Ever since the launch of MTV back in the 80s, music took a new turn and became a lot more visual. It created another inventive outlet for artistes and bands to express their musical concepts and promote their works.
With the global explosion of K-pop, K-pop lovers are reveling in the visual and auditory onslaught, and K-pop stars find themselves having to outdo one another to stay relevant in this fickle world of idol-worship.
One of the biggest and most influential Korean bands, BIGBANG has made an international name for themselves since their debut back in 2006. BIGBANG is synonymous with their music, individual talents, style, and most of all, eye-catching music videos. Fans, and sometimes non-fans even, look forward to their music video concepts.
Over the course of their decade-long career, the group has released a staggering 24 video albums and 38 music videos. Let’s take a look their top eight (unranked) music video offerings!
1) We like to Party
Released in 2015, this single from their MADE album was shot on Jeju Island. It features self-recorded footage from the band members and the video style was a slight departure from their previous videos. It showcased the real side of the members, playing, partying and their strong friendship.
What makes it special:
It offers a glimpse of the quintet’s real selves and not the on-stage personas that are overly styled.
2) Bang Bang Bang
This is one of the more over the top videos from the band. This grandiose concept featured astounding looks, hairstyles, and fashion. Throw in some glitter, low-riders, flamethrowers, grenade launchers, models on leashes, assault vehicles, pimped out motorcycles and lots of leather, you’ve got yourself a rocking, epic party going! Lauded by critics for their concept for Bang Bang Bang, it’s no wonder that this is the second most viewed BIGBANG video (274,607,729 views) on YouTube!
What makes it special:
You gotta watch it to find out. Rolling Stone declared, “Nothing from [this year] really beats the explosive grandiosity of 'Bang Bang Bang'”.
3) Monster
The video for this special release single from their repackaged Still Alive album, released in 2012, was a collaboration with Hyundai Card, featuring pioneering special effects that took one month to perfect. The guys were styled like pretty boy mutants and would fit in instantly as characters in the Marvel or DC comic universe. I’m pretty sure they melted many hearts with their mutant bad boy personas in this video!
What makes it special:
Definitely its originality. Part dystopian, part futuristic and all surrealistic, this somewhat abstract concept of a music video is a mystery we love to solve.
4) Bae Bae
The first single released from their 2015 MADE album, this video is, for a lack of words, risqué. Deviating from the norm, this video explodes with eye-popping colours, akin to the worlds of Alice in Wonderland colliding with Andy Warhol’s. It can be a little befuddling when watching this video, with the erotic yet psychedelic images.
What makes it special:
Bae Bae won Best Music Video at the 2015 Mnet Asian Music Awards (major K-pop Music Awards). Seungri's racy scenes are said to be "masquerading as a Christian Grey-esque sugar daddy in what looks like an Evanescence video circa 2000." Need we say more?
5) Loser
Released in 2015, this video feels like it belongs in an indie movie. Each member gets his own storyline, depicting a dark story for each of them. This is the first time the band had such a sinister theme, each struggling with their dark sides. Loser became the most viewed K-pop video within 24 hours, with 4.5 million views on YouTube.
What makes it special:
Instead of blinding glitter, flashy costumes, and all-too dizzying dance movies, Loser showed a darker side of BIGBANG, a big departure from their usual music videos, and it’s a refreshing change.
6) Love Song
This black and white video seemed like it was shot in one take. The desolate wasteland littered with abandoned vehicles that they were located in fit in with the depressing, yet nostalgic lyrics of the song. It’s amusing to see the spiffily attired guys break out into coordinated boyband-esque dance moves, something they rarely do.
What makes it special:
All five members ditched heavy makeup, coloured contact lenses and crazy hairdo and don spiffy suits. That’s enough reason to make it special.
7) Sober
The quirkiness returns in this 2015 video. The concept for this video has a misty, dreamlike feel to it, the theme being “I’m actually not sober”. It’s fun to see the members acting silly and hardly “sober” in a surrealistic setting.
What makes it special:
We usually see the guys in coordinated dance moves and restrained emotions, but they really let loose and showed us a more carefree version of themselves.
8) Fantastic Baby
Boomshakala! The first music video by a K-pop group to garner more than 300 million views, this is the definitive video that set the bar high up for the K-pop industry, Internationally lauded, this video is visually stunning, with its outlandish outfits, and the members staging what looks like a revolution. Only two words for this video, Fantastic Baby!
What makes it special:
324,846,413 views and counting, that’s what. This video is a visual spectacle that might have a budget bigger than some film productions. If you only have time to watch one BIGBANG music video, this is the one you must catch.
Eight videos are probably not quite enough to showcase BIGBANG’s musical talents and charms! So go forth and relive glorious action of G-Dragon, Taeyang, T.O.P, Daesung and Seungri with BIGBANG MADE the Movie.
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