YouTube Music Video Classics: After ‘Produce 48’
By Jerrison Oracion, Senior Columnist
If you are a fan of K-Pop, you probably know that the biggest summer show in South Korea is Produce 101. The show involves various trainees from major record labels in the country trying to be a part of a new group, which the viewers decide by voting. Produce 101 produced famous groups including I.O.I. and Wanna One, who are known around the world.
In the most recent season of the show, which is called Produce 48, some of the members in the famous Japanese group AKB48 became involved. This is the third time in a row that I’ve mentioned the group in this column. Going into the show as an AKB48 fan, I think it is a good season, though the editing in it is choppy.
At the end of the season, three of the AKB48 members were put in the new 12-member group—Sakura Miyawaki and Nako Yabuki from HKT48, and an AKB48 member from Team 8 named Hitomi Honda. We find out that the name of the new group is IZ*ONE. The downside of this new formation is that the members must take a break from their respective groups for two and a half years, and if the group is successful, there is a possibility that they will leave AKB48 permanently.
Before they moved to IZ*ONE, these three members were involved in AKB48’s next hit single “NO WAY MAN,” which came out recently. After that, IZ*ONE worked on their debut EP COLOR*IZ, released on October 29. The first hit single from the short album is “La Vie en Rose.” When you compare the music video of it with the music video of “NO WAY MAN,” you see the difference between J-Pop and K-Pop.
AKB48 – “NO WAY MAN”
Many people expected that the song would have a K-Pop sound. While it sounds more like J-Pop, the choreography is K-Pop intense and is the most difficult choreography that the group has done. The music video of the song was released on October 25. It begins and ends with a man dancing, which reminded me of the person in the Six Flags commercials. Throughout the music video, we see the group dance and it looks like a commercial that I would see in Japan. Because the group is dancing together and we see them from different angles, it is difficult to find a specific member.
When I watched it the first time, I could not find NGT48’s Nakai Rika, but I spotted her in the first half of the video when I watched it the second time. Even Miyu Takeuchi who was in Produce 48 made a joke about trying to find her in the music video.
You can watch the video here.
IZ*ONE – “La Vie en Rose”
Four days after “NO WAY MAN,” this music video was released. It has everything that I would expect in a K-Pop music video with the zoom-ins, members holding objects, and random settings. There is a scene at the end of this video that reminds me of a scene in the music video of the Girls Generation song, “Gee.”
The Korean members have more lines in “La Vie en Rose” than the Japanese members. The member who stands out is my favourite member of the group, Yu-Jin An. The Japanese member who stands out is Honda. Yabuki, who is the shortest member in the group, can be easily seen in some shots.
When the music video was released, it reached number four on YouTube—which is a hint that the group could be successful.
You can watch the video here.
