Xia Junsu - Tarantallegra: Kpop Music Mondays

COMMENTS 227

YES! We didn’t think that Junsu would be able to stay on top of the KpopCharts for two weeks, considering how we couldn’t do a Music Monday last week since we were at the Google Kpop Concert, but Tarantallegra kept the top spot. WOOT! If you haven’t seen it yet, check out Junsu’s video in all its artsy sexual glory:

For starters, some of you might be wondering about the change of scenery. We’re in Canada until June 18th. Yay! We won’t be posting as many videos as we usually post, since we’re trying to kinda be on vacation with our families and what not, but we can’t give up on Music Mondays. Of course not! It’s a bit difficult trying to film them here, though, since we don’t have all of our equipment with us: namely, our lighting. So we had to rely on the sun, which is really, really bright. Ah!

Ok, enough about us, more about the video. Is anyone else really taken aback by this? Not in a bad way, but in a really surprised way? I guess we shouldn’t be surprised because Junsu’s last music video for INNNNNTOOOOXIICATIIOOONN was a jaw droopingly awesome sexy video. This video surprised though, for a few reasons. First, the back up dancers were really diverse in both race and size and that is really realllllly rare to see in a kpop video. I really can’t think of any other Korean music video that had such curvy ladies and brawny guys. There’s usually a uniformity in size and shape, but this video offered us a different approach to sexy backup dancers. Seriously! Most backup dancers are just…backup; not the centre of attention, but a lot of the focus on this video was on these dancers. We loved it!

Secondly, this video was very sexy but it also oozed of an eroticism and sexuality we can appreciate. Not that we appreciate sexy hoses, but we can appreciate the artsiness of it. Have you ever gone to see a play at an art school and the people on stage are doing weird things, like licking each other or fondling each others bodies but doing so while dressed up like purple swans and it’s both sexy but also not sexy? Yeah…I totally wasn’t repeating that from experience *blank stare to computer* Well that’s how I felt watching this video. It was like, yes, Junsu and his dancers are being sexual and touching, but it wasn’t in such a way that was for the sole purpose of making fangirls and fanboys drool at the camera. OH OH! I just thought of another example. One of my favourite music videos ever is Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.” Although they are wearing underwear and dancing, there is an emotional rawness present in their very artistic dancing and rolling on the floor as they bang their fists to “I DON’T WANNNNNA BE FRIENNNDSSS.” For us, it injects more meaning into their sexiness than just “I’m hot”. Know what I’m saying here?

Moving along…the third thing we really like about this video is that Junsu is very comfortable with playing around with gender roles and highlighting androgyny. It’s a concept that I think Japan seems very comfortable while Korea only uses it as a joke, like as a special concert event or on a variety show. I don’t think Junsu takes this concept as a joke. There’s nothing really humorous about what he’s doing here. I think he embraces it and takes it seriously, and it’s something we’re not used to seeing in Kpop.

All in all, this video will get banned like there’s no tomorrow, but we’re really happy that Junsu made it anyways. If you’re as big a fan of it as we are, pick up the song via iTunes or get the physical album with a super sexy poster via YesAsia. Boom! And, of course, we’ve got bloopers as always, including some photobombing by the Spudgy and a huge rant on bananas. KEES AND TOUCH ME! RUB MY BANANAS!