Hip-Hop as a Weapon: Establishing Persona
Aesthetic resistance to norms is the central and critical to the Hip-Hop (especially unknown Hip-Hop) culture (Um 2013: 61), and is what makes the genre different from the contemporary K-pop. The music video,“Break” by Beenziono, showcases the attempt of the artist to criticize the social norms represented in contemporary K-pop. In this essay, I argue that Beenzino establishes his unique persona by protesting against the norms through lyrics, symbolism, and acting.
Aside from the fact that Korean popular culture is at the moment “nation’s hottest export item” (Kim 2018:9), idols repeatedly incorporate English lyrics into their songs in order to “target both domestic and international audience” (Jin and Ryoo 2014, 128). In this song, Beenzino uses English lyrics such as “shut up and let me be who I am” or “I wanna be myself I wanna be different So let me be imperfect but you just can't Resist it” in hopes of delivering his message to a wider audience. In addition, the English lyrics make the song more exciting for the foreign audience as it removes the “language barrier that potentially impede transnational flow” (Benson 2013, 32). Furthermore, the lyrics of the song closely relate to the music video itself. In one of the lines Beenzino says “If there is such a thing as “my own place” I wanna break it down like gunpowder” (Beenzino 2015). Throughout the whole music video the three main characters, including Beenzino are trying to break a wall, and there are also frequent scenes of breaking objects embedded within the music video.
Second, contemporary K-pop acts are made up of young stars who display their sexuality and showcase their masculinity (Park 2015: 199) through choreographies or manly actions (such as caring for a female). However “Break” exudes an image in direct contrast with contemporary K-pop music videos, and is a strong example of the genre of entertainers known as “gwang-dae” (Park 2015: 203). The video begins by Beenzino and two other characters staring at a pink wall in what appears to be an empty room with only a drummer inside. Majority of the music video shows Beenzino and the actors’ attempt to break down a wall. These aspects add to the bizarre and unique spectacle of the music video. Later on, behind the wall crack, desires of the individuals are shown such as Money and a 'desirable' female interpreting that in order to reach those desires, they had to break the wall or ‘their own place’ as mentioned in the lyrics. Moreover the woman in this music video is solely used to satisfy the male gaze, as “ [women’s] appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness” (Mulvey 1975, 11). As well, a case of intertextuality is evident in this video, when Black Nut looks through the whole and sees his desire which is Beenzino himself, which is a reference to Black Nut’s song called “Beenzino”.
Lastly, different symbols are shown in the music video that emphasize the meaning of the lyrics sung by Beenzino. Firstly, drum is the only prominent instrument in the video and drums are typically known to mimic the sound of loud crashing and breaking. Some of Beenzino’s gestures and movements such as heads hitting the wall are synchronized to the beat of the drum, giving the video a cleaner visual as well as physicalizing the song structure, directing the attention of the audience to key elements of the acting displayed on the screen. Equally important, blue is one of the accentuated colours in this video. The color blue represents wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth. The scenes in which Beenzino is shown rapping, a blue background is used, informing the audience that the artist is speaking his truth.
In conclusion, Hip-Hop as a genre can be used as a tool for artists to express their individual persona and express their dissatisfaction and complaints towards norms and what is expected of them, through the use of different symbols, acting and lyrics. which is exactly what Beenzino does in "Break".
Written by Yalda
Word Count: 655
Bibliography
1LLIONAIRE. " Beenzino - Break [MV]." Filmed [2015]. YouTube video, 3:34. Posted [October 2015].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLQk5TE_6yc&list=RDgLQk5TE_6yc&start_radio=1
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