So, as you can gather from the title, I got thoughts. Don’t read if it bothers you or if you're here only to stir shit up.
First thing first, DISCLAIMER: I love ATEEZ and I think GH5 is a solid album. I really, really like BAD as a TT, the instrumental is crazy good, the MV is simply great and I love Chase Infinity's presence in it, she did a wonderful job in portraying Sopro and she deserves all the praises. Also, I’m streaming like crazy and doing whatever else possible to ensure they win all there’s to win this round too, because they really deserve it.
All of this to say that what I’m about to put down doesn’t come from a place of hatred or rejection or whatever else. It's just me going through this CB coming from my own life experiences, meaning that this is what the CB stirred in me as a single individual, so consider this one as a sort of personal confession, not me pretending to state some kind of truth.
Then, if you’re still interested, here we go.
There are two things in this CB that do not sit extremely well with me.
The first is related to the choice of making Sopro, the hyper-emotional, controlling, crazy monster, a she. It’s at the core of western culture and of patriarchy to develop and thrive on the dichotomy between two semantic fields that aggregate concepts like male, rationality and logic, truth, good on one hand and female, irrationality and hyper-sensitivity, craziness, falsity, evil on the other. If we talk philosophy (since I got a degree in it) it starts from ancient Greece and then passes through Christianity to arrive up to today, but you can see it in the whole western culture, be it literature, art, religion and so on.
When they made it obvious that the shape changing monster that makes you crazy with emotions was a she, that is the first thing that popped in my mind. I loved the fact that Sopro was constantly changing gender in the MV Poster, but then the MV Trailer came out and it was clear that at the end of the day Sopro was a she, which was then confirmed both by the MV itself and by the diaries, where the she pronoun is the only one used for them. So yeah, I’m not a fan of this choice if I have to be honest, for my tastes it really hits too close to patriarchy and to the idea that if there is a ‘she’, then she’s obviously bad and ofc it’s all her fault if a man loses his rationality and does questionable things because of it.
I honestly really hope that the loretinys that theorized that Sopro is not actually the enemy but the one that'll wake our boys up from whatever illusion / dream the whole Golden Hour era is are right. It'd mean that all that I've just said is utter bullshit and I'd love to be proved wrong about this.
Anyway. The second thing that made me a bit uncomfortable is about the lyrics. Not for all the songs, only for BAD and MAMACITA, but I find that in some instances they feel really objectifying, so, once again, to me they smell like patriarchy and all of the above.
Here what I'm referring to (a lot of this is coming from a conversation i had with some moots on discord, so they're not only mine, but also @minuscle-tea points):
- Seonghwa’s line ‘Curves along her body / Got the people calling it Photoshop’, that, in my perception, implies both that there’s a standard for women’s beauty and that it’s a physical one;
- San’s ‘I feel like if we go Latina like, like’ …like what? please explain, becasue it sounds bad (no pun intended);
- Mingi’s line ‘Bella figura, got that peso’ (‘A beautiful figure, got that money’), where the only things he notices about her is her body and her money (and you all know I’m Mingi biased and that I'd go to war for him, even if I’m a pacifist at core, but how about no);
- Hongjoong’s line ‘Caught in her web, she a spidey’, ‘cause in my opinion it fits right into that tradition that associates women with deceitful and sly beasts who always try to entrap the poor good men (see my first ramble above);
- ofc the chorus and that ‘she’s so bad’ repeated endlessly, because, again, see above;
- MAMACITA’s chorus line ‘Ven aquí, bella, ven aquí, bella’ (‘Come here, beautiful, come here, beautiful’) that to me, personally, has really catcalling vibes.
Of course the intention is relevant and I really, really don’t think it was in their intention to play into patriarchy or giving it a nod. I’m going to say it again, this is what doesn’t sit well with me because I come from some life experiences that made me particularly geared to feel uncomfortable about this kind of stuff, but it doesn’t mean that this was also their intention, those two things are not the same.
Also, we have to keep in mind something that @peatbogbody very rightly pointed out in that same conversation, namely that they’re singing for us, the fans, so for people who, in some form and degree or another, have a (parasocial) relationship with them. This means that in a way consent is implied when they use that kind of imaginary and language, as well as it’s implied the fact that the listeners find it comfortable and sexy. I’m not exactly a fan of the fact that it's kind of assumed that everyone would be okay with it (‘cause I wouldn’t), but, I also think that I'm a minority in this, so, once again, the problem is within me and that doesn't automatically mean that the album is problematic per se.
Also, we have to keep in mind that ATEEZ performances are often drag / camp, so they might have intentionally parodied the stereotypes typical of western patriarchal culture regarding attraction, lust and love. In a way this thought really makes it better for me, but also, as @minuscle-tea said in our conversation, it could have been intentionally camp and over the top while still being fun even without all of the above so yeah, there's that. I guess this point for me will always remain a 'we will never know'.
Also, we could say that the fans (me included, 'cause I'm not a saint) have the habit of objectifying them too. Not always, but often enough. Does this make it better? Does it makes it feel like we're even? Do two minus result in a plus in this case? I honestly don't know. Maybe the difference is that they don't know who I am and what I write, because I don't go telling it to them on their socials or to their faces, but it sounds really hypocritical of me, so I'll go with a maybe. Maybe it makes it better because the whole album is about lust, and lust always bring with itself a little bit of objectification.
So, what to say… it's art, and for it to be good it doesn't need to make me feel comfortable or to cater to my tastes, and this means that I like the album anyway and, despite all I've just said, I really love BAD, so I'm sure that as soon as I'll forget about the meaning of the lyrics I'll enjoy GH5 a lot more. It doesn't erase the fact that I lived these first days of CB with a little less ease than the last one, but it’s okay, though, because that has nothing to do with the quality of the album itself. I guess I just needed to let it all out.
I just always think: Ateez are weirdos, right? They can be losers, they can be too loud and annoying, some can be know it alls or throw jabs at each other. A few of them might be ND and not always have the ‘correct’ reactions right away or know how to say the right thing immediately.
Yet, we love them despite their flaws and often even because of them. We give them a lot of grace because we look at them with so much tenderness.
In his recent live from Paris Mingi got deeply offended about someone asking him if he will eat ice cream. But, right after that someone asked about more Fix Off songs and after saying he is always preparing new songs, while decidedly shaking his head as he was saying it (?), he said something like ‚i‘m not sure my plans with fix off… i can try another chapter?‘
I am curious about whether you have thoughts on this and what you think it might mean for his future projects but also for how he might reflect on the songs he put out so far.
(Fully disclosure I am also sending this ask to Thirst, so I can maybe get an opinion from two of my favourite Mingi ponderers)
So, the first time I watched the live I was focused on his hands because you all know by now that I’m a thirsty freak and I was actually timestamping the moments I needed to gif for this set, so I noticed something was let’s say at least strange, but then I lost myself into editing and I didn’t think about it again.
Now I finally have the perfect excuse to do it, so thank you Soul. 💜
(also, I’d love to read what @thirstkanaphan has to say about this tbh, so great idea asking them too!)
Under the cut my usual ramblings for who’s interested in my opinion.
TLDR: no more Fix Off projects in the future, but something else, at least imho.
Let’s start with saying the obvious but still relevant stuff:
- he was in Paris during a heatwave, so he was neither comfortable nor relaxed, as we all are when intense heat hits us;
- he was forcing himself to speak english instead of korean, so, even if he greatly improved with it, he was, of course, really distant from being able to fully express himself about anything.
That said, the more interesting part of it, for me, is not the spoken words, but the non-verbal one, so let’s talk facts for a start. Here’s the 50 secs cut that interests us and after it I’m going to narrate what I see.
He spent most of the live leaning toward the camera, his forearms resting on his knees and that’s a sign of someone being open to whoever is talking with them. He’s in that stance even for the ice cream question (that i inclided to give a reference for comparison). Sure, he’s offended by the mere idea of it, but he’s still leaning towards the fans, looking at them, available, in a sense. Then comes the question about his project and he suddenly changes stance.
Quoting from the video, both the verbal and non-verbal expression:
“Do you prepare for the FIXOFF project?”
At the question he immediately moves away from the camera, leaning back, he nods for just half a sec, then he starts shaking his head in denial (in the same way he did when saying “I don’t eat ice cream”, maybe even in a more emphasised way, and for way longer) and he puts his whole (long) arms between himself and the fans, stretching them in front of himself.
“So always I prepare most so many songs…”
From here on he's not even looking at the camera anymore, he’s looking to his right and downwards.
“...but I’m not sure my plan FIXOFF…”
At this point he stops shaking his head in denial, another little nod, then he pauses, sighs, and then he moves back to his previous stance, he leans forward again, forearms again on his knees.
“I can try that so, another chapter, maybe.”
Still looking to his down-right, he starts shaking his head again, it’s only at the "maybe" that he starts facing his fans again, so when he deems the topic closed (since he changes it just after it), but he does it while still shaking his head, just vaguely nodding only at the very end.
It’s so damn interesting.
So, first thing first: Iìm not an expert nor do I have a psychology degree, I just work with teenagers every day, so I’m used to read what they say without actually saying it, but that doesn’t mean anything, so as per usual take this little rant as rpf, since I don’t know what Mingi thinks or feels, I’m just going with the vibes.
Then. To me it’s clear from the start that he doesn’t really want to answer the question, I mean, as a first reaction he moves away from it and puts a literal barrier between himself and the camera (so metaphorically the question) and it’s so fucking interesting, because he chose to read the question aloud himself. He could have ignored it, but he didn’t, so he didn’t really want to talk about it, but also he did. He's obviously conflicted about the whole topic and about what to say.
His immediate answer, the more primal one, is imho the denial coming from his head shaking. He doesn’t plan to release another Fix Off album. His body (so his emotions) knows it even when his mind is still in doubt. I’ll try to explain what I mean with this.
When someone looks down and to the right when talking to someone else, often it means that they’re also, at the same time, talking to themselves in their head. It’s a really vulnerable gesture and it usually is the typical attitude of who is sorting through their own feelings (so it relates to emotions, not to rationality), so of who's busy not recalling memories or reasoning over something, but trying to understand how something feels to them, checking with the body to find physical clues to catch up on it.
To me what his non-verbal expression means is that he’s questioning himself about what to say and how to say it, in part because he’s still not sure himself in his rational mind (even if his body, so his emotional part, has already spoken for himself, shaking its head), and in part because, you know, he’s an idol, so he has to ponder how to say stuff.
He considers it (I mean realeasing another Fix Off album), I think he considers it for the fans, you can see it the moment he nods again while saying that he can try to do it, but the whole answers end with him shaking his head again before giving a tiny little nod, so no, not really, he'll consider it, for the fans, but he's not going to.
What does this mean? Fuck me if I know it, but if I have to make a prediction, here it is.
He’s a really business savvy person, so deep inside himself I think he already realised he has to get over the Fix Off projects, because he has to start launching his solo career (if he wants one, and I assume he does), since enlistment is nearer and nearer, meaning he needs to concentrate on that instead of keeping playing around with music for his own enjoyment.
It’s something he seems to know on an emotional and/or subcoscious level, but that he has still to fully process on a rational one. Or, in alternative, it could be something he has already decided on, but that he doesn’t feel ready to disclose to his fans (who are really attached to the whole Fix Off projects shebang, myself included), yet he felt the need to prepare them for it, in a way. To avoid the fan's disappointment in the future maybe.
So, my prediction is that we will not have another Fix Off album, we’ll have something different, ‘cause he’s changing once again his course (in a really Mingi style, if I have to say it, ‘cause, you know, the time is now). I honeslty cannot wait to see what he'll do, 'cause he's a really fascinating one.
ah, this was so interesting, thank you so much! I didn’t observe his body language in such detail, I just noticed the head shaking and leaning back. So reading your analysis was very interesting and I agree with what you got out of it.
I have a few very unorganized and probably not at all interesting and way too long additional thoughts:
First: I always wonder how Mingi decides what he will read in his chat. Full disclosure I don’t have Toqtok, so I have never seen what his chat actually looks like but I imagine it is full of questions and comments and he can pick what he reads. But the stuff he picks sometimes makes me think ‘Wow, Mingtis don’t go easy on Mingi!’ until I remember he is the one who chooses to read these comments out loud!
In a recent studio live he also fell into answering questions about perfectionism and ambition but he got squirmy and didn’t seem to really want to talk about, he even said he does not want to talk so seriously at one point. Sometimes I have the possibly crazy theory that he picks comments that scold him so everyone else in the chat will tell him that this Mingti comment was wrong and he is actually amazing and perfect as he is.
Second: I am so intrigued by how Mingi sees his own progress as an artist and where he wants to go with it. In my mind, in a simplified model, he moves between four priorities.
As an Idol he moves between authenticity and manufactured persona. As Mingi the human he moves between what he wants, we don’t know what that is though, and what brings him (financial) success.
Autheticity vs. Idol Persona
For the first two: In my personal opinion and experience as a fan Mingi’s perceived authenticity is what draws his fans to him. But I am not always sure if he sees it the same way. Over the last months it has felt like he has been motivated by developing his idol persona much more.
He has changed his looks over and over, he is almost always wearing contacts for official schedules(it’s a minor thing but it is something he mentioned as part of being an idol when they renewed the contract), he changed his teeth, the princess agenda is being pushed more than maybe ever before.
But this has also been reflected in the FixOff Project; everything has become much more polished from the music production to the lyrics to the MV. This seems to have been my mistake because it is not included in the Fix Off Desire Project: Origin, but I always thought it started with Untitled, a very raw and personal song and then continued with Tunnel and Autobahn, which are included, and feel very personal too. To me, the new songs have lost that direction a little. I don’t want to judge it too much even though I am a little sad about it, but I just don’t think it really is my place and I don’t think we are owed deep insights into Mingi through his lyrics. It is also probably much more draining to get these feelings onto paper than just write about how successful you are now - okay maybe I am a little judgmental.
What Mingi wants vs. Success (which he also very much wants!!)
For the other two: I don’t know what Mingi personally wants, but we do know that he has been open about not being able to fully achieve it. He has said so in a general sense on Ateez+, during the anniversary interviews and most recently specifically regarding his artistic output. He said that he only does 50% what he wants and the other 50%… what fans want? what is expected of him? That was unclear to me. But it is still so interesting to me because what does he want??
Something that’s so intriguing about Mingi to me is he is so honest, he says: ‘I don’t live my life 100% according to what I want (I mean who is able to do that if we are being honest?), I don’t 100% do what I want in my music’, but then he is so cryptic because as an Idol he probably can’t tell us what it is he wants exactly.
For the success I can say; we all know he wants it. I think he wants to be recognized as an artist and we know he wants financial success. Sometimes I think that fortune teller who told him he has delusions of grandeur was rude but he actually wasn’t that far off. Mingi has very high expectations that I think he had to learn how to control better over the years. I am not sure his debut as a solo artist has satisfied him in that sense so far.
So I am very excited to see which conclusions he draws from that. Or at least get more material to ponder it and make up theories in my head.
The other day I watched a video by Jang Hyogyeong about the sugar daddy culture in kpop industry, then Mingi released Dinero and I spent two days just vibing to it, then while I was blasting it in my car this morning while going to work something clicked and a whole other layer of interpretation opened up in my mind.
Disclaimer 1: I’m going to briefly touch 🔞 themes regarding (of course given my intro) sex, consent and the way consent can be bought, so proceed only if you feel comfortable with those.
Disclaimer 2: I’m entering the realm of rpf, because I don't personally know Mingi or YOUHA, I don't know what they really think or feel nor why they wrote their lyrics that way, so what's next it's purely personal speculation and it doesn't pretend to state some kind of truth about anything. I don't have proof or whatever, I'm just going wild with the vibes. Keep that in mind.
Now back to it under the cut.
Okay, so, the lyrics in question that stuck to me are ‘We could make money, dancing with somebody’ and ‘I said “No,” it said “Dinero”’.
To me the core of the song’s meaning is, at least in a way, about how under all the glitter of the kpop freaky friday party there’s more and that the more is the tiredness coming from the grind and the hustle, to the point that stopping or resting doesn’t even feel like an option anymore (‘Turn down for what. The time is now.’ and ‘Sin descanso’ which translates to ‘without rest’ and ‘쉬는 법 잊어버렸지’ which translates to something like ‘I forgot how to rest’).
Mulling over the lyrics I realised that Mingi isn’t really rapping about wanting dinero (so money, fame and so on), but about how, in a way, he’s being owned by it, by the machine he’s part of, to the point that it’s like the system has its own personality, its own volitions and its own voice (the ‘I said “No,” it said “Dinero”’ in question). Inside this metaphor, then, the dance floor at the start of YOUHA’s lyrics isn’t fun escapism anymore, it becomes one of the many other stages where the grind and the cycle continue (and this brings us to the ‘We could make money, dancing with somebody’ as in 'gotta work' and of course it's a work made also of networking).
The whole song, then, feels a lot more like a really personal confession than like a boasting celebration of what fame and wealth one has reached and that’s why the other layer of meaning I was talking about suddenly popped up in my brain.
Now, in her video Jang Hyogyeong says stuff like ‘Are K-pop sugar daddies actually real? Honestly, yeah.’ and ‘I think this kind of stuff easily comes to non-famous idols or trainees because they know that we aren't making any money. They all know.’.
So what if there’s also another meaning to those two lines? We all know how often dancing with somebody on the dancefloor of a club can imply something else (sex), sometimes to the point of mimicking it, so stating ‘We could make money, dancing with somebody’ in my speculation could also translate to ‘we could make money having sex with somebody’ and that’s why it had me recall the video I was talking about.
Have Mingi and/or YOUHA experienced something like that? Has someone proposed that kind of exchange to them or to someone they know? Of course we will never know, as I said in the disclaimer this is pure speculation, but it really fits within the themes of the song and the exchange ‘I said “No,” it said “Dinero”’, if you’re going to change the it with a he/she/they, I’m pretty sure it’s something a lot of us experienced more or less directly in our lives in front of unwanted sexual advances. You don’t have to take the ‘dinero’ literally for it to work, sure you can and it could be, but it could also be a metaphor for a lot more kinds of propositions.
And, on a side note, I love how the last bar in his rap leaves us with an open question, because sure, he built his paradise inside the machine, he did it by himself, with his sweat and his constant grind and networking, but is he actually living in it or is he too busy hustling for that? It’s a really bittersweet end if you ask me and it makes Dinero so damn interesting.
Where am I going with this? I don’t know, but I know that I have feelings, a lot of them, because once again Mingi hit us with a banger while hiding inside of it a whole lot of meaning, both in the mv and in the lyrics. It’s honestly not a coincidence that he’s my bias, because not only I really vibe with his music style and his aesthetic of choice, but he also has a lot to say and he never pulls his punches. So yeah, you can at least consider this my love letter to Song Mingi’s craft if nothing else.
@minuscle-tea made this post about dinero which i agree with wholeheartedly. love it. required reading for this unhinged ramble.
most of this is just copy and pasted from messages i exchanged with @handlebarstiedtothestars but i think i'm gods gift to atiny (joke) so i'm posting them
so my initial reaction was very simple
"no thoughts
just love for mingi
no analysis
just banger
i love him"
because my brain didn't really light up the way it has for other things, i didn't go into analysis mode, i just went 'this is fun, i like it'.
which is NOT a complaint at all
and then i saw tea's post
and i started thinking about what he said on his last live, that he didn't learn the spanish he put in the song, he just put in words that sounded good to him. (i'm working off of translations so don't eat me if that's not what he actually said)
now, this is the same man who made the outfits and art and damn near everything on his roar set. who does silly ass shit when recording to make sure he has every sound down perfectly. who says that every layer of a mix is important and has purpose. he is meticulous when he wants to be. so i don't think this was out of laziness AT. ALL.
i said to handle, "this whole song isn't JUST a vibe but it is literally vibes based. its a collage of shit that sounds good, its just fun!"
they replied with, "That feels like such a [neurodivergent] process, 'This word feels fun to say' *says it 50 times as a vocal stim*"
THAT'S LITERALLY THE POINT I'M TRYING TO MAKE! he really just wrote a bunch of shit that was FUN TO SAY
freaky friday party, ten toes down, turn down for what, the literal word dinero said multiple times back to back despite him NOT LEARNING THE MEANING OF THE WORD? the whole song is a vocal stim!
why is it a vocal stim song? why would he write something like this? well tea already told us: he's been "attending edm shows where the crowd enjoys itself instead of only being focused on the artist and him enjoying that vibe."
he wrote something that's fun to say for him, fun to just have as a backdrop to your own experience as an audience member (his line in choose comes to mind, 'ill be your backdrop'). the goals here aren't to express HIMSELF like with youth and autobhan, its to get others to express THEMSELVES with his music as a canvas! bro said 'its time for VIBES' and i love him for it!
even the breathing feels tied to the edm inspiration and the whole point i've laid out here;
the breathing is about how the audience would feel mid edm show/rave
but its also a break for them to do exactly that, breathe
but also its anticipation that echos beat drop build ups
but also its just an interesting choice
but also its giving HIMSELF a break when performing incorporated into the song
im pretty much done so have some shit i loved that i couldn't tie into this cleanly
THE NECKLACE ZOOM SHOT. WHAT DOES THAT FUCKIN' TAG SAY, MINGI? TELL MEEEEEEEE
THE SMILE ZOOM IN SHOT?
THE STILL SHOT OF HIM AND THE DANCERS? THE SMEARING OF THE BODIES AS THE CAMERA JUST PANS OVER IT? such a cool choice
THE BLACK PERSON TOWARDS THE END? WHO WAS THAT? THEY WERE SO PRETTY!
THE SIDEWAYS CREDITS! hes so creative even in the small and simple ways and i love him for it
in conclusion:
MINGI MINGI MINGI MINGI MINGI MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Mingi: ‚Some people care about every single detail. I care about details too but what‘s more important to me is the mood and vibe! I like it when the overall mood is cohesive or gives off the aesthetic that i like. Even if it lacks a bit of detail I prefer having that kind of vibe.‘
From his recent Singles Magazine interview.
Are you in Mingi‘s brain?!? Do you share his vibe based approach? I loved reading your thoughts!!
I DIDN'T SEE THAT (or remember it, i have a shit memory i might've seen it)
I DO SHARE HIS VIBES BASED APPROACH! that's why i got so excited to talk about it! its part of what i love about mingi, like, all the time! he picks and chooses what to pay attention to according to what makes HIM happy, not according to the rules of others. i'm very similar in that way!
we both leave things behind that don't serve us even if we're 'suppose' to use them. i love the freedom he grants himself, especially in an industry that can be SUFFOCATING in a lot of ways
sadly half of my brain is dedicated to a database of what mingi has said in every interview and live i have ever watched, so when I read your impressions i was like ‚uh, i have heard this before?‘
and yes, i love it tooooo. you vibe based people are so cool.
@minuscle-tea made this post about dinero which i agree with wholeheartedly. love it. required reading for this unhinged ramble.
most of this is just copy and pasted from messages i exchanged with @handlebarstiedtothestars but i think i'm gods gift to atiny (joke) so i'm posting them
so my initial reaction was very simple
"no thoughts
just love for mingi
no analysis
just banger
i love him"
because my brain didn't really light up the way it has for other things, i didn't go into analysis mode, i just went 'this is fun, i like it'.
which is NOT a complaint at all
and then i saw tea's post
and i started thinking about what he said on his last live, that he didn't learn the spanish he put in the song, he just put in words that sounded good to him. (i'm working off of translations so don't eat me if that's not what he actually said)
now, this is the same man who made the outfits and art and damn near everything on his roar set. who does silly ass shit when recording to make sure he has every sound down perfectly. who says that every layer of a mix is important and has purpose. he is meticulous when he wants to be. so i don't think this was out of laziness AT. ALL.
i said to handle, "this whole song isn't JUST a vibe but it is literally vibes based. its a collage of shit that sounds good, its just fun!"
they replied with, "That feels like such a [neurodivergent] process, 'This word feels fun to say' *says it 50 times as a vocal stim*"
THAT'S LITERALLY THE POINT I'M TRYING TO MAKE! he really just wrote a bunch of shit that was FUN TO SAY
freaky friday party, ten toes down, turn down for what, the literal word dinero said multiple times back to back despite him NOT LEARNING THE MEANING OF THE WORD? the whole song is a vocal stim!
why is it a vocal stim song? why would he write something like this? well tea already told us: he's been "attending edm shows where the crowd enjoys itself instead of only being focused on the artist and him enjoying that vibe."
he wrote something that's fun to say for him, fun to just have as a backdrop to your own experience as an audience member (his line in choose comes to mind, 'ill be your backdrop'). the goals here aren't to express HIMSELF like with youth and autobhan, its to get others to express THEMSELVES with his music as a canvas! bro said 'its time for VIBES' and i love him for it!
even the breathing feels tied to the edm inspiration and the whole point i've laid out here;
the breathing is about how the audience would feel mid edm show/rave
but its also a break for them to do exactly that, breathe
but also its anticipation that echos beat drop build ups
but also its just an interesting choice
but also its giving HIMSELF a break when performing incorporated into the song
im pretty much done so have some shit i loved that i couldn't tie into this cleanly
THE NECKLACE ZOOM SHOT. WHAT DOES THAT FUCKIN' TAG SAY, MINGI? TELL MEEEEEEEE
THE SMILE ZOOM IN SHOT?
THE STILL SHOT OF HIM AND THE DANCERS? THE SMEARING OF THE BODIES AS THE CAMERA JUST PANS OVER IT? such a cool choice
THE BLACK PERSON TOWARDS THE END? WHO WAS THAT? THEY WERE SO PRETTY!
THE SIDEWAYS CREDITS! hes so creative even in the small and simple ways and i love him for it
in conclusion:
MINGI MINGI MINGI MINGI MINGI MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Mingi: ‚Some people care about every single detail. I care about details too but what‘s more important to me is the mood and vibe! I like it when the overall mood is cohesive or gives off the aesthetic that i like. Even if it lacks a bit of detail I prefer having that kind of vibe.‘
From his recent Singles Magazine interview.
Are you in Mingi‘s brain?!? Do you share his vibe based approach? I loved reading your thoughts!!
In the beginning Mingi is being monitored and walks on a narrow path, the scientists observing him are all women, which could symbolize his many, overwhelmingly female, fans watching him, having certain expectations for how he should behave has an idol. But he breaks out of it once he steps off the treadmill, he forges his own path and the initial reaction is shock and not understanding where he wants to go with this. When he comes back to them the energy of his music frees them and changes them.
They turn into dancers but they don’t dance for him or with him, like we see it in so many MVs in which female dancers accompany male rappers, they dance to the music and seem free within it. Maybe I am reading too much into it, but to me it feels like Mingi telling us to come along with him as he finds his own way outside of ‚just‘ being an idol.
It also fits what he recently said about attending edm shows where the crowd enjoys itself instead of only being focused on the artist and him enjoying that vibe.
Answering these is so much fun - even though I tend to go overboard.
✂️ Favourite hairstyle your bias has had?
I feel like you asked this to see pictures of Mingi's hair over the years because you knew exactly that this is what this would turn into.
So, to be honest I am a bit boring and I like it when he has it black. I like it a lot when it is shorter and out of his face like he had it at Summer Sonic with the black outfit. Lemon Drop Mingi was a superb black hair era as well.
My favorite is when it is longer though, maybe like in these pictures. I also really liked when they styled it slightly wavy.
Also man bun Mingi?!
Then it got a bit longer during autumn and I adored that as well.
Towards the end of the year it got a bit long for my taste, but you know what?! I will forgive this extremely gorgeous man for wearing his hair slightly longer than I prefer, I am generous like that.
I can‘t not mention Pinkgi, I can‘t imagine what a crashout I would have had if I had been an Atiny in this era. It would have rivaled the PFW crash out.
And since I already mentioned PFW; I didn't think I would like the blond as much as I did, but yeah... (Again I like it better when it is styled mostly away from the face though, or well, not covering the forehead too much)
Also Princess Mingi... What a silly hairstyle. Why do I want more of it???
The more I think about this, the more I begin to suspect that this is actually more about Mingi and less about his hair 😭 What happened to me?! You should have asked about my least favourite hair instead…
🎧 Favourite b-side?
Does Outlaw count as a B-side? Or more as a... co-title track? I love Outlaw so much.
If it doesn't count... Does Face count? Basically this is me being unsure what counts as a B-side.
thank you so much for the ask, this is so fun! I have to go through everyone's posts and see which ones they have not answered yet, since I am a little behind.
🕺Favourite stage?
Ah, there are so many, it is difficult to decide. If someone asked me this question multiple times I would probably have a different answer each time, but for now I will go with the 2024 MMA performance of Work & Ice on my Teeth (I mainly mean Work though). I adore the marching band version of Work, I love Hongjoong's and Mingi's little intro, I love how the other members are being raised onto the stage with the pirate imagery in the back and I love the costumes. So fun.
💜 If you could put two members together for a date like an episode of Ateez+ who would you put together and what would you have them do?
This is very self indulgent but I can't stop myself from promoting Minsang every chance I get. I find them so interesting together, I love watching them and I feel like they might give each other the space to just be without as much chaos or interruptions as the other members can bring occasionally. I can imagine them as friends who can be open with each other and might have really interesting (and maybe weird) conversations because they give each other the time to actually talk. I also think their senses of humour match very well. There were two videos last year in which Mingi was especially sassy and they both reminded me so much of Yeosang's quick and dry humour.
I would want them to go to a museum. Again, this is very self-indulgent because I want to hear Mingi talk about art. I am slightly worried Yeosang would get a bit bored though, because I am not sure how interested he is in art and whether just looking at something stimulates his brain enough. So I think the museum outing should not take too long, and they should take a painting class after. I want to see Mingi paint more. But I also feel like Yeosang really likes to do things with his hands. During Ateez+ he commented on how nice it was to feel the clay and in the Good Bye 2025 video he was really into stroking Mingi's bathrobe. I think he would enjoy some good sensory play with thick paint and layering it in different ways, which seems to be at least one of the techniques Mingi uses as well.
Also how cute would they be! Also have we ever talked about how differently Mingi behaves towards Yeosang depending on whether he is in Fix on mode or not? Also- okay, I'm normal about them.
🍜 Is there anything you’ve bought solely because you saw a member eat/use it?
I bought Alo sweatpants because I kept seeing Hongjoong wear them and they looked so soft 😭 I also really want to eat Abura Soba.
My favorite things about the NASA Performace Video Making Of:
Seonghwa getting to live his glossy chrome silver dreams
Hongjoong's moon bunny agenda for Seonghwa
Yeosang assessing Woosansang's lack of competence when it comes to space travel
Mingi taking the question very seriously and blessing us with his thoughts about traveling and living in space (I want it to be Mingi's random knowledge time every day)
San having no skills for space travel (or opening his eyes)
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