CRUSH

I LOVE IT HOW YG AND THE WORLD IS FULL OF GORGEOUS MEN AND THEY PICKED AN AVERAGE LOOKING ONE FOR THIS BECAUSE IT ACTUALLY MATTERS.
I've always wanted to write a long deep analyzing blogpost concerning things like this and finally I'm getting to do it! Still, this is only how I see these things.

Well, clearly, it's a dystopia they're living in in Come Back Home. Have I told you I love dystopias? Even the song says: "Don’t leave me at the end of this cold earth" - There are only a few people left on earth and more and more are escaping the reality to "Virtual Paradise", where all is well. Love is pretty much everything that's left in the real world and the guy being an average looking druggie in my opinion highlights that the planet is no paradise any more. It's not the same as thousands of years ago when smoking hot Korean pop stars made you think everyone looks like a sex god. Seriously, all the comments I've already seen about the man being "fugly" and "not attractive enough" only remind me of the wicked beauty standards we have these days.

About the lip sync then? It's distracting and nothing new. But it's not like the girls can't lip sync, in Happy MV they clearly can, right? I think it's intended here because of the story MV, they're thinking the lyrics out loud or something, I think that would fit the picture. It still doesn't stop being distracting though!

I'm really pleased with this video overall. It's very 2NE1, but still something new. I can't even describe it, but I've never heard anything alike. And hey, a story MV built with a lot of thought that is understandable! It's great that story MVs are made but it's easier said than done to make one that actually works. Sometimes you have to watch the video multiple times to understand what's going on. Here I, at least, get what's going on and can just relax like watching a movie, now that I don't have to push myself to figure out the plot. My absolutely favourite scene is when the girls have entered the "Virtual Paradise" and they gone blow shit up. They always gone blow shit up! Plus, this is how CG is done. I don't even mind the postponement.

Happy I like as well. It might be my favourite song from the album, which is good overall, even though it doesn't have any songs that would actually fricking blow my mind. Still good, still very good. Other faves might be MTBD, Come Back Home (unplugged version), and of course Scream is still awesome.

Again a happy video for a sad song, huh? Yes, Happy is actually quite a horrible song. Well fine, at least we won't get that depressed. And it's pretty, very pretty! I'm just wondering when this was shot, because it should be quite a long while ago, if you think about how fast hair grows and winter comes, haha.

(Dara is stunning no matter what she does. She told she got inspired by chicken. Fine. Whatever. Goddes.)

Would say it's 4/5 album and 5/5 videos from 2NE1.

I need more gender mixed groups

"I don't know if such a thing exists. I lived in Japan for 9 years and Japanese boys and girls are positively phobic of each other. The last group I remember having both male and female members was "Strawberry Flower". That was one guy and one girl who were married, but that was nearly 10 years ago. I've followed J-pop a little since then and I haven't heard of another one."

Oh Asians. That's just about everything I've got to say. Mixed groups could be such a success, but no, it's a taboo after all to have both girls and boys in an idol group. There sure are collaborations, which by the way, are often ridiculously popular. People love watching a company's family concerts, seeing all their favourites, both male and female, on the stage at the same time. And what about all those variety shows with kissing games and dramas filled with sexual tension?

Asians + sexuality is still such an unclear subject to me. It's so weird they can have music videos with people in tiny panties shaking their booties to the camera and so on, you know what I'm talking about. As a western person it's almost impossible for me to understand how all the fanservice is okay and dating a person you love is forbidden. Even if I try, I'll never understand dating "scandals". If the fear of these scandals is the reason for gender mixed groups not to exist, shouldn't you just ban all the possibilities of interaction between genders?

▼

From Korea, I have only one example of mixed groups to give you. Co-ed school. Oh, why would anyone ever debut a perfect group like this and then after one minialbum, separate them?

From Japan, I present you the only Asian mixed idol group I know still exists today: AAA (Triple A). I'm so glad they exist. Such a lovely group.

I really hope I haven't been searching well enough and that there actually would be more groups like this. Please, share your information if you have some! ♥

▼

In another news, Trouble Maker is coming back! I must have not been the only one who expected only one single from the subunit, so I'm happy. Any kinds of mixed groups and I'll be happy!
Also, maybe a bit offtopic: Chrome Entertainment, Crayon Pop's agency, plan on debuting a 5-member boy group in November! They also spoke of a possible collaboration. I love Crayon Pop and I'm really looking forward to this Snakehead debuting. Yeah, that's their name! I think it's quite cool.