(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.

A reply:

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.