyful, their body gestures become confident and nature. The practice is inspiring women to express their true identities. Suppression in order to cater to gender roles would not earn true happiness. It is an enhancement of developing assertive sexual attitudes for women.

In conclusion, with multiple approaches, SNSD successfully created this MV for the battle against gender inequality. My argument is supported by several perspectives including filming practices, idols’ appearances and mainly lyrics. Since gender inequality is still widespread in Asian countries, it is necessary to increase engagement of ideals which persuading gender equality in future Kpop industries because music has became a mass communication and has great influence on sexual attitudes.

Wenhui Fu

 

Bibliography:

Lin, Xi and Robert Rudolf. “Does K-pop Reinforce Gender Inequalities? Empirical Evidence from a New Data Set.” Asian Women 33, no. 4 (2017): 27-54.

Stephen, Epstein and James Turnbull. “Girls’  Generation? Gender, (Dis)Empowerment, and K-pop.” in The Korean Popular Culture Readers, edited by Youngmin Choe and Kyung Hyun Kim. 314-36. Durham: Duke University Press, 2014.

Phil, Benson. “English and identity in East Asian popular music.” Popular Music 32, no. 1 (2013):  22-33.

Hong, Yewon and Aljosa Puzar. “Korean Cuties: Understanding Performed Winsomeness (Aegyo) in South Korea.” The Asia Pacific Journal  of Anthropology 18, no. 1 (2018): 1-17.

Girls’ Generation’s ‘Lion Heart’ was published by SM Entertainment in 2015. This song was written by many producers from different countries, including Kenzie from SM Entertainment and The Underdogs who are from the US. The retro style of this music video had attracted many audiences. In the music video, members of Girls’ Generation fall in love with a man who wears a lion headgear, and they want to get his heart. Yet at the end of the video, they find that the man is dating with many different girls, so they all break up with him immediately. Girls Generation has been famous and successful for many years not only because they have beautiful faces, but also because they absorb cultures from other country and make K-pop more acceptable to the world.

We can see that Korean pop music is more and more globalized nowadays. Every elements of the video are retro style, including their clothes, makeup, choreography, and the story. It can remind audiences of the style of the American back to 1960s. Then, when the American audiences or audiences from countries which were influenced by the American culture watch this video, they might like it because audiences can get their cultural identity. Once Girls’ Generation opens the foreign market, they can perform to more people and then become more famous. In addition, the English lyric in this song is another representation of globalization of K-pop. Jin and Ryoo mentioned that although Americanization did not equal to globalization, adding English to songs could make the song more understandable to foreign observers because English is a globalized language (Jin and Ryoo 2014, 115). In my opinion, English lyrics in K-pop music videos are always simple and the word is usually used in our daily life. It is easier for audiences in many different countries to understand the meaning of songs, and to learn and to spread the song compared to only Korean lyrics in songs.

‘Lion Heart’s music video is interesting and understandable. The video is divided into chapters, and it tells a complete story. It is more likely to attract audiences and make them watch the video from the beginning to the end. The music video is one of the most important elements of K-pop. Because media is well developed now, people can usually watch music videos in the media. Ono and Kwon mentioned in their paper that YouTube is the best friend of K-pop because K-pop focuses on performance and YouTube is the way to visualize the music (Ono and Kwon 2013, 208). Then the music video of ‘Lion Heart’ takes good advantage of media like YouTube to tell the story about the ‘Lion Heart’ and to spread their music.

The story in the music video delivers a positive attitude about women in love. In the story, girls pursue their love bravely and when they find the man they love is a playboy, they leave him without hesitation. In some other K-pop music video, women need to present their sexy shapes to please men and get their love, which shows a problematic attitude. Then there is the possibility that teenagers who watch that video would form an inappropriate value for women. In Kistler and Lee’s paper, they mentioned that male college students were likely to objectify women and form a stereotype if they watch music videos including sexual content in a strong way (Kistler and Lee 2009, 67). Therefore, I think the music video of ‘Lion Heart’ delivers a correct and positive attitude toward women.

In conclusion, the music video of ‘Lion Heart’ is a successful video because it combines American retro style to K-pop and the story is not only attractive but also present a correct attitude to women.

 

 

Bibliography

Jin, Dal Yong and Woongjae Ryoo. “Critical Interpretation of Hybrid K-Pop: The Global-Local Paradigm of English Mixing in Lyrics, Popular Music and Society”, 37 no.2 (2014): 113-131.

Kistler, Michelle E. and Moon J. Lee. “Does Exposure to Sexual Hip-Hop Music Videos Influence the Sexual Attitudes of College Students?” Mass Communication and Society 13, no. 1 (2009;2010;): 67-86.

Ono, Kent A. and Kwon, Jungmin. The Korean Wave:YouTube as K-pop interlocutor. London: Routledge Taylor&Francis Group, 2013.

 

Girls generation has been a very successful girl group among the K-pop groups following Hallyu’s grow and expansion in the worldwide. Their songs and works became especially popular and was a pioneer in leading the K-pop’s direction. One of their famous song “Mr.Mr.” has bring the audience a whole new concept through style switching and showing a strong independent women image. They had gained acceptance and were viewed as role models which allowed more opportunities to reach to more fans and expand their market.

One of the factors people are attracted to Hallyu is because the music videos since they are storytelling and interesting. K-pop has narrowed music videos to a specific style and encourage public watching by visual and auditory stimulation, a problem is that female is objectified and there is an idealized view of beauty (Unger2015:25). In this particular music video “Mr.Mr.”, it breaks the traditional woman image and roles which is pretty, cute or sexy. The girls had dressed in men-like suits with ties, belt and boots when dancing which is different comparing to the other girl groups. This is a fresh new appearance indicate and redefined that women can be powerful, independent and capable without showing their skin.The music video had attracted audiences from different level with fascinating content and settings to refreshing dressing styles and eye-catching choreography. First of all, the music video had well used different colors included the cloth color contrast of pink and black and the whole black and white screen color change in order to express the theme. The nurse suit was in pink to represent love and cure, the black suits during the dance break shows they want the “Mr.” become more brave and tough. Additionally, they also used several props to help deliver their message. For example, candles, needles, stethoscope, diamond heart and apple.

Without social media platforms impacts such as YouTube spreading of the worksof girl’s generation, there is a limit for them to communicate and interact with their fans internationally (Jung 2015:74). In their live performance of the song “Mr.Mr.”, they had wear different kind of suits and the choreography was well designed for the members. Male dancers were dancing along and there was constant shifting formation and a dance break which is fast, energetic but complicated moves. The signature moves in the song was a hand movement, it is repeated throughout the song and was impressive. The group choreography and changes of position provides pleasure sensory feedback for audiences, this is an important factor in K-pop. Girl’s generation as a group had showed Korean-ness of K-pop, industries provide music not only consider about the sounds but about the whole image with singers’ presence (Lee 2006:132). Performing as a group is one of the typical characteristic in K-pop due to the ability to attract more fans and combine the different members’ strengths together. Furthermore, there were combination of English sentences and words in the song which create trends ofcultural hybridization and globalization (Jin and Ryoo 2014:116). There were several usage of English such as title “Mr.Mr” was repeated throughout the video. Also lines such as “let’s go”, “bad boy” and “rock this world”. This has built a chance for them to connect with international fans and it reinforces people to memorize the simple words.

In conclusion, “Mr.Mr.” brought a distinct value that woman should have, Girls generation lead the K-pop world by adding new elements which are modernized culturally and ideologically. With their energetic and motivating image, they encourage more and more women to become independent and change the outdated judges of women. They are contributing their influence to change the society’s value and perspective to become better. As a result, this explains why they had lured fans from different gender and all over the world.

 

 

Bibliography

 

Jin, Dal Yong and Woongjae Ryoo. “Critical Interpretation of Hybrid K-Pop: The   Global-Local Paradigm of English Mixing in Lyrics.” Popular Music and Society 37, no. 2 (2014): 113-131.

Jung, Eun-Young. “New Wave Formations: K-Pop Idols, Social Media, and the Remaking of the Korean Wave.” In Hallyu 2.0,edited by Lee, Sangjoon, Nornes, Abé Markus.73. Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2015.

Lee, Hee-Eun. “Seeking the ‘others’ within us”. In mediasia: Global mediation in and out of context, edited by Todd Joseph, Miles Holden and Timothy J. Scrase. London: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2006.

Unger, Michael A. “The Aporia of Presentation: Deconstructing the Genre of K-Pop. Girl Group Music Videos in South Korea: The Aporia of Presentation.” Journal of Popular Music Studies 27, no. 1 (2015): 25-47.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aijing

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJYGddE0vHc

 

 

“You Think” is popular rhythmic dance music. The lyrics express the heart of a woman who is brave and confident to denounce her ex-boyfriend who spreads rumors after breaking up. In the MV, you can not only enjoy the excellent singing skills of Girls’ Generation but also can be satisfied with the gorgeous improvisation and energetic performance. I argue that this MV is deep and worthy of research and analysis, and I will analyze it from the following perspectives.

Firstly, this MV uses a large number of repeated English lyrics. Due to the success of cultural hybridity in contemporary K-pop music, K-pop idols nowadays are more encouraged to integrate English and other foreign cultures into their music products, so both domestic audiences and international audiences can enjoy K-pop music together (Jin and Ryoo 2012, 128). Therefore, the communication between contemporary Korean and global audiences is presented in a mixture of English lyrics in K-Pop (Lee 2004, 430). In the MV of “You Think”, the English lyrics “You think ya real cool, boy you ain’t cooler than me, nah” repeatedly appears in the chorus part. Through these repeated repetitions over and over again, Girls’ Generation firmly told the audience that the means of revenging the ex-boyfriend are more ruthless than his affair. Moreover, because these lyrics are in English, Girls’ Generation can convey the spirit of women’s courage and self-confidence to the audiences all around the world, not just the local audiences in Korea. I think this is one of the reasons why Girls’ Generation can obtain so many fans around the world.

Secondly, this MV uses a lot of sexualized element and content. Contemporary K-pop begins to use sexualized content and strongly emphasizes on the sexy appearance of idols. In mainstream K-pop girl idols’ images, music videos, and live performances, revealing costumes and suggestive dances are full of sexual innuendo (Lin and Rudolf 2017, 28). In the MV of “You Think”,“through the ways that emcee frame performances and the ways the camera draws attention to sexualized body parts”(Saeji 2013, 329)，Girls’ Generation fully show their voluptuous figure and graceful dance. In the MV, all members wear tight-fitting vests, ultra-shorts and fishnet stocks. Moreover, they are constantly twisting and using M-leg movements. These hot sexual elements firmly grasp the eyes of the audience. However, they do not just rely on suggestive dances to attract attention. They enjoy dancing. Through diverse movements, their dance composition is full of energy and enthusiasm. That is the reason why I think Girls’ Generation is much better than other girl groups.

Last but not least, the perfect set up of the dance scene and the excellent cinematography fully show the charm of the girls and the theme that the MV wants to express. The MV of “You Think” is full of signs of women’s heartbreak. The LED decoration on the wall of the color room is a sharp knife inserted in the rose, and the metal apple can be understood as the disappearance of the girl’s love for her ex-boyfriend. In the last scene of the color room, the other decorations in the room, including the mirror, are disappeared, and only one car is left, which means that because of hatred, the girl finally came to the opposite of humanity. The iron window, the black tights and the metal zippers on the clothes in the last scene also indicate that the girl was finally put in prison. This MV has paid great attention to the processing and connection of details, and the cinematography is very remarkable.

In general, I love this MV. The confidence and passion that the girls exude in the MV attract me genuinely, and I find myself entirely into the “cool” world of Girls’ Generation. I believe that “You Think” is one of the best MVs of Girls’ Generation so far.

 

 

 

Word count: 653

 

Bibliography

 

Jin, Dal Yong, and Woongjae Ryoo. “Critical Interpretation of Hybrid K-Pop: The Global-Local Paradigm of English Mixing in Lyrics. ” Popular Music and Society37, no. 2 (2012): 113-31.

 

Lee, Jamie Shinhee. “Linguistic Hybridization in K-Pop: Discourse of Self-Assertion and Resistance. ” World Englishes, no.3 (2004): 429–450.

 

Lin, Xi, and Robert Rudolf. “Does K-pop Reinforce Gender Inequalities? Empirical Evidence from a New Data Set. ” Asian Women, no.4(2017): 27-54.

 

Saeji, C.T. “Juvenile protection and sexual objectification: Analysis of the performance frame in Korean music television broadcasts. ” Acta Koreana, no.2 (2013): 329–365.

 

Video Analysis:

<Oh!>

It is widely known that the management companies target different market segments with different idol groups, according to the founder of the SM entertainment, Lee Soo-man mentions that the main target segments of the Girls Generation are the male audiences in their 30s and 40s. According to the research conducted by Puzar, it is more likely for a younger female to gain a favorable impression from the elders or superior if they perform “Aegyo” well (Puzar and Hong 2018, 10). In order to better capture the target audiences which is the mid-age males, many of the SNSD’s choreographic videos, “oh!”, for example, demonstrated a large degree of “Aegyo” in their performances, settings, and lyrics.

The characteristics of “Aegyo” in performances are body movements, facial expression or behavior that resembles the clumsiness, vulnerability, and cuteness of young children or a pet animal, that gives the receivers an impression of innocent, lovable, vulnerable and approachable (Puzar and Hong 2018, 2). The main identifier of “Aegyo” in performance includes but not limited to cutified tantrum related movements, fist-waving, vertical clapping, winking, clumsiness, ignorance, raising the center of the eyebrow and imitating the facial expression of the pet animals (Puzar and Hong 2018, 2). In the music video “oh!”, there are more than twenty counts of Aegyo-related performances. The most prominent and significant ones start at the beginning of the video, where the performers, acting as college cheerleaders, gathered in a room chatting and having fun but not studying; and one of the performer’s clumsy mistakes at 1:19 of the video when they were practicing cheerleading. Moreover, “Aegyo-related” body movements such as fist-waving at 23s, winking at 36s, tantrum related behavior at 1:07 and 1:13, and fake crying at 2:07 has been repeated and performed throughout the whole video.

The setting of the video, including the choices of the items shown, the main color theme and the costume, have all contributed to further demonstrate the winsomeness of the girls. The main colors of the video are a combination of bright colors such as pink, purple and tiffany blue. In Asian culture, these colors are all associated with young, innocent, energetic feminity. Moreover, a football helmet and a football have appeared throughout the whole video, girls were kissing and touching the helmet which shows their admiration for masculinity and demonstrated their desire to receive protection from the men. The costume that shows plenty of legs and skins distinct the more seductive and sexualized “Aegyo” performed in the video from the “Aegyo” of the innocent young children and demonstrates hyper-feminity of the performer.

The lyrics in the choreographic video “oh!”, further performs “Aegyoness” by submissively putting themselves in a subordinate position to male. From analyzing the translated version of the lyrics, many of the lyrics suggest that it is the girls “first-time” to talk to the boys like that. Also, most of the lyrics show that the girls are hoping the boys to look at them and implies that the girls do their hair and wears makeup for the male’s attention. Interestingly, the attention-seeking behavior can also be found in infants and young children. Furthermore, a line of lyrics says that: “…don’t make fun of me, I’m just saying some stupid things again,” which implies that the girls admit they are been stupid and childish in front of their Oppa.

It is widely argued that the performance of “Aegyo” detriments the power of female by positioning female in a subordinate position to male. However, under the cultural context of Korea, it is widely accepted, or demanded that the girls to perform “Aegyo” and the research of Puzar indicates that female is more likely to succeed in both their private life and career if they can perform “Aegyo” well (Puzar and Hong 2018, 13). Therefore, Girls generation’s thorough performance of “Aegyo” in all components of their choreographic did help them to acquire a large group of mid-age male fans.

 

Bibliography:

Puzar, Aljosa, and Yuwon Hong. “Korean Cuties: Understanding Performed Winsomeness (Aegyo) in South Korea.” The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology (2018): 1-17. doi:10.1080/14442213.2018.1477826.

Puzar, Aljosa. “Asian Dolls and the Westernized Gaze: Notes on the Female Dollification in South Korea.” Asian Women27, no.2 (2011): 81-111

Lin, Xi, and Robert Rudolf. “Does K-pop Reinforce Gender Inequalities? Empirical Evidence from a New Data Set.” Asian Women33, no.4 (2017): 27-54

Epstein, Stephen, and James Turnbull. “Girls’ Generation? Gender, (Dis)Empowerment, and K-Pop.” In The Korean Popular Culture Reader, edited by Kyung Hyun Kim and Youngmin Choe. 315-36. Durham: Duke University Press, 2014.