The following was originally written in 2013. It is the first part of three.
T-ara's two-part music video "Day by Day"/"Sexy Love" is unique in its size, length and scale of production. In the old time-honored fantasy way, T-ara present the fight of good versus evil as one of caretaking versus feudal loyalty, not only suggesting the rebirth of contemporary social conditions into one that favors friendship between women, but potentially changing the way high fantasy is both perceived and used for commercial conquest.
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| Dani and Hyomin in "Day by Day" (imgs source) |
High fantasy is a genre that has historically been under fire by those who perpetuate the ideals of capitalism. In her essay “Why are Americans Afraid of Dragons?,” fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin argues that “almost all very highly technological peoples are more or less antifantasy." The reason for this, she continues, is the patriarchal construct of masculinity, which puts men in constant paranoid fear of appearing feminine, which they equate with weakness unproductiveness. While discussing the point of view of those who are “antifantasy,” she says, “Who speaks so? [...] It is, I fear, the man in the street [...] the men who run this country." Le Guin cites the ambiguous, yet ubiquitous “man in the street” as the oppressor of mediums that encourage imagination and “the free play of mind." According to Le Guin therefore, is it the second-class citizens of society, including women and children, who are most likely to reap the benefits of escapism that the fantasy genre offers.
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| Le Guin is an American novelist who knows a bit about worldbuilding. |
Le Guin makes strong arguments to defend fantasy from America’s capitalist patriarchy; and interestingly, one crucial critical pop music theorist has come to the same conclusion about his own preferred medium, but through complete opposite means. While discussing popular disco music of the 1970s, Richard Dyer says, “Much of the hostility to disco stems from the equation of it with capitalism. Both in how it is produced and in what it expresses, disco is held to be irredeemably capitalistic." Dyer claims that disco is likely to get the same dismissive attitude from the “man in the street” as fantasy, though not for the same reason. While fantasy is stigmatized for being “‘not’ work," dance music is universally hated for being overly bound up in the production of goods.
Despite this, both Dyer and Le Guin’s theories eventually begin to mirror each other. Similar to how Le Guin’s concept of fantasy has the ability to empower marginalized peoples, Dyer’s concept of dance and pop music upturns the oppressing norm as much as it feeds into it. “The anarchy of capitalism throws up commodities that an oppressed group can take up and use to cobble together its own culture. [...] [Disco] is a ‘contrary’ use of what the dominant culture provides, [...] and it has subversive potential as well as reactionary implications." Through “cobbl[ing] together its own culture,” Dyer invokes the language of fantasy worldbuilding, suggesting that both Le Guin and he would agree that there is a need for societal change, which either pop music or fantasy could facilitate.
Fortunately, T-ara’s music videos for “Day by Day” and “Sexy Love” are a combination of both discussed agencies for change; they are an unexpected mix of high fantasy and pop music. As the intersection between two highly criticized mediums, it is easy to overlook or ignore their analytical potential. However, in “Bouffants, Beehives, and Breaking Gender Norms: Rethinking ‘Girl Group’ Music of the 1950s and 1960s,” Will Stos calls attention to the girl group genre as one worthy of introspection:
I encourage scholars to consider girl group music as a site at which a critical feminist method can meet a redemptive approach. The genre provides ample material for analysis of the barriers women face within the industry, as well as how they could still operate within these barriers, demonstrating agency and creating material that audiences could read in unintended ways.
According to Stos, girl group music can not only illustrate the historical fears, hopes and concerns that lay within contemporary girl culture, but it also invites its audience of young women to “read” empowerment through the way the female idols “still operate within [the] barriers” of a patriarchal society that threatens women. Although “Day by Day”/”Sexy Love” are exceptions to the normal girl group formula, as T-ara chooses to present it as a kind of miniature film rather than on a flashing stage with choreographed dance, Stos argues that the songs which differ from the norm are the most urgent to be analyzed: “These numerous exceptions must [...] be considered as a critical mass that has a bearing on the genre as a whole. Consequently, they must also be understood as a challenge to the stability and continual reconstitution of the concept of normative, idealized girlhood." Stos defines exceptions in girl group music as subversive experiments that often challenge and/or seek to change authority, proving that T-ara’s music videos are more than just a capitalistic venture, but also a preserved account of girl culture of the 21st century.
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| Sally, Go 'Round the Roses is our favorite girl group song for reasons. |
Although “Day by Day” and “Sexy Love” are clearly exceptions to the girl pop genre, they stick closely to the mold of fantasy as popularized by Western media, created by their predecessors, including Le Guin. In “The Child and The Shadow,” Le Guin claims, “[The great fantasies] work like the way music does." This is painfully true for T-ara’s videos, to the point that the metaphor “like music” can be dropped.
“Day by Day”/”Sexy Love” are literal music, and they not only “speak from the unconscious to the unconscious, in the language of the unconscious - symbol and archetype," but do so in a unique way, with a focus on visuals that may be unprecedented in fantasy; the world is created with little to no backstory, focusing solely on the storyline in the present through its visuals as a video. The heavy focus on images allows capitalism to commodify the girls’ bodies, illustrating a “barrier women face within the industry;” however, it also gives a unique spin on worldbuilding. For example, as the queen, Jiyeon, and her men search for Dani in the slums of the city, they back one particular man into an alley. The closeup of his face again the fence is striking, as he features bright silver makeup around his eyes. In begging the question, why have such extreme concern for physical appearance at the end of the world?, this image mocks modern society in its absurdity, creating a fantasy culture which cares for a grand degree of embellishment of the body. This example of meaningful visuals that can be presented without textual explanation, but still be understood, is making use of common “symbol[s] and archetype[s],” which in this instance is the connection of vanity with a deteriorating world.
When Le Guin discusses the use of these devices she says they “may indeed be our link with what is called God," a subject T-ara shows no cowardice in dealing with. The opening sequence claims, “Humans wanted to wear the clothes of the god. They wanted to rule and talk like gods. But the god did not allow these thoughts of the human." Not only is a T-ara “talk[ing] like gods” in using the collective conscious to further their world-building, but this statement is also a foreshadowing of events, in which humanity is forced to rebuild.
Stay tuned for part two!
In the meantime, read some more music video analysis.
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