Playlist Sunday: Weird K-Pop Songs
To people outside the fandom, K-pop is weird. And yet, for us in the know, it’s funny, because we know they haven’t seen anything yet. That’s why this week’s playlist is dedicated to those truly odd music videos that actually deserve the “bizarre” tag.
I remember feeling some slight anxiety and excitement while waiting for T.O.P’s “Doom Dada” to be released. Prior to this single, the last time he had a solo song was back in 2010, therefore, the anticipation was riding pretty high. “Doom Dada” was a roller coaster of emotions. My friend and I listened to the song first and watched the music video afterwards. There were moments where we both gave each other really puzzled “WHAT THE HELL?” looks and then there were moments where we were both in tears from laughing at the bigheaded masked baby. T.O.P’s fandom knows that he has strange characteristics; it’s hard to really figure what goes through his head most of the time, so I can’t say I was completely surprised by this song and music video. If anything, it just makes me want to dig deeper and ask him a lot of questions.
— Tam
No collection of weird K-pop songs is complete without the Godfather of Weird, Seo Taiji. In 1992, along with his Boys, he ushered in a new age of Korean pop music. And thanks to his roots in rap, metal, and pop, that age would go on to be a profoundly weird one. So it is because of him that we now have such a diverse of music within K-pop. To show he’s still got it, I picked his most recent single “Christmalo.win” for today’s playlist. “Christmalo.win” combines all of thes influences into one rip-roaring piece that somehow works. It’s the perfect mix between Halloween and Christmas sounds coming off like “The Nightmare Before Christmas” except good (yeah, I went there!). The song bounces between genres with electronics taking up the most of it with interjections of metal and rap. It is a perfect summation of the man and K-pop that a song like this can be released in 2014 and not be considered utterly groundbreaking. To Korea, it’s just Seo Taiji, the President of Culture.
–Joe
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If your first thought after watching “Bae Bae” wasn’t “WTF??” there’s something far more wrong with you than with BIGBANG. Seriously, where do I even begin? How about the fact that they made the fangirls’ minds run amok when they said the video would be 19+, only to be surprised with G-Dragon getting handsy with furniture, T.O.P having a very metaphorical sex scene, and all of the members lifting girls’ skirts? I mean, did anyone even pay attention to the actual song –which is quite good, by the way — on their first viewing of the music video? Not this girl. “Bae Bae” is an overall mind fxxk, but a very interesting one. You can watch it multiple times and you will always find something funny or weird you hadn’t noticed before. Some boy bands get cutesy or funny on their music videos to cater to fans. BIGBANG gets weird, and that’s perfectly fine with VIPs.
— Alexis
Of all the weird, early K-pop concepts that I’ve seen (H.O.T, I’m looking at you,) Lee Jung Hyun has always been the weirdest of them all. She is the queen of performances in South Korea, after all. “Wa” is iconic in K-pop but not truly because of its musical style instead, it is primarily famous because of Lee’s live performances. The song is a rhythmic pop-techno fusion song and extremely catchy, and the music video is absolutely insane, with space ships and kimonos and who really knows what. But it’s when Lee performs “Wa” live that I think all of her crazy, weirdness comes out. Definitely check out the music video sometime, but you can’t miss out on Lee dancing her iconic fan performance and using her pinky finger like a microphone. If you’re interested in seeing her perform the song more recently, Lee performed the song on “Infinite Challenge” Totoga earlier this year.
— Tamar
If it weren’t for the sensual reggae vibes of the song, I think I would be a little nervous watching the music video for PRIMARY’s “Don’t Be Shy.” Let’s just say that if I were a parent, I would think twice about letting my girls have a sleepover after this. The video revolves around a less than average sleepover with AOA’s ChoA and friends, where we witness them rip apart Barbie dolls, play ghost dress-up, and summon spirits in the dark; I bet somewhere in there there is a satanic message waiting to be decoded. The whole music video is a nod towards ‘90s grunge, if the Pokemon cards and the gritty quality were not enough indication of that. And even if you don’t fully understand the subculture you can’t deny how much of a total babe ChoA is looking. Her unmatched talents will have you revisiting the video again and again, and saying creepy is the new aesthetics anyways.
— Shelley
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Yes, we already have them in the list, but we can’t help it. BIGBANG are known for being weird and crazy most of the time, but with their newest release “Zutter” by GD & T.O.P., they hit a home run. First of all, what does zutter even mean? The video not only starts with them peeing, but it also has this crazy story, that after seeing the video repeatedly, I still don’t get what the video and song are about. I’m pretty sure T.O.P.’s slimey slaughter of something blurry and the puing of guts has somewhat of a metaphorical artsy meaning. Nevertheless, the video is not only weird, but it’s funny in a really crazy way. What gets weirder than T.O.P. peeing on G-Dragon? I honestly don’t think anything could top that. The song is really good and it seems as if it could have been in their first debut album as a duo.
— Alejandro
What’s the weirdest K-pop song you’ve ever heard? The weirdest K-pop music video you’ve ever seen? Let us know your picks in the comment section below and be sure to subscribe to the site and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr to keep up with all of our posts.