Okay. Wow. Holy crap! I just did a music video review early this morning as a, "This seems cool I want to try this out," sort of whim...and then what happens?! Big Bang releases two of their new songs and music videos off of their MADE series!! I obviously haven't been paying attention much, amidst studying for finals, about when exactly Big Bang's comeback would be. I only knew about the new songs and about them appearing on music show Inkigayo for their comeback stage. I never once realized when the songs themselves were coming out.

In case you can't tell from my rambling, I am extremely excited! I've been with Big Bang since about 2007-2008, when I first stumbled upon their song Lies on YouTube in the related videos while watching anime openings and endings. Ever since then, I've been a huge fan of Big Bang and Korean pop in general. Now, it's been three years since Fantastic Baby and I think they're long overdue for a comeback and some new music to be released. I'm literally going crazy!

So for this feature, I'm going to be talking about Big Bang's two new songs, Bae Bae and Loser. I'll start by order of which I watched them, which leads to Loser first:

THE MUSIC VIDEO

I'm going to try and not compare the two music videos and songs, because they're both their own separate and respective art pieces...but honestly, I enjoyed Loser a lot more than I did Bae Bae. This music video had great camera angles and the colors of it were subtle and appealing to the eye. It was a calm video that was reflective of the mood of the song, in my opinion. Each member got their own story lines dependent upon the theme of the song and I think with the use of the different scenes, colors and lighting that reflected the moods, and the camera angles themselves—those stories were easy to follow and it makes them unique to each member.

On that note, though, I think the composition itself was a bit everywhere at times. The scenes switched to different members quite a lot and made it confusing for me to catch onto the meanings of each member's scene on the first watch. I had to watch it two other times to understand everything completely.

I like the separate stories being told, though, despite it being confusing on the first watch. G-Dragon is the rich and powerful man who is alone, surrounded by those waiting on him who he can't connect with. Later in the video, he's depicted in the streets in his extravagant clothing wandering alone, not interacting with the "normal" people.

Taeyang is the religious man who seems to have lost his faith, or is trying to be faithful and is constantly failing. There are various quotes on the cross and ground talking about sin and truth. He loses his way and ends up wandering junkyards alone. At the end of his story, he's shown throwing and breaking the cross, then drawing the cross on the ground so he may land on it when he jumps to his death.

TOP is an obsessive and controlling man depicted in a room where everything is pristine. He uses gloves to touch anything whether it be the girl—he picks her finger off of him gently with a white gloved hand as though it is dirty—he is with or his art. But it's shown that the girl ends up touching one of his pieces of art, and his controlling side comes out. He's shown choking her with a white, hand—then, later he is shown alone wandering alleyways covered in blood splatters in a bathrobe and slippers, which completely goes against the clean and pristine looks he had before. Also...did he kill that girl?

Daesung is just a normal guy minding his own business, who is jumped by a group of thugs. He's beaten and humiliated when they thrown the bandanna that his girlfriend gave him. He's sensitive and quiet, and is shown trying to man up later in front of a mirror in order to take revenge. But when he does take revenge, he ends up being broken and alone at the end—his girlfriend's bandanna forgotten on the ground—because he has now become that same thug.

Finally, Seungri appears to be a very well off man. Not rich like G-Dragon, but he has a neat appearance and is well stocked on electronics. However, it appears as though he is alone because he has a quick temper. He sees his girlfriend, presumably his ex, with another man on the street and calls her. After she ignores his call and puts her cell away in her purse, Seungri is shown kicking a side mirror off of a random car. Like TOP, he's obsessive. He ends up stalking her and tries to talk to her, but she pushes him away and leaves him alone in the end.

I think all of these themes really play well into the title "Loser" and the lyrics themselves.

THE SONG

Again, I don't want to compare—but I really enjoyed Loser a lot more than Bae Bae. The song was chill and relaxing. It also has some very meaningful lyrics that are really easy to connect with, if you want me to be honest. I think the lyrics reflect what everyone is going through at some point in their life. If you read the lyrics, it's apparent that the song itself isn't about being what is classified as a loser to another person, but about believing you yourself are a loser. The song is about being alone in the world and feeling alone, even when surrounded by friends, or lovers, or faith.

THE MUSIC VIDEO

Okay...so...I'm not really sure what to say about Bae Bae. Except, seriously, what in the actual fuck? This music video was so nonsensical and crazy. There was no plot, nothing to follow. It was just everywhere, all at once. And so freaking weird. Also, um...can anyone say sexual innuendos? This music video was full of them. Not sure if anyone else picked up on that. But Big Bang really has no chill.

So I didn't much like the music video because it was nonsensical. Normally I don't mind videos like that much, but this one...was just too out there for me, I guess. Also, I really like bright colors. But this? This was an explosion of fuchsia that I was just not okay with. Whoever was messing with the settings of this video and set the bar all the way over to "cool" or "warm" made a terrible, horrible mistake.

Also, I hate to say this...but I hate double standards. If white girls in hanboks were to appear in any other KPop group's music video, that group would get a lot of hate comments. In fact, something like that happened to Block B subunit Bastarz recently—their music video for Conduct Zero featured both white and Korean girls in kimonos, and they got so much hate, with anti-fans even telling member P.O to kill himself, that Seven Seasons removed that scene entirely from the video. But Big Bang, the "Kings" do something similar? Well...I'm not sure about anyone else, but I've yet to see any comments on it at all, and it's rubbing me the wrong way.

Besides that, though, I really enjoyed the imagery here. Despite the insanity of the video, it's a work of art if not for all the motifs it features. Even if, awkwardly enough, they are sexual motifs. To start with, an obvious one is the Venus flytrap. Not only is that a plant, but it's a sex position, too. Orchids stand for fertility, and the stag in the video refers to when adult videos were once called "stag films." Also, talking about older movies, the crashing waves during Daesung's scenes reference when older adult films used to feature crashing waves after sex. There's also Korean folklore that goes the whole moon scene, about the rabbits who live on the moon and are pounding rice cakes. Depending on what version of the folklore you know, the story is simple enough and basically signifies a long, lasting life (which is what the moon stands for). But you can also play into the fact that rabbits stand for fertility, if you want. There are also some more obvious innuendos—take for example TOP and his little toy gun—but I'll leave your own mind up to deciding what those are about, if you're reading this.

THE SONG

To me, the song was just so-so. It wasn't anything amazingly Big Bang catchy, and it wasn't mind-blowing amazing like I was hoping for this comeback. However, I do like it. I think if I listen to it a few more times it will most definitely grow on me. It's just not one of those instant-like songs like Loser was—at least for me. TOP's rap style for this specific song did stand out to me a lot. It was very unique and fitting. Also, strangely enough for how crazy the music video was, I do like that the lyrics sort of fit with all the innuendos. The lyrics are talking about being addicted and drunk off a crazy, beautiful woman who can be compared to pretty flowers and more. The lyrics also feature some lines that also hint at sex—but I'll let you read them for yourself. It's not any sort of meaningful, but it's a fun song for what it is.

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So, all in all, I'm definitely looking forward to this comeback. While Bae Bae may take some time for it to grow on me, and Loser was amazing in my opinion...I think Big Bang has set themselves up with an amazing start to this comeback period. It's going to be a long five months...