Monday, October 31, 2011

Review: MYNAME–“Message”



“Hwanhee boys” MYNAME hope everyone will get the mesaji to remember their name with their debut music video.


Did you like the song?
Short answer:

MYNAME Message Seyong

Long answer:

There’s just something about five-member bands that appeals to me. I mean, they’re so rare, right? There’s only…hmm, can’t think of any. Oh yeah, except H.O.T., f(x), SHINee, DBSK (pre-breakup), 4minute, BIGBANG, KARA, B1A4, Wonder Girls, FT Island, MBLAQ, SS501, The Boss/D-NA, Sunny Hill, Girl’s Day…

But see, even with that overwhelming list of five-member groups, I feel like they’ve been rather absent from the Kpop scene lately, what with all the lawsuits or promoting in Japan or doing solo activities or just not having that traditional five-member dynamic that I love where everyone has an important role—variations of (1) Leader, (2) Main singer, (3) Main rapper, (4) Main dancer, (5) Maknae. I could watch that dynamic play out all day! (And I have, in fact, by watching various variety shows.)

What I’m trying to say is that I’ve missed it. And I’m getting that vibe again with MYNAME. They’re filing a void for me, at least, and I can’t wait for their reality show, “Ta-Dah, It’s MYNAME!”

So that was a long-winded way of saying this song is pretty good. I like the verses more than the chorus, which is weird for me. Thus, it’s not as good a song as some others have debuted with (i.e. B1A4), but I’m feeling the five-member bond/dynamic more strongly with MYNAME than with B1A4.

MYNAME members

Seyong, Insoo, JoonQ, Gunwoo, and Chaejin.

What was your favorite part of the song?
“Ya-la-la-la-la-la” and “Ri-gi-ding, ri-gi-ding, ri-gi-dong dong.” I always love random catchy gibberish (SHINee has conditioned me well).

MYNAME members

Chaejin, Seyong, Gunwoo, Insoo, and JoonQ.

Does the English make you want to rip your eardrums out?
So the song is called “Message,” but the Korean word for message is “meseji,” which I think could cause a lot of confusion. Before I looked up the lyrics, it sounded to me like they were just pronouncing the word “message” horribly. But I suppose I should thank the songwriters for teaching me an easy Korean word. :)

The only other English is Seyong’s “Go to the top, we ain’t no stop.” Which is unfortunately just laughably bad.

MYNAME Message colorful teasers

Gunwoo, Insoo, JoonQ, Seyong, and Chaejin in some cool teaser photos.

Did you like the video?
Eh, your standard painfully sterile box with geometric sides. Except one of the sets looks more like a bat cave.

MYNAME Message stage

Minus the Batmobile, but I’m actually very grateful there are no random expensive cars sitting around.

Was there a storyline? If so, did it make sense?
Okay, the first time I saw this, I had never heard of MYNAME before and spent a lot of time trying to count all the members. Then I did a bit of research and realized that it’s not that there are nine members with a few screen hogs; there are only five members total. Which leads me to say that I absolutely hate backup dancers on debut songs. So. Confusing.

Was the dance cool and distinctive?
Hells yes. This is the real treat of this music video, with Seyong just rocking. There are lots of cool, distinctive moves, the main one being the stomping dance.

MYNAME Message stomping dance gif

Stomp it out, baby.

And there is an awesome floor part, which I can never resist.

MYNAME Message floor dance gif

Like a boss.

Also, the chorus dance has this hopping thing going on, which could look very silly but that manages to look slick. I like it a lot.

Do the members look good?
MYNAME is a group similar to MBLAQ in that they are both being mentored by successful idols, MBLAQ by Rain and MYNAME by Hwanhee. They look great, definitely not like a group that just debuted. Also, JoonQ is tall; we’re talking six feet here. Wow.

I think the maknae Chaejin is definitely the cutest (and the prettiest), and I wish he’d had more screentime. He just looks adorable—which makes sense as he is only 15. I feel like such a pervert. Why do you keep doing this to me, Kpop?

MYNAME Message members

Gunwoo, Chaejin, Seyong, Insoo, and JoonQ.

If you’re still confused about which member is which, I have some helpful gifs on my tumblr page. Also, if you want to play the comparison game, Insoo looks kind of like JYJ’s Junsu.

Which member stood out the most?
Ugh, this is difficult. At first leader Gunwoo stood out most to me, mainly because he looks very distinctive and got the best notes in the song, as well as a lot of screentime. However, the more I watched the MV, the more Seyong stood out. What a confident, talented member. And that little smile towards the end really melted my heart.

MYNAME Gunwoo and Seyong

Gunwoo and Seyong.

But I have to say I really loved Insoo’s hair here.

MYNAME Message Insoo hair

Cool styling; it looks like it has braids in it.

Do you like it enough to buy the song?
I do. Even the parts I didn’t originally like as much really grew on me.

Any ending thoughts?
Sorry for my five-member nostalgia up there…it’s probably just residual DBSK mourning. Still, I like these guys enough that I made a background of them, lol:

MYNAME background Message teasers

Gunwoo, Seyong, Insoo, JoonQ, and Chaejin.

Boyfriend’s one-liner:
“Those red outfits make them look like they’ve been attacked by zombies.”

MYNAME Message outfits

Uh, speaking of zombies: Happy Halloween, everybody! I hope it is spooky and filled with Kpop. :)

3 comments:

  1. Their outfits in the last pic (they had their debut performance in them too) were soooooo unfortunate. They made it look as if two if the guys had their privates ripped off and bled all over their pants. Yickes.

    I'll give the group another try, I think. So far, they are smoother than many rookie groups but I didn't like the song much.

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  2. You know, I didn't notice how their outfits looked like they'd been attacked and were bleeding all over their clothes until my boyfriend and then you pointed it out. But looking at it now...ew. I can't unsee it.

    Time will tell if I actually like them as a group or if I just like this song. But I would like to see their reality show. :D

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  3. I love inso to

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