Today’s inspiration stemmed from one of my favourite singers in the Korean music industry, known as IU.
Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM0xDI5R50E
As I anticipated her new music video release BBIBBI (삐삐), I did not expect myself to be blogging about it the next day! However, from the very first second of the music video, I was hooked. It truly felt like I was enjoying a piece of art, with each second carefully crafted to create a groovy and alternative mood that perfectly fitted the melody.
I shall share with you a quick background on this song!
This song was released to commemorate the 25 year old singer’s 10th year anniversary since debut. The lyrics express an underlying message aimed at those who have invaded her life and privacy with negative critiques and false claims over the past 10 years.
Or as Billboard describes, this song is used to “playfully declare her independence as a human whose life and actions aren’t up for debate”. We see lyrics such as ‘Yellow C A R D’ indicating a warning. BBIBBI is also the sound of a pager in Korea, hence stating, if you cross this yellow line, it’s a violation beep.
As a dedicated fan of hers, this was a very interesting release. The singer has gone through her fair share of rough press, ranging from her openly sharing her struggles with the eating disorder bulimia to being caught up in plagiarism controversies over her music.
Despite those chapters, her music has always been of a cheerful nature. Although she did not write the lyrics of this particular song, as a fan, I am proud that she is at a stage where she can openly declare and even create art out of such issues.
The art in this music video:
Initially, what struck me the very most were the visuals. The use of vibrant colours and vintage props such as corded telephone boxes really gave the entire video an interesting theme; both classic and modern.
This is really interesting, as ‘vintage’ is becoming really trendy in recent years. We are seeing high-street clothing stores stock up on film cameras and polaroid cameras. Even fashion seems to be recycled from the 1980’s, as old clothes found in my mother’s wardrobe are strikingly similar to those sold in stores today. This is interesting for me, as I quite enjoy the media and fashion from the 1970s – 1990s. I feel like it’s a theme that I can also incorporate into my own work in terms of props, what characters wear and when in history stories may be based.
Moreover, we witnessed a few seconds of 2D animation in the video! After learning the basics of how to animate matter this week, it was refreshing to be able to appreciate these animations in a way that I never did before.
The expressions displayed in the video, such as the subtle raise of one eyebrow gave the singer a sassy character which was also very striking, as this deviates from her day-to-day image.
I chose to blog about this music video as I was inspired by the entire concept, mood and theme of the video and song. I feel like I can really bring these sparks of modernity mixed with classic themes into my own artwork!
I hope you enjoy these 3 minutes and 28 seconds as much as I did!
Until next time,
Katie.
Reference:
1theK (원더케이). (2018). [MV] IU(아이유) _ BBIBBI(삐삐). [Online Video]. 10 October 2018. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM0xDI5R50E. [Accessed: 11 October 2018].