(Source, all screenshots)
HyunA’s definitely bringing more awareness to K-Pop on a global level, and this MV definitely highlights all the things we love about K-pop. (Allkpop)
With enough T&A to fill an American Apparel catalogue, I couldn’t agree more. And I’m not the only one whose honest impression is that the combination of red high heels, ripped jean shorts, and a singlet looks “kinda pornstar-ish” either. Add her notorious “sex face” above too, then I have to admit it’s difficult for me to judge this particular MV without also being influenced by my feelings about pornography.
Specifically, just how unsexy many women actually feel when doing MVs and photoshoots like this:
When you get yourself into the really contortionist position that you’ve got to hold up and your back hurts and you’ve got to suck in your stomach, you’ve got to stick your hips out, you’ve got to arch your back and you’ve got to stick your butt out all at the same time and suck in and hold your breath, you don’t feel sexy. You feel pain. And you feel like you want to kill [the photographer]. (Alex Arden, former Penthouse “Pet of the Month”; quoted in Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, p. 42.)
Lest that be projecting too much into a split-second expression of HyunA’s however (although I too would still be “surprised [if] she didn’t sprain her butt” while filming), others have also noticed the lack of genuine sexiness in much of the MV:
It seems like the choreographer or director doesn’t trust her to be capable of being sexy without sexy moves.
You’re right. It seems like she was told to move that way, as opposed to her just free styling with the music.
And another commenter later (my emphasis):
As for the sexiness of the video, girl is trying to hard and it is awkward. I mean Hyunah is a sexy pretty girl and doesn’t have to do much to be sexy, and is also quite the dancer. But here its like she is trying to be sexy rather than just being sexy if that makes sense. The dance is nothing to write home about, and Hyunah can do a lot better than what the choreographers are giving her.
What’s more, I think I speak for many heterosexual men when I say that many of these robotic “sexy moves”, mandatory for young women in K-pop and the Korean media, actually don’t do it for us at all. Instead, they merely reduce:
…a concept as complicated, multilayered, and diverse as [female sexuality]…to expression through a single channel…one involving lacy lingerie, skintight clothing, and the rest of what Ariel Levy calls “the caricature of female hotness”…[this] has to be seen as construction or a fabrication, in which the complexities of the subject are flattened into a single, authoritative dimension, and in which all other possibilities are erased. (Meenakshi Durham, The Lolita Effect, p. 71)
(Not that there isn’t still much for heterosexual men — and lesbians — to like in the MV of course. These camera angles, for instance, are similar to those repeatedly used in Girls’ Generation’s Genie, not by coincidence still one of the most {soft} pornographic Korean MVs out there)
But the K-pop memes in, and surrounding, the MV don’t stop there. For despite everything, there’s been a lot of criticism of its sexual nature, in which Angry KPop Fan sees a big double-standard:
…it’s true that we’re seeing quite a few ‘sexy’ images in kpop nowadays, including Hyuna, and a lot of the reactions I’ve come across were quite negative. A very common thing I’ve heard around was that though “Bubble Pop” is a ‘cute song’, the dance (and Hyuna) was ‘too sexy’. This brings me back to when I first shared my opinion about Rania and their debut. Allow me to quote some awesome points a couple of readers brought up during the Rania discussion, which nicely sum up the core of my perspective:
…the double standard that when female artists wear “provocative” clothes they’re “sluts” but when male artists rip off their shirt it’s, “WAAAAAH!!!!”
Why should feeling sexy be a taboo?
…there doesn’t have to be any negative connotations attached if society doesn’t force one upon it.
I believe there’s nothing wrong with ‘sexual content’. The problem lies in how we, the audience, has perceived it over the years. Why is it that we get so, I guess, ‘turned off’ when we see concepts that are ‘too sexy’, ESPECIALLY when it involves women? You can already start seeing how this can come off as sexist and misogynistic. This is where I play often-played double-standard card: do we criticize just as much when our male stars rip their shirts off and thrust against the stage’s floor? It’s something to think about.
After all that, it may come as some surprise that I actually quite like HyunA, and agree with many offline and online friends that she looks well on her way to becoming the next Lee Hyori.
But still, typical gushing enthusiasm from Allkpop aside, let’s not have any illusions as to why the MV has gained so many hits so quickly. Nor, in light of what being a such an idol actually entails, should we take on face value narratives of female sexual empowerment in Kpop that rely on little more evidence than women wearing a lot of tight, revealing clothes. Yet that seems to be the default reaction to any criticism of the MV.
How about the lyrics though? As you’d expect from what is set to be the breezy summer song of 2011, there’s only a grand total of two verses and a chorus, but at first glance there is actually a bit of grrrl power-lite to them. It’s such a pity then, that while she may singing about, say, asserting her independence and not changing to something her boyfriend would prefer, at the same time in the MV she’ll be pouting and being a girly-girl. Indeed, does that ultimately only serve to frame the former in terms of the latter? Hmmm…
Bubble Pop! Bubble Pop!
처음부터 끝까지 날 바꾸려 하지 마
아니면 차라리 다른 사람 만나 (우 우우우우 너)
투덜대지 마! (우 우우우우 너)
밤 늦게 나가서 놀면 좀 어때
어쩌다 전화 안 받으면 어때 (우 우우우우 hey)
왜 자꾸 그래 너! 나를 못 믿니
Bubble Pop! Bubble Pop!
From our beginning to our end, don’t plan on changing me
If not, I’d rather you met someone else (Oooh…ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh you)
Don’t grumble or complain! (Oooh…ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh you)
What’s wrong with going out late to hang out?
What’s wrong with not answering my phone sometimes? (Oooh…ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh hey)
Why are you often like that? You don’t trust me
For a change, I’ve decided against a literal translation. By all means, please ask me to explain anything in today’s translation that you don’t understand, but in the meantime one small thing of note is that she never actually says “What’s wrong with…?” in lines 4 and 5, but literally “How about…?”. Also, she actually says “What’s wrong with going out late to play?” in line 4, but, as I regularly explain to my students (usually after silently laughing to their “I played a lot with my boyfriend last night”), the English word is not really used by adults.
Next, there’s the chorus:
(Woo boy!) 너에게 날 맞추진 마
(Hey boy!) 나에게 더 바라진 마
(My boy!) 거품처럼 커진 맘을
Bubble Bubble Bubble Pop! Bubble Bubble Pop! Pop!
(Woo boy!) 있는 그대로 생각해 봐
(Hey boy!) 보이는 대로 날 바라봐 줘
거품처럼 커진 맘을
Bubble Bubble Bubble Pop! Bubble Bubble Pop! Pop!
(Woo boy!) Don’t try to make me more like you
(Hey boy!) Don’t expect more from me
(My boy!) My heart, which has become big like a bubble
Bubble Bubble Bubble Pop! Bubble Bubble Pop! Pop!
(Woo boy!) Try to think of me like this
(Hey boy!) Please look at me the way I really look
My heart, which has become big like a bubble
Bubble Bubble Bubble Pop! Bubble Bubble Pop! Pop!
In lines 1 and 2, the definitions for “맞추다” and “바라다” – “bring into line with” and “expect, hope for” respectively – were a surprise to me at first, but that’s because I was confusing them with the completely different “멈추다” and “바라보다”. Much more difficult to resolve though, was the repeated “거품처럼 커진 맘을”. Literally, it’s “bubble-like-big-changed-heart”, but the “을” next to the heart (“마음”, shortened to “맘”) makes it the object and not the subject, which would be indicated by “이” or “은”. So what happens to this heart made bigger? That seems to be left unresolved, although I’m assuming that it’s popped, as indicated in the next (English) sentences.
That makes no sense in terms of the narrative of the song though (to the extent that there is one), so I’d appreciate any alternative explanations!
말은 좀 예쁘게 해 웃을 땐 얌전하게
연락은 좀 자주해 Huh! Huh! 너나 잘해 Hey Hey Hey Hey
Bubble Bubble Pop! Pop! (우 우우우우)
웃다가 가끔 우울하면 어때
좋다가 갑자기 싫어짐 어때 (우 우우우우)
왜 자꾸 그래 너! 나를 모르니
Please speak nicely, and laugh gently and modestly
Call me often Huh! Huh! You’re the one that should do better
Bubble Bubble Pop! Pop! (Ooh…ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)
What’s wrong with sometimes feeling depressed or crying after laughing?
What’s wrong with hating everything after feeling good? (Ooh…ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)
Why are you so often like this? Don’t you know me?
In line 2, “너나 잘해” (“You’re the one that should do better”) is a slang expression I learnt from my wife. HyunA asking her boyfriend to call her more often just before that though, seems a little contradictory, as she’s already admitted that she’s not going to be answering sometimes (and that he shouldn’t complain about that).
And hell, combine that with the pouting, the childishness, the strategic jiggling and strutting of one’s physical assets…then as I type this, I’m suddenly left with the feeling that the whole combined song and MV is an ode to “aegyo” (애교) and especially “princess disease” (공주병). No, not the narcissism that comes with the latter, but more the whining and bratty behavior (and aegyo) to get one’s way with one’s boyfriend.
And with just two more rounds of the chorus to go (albeit with a particularly robotic dance break in between), then let me leave you on that polemical note!
Update 1 - In response to the Korea Broadcasting and Communications Review Committee deeming HyunA’s choreography and outfits for “Bubble Pop” to be ‘too sexually suggestive’ for public broadcast (both in the music video and stage performances), Cube entertainment has abruptly ended all promotions for the song.
Update 2 - Essential extra reading: “HyunA vs Hyun-ah: Deconstructing Korea’s Sexy Idol” at Mixtapes and Liner Notes.
Was talking about it with my wife the other day and we felt maybe the whole “bbble pop ” thing is a play on the old English slang “sorry to burst your bubble ” referring to the boyfriend’ s ideas. While it seems to work with the song it could just be an accident.
Thanks. I’ll bear that in mind when I take a second look at the translation tomorrow.
No comment on the derived Britney-esque faux-Dubstep break?
Also, how about the concept of contrived sexiness being more of a turn on for some portion of Korean men than actual natural sexy confidence? Or a lack of ability or willingness to differentiate the two?
I’m so cynical.
I didn’t mention any Britney connections because it’s just two blogs that are claiming that there are any (see the allkpop post), and even most of the commenters at those disagree with the claims too.
wow, you really have nothing better to do than this?
I gotta admit, when I first watched the video, I was less than impressed. “Ugh, there she goes again, trying to be sexy for the camera.”
Then I thought, wait, if the Pussycat Dolls can squeeze together their breasts and shake their asses without me so much as batting an eye, why did I feel bothered by HyunA’s video?
Because it was K-pop, and I for one rarely see that kind of behavior from girls in MVs, let alone in live performances. Made me realize right then and there that K-pop was doing its magic and making me see that only ‘aegyo’ was acceptable from girls. Ok, it’s not the sexy that we like to see, but maybe it’s because we’re still learning how to accept ‘Sexy’ from girls in K-pop culture.
Anyway, great post!
I thought the ‘커진 맘을’ was his.
Anyway, I’ve been sad to see youtube comments like the one you’ve quoted here – which are so blatantly and purely slut shaming – gain traction as legitimate commentary. The arguments seem to have come to life in an alternate world from the video and performance– suddenly the viewers are experts on judging, based on some silly moves, whether the artist feels uncomfortable doing the video, whether she’s only told to be sexy. Without any basis in facts, statements or empirical observations they take away all her agency – and this from someone apparently concernced with her well-being. What we’re left with is a new, theoretical creature, the helpless woman. It’s ‘funny’ that this is done to someone who’s actually spoken out about these things — we have so little faith in her that we’d rather trust conspiracy theories than her own words.
Now let’s look at the actual thing. A summery video, partially set on the beach or by the pool, with people dressed in summery outfits, and Hyuna doing a whole lot of excercise, some coming off a bit clumsy (the black dress part), some fairly sexy. The song is not particularly ‘cute’ – it’s bright and peppy, and not gritty electro, but certainly not cutesy – the dubstep break fits in quite well. Thank god she didn’t have to wear layer upon layer shooting all that movement in the summer heat. I don’t see what’s wrong with being ‘girly’ here, there’s no infantilization going on, and by all accounts she is a pretty girly girl.
“Should we take on face value narratives of female sexual empowerment in Kpop that rely on little more evidence than women wearing a lot of tight clothes?”
Well, should we instead assume that a girl is ‘slutty’ or that her sexiness is unnatural based on even less evidence – indeed only on assumptions that all pop star girls, lack agency, and in extension suggesting that this behavior is wrong for all girls? Or is that, in fact, more damaging?
Obviously the video’s 10 million hits have been helped by a sizzling video, but the song is pretty damn catchy on its own.
Sorry, but I’m extremely confused by this paragraph, for many reasons:
- I don’t quote any Youtube comments. The ones I think you’re referring to come from Seoulbeats, as I indicated.
- Regardless, I don’t see how any of the comments quoted in this post are “blatantly and purely slut shaming”.
- Are you saying those Youtube comments are “gain[ing] traction as legitimate commentary” specifically through this post? Or do you mean in general?
- I’m guessing the former, as by “The arguments”, I’m assuming you mean the ones in this post, as later you say “this from someone [me] apparently concerned with her well-being”. If so, then beyond what I’ve already provided, I simply don’t know what extra “acts, statements or empirical observations” I can provide for your sake to support my – by definition quite subjective – opinion that the MV presents a very robotic, artificial, and narrow version of female sexuality. Certainly I could have broken down the MV much more comprehensively (and I’m happy to do so in this comments thread), but then much of what I claim about the MV and lyrics I consider self-evident. You clearly don’t, and that’s fine, but while – jumping ahead to your next paragraph – that is partially because we clearly have a very different concept of “cute”, on the other hand I think you’re missing some very obvious things in the video, as I’ll discuss in a moment.
- What I certainly don’t do, though, is create a theoretical helpless woman, nor a conspiracy theory. Granted, HyunA lacks a voice in my analysis here, and certainly it would benefit from it. But then I actually couldn’t give a rat’s ass if she personally claims to have agency, not be helpless, and all about grrrl power etc., yet presents completely the opposite image in the MV.
Hey, I’ll grant that my opening paragraph and then quote may have been confusing. But their main purpose was to get readers thinking about what “sexy” meant exactly (especially from the subjects themselves), and I did clearly acknowledge that I may have been projecting too much onto HyunA by saying her sexy pose(s) may actually have been quite uncomfortable (and I further acknowledge that, like Paul Kerry says in a later comment, she might actually have been supposed to look unhappy in the {hilarious} opening image). However, whether it was from that confusion or something else, you really seemed to have created a big strawman argument here.
For Chrissake, she’s holding a lollipop in many shots (I think 1:37 is the first), and then there’s her faux crying at 1:41. And were it not 12:05am here and time for me to go to bed, then I’m sure I could go on. But although, again, a lot of our different interpretations of those will simply boil down to our personal definitions of various terms, I will say that I don’t think you quite realize the contradiction and irony in saying you don’t see what’s wrong with being “girly”, and that she’s a “pretty girly girl”, yet also claim “there’s no infantilization going on”.
Again, a strawman argument: where exactly do I assume, or even quote others that assume, “that a girl is ‘slutty’…based on [no] evidence”? And as for assuming that her sexiness is unnatural being based on no evidence, I’d like to point out that my argument that the sexiness of many (I did say only “many”: her booty-shaking and boob-jiggling are obvious exceptions!) of her so called “sexy moves” etc. is undermined by the exact same ones being virtually mandatory of young (almost never 30+) women in K-pop and the Korean media, is, well, probably the thing I provide the most evidence for in the entire post!
Finally, yet again, I’m not claiming that pop star girls necessarily lack agency. But I will again argue that in the lyrics to this song though, that while the message she’s giving is one of using that agency to alter her boyfriend’s attitude and/or behavior towards her, the MV strongly suggests that the best method of doing that is using aegyo (and to a lesser extent, showing off her T&A).
(Will respond to the other comments in the morning…zzz..z.zz.)
Make that THURSDAY sorry!
It seems like the choreographer or director doesn’t trust her to be capable of being sexy without sexy moves.
Nor does it seem possible to make “oohs” and “ahs” sound any less like an orgasm.
I agree there is a double standard when it comes to being sexy on stage. But honestly when male idols are constantly ripping off their shirts or showing up in mvs without one for NO REASON WHATSOEVER(ahem..Taeyang), it’s also like their trying so hard to be sexy that it’s funny. For me personally, anyone male or female who is trying so hard to be sexy just comes off as desperate, whether it be in the US or in Korea. I think it’s more intriguing and entertaining to hold back a bit.
I’ve also noticed that, especially from Rain. Years ago, he finally made me realize how there were similar things female performers did for men, but that I’d previously been too busy enjoying them to notice.
Isn’t she supposed to be unhappy in the first pic?
What really struck me about the video was how much it copied Hyo-ri’s “fetish bingo” style. Quick cuts between costume changes that can be used to vary live appearances; quasi narrative; four backing dancers featured as semi characters; scene changes; use of bold color; retouching … everything.
anyway, the lyrics. The subject of the verbs is abit frustrating: “Speak nicely, and laugh gently and modestly; call me often” — that’s the bloke being quoted, presumably. But:
밤 늦게 나가서 놀면 좀 어때
어쩌다 전화 안 받으면 어때
I’m not sure if she’s complaining about him, or criticising his complaining. And who’s big heart (broad mind) is being popped? hers or his?
Sorry: still very busy because both my kids are on holiday this week, but will try to incorporate your and other’s comments about the translation in an edit tomorrow. But in the meantime, is this what you meant by “Fetish Bingo”?
HI all,
I’ve been absent for a while b/c of busyness with teaching but this thread impels me to jump in for a number of reasons–knew that I would be as soon as I saw you were handling Bubble Pop, but I have lots of comments on the comments. First of all, a subjective remark: James, as you know, I just happen to think this is one hell of a catchy song, one of my favorite K-pop songs ever. Well-crafted, bouncy, clever. Personally I don’t care as much for the dubstep break, but we’re entering into the realm of taste here, so all of this is essentially irrelevant, but in the interests of full disclosure….And let me add that I’ve put it on several times to listen to even without the visuals, so it’s not just about Hyuna’s sexiness, and on that I’ll simply say that personally for me parts of it are indeed very, very sexy and appealing, and parts of it (i.e. some of the more robotic moves in the break and the butt-jiggling in the cutoffs) to the end much less so. Maybe in some parts trying too hard, yes, but in others (esp. the more joyful jumping around dance sequences), very appealing. But again, all pretty subjective….
A bit less subjective, though, or at least space for a debate with arguments that rely on textual evidence is on the overall interpretation of the video, its lyrics and its reception, and I’m going to have to say I’m with abcfsk for the most part here. One point to start, (and think about my mentioning to you that I think she has really staked out territory as the clear contender to become Korea’s next Lee Hyori) is that this is a solo piece rather than with 4Minute and I see really different dynamics in what is going on than what we might expect from an ensemble performance.
As far as the lyrics go (and this is supported by the visuals), I definitely think it is an expression of a determined young woman who is controlling the dynamics of the relationship–whether you want to then say it is gongjubyeong (fair enough) is different. It seems clear (to me at least) that she is warning the male not to step out of line and that she will maintain her freedom. I agree with abcfsk that the inflated 맘 that is going to be popped is the bf’s not Hyuna’s. I don’t even think in this case there is all that much ambiguity, despite the lack of clear referent. It seems the only logical reading from the rest of the lyrics and from, e.g., the sequence where Hyuna pushes him into the pool simply b/c he smiles back at women who have smiled at him. She is essentially demanding the right to go out as she pleases, ignore him, be late for dates and be moody—but the moment he steps out of line. Boom. And she feels she can do it because she is special….okay, let’s call it gongjubyeong. That’s fine, and you can find it obnoxious but I don’t see it as disempowering. Also, I think you’re misinterpreting this section: “ Please speak nicely, and laugh gently and modestly/ Call me often Huh! Huh! You’re the one that should do better”. She isn’t asking her bf to call more often or to be 얌전하다 but repeating back his requests to her and then dismissing them (the vocab in the first line of the first seems pretty clearly gendered to me and indicating direction). That’s part of the whole point, I think.
As far as the aegyo goes, yes, partly comes across as an additional device to wrap said bf around her finger: the faux crying I read more as a gesture in choreography at that point in relation to the lyrics which imply mood swings rather than as a suggestion that it is faked when she moves from laughing to being depressed. The lollipop, yeah, sure out and out tease. You can call it aegyo if you want James, I like your characterization of grrrl-power lite. That seems about right to me for the way I’d take this vid.
I have to say that I too have been fairly surprised, along at the reaction that it has received on YouTube of the sort that abcfsk points to (whether you’re referring to it or not, James; I’ve been following itmyslef). On average, K-pop videos seem to keep something like a 10:1 like to dislike ratio on YT, but Bubble Pop has been running more in the 3:1 range which is fairly low, and there has been a LOT of negative commentary of the sort abcfsk mentions speaking of slutty actions. To me a lot of the visuals are little different from most K-pop videos but I think that there are three or four very quick but crucial shots that color the reaction of viewers. The first and probably most important is the one you use to start your post, the three second sequence around 0:34 where she is grinding back at a guy in what is essentially clothed, dancing intercourse. I think that colors people’s views (whether subliminally or not b/c in M/Vs everything happens so quickly) for all else that…erm…comes . . (Btw, @ J. Goard, I wouldn’t call those oohs and aahs the sound of orgasm—very, very sexual, yes, but more along the lines of additional tease than orgasmic, per se…).
James, I’m not sure I saw your mention of the “sex face” and citation of the penthouse pet talking about posing for still shoots was really a propos here (and was glad to see that you offer a bit of clarification on that): you have taken a snap of a moving dance sequence, and if you ran that three seconds as a repeating gif, the overall impression would not be contortion and pain but a fairly easy eroticism, including the facial expressions. In fact, as noted, it’s what I think a lot of viewers are most responding to in what abcfsk calls “slut-shaming”. The other more-sexual-than-usual bits (i.e. I wouldn’t expect to see it in a 4Minute video, but it’d be part of the territory with Hyori) are the butt-jiggling mentioned above, the bit (fairly subtle, but Sai notes it too) where she is pressing her breasts together to enhance cleavage for a shot, and the way she runs her hands between her legs in the break sequence.
Two final bits: the bubble metaphor certainly has resonance elsewhere in Korean discourse that I can think of. The late Park Wan-suh has an excellent story that I’ve considered translating called 포말의 집 which was written in the 70s and is a first person narrative about a married woman who meets a young guy (I forget if he is tutor to her children—been a long time since I’ve read it) who confesses his eagerness to be a gigolo of sorts but when she takes him up on the opportunity when her husband is away on an overseas business trip, he’s too nervous to perform and she mocks him—the story isn’t erotic but much more a portrait of social malaise.
Finally, before I end this long response, does anybody know where the video was filmed? I’m guessing Boracay, Guam or Saipan which in itself is a bit interesting, but I leave that for another time and apologize for any typos above or a lack of careful ordering or any inconsistency of my points. Gotta run now and want to send click before I start my day, but really wanted to engage with all of this…..
The MV was filmed in Okinawa.
Thanks.
you have taken a snap of a moving dance sequence, and if you ran that three seconds as a repeating gif, the overall impression would not be contortion and pain but a fairly easy eroticism
That’s a really good point. Although I’m very aware of this phenomenon in the abstract, I admit that I got taken in by James’ interpretation of the still.
Sorry. Like I explained in my long comment above, I should have been much clearer in the intro that that was just a means to get people thinking about what “sexy” meant exactly, especially for female performers.
What is with the ridiculous obligatory rap parts inserted into kpop songs? They so obviously don’t fit in at all and make the entire song laughable. However, in this case I can’t agree that the rest of the song is worth anything by itself. As for the video, some may argue that acting sexy is empowering, but the entire purpose of the act is to gain the admiration of the opposite sex, and I fail to see what’s empowering about trying so hard to turn men on. This entire video comes off as one big desperate attempt to prove how hot HyunA is. There is no artistic value, no creativity, and no substance. I feel like performers who constantly push the “sexiness” are just trying to cover up a lack of talent and originality and to get by on an image, which is why it’s so hard for me to take a lot of kpop artists seriously.
I first noticed the obligatory rap in Oppa by Wax, which came out soon after I first arrived in Korea back in May 2000. Unfortunately, I haven’t noticed any decrease in it since.
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And here I am, failing to see what is so special or great about it.
“Should we take on face value narratives of female sexual empowerment in Kpop that rely on little more evidence than women wearing a lot of tight clothes?”
Well, should we instead assume that a girl is ‘slutty’ or that her sexiness is unnatural based on even less evidence – indeed only on assumptions that all pop star girls, lack agency, and in extension suggesting that this behavior is wrong for all girls? Or is that, in fact, more damaging?
James has already given a great response to abcfsk, but I just wanted to add a few things. I don’t think espousing either idea or their opposites without skepticism is a good idea, nor is it what James is suggesting here. I think rather, he’s pointing out that HyunA’s sexy performances are unoriginal and manufactured, and thus do nothing to improve or complicate the way k-pop presents images of women. Of course no one’s saying that all pop star girls lack agency, but it’s pretty clear that women’s bodies in k-pop are often policed by netizens and cultural commissions, while at the same time being pushed into the representations that draw such reactions by the industry’s reliance on sex appeal to sell records. Even if being sexy is their choice, they’re stripped of their ability to lay claim to that choice when in interviews they deny that their performances are sexy at all. (Example is Rania, but SNSD has said this before as well – no link right now, sorry). So you can’t exactly say that a girl dancing suggestively and showing skin is promoting female sexual empowerment when often doing these dances and showing that skin is coupled with incidences of disempowerment of female pop stars. Doesn’t mean that nothing good can come out of the act itself (or that we should attach any moral qualifications to it at all), just that as it stands, it’s not helping her or anyone else much.
Thanks Mellowyel, that puts it much better than I did. And like you say in your excellent post, it’s important to make a distinction between HyunA the idol and Kim Hyun-ah the woman.
Even though I genuinely really enjoy this song, I think my main discomfort with Hyuna in “Bubble Pop!” is that she is barely 18, and even before she hit 18, her role has definitely been that of the erotic sexual object. While I think HyunA is pretty, confident, and has a lot of rhythm and flow, her postures at sexuality feel inorganic and forced. I can’t really say that I would be more okay with it if she was older, but I don’t really think HyunA, at this point in her life, understands the implications of the sexuality she is portraying. But alas, her aegyo and her booty shaking are part of a hit formula for female idols.
Oops well apparently she was 19 in June, but my concern remains the same.
When I first saw this song, I disliked it. She was shaking her butt the whole time and trying to be sexy and it just seemed stupid. Plus, the song was just ridiculous.
It wasn’t until a while later that I saw it again that I came around and really start to like the song especially the music video. It’s fun, silly, and breezy. Sometimes, I can’t help but laugh at its fun nature or the ridiculously simple song and the equally ridiculous butt shake dance. I just don’t take it seriously anymore.
But what I want to talk about is comparing this to boybands because I don’t know enough about the girl groups to give a good analysis but I know the boy groups much better. Most boy groups do sexy as a periphery thing.
For sexy boybands’ music videos, one of the members will be on shirtless duty and at some point do a brief shirtless scene and the camera will linger on them for a second or two. Yet, I’m finding that many of the girl group songs do the exact same thing like Joon was shirtless in Bubble Pop for probably just as long as he would be in an MBLAQ music video, and I swear After School RED had the camera linger on a shirtless guy just as much as it ever lingered on the girls. Very rarely will the guy be shirtless the entire music video and usually at least in the case of Super Junior if the guy is shirtless the entire video then the camera doesn’t stop to linger on him. It’s just him being him and it isn’t really trying to be sexy. Usually shirtlessness is a tease and often the guy will lift his shirt so briefly in live performances that you don’t really see anything other than a flash of skin and after a week or two they’re likely to make a pretense of lifting their shirt without showing anything.
I don’t remember many crotch grabs among the boys in the music videos (though MBLAQ did that recently) but personally I don’t like the guys grabbing their crotches so it comes across as far from sexy to me though some fans appear to think it is sexy. Recently though there has been an emphasis on sleeveless shirts especially among Beast, Infinite, and MBLAQ. With Infinite, it is a little ridiculous with most of the guys not wearing sleeves anymore.
More often they loose their shirt entirely in concerts or magazine spreads. Magazines love for the guys to remove their clothes and I remember Beast said all the guys would at one point take off their shirts at their concert. That’s where the guys are the most exposed not their music videos or live performances.
My point is that it is very rare for a boy group to do a song where the entire performance is based on them being sexy. The only person who does that as far as I can think of is Rain in Love Song, and that was a while ago.
To me, this seems to contrast a lot with some girl groups like Rania with Dr. Feel Good and HyunA with Bubble Pop where it appears that sex is one of the central premises of the song, rather than just something that accentuates it. HyunA’s signature dance move for the song was literally a butt shake and how many guys have their signature dance move be a pelvic thrust or them throwing off their clothes?
So I think the argument that people make that people don’t look at guys the same way is wrong. I don’t think people care if the girls shake their butt. They care when the dance is based around butt shakes and there aren’t many male equivalents to that. Then again, I don’t remember many people objecting to Rain’s Love Song.
Sex as a “periphery thing” is what drives k-pop marketing, though – for both girls and guys. As James’s translation shows, “Bubble Pop” the song has nothing to do with sex, though the choreography suggests it heavily. And this is most often the case – both boy bands and girl groups will “suggest” sex but never actually mention it in their songs. Until of course, “Dr. Feel Good”. I have a soft spot for that song because it really exposed the hypocrisy of the k-pop industry. They can suggest it all they want, but when someone actually makes a song that’s kind of about sex, and add that to the sexy choreography it causes this huge uproar. I also think though, that Rania were overly criticized because they were a rookie group – T-ara’s “I Go Crazy Because Of You” could also be seen as kind of about sex, with sexy choreography (though no hip thrusts or wide-leg-spread dance, lol) but it ended up being one of their most successful tracks to date, no scandals at all.
Also, there are different pressures on guys and girls in k-pop when it comes to their bodies (and on guys and girls in general). Girls are expected to show a lot of skin – just teasing skin isn’t enough. For guys, since the majority of k-pop fans are female (as we seem to be finding out through discussions on this blog) they only need to hint at that sexuality to make the girls swoon. Girl groups, however, are constantly trying to tap into their male audience, so have to continuously work to get their attention. That being said, though, the guys are constantly being scrutinized for their abs and exercise regimen, and often asked in variety shows to flash their abs, the same way HyunA and other stars are always asked to do their sexy dance. All of these are part of that marketing strategy to have the girls swooning and buying albums and concert tickets. The songs or performances themselves may not be all that sexual, but the industry tries to tap into the subconscious of their target audience by hinting it as much as possible.
Finally, for an example of a boy band song that is pretty much about sex, with sexy choreography, see “Let It Snow” by B2ST’s Jang Hyun-seung and Lee Ki-Kwang (the performance embedded below is very telling):
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ8VfXQCgw4?rel=0&w=640&h=390%5D
i see your point about the “forced sexyness” in the rainbow girl dance video. she is actually clumsy, like a doll or something like that, she es even robotic sometimes. that’s not sexy or atractive at all.
what i definitely like about hyuna`s song, now that i see the lyrics translated, is some attitude they show about a girl who doesn´t fall into the typical “oppa” thing, she doesnt try to do everything to please him. even though there is alot of aegyo and that sort of things in the video.
and in the last two screenshots, i cant help remembering one of my friends, she is a peruvian-argentinian girl, she looks exactly like hyunah!
thanks, James, for this interesting explanation and translation of that song. I only heard the news about the scandal mv so far and just watched it.
I totally agree with your last fazit that the mv seems like a homage to the clichée of the lolita aegyo-effect. HyunA maybe can get to Lee Hyoris Level of a sexbomb, but she’s way too young for that. Maybe in 10 years.
I came tot like Lee Hyori (and me being female) coz her sexiness has quality like Jennifer Lopez or Ciara and is presented in photos, MV etc. in an aesthetic way. It’s no shame to show off your well trained body, it’s what also actors do and it’s one of the main factors to get your audience as an entertainer.
While Lee Hyoris MV (like the Anystar, Anymotion, Anyclub-Sequels) have an interesting cheoreography, costums and some undrstandable storyline I just find this video childish. But what’s exactly the point? It’s nothing new coz we’ve already seen tons of MV with aegyo-grils (Kara, T-ara etc.)
It looks like the producers don’t really trust the young HyunA to become a new sexsymbol. Too bad the MV looks so cheap although I bet it’s not. The dancers are great with awesome bodies, it’s a shame the video makes them cheap and buries my respect for dancers in this industrie. What the hell was the director thinking? Or better the concept manager of HyunA’s image?! Seeing Rhiannas revealing MVs although she started out young too it’s no big deal to show off female curves, but why making it look so cheap in this MV? That’s the real thing what makes me mad. The girls is practically made into meat.
Hey, um from the eng translation on youtube, she was actually saying your heart is like a bubble bubble bubble bubble pop. Well, thats what i got from other translations and fan-made eng versions.
*Your heart lies are like bubbles
This song used to really confuse me too with the whole “big bubble-like heart” part, but then my South Korean friend explained that when someone is considered to be a “bubbly person”, it means they are a big liar. Their lies spread/expand like bubbles—the bigger the “bubble”, the bigger the lie. So I guess when she sings “Heart that has become big like a bubble…Bubble bubble pop pop,” it’s like saying his love/feelings are lies if he’s going to be that way, so he should pop his heart that has become big like a bubble(a big lie).
Although the song doesn’t clearly stated whose heart she’s talking about, the little “my boy” before the line leads me to believe she’s directing the comment towards him and HIS heart. Anyway, that’s my theory on the meaning of that particular line in the song. :)
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