Let’s bring back the weird and wild era of K-pop beauty

 In XG’s latest music video for ‘Woke Up’, the septet brings the savagery. Apart from the cocksure rap verses across the board, it’s a smorgasboard of esoteric visuals that can only leave its audiences in absolute awe. At first glance, the visual metaphor of a wolf leans animalistic. Sharp, structured manes on Jurin and Chisa are emblazoned in a loud, volcanic hue. All seven are fearsome in metallic retainers, moulded to look like the teeth of a mad, hungry wolf. Hinata, Juria and Harvey are made almost otherworldly; each one sporting alien-like antennas, mismatched coloured contacts or wispy eye embellishments. There are those gravity-defying, terrifying talons. Then there’s Cocona: whose audacious buzz cut was one she opted to do on screen in real time, whilst serving up some mindblowing flow. 

It makes complete sense however, when one zooms in on the rolling production credits. The visual maestro behind the MV for ‘Woke Up’? Cho Gi-seok, the South Korean photographer best known for his surrealist visuals and prolific vision. Certainly, no one better than Cho to put the weird and the wild back into the burgeoning K-pop industry. Whilst the Xtraordinary Girls may be more of a ‘global’ group than anything else, there’s no denying that they have always been strongly associated with K-pop, considering their choice to operate out of South Korea. 

That being said, ‘Woke Up’ stands as utter proof that sometimes, it pays to go completely off the beaten track, no matter how strange or unheard of it might seem. It might scream unrestrained, uncouth, unorthodox—but it screams, and it’s heard. In fact, ‘Woke Up’ is rather reminiscent of the days that K-pop used to carry with it that same defiant, rebellious energy; when each new-generation group laid bare their own version of theatrical beauty—the kind that would make a statement on its own. 

That’s not to say recent years haven’t seen their own bold digressions; NewJeans has been spearheading the pared-down aesthetic ever since they debuted with fresh-faced miens and their jet-black, iron-straight tresses. Doubtlessly a step in a different direction altogether, but it was an aspirational direction no less. 

But since the teenage quintet first altered the K-pop beauty scene with their clean aesthetic, there’s been a noticeable stalemate. In every other music video on the block, you might spot the occasional blotch of under eye blush, the metallic liner or the glistening pout. For added detail, a sharply-delivered manicure is hardly unlikely. Not to mention, a perfectly-manicured mane should only be expected—be it taken all the way back or worn perfectly loose over the shoulders. It’s all been very pretty and pristine, and not a single strand out of place. But none of it feels any different from the next. In short, it’s begun to feel a little safe.

Instead, XG’s recent swerve calls to mind the K-pop rebellion at the turn of the last decade. When nothing was perfect; some startlingly quite trial-and-error and yet everything was bursting with personality and colour. Eccentricity and difference was conveyed in off-kilter hairstyles; one might chuckle at recalling the multitude of extremes which Sandara Park’s mane took on in 2NE1’s heydays. 

As if to match the eclectic mood of K-pop’s early electropop days, the girls of f(x) also often sported the same colourful spunk that didn’t try to paint them in the same girly, fem-coded aesthetic of their other industry seniors, like Girls’ Generation for example. And should you try to call to mind a group so strongly defined by their overarching concept? Red Velvet has always been the ultimate muse, vacillating between preppy, retro concepts (of clown-like blushes and whimsical hairdos) and darker, more morbid aesthetics (like their most recent Chill Kill) that convey their trick for experimentation and duality. 

So whilst not everything should be called back to the drawing board (let’s leave those raccoon tail hair moments and all-too-heavily lined peepers behind), this hopeful writer and ardent K-pop fan is hoping the mood of XG’s powerful, crazy visuals will spur the industry on. To remember the ebullient mood of debuting a flamboyant hairstyle for any certain member, or the audible gasp that always accompanies a shocking, unprecedented visual concept. To serve up something weird, wild and quite simply good, once again.