Top 3 Choreographed K-Indie Videos

As I mentioned the dance as one of the reasons why I like the music video for we are here‘s “Hopeless (희망은 없다)” in my Randomness post a couple of days ago, I figured I should take some time to list the choreographed Korean indie videos that I find to be the most memorable.

 

#3: Kiha & The Faces – “그렇고 그런 사이”

This is an obvious pick for a list high-lighting dances in k-indie videos, but it wasn’t always so obvious to me. I’ve said it many times before, but I feel like I need to repeat it again: I don’t watch a lot of music videos. Usually I just press play on YouTube, then change to another tab while listening to the music.

I did the same when Kiha & The Faces‘ returned with their second album and the music video for “그렇고 그런 사이”–no doubt an entertaining song, but at the time I didn’t really get the hype. As such I was quite surprised when I was writing my 2012 KMA predictions and found that the music video had over 800 thousand views (now more than 1 million!). Actually watching the music video, 8 months after everybody else, it finally started to make sense.

Starting with the single hand movements, the video is captivating enough (watching it again now I find it difficult not to mimic the movements). As more hands start moving rhythmically in the background its awesome to see how well the hands go with the music–even though the plot is somewhat…obscured…it awakens a curiosity as to what will come next. And around the 2:50 mark, when the hand scenes turn into full body shots, the video takes more of a comedic turn, which is what really does it for me. The music video was directed by Mr. Chang Kiha himself and I have to say he did a brilliant job.

 

#2: Lang Lee – “Propeller”

Lang Lee‘s 욘욘슨 was one of my favorite albums of 2012. The same album also gave rise to one of my favorite music videos of the same year: that of “프로펠러 (Propeller)”. I like the song a lot on its own. There’s something very comforting about how the word “propeller” is repeated throughout the song, and I’m loving the arrangement as a whole. In combination with the music video the song becomes even more compelling.

I don’t possess the vocabulary to accurately describe any dance, but there are so many things I like about this choreography. I like how at first they are all doing different things, but still fit together. I like when all are synchronized. I like it even more when they are synchronized, moving in the same straight lines following structured pattern. I like when some are synchronized and then there are competing movements from somebody else. I also really like the camera work.

The video was directed by Lang Lee and the dance choreographed by Na Kyung Ho. If you like the video and can understand Korean you will definitely want to read both (or at the very least the second) of these Lang Lee & Na Kyung Ho interview from YOUNG,GIFTED&WACK:
WACK INTERVIEW_이랑&나경호 (상)
WACK INTERVIEW_이랑&나경호 (하)
And even if you don’t know a word of Korean, the posts are still worth checking out for the videos. (there’s a behind video too)

 

#1: Jieun And The Wolves – “아저씨 미워요”

It’s been a long time since I last watched this video. To be perfectly honest I had planned for this post to be a list of the top 3 choreographed k-indie music videos, but rewatching this video I realize that it was just a dance video thus not quite qualifying for the music video label.

Compared to the other two entries on this list I don’t host the same affection towards the song itself, but that doesn’t make the video any less interesting. I remember it as being somewhat revolutionary to me when it came in that I had never before seen a choreographed song in this genre. This happened about the same time as I was re-introduced to the world of k-pop and dances in general became more relevant to me. The awkwardness of the video was something I fell for, but more than that the awesomeness in having a choreography at all–one that is easy for the fans to replicate at that–is what I liked.

It seems the same choreography was used for live performances and there are other examples of Oh Ji Eun and her wolves dancing, but it never made it into an actual music video. And while this dance video may not be the most aesthetically pleasing nor the most groundbreaking in its composition, it is anyway the most memorable to me.

 

Did you notice how Jeong Jung Yeop couldn’t keep a straight face in either the Kiha & The Faces video or the Jieun And The Wolves video? It makes both even more enjoyable to me.

When I realized that my #1 wasn’t actually a music video I briefly considered revising the list to instead include the video for the DJ Jinu electro-mix of EE‘s “Curiosity Kills”. If you were to make your own top 3, which songs would be on it?

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