music and music videos

In class we talked about how Korean music videos, as far as the ones that we've seen, seem to be produced as quasi-movies. To me, this seems like a good way for artists to extend their imaginative skills to create an entity of its own, distinct from the music itself. On the other hand, it does seem to deflate the significance of the song itself. While I was watching those music videos in class, I honestly did not pay any attention to the lyrics. I passively listened to the meoldies while I my mind was actively engaged in watching the actions taking place before my eyes. The fact that many artists resort to this disjointed approaches in disseminating the song and the stories depicted in music videos suggest that Korean artists are seeking different avenues to intensify despair. As Keith Howard suggests in Appropriation and assimilation in Korean pop music, even songs outside of ballad (in his discussion about Seo Taiji's song entitled this night, is deep, but)"conform to the anodyne romantic idyll, encumbered, as we might expect in a country infused with the notion of han, of grudge and repression, more by desertion and the loss of love than with successful union" (p.40). As we have seen in dramas, Koreans' obsession over love, lust, and complicated relationships are transplanted in songs as well. Hence, it seems reasonable for the artists and directors to use music video as an additional medium to create a unique production rather than an extention of the existing music.
It is not a new technique that songs are being used to project human emotions. Korean Ballads, for instance, is imbued with references to love, loss, death, and hopelessness. It seems as though they would have exhausted all the possible ways they could portray such emotions. Wrong. The lyrics might have a common theme such as a girl leaving for some other guy and the reject sings about his sorry life and how he will forever love her. The tunes might also be along the same vein: melancholy, string instruments, and what-have-you. Because the ballad singers do not have as many topics they can use as the theme of their song, (imagine a ballad about winning the lottery) they might resort to music videos to set themselves apart from each other. Whoever can have the most compelling, attention-grabbing, thought provoking, emotion surging, and sad storyline might be able to stand on top of everyone else as a successful artist.