First off, hi from Em! I’m finally back. Matt did an awesome
job of filling in while I was gone, he gets points.
This week we're reviewing
Badman by BAP
The music video came out on August 5th 2013 and as of August 12th had 1,213,313 views.
Overall impression:
Ruby: Let's begin the descent into morbidity shall we? In the
face of all that is bright and cheerful this summer, this video is a resounding
salute to the end of the world and mass destruction. There is nothing light and
airy here, just smokey, heavy and dark. Happily for us, the clothing matches
that well. It centers on rebel fashion mostly, playing with leather and fishnet
for texture and often using face covers. The face paint was absolutely
brilliant as a ‘dirtying’ of the members without actually smearing them with
dirt. Then there was the brief bananas in pajamas cameo, but we’ll get to that
in a bit.
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| I am artfully dirty. Look at my angsty eyeliner paired with my devil may care black paint application... |
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| All in all a very simple stylistic choice |
Em: Hey, it wasn’t ALL gloom and doom…there was a random
girl smiling and even a kiss for a second. You just have to look past the
other 3 minutes 56 seconds of explosions and death. Aside from the irrelevant girl, there were
two(ish) sets of clothing; one for the riot scenes, and one for the dance
scenes. The riot clothes fit in nicely, with chains and tigers (and bears, oh
my). The dance scenes were a little less serious and a little more
fashion-y…think checkerboard explosion.
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| THIS WASN'T CREEPY AT ALL GUYS. why not film random people kissing? sure.... |
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| This kiddies, is called a Molotov cocktail, not to drink... |
Other promotional Materials:
Ruby: The video teaser was scenes from the mv, smashed
together. The photo teasers were done in the style of wanted posters, fancy
that. They’re actually really cool using posterization and a limited color
palette. Really different from most
teasers which aim to highlight how attractive the members are, this hid
a lot of their faces and played up that mysterious, criminal vibe.
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| rebel prisoners... what a tease.... |
Em: I really liked the addition of the red in the teasers…it
made me wonder what the MV would’ve looked like if red had played a more
prominent role in the palette (which was really mostly black and white). It
still fit with the concept of the MV, with blood and all, so I wonder why they
DIDN’T have red featured anywhere. It could’ve easily looked cheesy though, so
maybe it’s better that they didn’t. Either way, the teasers were cool.
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| I FOUND RED IN THE MV |
Continuity:
Ruby: (they’re bananas in
pajamas)…. I’m being harsh and I know it. The video was overall fantastically well coordinated, they used real riot gear
for the extras and the band played with the shapes of armor and street wear in
their outfits. However then we have these weird and out of place stripes. I
guess one theory is that they’re trying to portray the rich and opulent side of
revolution, like the disgraced aristocracy? (STRETCH FOR ITTTTT) but lets be
real, if that's what they were going for then they missed the mark and if its
not what they were going for then I’m lost. Anyone got other ideas?
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| ALL THE STRIPES AT ONCE |
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| WE'RE BANANAS IN PAJAMAS.... or bap. |
Em: My initial guess as to why they did stripy fun time is
that they were playing off the black face paint on white faces. The contrast is
always striking, so I guess they wanted to continue it but with something more
dance-costumey than the other outfits, which were better suited to the plot
itself. OOH or maybe they were thinking like convicts. Yeah actually. That
makes sense. It just came across as bananas in pajamas. You can’t make convicts
fashion forward.
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| ANGST AND FACEPAINT.... |
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| prison line up... or mv. |
Band’s Overall Image:
Ruby: Em and I love to talk
about BAP’s image over time. We really like consistency and progression. Thus,
things like Stop It and to some extent Rain Sound, really confuse us. At least
for me, I loved the style they took on for Warrior, Power and even No Mercy and
I was so happy to see that come back in One Shot. This is more in that vein, so
it pleases me, but I know that some Baby’s really love the variety. So I guess
I'm happy but I could see that it might be frustratingly consistent.
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| One Shot outfits from BAP |
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| They're so.... cute? |
Em: I will admit, the second time I watched the video I had
the sound muted and No Mercy was literally playing in my head. This works for
BAP. It even references their debut. I am glad. There’s variety and then
there’s chaos…one is good, the other is just confusing. Maybe this should’ve
been weirder for them, but meh. I’m okay with it.
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| No Mercy style... very similar |
Trends in K-POP:
Ruby: IT'S THE END OF THE WORRRLLLDDDDDD. This is a theme
from forever. Angsty apocalypse videos have been around for years. The
facemasks are also ever popular, although I loved the fishnet one in this
video. Totally on point. They really are one of the fixtures in the sports wear
world as well. Men’s videos tend to take on one of (I think) four big themes.
They go sportswear, suits and more formal, off the wall or AEGYO-MONSTERS. Each
of those styles has staple groups and I think BAP is really becoming one in the
sportswear category.
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| T-ARA's butt kicking style in Day by Day |
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| mesh facemask.... cooooool dude. |
Em: I’ve noticed the odd half-skirt things in men’s fashion
before in EXO videos and suchlike. There will be either a
piece of swooshy fabric on one side (a half skirt) or pants that are baggy in
such a way that it looks like a skirt from a distance. I guess its supposed to
be swoopy and dramatic? Anyway. Black in white also come back again and again
just because it’s so effective for creating drama, also like in Exo’s Wolf.
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| skirty thing on men! |
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| More of them! In Exo's Wolf |
Conclusion:
Ruby: I think in the realm of war, fighting videos this one
really stood out to me. The face paint and the restraint (everywhere but the
stripe-y suits) really gives this video a dark and dangerous feeling without
just dressing the band up as soliders and covering them in dirt. They melded
fashion and statement well, which is something I really respect stylists for.
From the skull flags to the leather briefcase there was something really classy
about this apocalypse.
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| The simplicity of this is really the best part of this mv |
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| Points to this revolution's graphic designer! |
Em: Yeah this was pretty cool, all things considered. Especially
with the badass face paint. It was almost movie-esque at times, and the fashion
was interesting yet almost entirely believable in the scene they constructed…a
tough balance to strike. My only wish is that we could’ve seen some of the
outfits more clearly cause they were worth seeing. Good job BAP.
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| Many interesting fashion choices indeed. |
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| I want to see moreeeeeeee |
Daily Dose of Daebak:
Apparently even dad’s gone. The flag said said so.The only
written words in the whole MV. Deeply symbolic? Probably.
What do you think BAP stripey suits were meant to symbolize? The more of a stretch, the better ;)
Want something for next week? Leave us a comment!
Also, we're about to redo a bunch of the sections on the blog, PLEASE tell us what you want to stay and any suggestions you have!!!!
See ya later
Ruby and Em <3
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