#exo solo

[laur-rants]

Destiny 2's he Final Shape is upon us and sorry not sorry in advance if this blog suddenly becomes really Destiny heavy, the campaign is fantastic and it's consuming my life right now. I love my guardians I love their ghosts

[qiankunnies]

Kai Solos 2/? — Peaches Countdown to Jongin's Birthday: D-2

[wolveswithblackpearls]

i tried to live in black and white, but i'm so

. admin s [pcy black out teaser pt. 3 / 3]

[marshmellobunny64]

🎨🐧.

[buggleboos]

destiny fireteam BLAST !!!!

[jaejoongandsons]

baekhyun “pineapple slice” mv

[ihophashbrowns]

exo x barbie movie posters ♡

[shutupineedtothink]

Ok really seriously were comebacks from Shinee, EXO, Teen Top, Infinite (like srsly I still cannot believe), VIXX (also cannot believe), TVXQ, U-Kiss, FT Island, and BtoB on anyone’s 2023 bingo card because holy shit what a year for the 2nd gen boys

[manawari]

Jin-woo: on my birthday, 11 minutes past midnight, nobody had wished me happy birthday—

Crowd: awwwww

Byung-gyu: I can explain!

Jin-woo: —a lot of people think that the ARISE members are all close and take good care of each other, but nobody wished me happy birthday for 11 minutes!

[starchild--27]

first things first.

CHANYEOL’S FIRST SOLO ALBUM „BLACK OUT” IS OUT. IT IS FINALLY OUT. FUCKING HELL, CAN YOU BELIEVE WE’VE WAITED FOR SO LONG AND NOW IT’S HERE AND IT’S BEAUTIFUL AND I AM SO PROUD OF CHANYEOL I HOPE WE GET TO SEE AND HEAR SO MUCH MORE FROM HIM IN THE FUTURE.

ok. now that that’s out of my system, let’s talk about the mv for black out. in depth. hell yeah.

(on a side note, i really wanted to make a post like this for a long time. like, a long post where i put down thoughts in a kind of structured way, so yey i am excited, let’s go.)

first, i want to point out that personally, i appreciate a lot that the song has no gendered language (as far as i know. i am not fluent in korean tho, i am basing this on the english lyrics supplied with the video!), and in tune with that i will also use gender neutral language in this little analysis here. the only case i will use gendered language is when referring to chanyeol, who i will treat like an actor portraying the protagonist in this video. so when i say “chanyeol” i mean the guy in the video and not the person park chanyeol – just for clarification. ok. now.

overall, to me, the mv feels a lot like a movie, or parts of a movie. it has amazing cinematography – the city at night, the bus ride, the scenes at the window of the apartment, the fish tank, the short scenes relating to boxing – that portrays the feelings around a breakup very beautifully. in the video, i see many symbols that represent specific situations and emotions and that’s what i want to break down here a little bit.

the cassette tape is probably the most obvious of the symbols. the cassette he literally clings to, i think, represents the past relationship itself. is the very first scene he is sitting on a bus full of happy people, people that seem to be in a romantic relationship, that have fun and are laughing – he is alone and surrounded by love. he simply sits there, unmoving between people that are eagerly interacting with each other. he is still while everything else is moving on. but he has the cassette which he doesn’t even listen to (notice how we never see him wearing the headphones he carries around his neck!).

he is not listening to the tape, just keeping it – the relationship might already be over, he is just holding on to the memories. he doesn’t want to think about them (or else he would listen to the tape) but also doesn’t want to lose and let go (that’s why he's keeping it). and that’s why he is very distressed when he loses the tape, why he holds on to it so hard. but in the end, it rips apart and that causes him so much hurt. it was so precious to him and tried to keep it so hard. it’s really painful and heart-breaking to watch.

the bus ride itself is very interesting because it starts out being a space chanyeol is… well, not exactly comfortable in. but it’s a place where he rests, where he sits and lets himself being carried along, unmoving object at a place where everything is moving a lot. he is, mentally, still very entangled in the relationship. that’s why he’s still on top of that bus, alone with all the other people that are so happy and loved. he hasn’t moved on yet. and he doesn’t seem to want to.

until the moment we see the cassette on the ground. then we see him suddenly realizing that he lost it, like snapping out of a trance. he gets up, wants to get it but it falls out of his reach, the tape comes loose, and he tries to hold on to it so much. the moving bus suddenly becomes a trap, it moves too fast and the tape rips in the end. he can’t go back to the relationship and the memories anymore because it has broken and it’s his fault in a way. maybe he stayed to long on the bus. maybe he realized it fell too late. maybe he acted too hastily. maybe he should have kept the cassette safe in a pocket so he wouldn’t have lost it in the first place.

the scenes of him running aimlessly through the cityscape could just be mindless wandering to keep himself moving, but i like to believe that he is not so aimless in his running. i think he is looking for the lost tape. i think that in all the stillness he wants while he still is holding on to his memories, he feels utter restlessness after losing them. everything moves so fast, everything is loud (there even is a fucking plane), there are lights everywhere – he is afraid he won’t find the tape again in the vastness of the city. and maybe he doesn’t.

for me, the scenes with blond chanyeol happen after the bus scenes. he is post-breakup chanyeol (because what do you do after a breakup? right, radically change your hair xD). that’s the chanyeol we see in the apartment with the fishtank and the chanyeol we see boxing (well, kinda. we don’t see too much of the actual boxing, but I think that will change once we get the mv for back again xD). it’s also the chanyeol who is looking at himself in a broken mirror.

mirrors and reflections are symbolically used to reveal the true self of a person, in chanyeol’s case that’s someone who feels very broken inside.

something that really stood out to me was a shot of the fishtank where they filmed the tv in the background of the apartment through the water.

first and foremost, the shot through the water gives the whole scene a very whimsical feel, like looking into a dream world that chanyeol is escaping to from the harsh reality of his broken heart and the end of this relationship that he treasured so much. he is literally pushing his head into that world, into the water, where he can’t breathe.

that’s also a very desperate act of trying to feel alive, or like… anything at all. the same reason he resorts to a painful sport like boxing. the physical pain fills the emptiness that remains and overshadows the emotional numbness, fills the lack of emotion with pain he can control, instead of letting himself feel the emotional pain he can’t control. (and on an important note: both actions are forms of self-harm and that’s a very unhealthy coping mechanism, just… don’t do it)

back to the fish tank. fish can symbolize change and adaptability, as fishes are animals that can survive even in challenging conditions. and that fits very well with the story of the mv as well. chanyeol still needs to figure out how to adapt and how to survive his life right now, but he will figure it out – just listen to the rest of the album, and especially back again! as this is the other song we’ll have an mv too, and one that picks up on the boxing element that was introduced a bit, i treat it like what happens after the black out mv / the breakup.

back again is a crazy song!! it’s very lively, full of sounds and little details, of versatile voice use and a lot of energy! it’s him bouncing back again (see what I did there-), it’s when he is feeling better again and is confident to move forward again. and maybe he’s a bit more enthusiastic than he is actually healed and fails. but he has hope and takes moving on and coming back to life step by step.

musically, black out feels more like being torn apart from the inside. there is a lot of vulnerability in his voice while the beat is very restless when all we see chanyeol do is wanting to hold on for a moment but the beat and the melody, the song itself really, pull him along.

i also noticed to the colour schemes in the video. mainly we see a dark blue being used. in some moments, very prominently the scene where chanyeol looks at the goldfish in the tank, a warm orange is used as contrast.

it feels very comfortable and, well, warming within all the cold blues and greens, so that sort of underlines my interpretation of the fishtank scene(s). i also noted that in scenes from the apartment we see pink lights, usually contrasting a greenish blue light. neither of those are very warm lights and add more to the general vibe and atmosphere of the scenes, i think. one could argue though that pink could symbolize love, which is a pretty obvious although not happy theme of the story.

this mv has so much pain and regret and yearning and so so so much hurt. in all the soft spots. it’s dark and gloomy that make it feel almost brutally real. i like to draw a parallel to tomorrow here (and not only because the two mvs use similar a similar colour sceme, blue and orange), which is very still and very in the moment. it’s also dark and yearning but is gives these feelings room and holds a glimmer of hope. black out is not that calm. its darkness is hurrying the protagonist along, who just wants a moment to hold on and breath. but there is no room for feeling those feelings in black out, but there is no way to outrun the pain. or the hole in your heart that’s left when you lost something you loved a lot.

[watch the mv here]

[listen to his album, including back again, here]

[nyasialiveshere]

Did nct ever make sense financially:

But I want to explain why though

Nct was started as a group with infinite members. The goal was to have a male akb48

That being said the financial success of akb48 depended on the members doing various activities OUTSIDE of the group with an emphasis on practical safe and relatively inexpensive projects= consistent returns on investment.

Also the group's success depended on the group being well, actually successful.

S.m's marketing strategy is the opposite. The group is successful just by virtue of existing, they will get million invested in them regardless.

The group at least was thought of since the early 2010s when most of their members join. We know the group did not have a name and was simply a large collection of male trainee's. The group was basically a basket to keep their trainee's inside of. Don't worry if you do not make it into xyz group you can go to Nct.

Johnny was originally going to be a member of exo and was later placed in Nct, not the first round but in a later unit nct U.

It's actually very odd the thought and financial process of nct. Because unlike with akb48 it was not the direct intention to have the members do other projects and have seperate careers. It is the method of s.m to have people in groups for a majority of their career and then they can do other things. Unless you are lucky.

Also akb48 built up over time. It is a very old group, whereas nct gained lots of members quickly and the direction wasn't always decided or clear.

Like Akb48, Nct or SRB14 had a more direct and connected with the public image. They were not exo who were meant to be distant to create intrigue. They all had a pretty nice and approachable personality.

"AKB48 was founded as "idols you can meet".[4]Japanese idols are entertainers/performers who appeal directly to fans for support. Close interactions between fans and idols allow idols to cultivate and maintain loyal fan followings."

You won't remember Exo having a group youtube channel with weekly vlogs or having so many varieties even though they were a smaller group. Each group has a specialized team and marketing style.

AKB48 like nct had specialized teams as well

"According to former member Misaki Iwasa, each team has its own theme. Team A represents freedom; Team B is idol-like, with cute costumes, and Team K has a strong, powerful image"

AKB48 was very successful and had their own theater which would cut down on costs. The concepts were also more down to earth, they are more a performance troupe than an idol group. The focus is on entertaining the fans

Nct being a boy group inside of the kpop industry had a lot of competition and also they didn't have much of a pull besides having lots of members. They still had to travel and book venues and sellout stadiums to break even. Because boy bands are made to impress and show out. Of course lots of money is spent on expensive music videos, hotels, lots of staff, appearances at awards shows, top fashion for each member. Which is fine for a small group, but when the members keep growing and growing every year eventually getting into double digits; almost half the size of AKB48 in almost 1/3rd the amount of time, how is that sustainable?

It's not.

Simply put the more employees a company gains the more they spend paying their employees. If NCT is a company and the staff and members are the employees, then almost every year their costs increased. Even when they had good years, it was offset by the fact that their money would be paying for another unit. This is why s.m ent went so long without any other groups. And when they finally made a new group they took members already in NCT.

Add in the fact that there are some artists getting paid and sitting on the bench. They cannot afford to add them into a project or promote them. They can only bet on people they know will bring in money.

If they had brand new people that would be adding more and more people to the payroll, which at this point they likely can't afford. They would need a new project with already existing employees and have them double their workload--since they are the main ones bringing in money anyway, recycle in-house music and producers, and garner outside forces investing money on this dumpster fire to create something that would be profitable for the company. Send them to America so you can rack up the prices on tickets and merch cause Koreans sure won't go for this.

And...........that's how you get super m

okay now I'm done.

Also one more thing, the artists are not making money off the music, they make money other ways.

Spotify also takes a lot from the artists

Please, please stop streaming (too much music fries your brain) and bulk buying(is awful for the environment). The music industry has been dead, these artists are literal slaves. Good day.

[dhxzs]

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KAI 카이 'Rover' The 3rd Mini Album (Teaser Images 1)

[wolveswithblackpearls]

i think the blondes are done with fun

. admin s [pcy black out teaser pt. 1 / 3]

[vanillakai]

flash. click. play. switch.

[mooka97]

But now I'm stuck on MARS

[xmaeve]

➸ Deixei apenas o perfume das flores. ▹ 🎙° música.