The Bad Girl and the Beauty Queen

This week we're talking about Lee Hyori and her two most recent videos
Miss Korea, released on May 5th, 2013. It had 1,559,957 views as of May 28th
and
Bad Girls, released on May 20th, 2013. It had 1,343, 397 views as of May 28th.

Overall impression:

Ruby: So for two music videos with such similar social commentaries, Lee Hyori used fashion in completely different ways to emphasize their points. Bad Girls plays on the sexy image of bad girls, while hinting at the fact that most ‘sexy’ or ‘bad’ girls don't enjoy being overly sexualized and many come from unhappy backgrounds. Miss Korea takes the opposite stereotype of women and points out how society encourages women to have plastic surgery and practice unhealthy habits to be prettier.  Bad Girls uses pop colors along with black and white, while the entire Miss Korea video is in black and white.

hyori and her bullies. 

plastic surgery. this is so how it works.

Em: Both videos did communicate satire using fashion, Bad Girls even more than Miss Korea. They used stereotypical, easily recognized clothing styles to create a character for Lee Hyori that would enable her to make a clearer point about society. The stylists also managed to make the artist into two very different people using fashion, and both were believable. Bad Girls was also in more of a comic style, which simplified the story-telling to communicate better. Miss Korea was more typical, and some parts had the feel of an old movie.

Comic book style and bastardized designers names. oh kpop.

Very old movie like, almost james bond opener esque

Other promotional Materials:

Ruby: Both songs use the clothing from the mv in the teasers. For the stages, they continued to use the same clothes for Miss Korea. The gowns made appearances, along with some of the skimpier leotards and skintight dresses. But the dance is simple and it was more subtly sexy. For Bad Girls, they switched it up a bit. Each stage featured heavy jewelry along with skirts with huge slits up both sides. She wore heavy makeup with a strong brow and extremely dark lipstick. This complemented the sexy dance, but kept her appropriately covered. The styling was extremely consistent and simple, but fresh and clean.

discoball evening gown

swimsuit portion is 99% of your score~

Em: Some of the stages for Bad Girls deviated from the music video in that they included things like a bright red dress, which still stayed with the general style but mixed it up a bit. A lot of the promotions for Bad Girls had knee-length dresses with slits on each side in black and white for both Lee Hyori and the backup dancers. They often had highly detailed tops with various sparkly things for the artist herself.

the red dress in question.

leg slits and fishnets. NOTHING SEXUAL HERE.

Continuity:

Ruby: Both videos excelled in continuity. For Miss Korea, the black and white carry over helped. She portrayed different beauty ideals throughout fashion history including a burlesque show, a supremes-esque singing trio and a scene that was distinctly beyonce, single ladies, inspired. It was very well thought through and didn’t feel scattered or disconnected even though she switched outfits frequently. As for Bad Girl, she changed clothes as she aged, as expected. As an adult she wears a few outfits that carry strong statements, including the hyper-sexual animal print set and the kinky-cop costume.

If you liked it then you should put..... Nope wrong song.

burlesque-esque take on sexy

Oh so kinky.

Em: Agreed…for the most part these videos had great continuity. They even were continuous with each other in some ways, despite the differing specific styles. Though the ‘bad girl’ image and the ‘Miss Korea’ image are very different, the idea was in the same vein. I was a little surprised when Miss Korea did the disorienting black and white patterns on both outfit and wall, but it made more sense in the context of the prison uniforms and the change wasn’t too drastic due to the continuation of black and white.

Vacuuming and Ironing, Hyori's entry in the talent portion of the pageant. 

You are feeling very sleeeeeeepyyyyy.....

Band’s Overall Image:

Ruby: Hyori is one of those artist who has been around for so long that she’s had pretty much any concept you can think of more than once. Between a long and successful solo career and her time with Fin.K.L. she has explored aegyo, sexy, badass, good girl and many many other concepts. Even aliens. Oh yeah. Go watch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang if you haven’t. It’s worth it. She has often ridden the line between appearing sexist and making a social commentary because of her sexuality and beauty. For me it tends toward social commentary, but that's more opinion. 

From Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, aliens have great fashion sense

Oh Fin.K.L. oh dear.

Em: The sexist vs. social commentary thing really depends on your opinion, and it’s difficult to tell based on some of the videos. For instance, U Go Girl could either be interpreted as a message to dress in a way that will make you feel confident and that you can be beautiful too, or that the only way to get the guy you want is to change yourself to be like the girls on tv…slightly conflicted messages. I would like to be optimistic, though, and assume she’s using her fame and sexiness to communicate legitimately good messages. If so, yay!

I'm gonna go with empowerment! You can be any kind of sexy you want!

Trends in K-POP:

Ruby: I really think Hyori focused on the point she wanted to make rather than the clothing she was wearing and how it fit into the current market stylistically. Hyori is beautiful and looks good in practically anything, so its hard to say that sexy is a theme. Heavy makeup and messy hair has definitely been prominent recently, however once again, I think the stylists were much more concerned with communicating a point than fitting in with both videos. Feminism is on the rise though, so I guess the empowerment is a good message to take away.

Wind blown hair and lots of makeup

Hyuna in Ice Cream, messy hair and heavy makeup

From Miss A's, I Don't Need a Man

Em: I thought it was interesting the way she portrayed some trends in a satirical light. This especially happened in Bad Girls, when the people who dressed up in outfits that could easily be the legitimate fashion in another artist’s MV became the enemies of Lee Hyori.

Hyori on the right, silently hating her brightly colored antagonists

Conclusion:

Ruby: It's a strong showing. The clothing and styling really makes a strong point by adding to the lyrics and story lines. Her movement from cute kid to stripper cop and just plain stripper in Bad Girls is really effective while the contradiction between classiness and her actions in Miss Korea are also meaningful. More than enjoying the clothing or feeling inspired by it, I was transported by it. I think I believed her more because of it. All I have to say is: U Go Girl. (GO WATCH THAT TOO, OKAY?)

Em: I enjoyed the layering of meaning, with the fact that on the surface most of the outfits could just be “Lee Hyori being sexy” (which is good for promotions) but also have an underlying purpose in the storyline and a commentary (which makes it more interesting).  Either way, fashion was used cleverly and with intent and continuity, so good job stylists.

Daily Dose of Daebak:

Enrgish and hello kitty boxers

Drag queens

In her mug shot in Bad Girls she’s apparently almost 7’ tall. Larger than life? I think so.

That old man sure likes checkers. Yup. Focus of a zen master.

Leave us a comment and give us some lovin'.

Or maybe even tell us, which do you prefer, Bad Girl-Hyori or Beauty Queen-Hyori?

Also keep an eye out for a post about Ruby and Em's trip to anime boston, because japanese street fashion is super cool too. 

4Minute versus the Undead (But Fashion-forward)

Last week was a nice break from the insanity, but this week we're back where we started with

4Minute- What's Your Name?

If you haven't seen this thoroughly entertaining and vastly interesting music video, check it out here: GET YOUR ZOMBIE KILLIN GEAR ON

As of May 20th 2013 it had 6,019,986 views.

Overall impression:

Ruby: So I have mixed feelings about this MV. I am a big fan of the hipster-kawaii idea, but its so easy to take too far. For me the clothing was over accessorized and over sexualized. Which is super sad, because there are some really cool, awesome pieces mixed in there. I love the splatter paint/zombie blood idea, the old school references and the wedge sneakers. Super cool and on trend, but there were so overwhelmed by too many accessories, fake tattoos everywhere and revealing cuts. I watched the choreography video, and was surprised by how cute the dance was, since in the video its all about words on butts and exposed crotches. Not to mention they look so much more comfortable with the dance when they’re not worried about clothing staying in place.

temporary tattoos make for a badass concept, 4minute.....

you might want to retie those shoes.

splatter paint zombie blood.... cute >.<

Em: My first impression was that I liked a lot of individual details in this, and that there was a lot mixed in that was very cool. A lot of the pieces individually could be taken out and used, even as regular clothing. However, a step back made me find the same thing Ruby did…it was chaotic and too much. This seemed like another band trying to pull of the style that f(x) has so well—the concentrated craziness that doesn’t just overwhelm. Even in Electric Shock, which was weird in itself, they still managed to look artsy rather than confused. The comment about the dance was accurate too…still fairly sexualized, but much more interesting than the MV made it seem.

F(X), from Electric Shock teasers, with cutely mismatched shoes

Other promotional Materials:

Ruby: The teasers were odd and poorly connected to the video I thought, though they themselves were really really cool. Blacklights make everything better. Stages still felt over worked but because they don’t change clothes, it is easier to absorb. They certainly make for fun and lively stages with lots of bling bling.  I still feel like the costumes limit movement sometimes and make me worry about camera angles and catching lady parts on camera.

Blacklight Teasers (BECAUSE THAT DOESN'T SOUND LIKE AN ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE)

You might want to put some pants on before you leave the house next time.

Em: I didn’t think they were that poorly connected…I mean, the style seemed the same, it just wasn’t promoting the plot or anything, just the members themselves. They were fun. The comeback stages were fine, not too impressive…I feel like the could’ve used some unifying feature, like a color that everyone used, or shoes, or SOMETHING in common. It didn’t even feel like the stylists were going for individuality, just randomness.

Now that the salvation army meeting has commenced....

Continuity:

Ruby: Here’s the crux of the matter I think. I like a lot of the clothes but we see 3-4 different outfit sets within the first 10 seconds of the MV.  That's a lot of fast changes for a video laden with accessories and heavy handed detailing. There were so many colors and location changes props and lighting effects in this video that the constant changes in clothing and styling were disorienting.

Rings, necklaces, earrings, OH MY.

Em: Out of everything, continuity was definitely the main problem. I guess there was continuity in the level of craziness, but that doesn’t mean it looked clean and together at all. There were few consistencies, if any. I guess there were the weird fishnet shorts. Why would anyone want neon fishnet shorts? It defeats the point of both fishnets and shorts!

Neon shorts. Thanks Hyuna.

Band’s Overall Image:

Ruby: Oh 4minute.  They are known for their sexy, and its well deserved. The members have great bodies and dance well. For me, videos like Huh, Muzik and especially Volume Up really mastered the art of classy sexy. This video, for me smacked more of Hyuna, like Bubble Pop or Icecream. Fun videos, but definitely edging on overt and superfluous sexiness. I appreciate those videos and Hyuna’s solo work for very different reasons than 4Minute’s group work. I guess I would prefer them to stay separate, but only because I miss that presence in kpop of quiet, powerful and sexy.

4Minute's Volume Up outfits, still odd and mismatched, but coordinated and really cool.

Hyuna and her completely nonsexual music video Icecream.
Nothing here but sticky white goo and her boobs.

Em: Sometimes they’re successful, sometimes they aren’t. Though I don’t always agree with the fashion choices (see picture) they do usually have more continuity as a group. They need to simplify, and maybe make dance costumes a little bit more practical for dancing. They’ve done it before, they can do it again. Like the other picture has a similar idea of variety, but the colors are together so it isn’t like a neon unicorn threw up on you. And as much as I like unicorns…

4Minute looking insane

4minute looking less insane

NO UNICORNS HERE FOLKS.

Trends in K-POP:

Ruby: Kawaii-hipster. I swear it's a thing. There are a lot of bands that are playing with this idea of endless accessories, in the style of decora, harajuku etc. Sometimes it works, but I think its one of the harder styles for a band to pull off. It is super variable and it definitely doesn’t go sexy well. Then you have off trend, cute and sexy all in the same one. That's too much I think.

I wouldn't try to go through airport security like that.

I was so distracted by her clothes, that I completely missed
the super cool wall and set behind her. Really, look at it, it's super cool.

Em: Zombies are such a thing right now, like SHINee did stuff with zombies too in Why So Serious. In addition, with the kawaii-hipster thing (which in theory sounds fantastic), I think a lot of bands just go overboard with it. A little works, so a lot works better, right? Not really. It produces some really cool pieces though, like a lot of the t-shirts themselves were awesome. They just need more focus. Unless of course you want to hypnotize people, in which case go ahead have fun whatever floats your boat.

SHINee, Why So Serious Zombies. You should go read our review of that. 

Mickey Mouse T-shirts are super hipster. 

The Ramones. And gold pleather. And fishnets. Classy.

Conclusion:

Ruby: I think I would have been a really big fan if they had just simplified it a little bit. I was so overwhelmed I couldn’t help but be put off. I loved a lot of other promotions from 4minute but I think this was just not my style. That being said, cute choreography and a good concept, I think it just needed some more refinement.

Yes, what a cute dance.

This necklace feels very appropriate here.

Em: They had so many great styles that they brought together…I just want to see them divided up. If, say, the punk side was emphasized and they all wore leather jackets for the video, it would’ve been better. Same with the retro side of it. Just pick something! They just went for it though, and didn’t do too bad with pulling it off. Maybe they’ll simplify next time. Unless the whole being-zombies thing gets in the way, and they just end up eating brains instead of making music and dancing.

Yes, Hyuna, he really does want you for your brain.

Daily Dose of Daebak:

ZOMBIE SURVIVAL HINT FOR THE DAY:

YOUR WEAPON OF CHOICE SHOULD ALWAYS BE A HAIRDRYER. THAT ALWAYS WORKS AGAINST REANIMATED CORPSES. TRUST ME I KNOW THESE THINGS.

Skateboarding in high heels. Kids, you should try this at home. Though I must admit I like the shoes anyway in all their glorious impracticality…. 

Leave us a comment and tell us your favorite zombie fighting technique or weapon of choice!!!!

See ya soon!

Ruby & Em <3