Music Video Monday 2 - What makes the music videos worth watching? – Part 1 Choreography
I wasn’t happy about what I wrote last week so here I’m again, writing and re-uploading.
Firstly: I fell in love with KPop through music videos and that’s what I still love the most about it (and the stages, I also listen to the CDs of my faves)
Secondly: I know more about Comics than about movies and music and I’m very interested in the meaning and storytelling of images (not that they always need to have a meaning but nothing is coincidence in products like MVs) so this will be the focus of my analyses.
Let’s get started!
The first question I asked myself is: Why did I fall in love with KPop music videos? Why am I so involved? I found three answers to this question:
1. Choreography
.2. Aesthetics
3. Story
Today I will write about the first point: Choreography is a very important part of Idol music in South Korea because this genre didn’t “evolve” on the radio but on the TV screen. Stages were always a very important part of Idol music, it makes the performance entertaining to watch. Most of the time the choreography finds its way into the MV. One of the first KPop MVs I remember watching was famous for its choreography: Brown Eyed Girls’ “Abracadabra” (2009). The choreo even found its way into PSY’s “Gentleman” (2013) (together with Gain) and is still one of the most iconic dances in KPop till today (in my opinion).
When KPop MVs show the dances, they often use a long shot or a full shot, so the viewer can see the whole bodies of the Idols. They will also use closer shots to focus on one member or catch a detail of the choreography or an expression. EXAMPLE: Girls Generations “The Boys” (2011).
Often the camera is moved or zooms are used to give the choreography and the MV more dynamic. One MV which got that on another level is BTS’ “Not Today” (2017).
EXAMPLE: BTS – Not Today (2017)
The focus in BTS’ “Not Today” lies on the choreography. The camera movements, zooms and cuts are used to emphasise the choreography. Sudden zooms and quick changes of shots are applied throughout the entire chorus, whereby the viewer's expectations are sometimes broken by sudden use of the bird's-eye view. More than once it seems like members are pulling the viewer in or pushing him/her away. With a quick zoom out after “fire” the camera itself seems to become the bullet fired.
In the second chorus another tool is used to make the choreography more interesting and engaging to watch. Here we have a glass plate, on which the members dance. In the first shot on the glass plate we see Taehyung in the center. He himself is zoomed out, while the background is zoomed in, an effect that combines zoom and camera movement and which is often used in horror movies.
In my opinion this gives the choreography more intensity, more power and more dynamics. The effect of these techniques always becomes particularly clear to me when I look at stages of "Not Today" in parallel, where some attempts are made to imitate these effects.
“Not Today” is one of my favourite KPop MVs of all time.
Next Episode we will look and the aspect of “Aesthetic”.
