for not gay reasons at all i think shinee should cross dress again. commit to it too. idgaf
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Dear BMT, I was wondering if you had anything thoughts on the concert "VCR" or iterations of it as an art form itself, or how it functions as part of the wider art form of concert performance? The reason I ask is that some artists use them vastly differently than others. They are interstitials that are practical to live performance, but recently I watched Taemin's Off-Sick concert and there was a genuine short film as a VCR. I'm also reminded of BTS' MOTS ON:E where the VCRs were thematically linked to the concert itself. Then there's SHINee's Key who released an entire new song as a VCR (Another Life).
As you mentioned, VCRs have not only a practical function, they can become an art form in itself, it depends to what purpose they are used and the effort is put into them by the production team and their significance to the entire concert/performance.
As far as I've noticed, there are two major types of VCRs. The one that has a narrative structure, designed to tell a story, split into a few clips that end up being distributed throughout the performance, and then there are the more abstract ones, more conceptual and thematically linked to the major concept the group is focusing on during a specific period of time/performance. But the ultimate basis is that they are mostly created to look like music videos. At least that's the aesthetic, despite having no actual singing parts in it.
This is not a general rule and each group and company have their own direction and understanding of what a VCR should be. SHINee has sketches, sometimes inspired by the current trends (like Boys Over Flowers), or BTS with their 5th Muster Magic Shop VCR. In the case of BTS, the muster VCRs are more playful and usually they take the liberty to experiment and come up with something that is funny.
As opposed to Musters, concert VCRs are more abstract, as the ones we saw for MOTS ON:E. It made perfect sense to go in that direction due to the theme of the concept they had going on during that time and as a personal note, I think it was their last truly good material for this type of media content. I am also reminded of their Fake Love era materials, in this case the ones showed for MMA and MAMA. The clips had a flair for the dramatic, but it was a well thought out concept and quite complex for what they were going for, so it was suitable. It is interesting to note that the VCR for Permission to Dance was closer to what we would see for a Muster, but then again, the concert itself had a vague/best of hits/end of the pandemic concept that in the case of this group, became somehow overused and the VCR was mostly forgetable compared to other works.
What Taemin did for the Off-Sick concert is somehow separate from what I talked here and VCR in general. It was a short horror film (min 25:00), more on the experimental side. Not narrative-driven completely, but not abstract enough. It had a Blair Witch Project aesthetic inspiration to it, perhaps mixed with American Horror Story intros. It is a bit unusual, it's not something that I encountered or heard before, but I think it showed how Taemin is trying to think outside the box and also his personal preferences. He used the VCR as an outlet to experiment with his passion for horror films and this time, he had the chance to participate in the creation of an actual short.
Key's Another Life was another surprise for me, especially since I was watching the actual concert when it showed up and I didn't expect an actual music video released just like that in the middle of a 2 hour performance. It didn't have the production of Bad Love, the single released during that time, but Another Life is more than decent and definitely a choice. It wasn't released during a specific time in order to reach audiences, except the ones watching the concert, not with the purpose of reaching some charts. It was an extra music video and that's it. I saw it as a gift and I loved it.
VCRs have been the subject of close analysis for quite a long time, especially in the case of groups that have a long-standing concept and they use these videos in order to offer clues to their narrative ark or to add another layer to the story they are creating. I do think there's a lot of opportunity here and freedom to experiment because VCR can take so many forms. Despite being usually inspired by the format of the music video, there is still enough room to experiment. The VCR is just another notch in this big production that is a K-Pop concept.
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Just know that you are one the most beautiful chapters of my life my lovely one.
Thank you for always giving me strength to carry on. You are my lucky star.
Can we walk now?
As always I need you … ❤️
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