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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

[MV Review] SNSD - Paparazzi

SNSD (or should I say Shojo Jidai?) returns to Japan with Paparazzi and a brand-spanking new PV to boot.  Your mileage may vary on the irony of the most heavily scrutinized (probably) girl group of Korea singing about Paparazzi in Japanese.


This PV is just your standard SM-dance-in-a-box-with-closeups style production. However, since SNSD is SM's true cash cow, they actually give a shit about this group. They went HAM on the production values, even by SM and SNSD's standards. Not at all like f(x)'s comeback though, those poor poor darlings. Like you could possibly imagine from the song title, the PV's concept is paparazzi. SONEs will gush about the YG-like amounts of money thrown at this PV, all the staff and extras hired, hell even about the 30,000 lightbulbs used in all the sets (or so Allkpop says, IDEK).

YG should definitely take notes on how to spend exorbitant amounts of money THE RIGHT WAY. The sets look great and the outfits (while some do raise a few eyebrows) are fabulous and not at all fucking weird as hell.
We throw our expensive coats up in the air sometimes, singin "AAAAAAAYO,
BRING THE BOOOOOOYS OUT"
Anyway, there's not much in this MV besides the aforementioned dance and closeups. There is the barest hints of a "storyline" though, so light it hardly even warrants mention. The gist of it follows the premise of the song. SNSD -- famous, beloved, idolized girls that they are, are walking towards their next concert gig in some fancy concert hall. Flocked on all sides by paparazzi, they coolly walk backstage and appear ready to go. The curtains open and you see them walk in on some shady downtown/red light district clad only in heels and trenchcoats, not at all like prostitutes I swear. All of this is accompanied by Singin' in the Rain, which is extremely weird as fuck, but probably is a bit of titillation for the old WOTA fogies fapping to America and SNSD.

"AISHITERU ONII-SAN~!!"
Also, Seohyun finally learned how to wink. <3
The setup is stupid as fuck, and it bogs down the MV. Seriously, do yourself a favor and just skip the intro shit and go straight to the coat throwing bit which signals the start of the real MV.

The outfits and such are pretty good, and no one looks particularly fuglier than usual if the case may be. The gorgeous look gorgeous and the fugs look meh, so they did a good job for this promotion. Outfit-wise, I liked the tuxedo dresses better than the real dresses, but the pink gloves ruin those outfits. GOD, WHO THOUGHT THOSE WERE A GOOD IDEA?! FUCKING SONE STYLISTS I SWEAR

Since it is just a dance MV, here's some of the highlights that I enjoyed or thought were noteworthy.

The BOOM BOOM BOOM bit seems to be one of the point dances.
SNSD demonstrates proper Fap Dance form and technique. They're also
the only ones who remember clean their hands afterward too.
Yuri is the dark horse (SONEpun) contender for SNSD's HBIC.
Bitch better give her the money.
The dance itself is pretty good. I think it's my favorite choreography from SNSD so far. It's the most... complicated (for lack of a better word) and it incorporates a lot more technical moves than we're used to seeing from them. I do notice a lot more voguing/vogue-like dance moves, not just here but in KPop in general. Really quite strange, but the more cynical of us would say it's expected of such a gay genre of music. However, all this technicality starts to highlight either SNSD's shortcomings as a 9-membered group of varying dancing ability (to say the least) or their growing laziness as performers who are starting to not give 2 shits cause they're already rich and established idols.

YoonYul are so cute, but Yuri is starting to fuck up a lot of the dancing lately.
Oh well, she's still adorable (pardon my SONE).
Hyoppa's solo dance bits are getting shittier and shittier with each new promotion.
Girl is getting more and more useless, I'm starting to feel bad for her.
THIS BODY WAVE, SO GOOD SNSD'S DANCING SO JJANGBAK
ES NUMBER 1 SYNCHRO
The song itself is actually pretty good but not without a few flaws. My specific gripes: 
  • Their Japanese is improving, but even my untrained ear can hardly tell what language they're speaking at times. 
  • The "fairness" of the new line distribution also comes with the cost of Hyoppa sharing lines with Seohyun. GOD, WHO THE FUCK THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA?! 
  • The engrish can get grating at times, but it's nothing totally unbearable. 
  • The final slow breakdown at the climax is kind of out of place, and the transition was rather rough. But  again, your milage may vary but it's nothing terribly deal-breaking either. 
The rest of the song makes up for all that shit, at least in my opinion. Like I mentioned earlier, the line distribution is surprisingly more even than it's ever been, which is pretty good considering it's a 9-membered group with only 3-4 good singers (Fuck you SONEs, everyone else can see it). SM is also getting really fond of their bonus sound effects used to accentuate certain dance moves. My favorite part comes near the end with Tiffany's "RA TA TA" part. Her trilled R gives me life, yo. 

We out this bitch~
I think it's the best shit they've put out in Japan to date, and it certainly rivals anything in their Korean discography as well.. It's the heaviest electrosound SNSD's ever put out, and it's a new direction that I really enjoyed. You could see the beginnings of it in their first Japanese album, but it was more of a tentative step in a new direction, probably out of fear of alienating new/old fans. After the piece of fetid shit that was The Boys and all its repackages, Paparazzi is especially fabulous. If the Korean version of this song ports well (and you'd best believe this shit is going to be repacked back to Korea), it may very well be my new favorite SNSD jam.


SIDE NOTE: I dunno if it's just CombatBaby (our resident SONE) or symptomatic of all truSONES, but he claims to see deep spiritual significance in the song's lyrics. I don't see shit, but maybe there's a cheatsheet of that shit flying around Tumblr SONE fapcircles like the VIPs had for Fantastic Baby Monster everything. Just some food for thought.

TL;DR
Fabulous song for a decent PV with the most useless fucking intro/outros I've seen in a while.

I give this PV a 4.25 out of 5 (Meh-PV, but the song is fab so plus points for that).

38 comments:

  1. I actually CTRL+F'ed for pinks gloves before reading. Don't you think those things are quite horrible? Why no mention?

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    Replies
    1. Almost forgot, thanks. Added a new bit in.

      Delete
  2. They're obviously just come out of the kitchen.

    Even SME know a woman's place.

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  3. "The "fairness" of the new line distribution also comes with the cost of Hyoppa sharing lines with Seohyun. GOD, WHO THE FUCK THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA?!"

    That's when I stopped watching the MV. I'm tired of Hyoyeon sharing lines with Seohyun. First Genie, don't know, skipped some songs along the way, and now Paparazzi.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. you guys really need to understand that Seohyun and Hyoyeon's voices suit eachother. sometimes, they do sound alike. of course Seohyun is a much better singer than Hyoyeon, but i understand why they share lines... it's the same thing for Yoonyul and SooSun in this song. their voices go well together.

      Delete
  4. This janggbak
    Proud to be a sone
    See that even zakufag guves its a 4.2

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. PV is meh but song is fab? So it deserves plus points?

      PSH!! Feeding Nat's fanboy interests! I smell another sonefag in our midst!!! This is conspiracy!!!

      Delete
  5. I really like the song/dance.
    Girls look hot as always (especially ♥Taeyeon♥)
    Besides the Intro/Outro I like the mv (You can use Youtube playlist to set In/Out starting points to skip them)
    I'm biased :) I've been pretty addicted to SNSD lately ^_^

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  6. For some reason I can't take SNSD seriously anymore
    The song's good but I wish it wasn't in Japanese. SNSD - just stick to Korean, PLEASE.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mr. Taxi was more tolerable in Japanese than in Korean

      Delete
  7. Replies
    1. Agreed. The outfits made them look like ostriches (god dammit, Sooyoung, did you lose a bet?), and the waiter outfits made their hips look huge. The song itself was a mess, and there was too much Jessica/Yoona, as always. Somebody actually figured out that Jessica has sung about... four minutes worth of lines more than Hyoyeon. Jesus fuck, girl's a lazy ass and *still* is SM's darling?

      Best looks in the MV: Yuri > Hyoyeon > Seohyun > Yoona > Tiffany > Jessica > Taeyeon > Sooyoung (I love the girl but she looks *atrocious*.)
      SNSD's singer order, IMO: Taeyeon > Tiffany > Seohyun > Sunny > Sooyoung > Jessica > Yuri > Yoona > Hyoyeon.

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    2. Dammit, I forgot Sunny in the outfit judging. Put her... after Seohyun.

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    3. Mr. Taxi was hilariously bad...

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    4. i have to agree about Jessica(TOO MANY FUCKIN' LINES AND SCREENTIME) and also Sooyoung. i think Sooyoung is the prettiest but her outfit is just...wtf? i feel sorry for her. but she still shined in this MV. a lot of people said they loved her boom boom boom part. it was different...and her voice is especially beautiful on japanese songs

      Delete
  8. I love you

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;;
    ;
    ;
    baybee i'm not a monsta.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. NOW UR GONE

      I REALIZE MY LUFF FOR U WAS STRONK

      Delete
  9. they somehow managed to make Taeyeon, Tiffany and Sarah Jessica Jung look a lot alike in the rubber gloves part
    (┛ಠ益ಠ)┛彡┻━┻

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sarah Jessica Jung... now that made me wonder first, then OMFG UR SUCH A GENIUS

      Delete
  10. snsd gets less and less relevant with each new release

    how long until they die in a helicopter accident when SM deems they aren't profitable enough

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Q: How long until they die in a helicopter accident when SM deems they aren't profitable enough?
      A: When SM deems they aren't profitable enough.

      That's it for Answer that question using information provided in the question!, folks!

      Delete
  11. Butt whut about Super Senior? I actually think they are getting more popular with every release and their recent album was well sold. Took them five years to become somewhat relevant with Sorry Sorry. Then again they have to go to their military service...

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  12. All of them except for Taeyeon are good in the video/song. Taeyeon can't do sezzuality at all.

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  13. Also there is much significance in the lyrics, but I won't bother with you haters who won't appreciate their delicious irony.

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  14. Pretty much the first GG song enjoyed since...ugh, I dunno, Mr Taxi?
    Fuck, their Japanese tracks shit on their post-Genie ones by hella lot.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Seohyun can finally wink properly! Her attempts during their Oh! days were hilariously awful. She had a problem with that song in general.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I couldn't make it through this vid cause of Sooyounorexia. I am not trying to be mean but bish neeeds a burger and fast.
    I really like the song though. The vid was ugh! Singing in the rain?? REALLY???

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She just has a fast metabolism! Geez Louise. Also she has muscles and she would need them to dance as much as she does. When girls are anorexic they look like they can barely hold themselves up.

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    2. ^exactly. finally some common sense

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  17. When was the last time I made it through an SNSD Japanese MV? Never.
    No seriously, this song isn't just it for me >.<

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  18. Tiffany improvising a new ghetto hand sign?
    Sooyoung is better in the job

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  19. Sooyoung's boom boom boom is the best part of the MV. and the song is amazing

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  20. I'm not a SONE and used to ignore K-Pop since I could not understand the lyrics. I came to like SNSD, however, and don't ask me why 'coz I'm still trying to figure it out. I'm still new to K-Pop but found some of these girls' songs catchier than other groups. I also like After School but I don't think Flashback (the song, not the MV) is as memorable as Paparazzi. I also found the "Singing in the Rain" part weird, and Sooyoung's outfit actually made her look like a groomed French poodle (and that's not a compliment). I was excited for HyoYeon's dance part, but ended up disappointed when it came to the dance break, if you can actually call it (SM's wasting HyoYeon's only talent!) I like the "Ra-ta-ta" part, though as well as the "Boom-boom-boom" bit. I also hate the gloves more than I hate the color pink. And good to know that SeoHyun's finally able make a decent wink.

    ReplyDelete

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