EXO COMEBACK CONCEPT THEORY + STORYLINE THEORY
originally posted on my Facebook and on my Twitter account @reefromtheskies
The initial fan theory about EXO’s comeback was that it would be about royalties and war. But the amount of material and evidences - from EXO’s hair to the location of their MV shooting - proves that these theories may not be accurate.
First, let’s talk about EXO’s hair. The colour of an idol’s hair can hint greatly about what the concept would be. Baekhyun has black hair with red highlights, Chanyeol has pastel rainbow hair, Suho has curly brown hair, Xiumin has black hair (I’m not sure), Kyungsoo has black hair (I’m not sure too), Sehun has dandelion hair (orange and yellow mix), Chen has blonde hair and Kai has dark blue hair.
During the last comeback which is Lotto, the members were in discord and in conflict with each other. They were soon caught in the end. I’ll just mention this, but my point will be stated later.
Second, Sehun’s Instagram posts. Our Sehunnie is one of EXO’s greatest spoilers when it comes to comebacks. Just recently, he posted selfies of him on his photoshoot for a magazine with an old glitched VHS effect. You can check it on his IG. Take note of this.
Third, the MV shooting location. It was supposedly held in Yongma Land, an amusement park and based on the pictures posted by the OP (original poster), I can get an old, creepy circus feel. Take note of that too.
Fourth, Baekhyun’s spoiler back in EXORDIUM dot. He said that the comeback would be ‘dawo’ which means ‘it’s warm’. 'Dawo’ sounds like 'the war’ in a Western accent.
Fifth, the song. I found an Instagram post but I unfortunately wasn’t able to have a screenshot since it apparently didn’t save but anyway, the IG post is a screenshot from a Weibo user who supposedly passed by Yongma Land and heard the song. She describes the song as something like a mix of Love Me Right and Monster.
Now for the theory hihi. Let’s put this is all together. Back in the last comeback, they were caught and they might have fought against the government (the people trying to catch them) together until they were caught but they were still in conflict with each other. They are then brought back to a facility, probably like the last one back in Lucky One.
The storyline theory is that while in captivity, the government continued on experimenting with them. They drugged EXO into sleep and are all thrown into a dream simulation where they are set to either fight against each other or fight against something as hinted by Baekhyun.
An OP had said about the song sounding like Love Me Right and Monster. The LMR MV has dreamy aesthetics while the Monster MV has glitch effects. Remember that Sehun posted a photo with glitch effects and Yongma Land resembles the circus/amusement park where the boys held the concept photoshoot for LMR. Also, their hairstyles would suit a concept that is a mix of Monster and LMR.
My concept theory: Vaporwave!
Acoording to Wiki, Vaporwave (British English: vapourwave) is a microgenre of electronic music and an Internet meme that emerged in the early 2010s. The music typically features a fascination with 1980s and 1990s styles such as elevator music, smooth jazz, R&B, and lounge music often sampling or manipulating tracks via chopped and screwedtechniques and other effects. The subculture surrounding vaporwave is often associated with an ambiguous or satirical take on consumer capitalism and popular culture, and tends to be characterized by a nostalgic or surrealist engagement with the popular entertainment, technology and advertising of previous decades. It also incorporates early Internet imagery, late 1990s web design, glitch art, and cyberpunktropes in its cover artwork and music videos.
This line, “tends to be characterized by a nostalgic or surrealist engagement with the popular entertainment, technology and advertising of previous decades” for a more simple understanding means that Vaporwave is characterized by dreamy aesthetics like in LMR and this line “It also incorporates early Internet imagery, late 1990s web design, glitch art, and cyberpunk tropes in its cover artwork and music videos” mentions glitch art and cyberpunk style which is evident in the Monster MV and in the LMR MV Japanese version.
Okay, to sum it all up, Vaporwave culture is made of surrealist and dreamy aesthetics incorporated with glitch art and cyberpunk style. That’s it. Hehe.
So yeah, in my storyline theory, I mentioned about EXO being put into a dream simulation where they are either being made to battle each other or to fight against something. The nature of this dream simulation would be like Vaporwave - old 1980s-1990s game style, glitch art, there might be the featuring of creepy clown or monster or something as their foe idk, cyberpunk, web design and Internet imagery, all that jazz. A quick Google search of what Vaporwave is would give you an idea.
So that’s it for my theory. Of course, this is just a theory so don’t take it too seriously. Let’s all support EXO for their next comeback! Hihihi 💖💖💖💖
