SM's New Project Group(?) Is Wasted on the Masses

If you hadn't heard, SM Entertainment has debuted* a new project group (I call them this cause I have no idea who they are or what they look like) called Hitch Hiker. Their debut song is a little ditty called "11 (ELEVEN)" and it's FREAKIN' FANTASTIC.

More after the jump.

*A quick glance at their Facebook fan page indicates they've been around since 2013. I'm assuming this could be an in-house producer/DJ that's finally secured the OK to go public, but who knows?



So the visuals of this MV are what immediately blew me away. There's no bullshit dance-in-a-box here, no pretty boy/girl idol zoom-ins -- absolutely nothing from the SM playbook of MVs. Hell, we don't even see the artists at all in this, instead choosing the graphic pop art approach.

There's a ton of eye-catching visuals here, and it's a good mix of eerie and artsy and what the fuck am I watching to keep you entertained. Lots of vibrant colors are mixed with clip art, CGI, and scary green-screen antics superimposed on real backdrops (or stock photos, who cares). No gifs this time because it's definitely a spectacle you need to watch for yourself to appreciate. *TRIGGER WARNING* Your mileage may vary. I definitely see how someone could go into epileptic shock or get some unpleasant feels from this, especially considering how often the animation dips into the Uncanny Valley.

The song itself is a really fun electronic piece with huge Die Antwoord vibes. The vaguely creepy girl's chant/rapping/speaking/everything sounds a LOT like Yo-Landi Vi$$ER, please tell me it's not just me!

I really enjoyed this song/MV, but the teeny boppers over at SM Town clearly don't get it. It's a shame, but they've got this ingrained image of SM Town as a Disneyland-esque place of wonder, idols, and shiny visuals. Hitch Hiker obviously does not fit the factory mold, so people are reacting with the typical understanding, open-minded approach all KPop fans take towards new music.

Just kidding. Of course I've cherry picked some of the choicer hate comments, but a surprisingly large amount of people are striking back either in support of the song's awesomeness or just admonishing the close-minded haters. How much of that is genuine appreciation of the song/MV on its own merit or blind SM faptrain bandwagon support for the company remains to be seen. At any rate, the MV sits at the most dislike-heavy ratio I've seen on a KPop video (let alone an SM video) in a while as of this writing.

Quite a shame, but we'll see how it all shakes out in a few weeks. Whatever this is, project group or not, I hope we see more crazy zany stuff like this that goes out of the cookie-cutter factory press of KPop, and not just from the big entertainment companies. Of course, having a song like ELEVEN come out under a major label like SM never hurts to get this kind of thing on a more mainstream level of exposure, but it's a step in the right direction.