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Hi, Peppertaemint! I was wondering if you wanted to talk more in depth about OnlyOneOf's Begin and Be Free music videos. It would be interesting to read your perspective on how both music videos follow a storyline, the stylistic means through which they portray the beginning of a potential relationship, but most importantly, the impact they must have on current K-Pop and its audience.

Hi Anon. Sorry it's taken me so long to answer this one. I wanted to wait until I could do it justice.

OnlyOneOf has released five music videos in the "be" series: YooJung's Begin, KB's Be Free, JunJi's Be Mine, Rie's Because, and Mill's Beat. Nine, the sixth member of OOO, has dropped the teaser for the final video in the "be" series, Bey0nd.

These videos tell stories of LGBT+ romance. The first two, Begin and Be Free, follow a couple's hookup and more than allude to the physical side of that, while Be Mine and Because take things further with a couple's ups and downs, including attraction and desire. Beat focuses on school bullying, with a student crushing on a young man who then battles the bullies with him. The teaser for Bey0nd carries on from the last, showing the new couple playing music and celebrating together.

These works are undoubtedly LGBT+, not only in the narrative portrayal but in the messages posted with the videos themselves. Begin states this clearly with the beautiful passage posted under the MV on YouTube:

Among the countless lovers in the world, there are also lovers that couldn’t be blessed. For whatever reasons. Religious reasons, things like parents’ disapproval. I dedicate this song to all those lovers that couldn’t be blessed.

Each set of MVs focuses on a couple (the members "chop and change" to create different couples) and a stage in their relationship. Flirting, getting acquainted, intimacy, conflict, reunion, etc. Begin and Be Free focus on desire and a sense of the erotic in romance. I particularly like the fish tank scene that is reminiscent of the intoxicating party scene in Baz Lurhmann's Romeo+Juliet. Be Mine and Because are bolder, if less stylistically interesting, as they depict kisses and other physical encounters between their couple, including an underwater kiss. If we compare these to Holland's MVs, which were marked as "adult only" because of same-sex romantic content, OOO's videos are less raw and gritty and much more wholesome, constituting a kind of K-drama-esque homo-romance.

If I squint, I'm reminded of Jungkook and Jimin in the Dynamite Holiday Remix video, acting as the "Christmas couple" away from the other members. But there's one glaring difference here—homo-romance is not subtext for OnlyOneOf. It's the whole of the text and the message of the work.

When OOO released homoerotic/romantic work previously, many cried "queerbaiting" despite many of us pointing out how these videos weren't queerbaiting—they were LGBT+ stories being told with elements of eroticism and romance. What I notice now is how much warmer the response is. I think this has something to do with the theme being consistent so people understand it's not a stunt for views, but I also think it's because the erotic elements are lessened. Sadly, people still have strong, negative reactions to eroticism, especially if it's LGBT+. The history of fan service is partly a reason for this, though I still think fan service needs to be revisited and recontextualized (that's an opinion for a different day).

Nonetheless, I think these videos show how the young SK generation's attitude toward LGBT+ contrasts with older generations' attitudes. Polls show there is quite a difference in support for LGBT+ rights between generations, and I think the fact we're seeing more openly positive LGBT+ content coming out in SK is a product of this.

It will be interesting to watch their trajectory over the coming years. K-pop is less popular in SK right now than it used to be, judging by comments from the general public, and the music industry in general is seeing the "silo-ing" of artists, meaning it's much harder for artists to become known and followed by many because styles and genres have become niche by default. Audiences have almost infinite choices in terms of who they follow and listen to, so much like we see on social media, fandoms are becoming their own complete subcultures where values and ideas are reinforced instead of challenged. And I mention this to say that although I'm sure OOO are having a positive impact on LGBT+ youth and artists in SK, the East, and beyond, I'm not sure just how wide the impact is given that we can now easily ignore what is outside of our sphere, culturally speaking.

Countering this, I'm reminded how important music shows like Inkigayo and Mnet are because they put this content in the living rooms of a diverse set of people. And that is one way older generations can be reached.