Music videos in K-pop often engage audiences through story telling, visual stimulation and identifiability. Holt suggests in recent years music has transitioned from an aural form of communication to an audiovisual convergence (2015, 50) as a result of the increase of an online presence in mainstream media. Now, the video is just as important as the music because they “provoke, sell, promote, and tell stories through densely textured images and sounds” (Taylor 2007, 230). By closely examining Ailee’s “Heaven” music video, one can analyze how her music video uses these tools to not only enhance the meaning of her song, but also express the intended theme throughout.
Two aesthetic pleasures are expected in music videos to attract the intended audience; enjoyment and interest. Being able to identify media characters in the video, in this case Ailee herself and Gi-kwang of popular boy group B2ST, allows audiences to enjoy the entertainment because there are familiar faces present. However, with the presence of an unfamiliar character, in this context Ailee’s partner in the music video, and an unfamiliar storyline makes the video cognitively challenging but ultimately understandable (Baek 2014, 733). This challenging and unfamiliar storyline is conveyed through the use of a narrative plot twist in the music video. When watching “Heaven”, we first assume that Ailee is happily spending time with her partner. They laugh together, watching old home made videos of themselves, portraying the epitome of a happy relationship. What is interesting is the faded, orange tone of the video that makes it seem like a nostalgic memory. We never clearly see Ailee or her partner because of this visual effect. Later on, the truth is revealed that her partner was never beside her during the previous scenes but rather, she was watching old videos of them by herself. In one scene, her presumed partner is seen smiling next to her date when he enters her home, yet the new man doesn’t acknowledge his presence. In reality, Ailee’s previous partner has passed away and is watching over her. This transition from nostalgia to reality is displayed when the coloration of the video changes from orange to a bluish hue. The narrative plot twist stimulates the audience mentally to which they may wish to revisit the meaning of the lyrics. Throughout the song, Ailee sings lines such as, “You are my heaven” or “When I hear your voice, it feels like I’m dreaming”. After watching the video, the audience understands that the song has a different meaning. Instead of a profession of love about her current relationship, but rather an ode to the one she loved previously.
Another technique to engage the audience is the usage of roles in the music video. In “Heaven”, Ailee portrays two characters. The one lip-syncing represents Ailee the singer, and Ailee the main actress represents an ordinary person. The stars centring both screen presence and screen story as they act out a complex process of likeness and difference (the glamorous impersonates the ordinary) represents ego ideals as explained by Mulvey (1975, 10). For the audience to feel relatable to the music video, they must be able to see and identify themselves in Ailee’s character. This identification subjects the audience to “forget the world as the ego has subsequently come to perceive it” (Ibid.) and instead focus on the world in the music video. In this sense, the audience can envision themselves as the main character because they can relate to a romance they’ve similarly experienced or a romance they wish to experience.
Ailee’s “Heaven” music video does a great job of imploring techniques to engage the intended audience because it is straightforward and relatable. There are no flashy props or effects to distract from the overall theme of the video, which is the simplicity in love and romance. The blend of familiarity with unfamiliarity aesthetically pleases the audience and creates a refreshing narrative that’s easy to follow.
Author: Nia Ru
Bibliography:
Baek, Young-min. “Relationship Between Cultural Distance and Cross-Cultural Music Video Consumption on YouTube.” Social Science Computer Review 33, no. 6 (2015): 730-48.
Holt, Fabian. “Is music becoming more visual? Online video content in the music industry.” Visual Studies 26, no.1 (2011): 50-61.
Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Feminisms, (1975): 438-48.
Taylor, Pamela G. “Press Pause: Critically Contextualizing Music Video in Visual Culture and Art Education.” Studies in Art Education 48, no. 3 (2007): 230-46.
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