This song makes me wish more than ever that K-pop was played on my American radio stations.
Song
I absolutely loved this song. It was a perfect combination of slow parts mixed with dance part. The beginning verses sounded so mysterious and had me craving for the rest of the song while the chorus itself had me bobbing my head and singing along. The rap added something new and fresh to the song, and the ending slow verses calmed everything down and ended the song perfectly. My favorite part was the piano portions right before each chorus. Their voices blended with the piano beautifully and were great in getting me ready for the epic chorus.
Score: 5/5
Cinematography
This video was just beautiful. There were barely any props in this video, but the simplicity of it is one of the reasons why I liked it so much. The simple effect of different colored lights looked really good and gave the video a clean and sophisticated style. The rooms themselves also had simple decorations, but were enough to keep it interesting. The scene cuts were also very clean and fitting with the song. Each new scene was introduced as the song progressed from one part to the next, which was creative very organized. The lighting and spotlights gave the video a glamorous feel, which is very appropriate for Shinhwa, making their huge comeback as the veterans of K-pop. Halfway through the song, they introduced a blue scene, which matched the techno sound being introduced in the song.
Overall though, I found the video to be slightly lacking in its variance of scenes. There were four very cool looking dance scenes, but a dance scene is a dance scene and it got to be a bit boring after a while. The scenes with the girl were completely pointless because the girl didn’t even do anything, so that didn’t add to the video. I wish they could have had some different story scene or something besides the dancing to keep my interest. While they added different color dancing scenes, they were still the exact same concept as all of the other scenes. Each scene was really good, I just wish they were a bit more variant.
Score: 4/5
Wardrobe
The wardrobe is kind of a funny story. While I really liked the concept of this wardrobe, I cannot stand most of the individual outfits. Let me explain: The different suits collectively making up a set of clothes worked really well to fit the song and sets. I loved the black suits with the white room, the dark suits with the dark room, the gray suits in the blue room, and finally the patterned suits in the plain white room. The outfits both complemented each other as well as the rooms the members were dancing in. However, when I look at each outfit, I find most of them to be unattractive. That particular pattern on the suits in the opening scene was not very nice in my opinion and I did not at all like that Eric had a suit completely covered in that pattern. A little bit of pattern is okay, but having the entire suit covered in the pattern, or one leg covered but not the other, or the front of the jacket and not the back covered is not fashionable to me. All of the scenes had these nicely matching ugly patterns on the clothes, which makes me very torn about the wardrobe.
Score: 3/5
Dance
I was actually really shocked by this dance. While it was very different from the dance for “Venus” (which I loved!), it had it’s own unique flavor and was really, really good. All of the movements were so crisp and well-rehearsed. Whereas a lot of dance songs with fast, complicated dance moves often feel rushed, this dance was detailed, yet very refined. I loved the hand movements in the first chorus and how the members looked like they were tapping piano keys in their dance moves during the piano parts. Throughout the song, they looked like they were really feeling the music in their soul, which is very difficult to pull off. Their experience in the entertainment agency clearly shows with how dedicated they appear to be to their dance.
While the movements themselves were beautiful, I can’t help but feel a bit uncomfortable watching such a delicate, feminine dance done by a male group. While it is commendable that they are a group that cares more about performing a beautiful dance than trying to reinforce their masculinity, there were a few moments where the feminine dance actually took away from the experience of watching the video. During the rap sequence, the movements were way to delicate to be accompanying a rap. Raps are supposed to be masculine. Even with girl groups, the rap is where the inner tomboy comes out of the girls. Having flowing hands and touching the face contradicts the image of the rapper. I also found the slow, controlled movements to look a bit awkward during the second chorus. I found the movements to be too slow for the speed of the instrument during that part. Finally, the most disturbing part for me was during the final chorus. Those backup dancers freaked me out a little with the way they moved their hips and struck their fabulous poses. I tried really hard to accept it, but I just couldn’t watch it with a straight face. I already don’t like it when females use body waves to attract males, and it’s just awkward when males try to do it.
Like I said, though, it was an amazing dance overall. Once you get past the oddness of it, the dance is beautiful to look at and very easy to appreciate. Also, the ending post was just perfect.
Score: 4.5/5
Overall, I loved this song and video. The song was the high point for me, but the rest of the video went along with it really well (even if it made me slightly uncomfortable). This song made me wish more than ever that American radio stations would play K-pop. I can totally imagine this song following the other songs I hear on the radio.
K-POP On My Mind 
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