Block B “Jackpot” Music Video Review

I gotta say, not my favorite Block B video…

Song

Okay, I appreciate fun and crazy songs as much as anyone, but this song is just too crazy and disjointed. It starts out great with Zico’s rap. I love how his voice slowly gets more and more out of control. P.O.’s lines following that are good too, but once the chorus starts, the song starts to go downhill. There is no real transition from the raps to the chorus and then from the chorus to the next lines. The background music changes too much in this song. Within Kyung’s single rap, the instruments change and make the rap sound really messy.

Again, craziness is okay. I love all of the random shouts throughout the song and the chanting “la lala la la la” in the end, but a song should sound like one song, not three different songs.

As a side note, I really like the lyrics to this song. It is about how they went through so many struggles to get to where they are and now they hit the jackpot and are on their way to the top. The meaning seems very applicable to them, and the lyricism is fun to listen to.

Score: 2/5

Story

As usual with Block B, the story of this video is hilarious. This girl comes across their circus, and they kidnap her. Each member shows her their own part of the circus and forces her to participate as they rap and sing about how they made it to the top. She tries to run away but they catch her. She then undergoes a transformation, and looks like she is starting to enjoy the circus. However, once everything is finished, she gives them the finger and walks away, and of course they go back to catching her again. I love the humor and chaos. It is funny, and it also brings the lyrics into play as they sing and rap to her. Their acting really pulls you in to their crazy world.

Score: 4/5

Cinematography

This video is incredibly chaotic, but I suppose that is appropriate considering the story is about a crazy circus. Each member’s story scene is very different from one another, which is great considering they are each showing off their own part of the circus, but all of the scenes still fit within the circus setting. On the editing side, I love how each scene transitions into the next. Sometimes it is choppy, reflecting just how difficult it is for the girl to keep up with Block B’s antics. The best transition is after she runs away from Block B. She hides behind a car, but then the car drives away revealing Kyung creepily waiting for her behind it. As she realizes that she is caught, the scene slowly turns from black and white to color again and the song picks up with Kyung’s rap. That particular scene is incredibly well done and reflects the idea that she really never had a chance of getting away from them. I also love how there are 7s subtly placed everywhere in the video. Zico’s rap starts with “The 7^th album, seven members, seven seasons” and to accompany it, we see signs with three 7s around the circus. I always appreciate those subtle and clever touches.

The wardrobe does a great job at reflecting the Block B members’ crazy characters in the story. The colored suits are perfect. They fit them as crazy circus performers mixed with top notch singers and rappers.

It was great and all, but I have to point out that the black and white dancing scene did not fit with the rest of the video at all. While the rest of the video is caught in this circus world, that scene goes back to the typical boy band K-pop image. Just like that part of the song did not fit, the room itself interrupted the world of the story.

Score: 4/5

Dance

There is not a whole lot of the dance shown in the video, which is perfectly fine. A crazy story like this does not necessarily need a crazy dance. What we are given is a lot of over-exaggerated movements, which fits their crazy, insane characters. The crazy “lalalala” move is funny, and fits the sound. I absolutely love the move during Kyung’s “Ja-ja-ja-jackpot!” line in the middle of the chorus. It makes me laugh every time I watch it. I really look forward to seeing the crazy performance live.

Score: 4/5

Overall, I enjoyed the video. Sure, it wasn’t Block B’s best performance, but there were parts of it that had that Block B style that I just love.

Overall Final Score: 3.5/5

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Question of the Day:

Which circus act would you want to be part of? I personally loved Zico’s ventriloquist act. 😛