Nowadays, it has become commonplace to perform songs in TV commercials, which is exactly where MTV ended up as an innovative development activity (Love-Tulloch, 2015). In the past few years, Korean pop (K-POP) music has become popular in countries around the world (Statista Research Department, 2023). This blog will analyse K-POP-based music videos (MVs) and explore whether MVs are commercials or artworks.

I think K-POP music videos are more of a commercial than a work of art, they stimulate the fans to buy through the beautifully crafted music videos, they are a visual extension of the art of listening to music, and they show the maturity of K-POP’s music business industry. Most K-POP music videos are centered around the music, with an exciting backdrop and a storyline related to the song. For example, Seventeen’s new album Seventeenth Heaven sold 5,206,718 pre-orders (Ji-won, 2023), and within a week of the music video’s release it sold 5,091,887 copies, setting a new record in the history of Korean artists and becoming the first album in Korea to break this milestone (Sayson, 2023).

The music video is also a good place to show the concept of the song and choreography ideas, which side by side, show that the producer is trying to make the listener understand the song better. For example, in Seventeen’s Fallin’ Flower, the majority of the reactions I watched repeatedly used the word “beautiful” to compliment the song. Many fans consider this song to be Seventeen’s top 1, and some think that “Fallin’ Flower is Seventeen’s greatest gift to K-Pop.

Music videos are spreading better on most platforms nowadays, especially short videos. An example is the Dance Challenge in Tiktok, a challenge that is mainly a dance riff based on the original music video. This is one of the means by which K-pop music has expanded its popularity.

I have shown a keen interest in the planning teams of the K-pop industry, but at the same time, I feel somewhat ambivalent about the concept of music videos. This is because some idols are not actively expressing themselves but rather delivering the message that the capital wants to convey to the public. If fans or the general public see a music video that is very beautiful, they will praise it as a work of art. However, there is no denying that they are essentially commodities, subject to sales, popularity, and people’s entertainment. If their ability to absorb money is not enough to sustain their ability to continue creating and releasing new music videos, they will be capitalised out of business.

To summarise, the evolution and development of MTV over the years is more interesting than its direct impact on popular music, visual style, and culture (Jones, 2005). Also not to be overlooked are the new forms and means of commerce brought about by MTV, which has evolved into one of the new ways of stimulating consumer purchases.

Thank you for your patience and I’ll see you on the next blog：）

Author: Xinyu Ge

Idea base on Week 6: Music Videos from MTV to Digital Social Netowrks