#**redvelvet

[aimmyarrowshigh]

I, for one, could not be more thrilled that we have reentered the era of girl groups dressing like fuzzy leopard-print neon dress-up playtime funtime and not actually Looking Good, because it’s way more fun this way for little girls pretending to be their fave one at the sleepover, and IS THAT NOT what it’s all about?

[aimmyarrowshigh]

hi V!! what do you think of red velvet's new song/mv?

Anonymous said:

Thoughts on rv’s power up? Not really feeling the song :c but the aesthetics and vid are so nice and bright! and fruity (obviously)            

I actually really like the song! Not the “Banana banana banana” parts (although I do always love a good pop song na-na-na, it’s just maybe outside my cultural understanding to turn the “na-na-na” into a “banana”?) but I think the verses and overall impact are really good. I like it a lot better than “Red Flavor,” which is obv their most comparable song (and good lord it’s better than “Rookie”).

I like the choreography a lot – I think it really fits and complements the song – but I’m not crazy on some of their Red video styles. I think I just don’t really like aegyo in general as a trope, or whatever, and I like RV because they usually don’t go quite so hard in the “childish/cute” direction – like, even in “#Cookie Jar” they add in some creepy elements. “Power Up” is probably tied with “Rookie” for their most aegyo video, as far as I can figure out what aegyo is.*

*(And correct me if I’m wrong! I like some kpop bands pretty well and I like a lot of kpop videos or singles, but I don’t ~do kpop? Like I don’t entrench myself in the politique of it or anything like that, so I may be totally misunderstanding what the function of aegyo is or whether “Power Up” even would be considered that, etc!)

Also, the focus on like, slime and gooey things in “Power Up” is not my fave. I am not a slime/goo girl. Especially in conjunction with something that seems like a very fetishized feminine aesthetic, it’s… icky. Don’t slime things on women. Don’t slime things on girls. Don’t slime things on children unless you’re early 2000s era Nickelodeon straight-up Slime Time Live. Just. Yuck. No viscous fluids on pretty women, please. Not my jam.

Also, frosting on milkshakes?!?!? That is up there with the ant cookies from “#Cookie Jar” in terms of Red Velvet Foods That Are Not Delicious. Frosting is just another type of slime, lbr. No thanx.

Also, I don’t know any Korean outside of “hello” and “pants,” so I can’t comment on the content of the lyrics at all! I just really enjoy the bubblegum pop-ness and the like, schema, of the song. Def one of the biggest bops of the summer IMO.

[aimmyarrowshigh]

@gloryhalleloujah​ and @glycerineclown​ both tagged me to post the top 10 songs I’m jamming to right now. 

6. Praying by Kesha

7. Fireworks by First Aid Kit

8. Sleepover by Hayley Kiyoko

9. Grown by Chloe x Halle

[aimmyarrowshigh]

tfw when a song is great but the video is a mess

this is absolutely @ red velvet for “red flavor”

[aimmyarrowshigh]

It was so interesting to hear your thoughts re: rv’s new music vid + some more kpop haha. If you’re up for it, what did you think about peek a boo + bad boy? In terms of mucus/aesthetics/etc!

In terms of mucus – well, I did say that I am not a slime girl. :P

I really like Peek-a-Boo, it’s one of my faves of the last year or so – definitely on my Car Music Mix for the last however many months since it came out. I’m a sucker for Witchy Aesthetic Music Videos, too, because, as we all know about me, Halloween. I think it’s super catchy, as well, and I thought the choreography was clever and fun. (Also I die for Joy in that red “Oops I Did It Again” turtleneck minidress???)

Bad Boy was really listenable and I like the song a lot, but I felt a little squeamish about the music video because it seems like Red Velvet’s closest brush with kpop’s very incessant issue of culturally appropriating American Black/rap/R&B culture and aesthetics while completely ignoring or ostracizing its actual creators. Just with the nature of RV as a band, I’m not sure that it totally went that far because a) I’m not Black, so my opinion doesn’t matter on this anyway, and b) it seems like ALL popular music, worldwide, has taken on kind of generally American Music Video aesthetics so much that I don’t know, really, where the line would be for elements that are less specific to Black culture and more just like, originated in Black culture but aren’t rooted in the Black diasporic experience or, like, hair types or, idk.

tl;dr I was uncomfortable with all of them wearing doorknockers at various points in the video and some of the, idk, visual language of the video felt like they were intentionally aping tropes from R&B and rap videos while also, in essence or literally, white-washing them (like Wendy’s blue contacts, or the reading of a French romance novel, etc). Again, not nearly as much as A LOT of kpop – it’s a kpop-wide issue, not an RV-specific issue – but RV usually does that way less than a lot of other kpop groups, so it kind of Struck me more because it was something they’d mostly avoided.

All of that said, I’m ALSO not Korean! So again, my opinions don’t matter or count!

[aimmyarrowshigh]

I don’t understand what’s happening in the “Dumb Dumb” video AT ALL but it’s cute anyway. I like it. I have no idea what’s happening.

[aimmyarrowshigh]

i haven't seen you posting kpop or talking about listening to it before ( or at least not that i remember), so i just wanted to ask you how you got into red velvet? :)

When I was making my Girl Groups A-Z photosets, I couldn’t think of/find a girl group whose name started with ‘R’ and someone suggested them! Also Zoe started posting a lot of kpop around then, I think, and I noticed that a group had a song coming out called “Ice Cream Cake” and I was like, “how in the world do you make a song about ice cream cake?” so when it came out, I watched the video and really liked it! I think they’re all cute and their songs are very catchy.