On Monday, I talked briefly about 24K and Choeun Entertainment's approaches to achieving public recognition. Both the group and the company seemed to change image and concept in their debut year before cementing a more hardcore and trendy style after their two year hiatus.
Today, I'm going to touch upon 24K's more recent comebacks and how the music videos for "Still 24K" and "Bingo" further reinforce this hardcore and trendy image.
"Still 24K" is a story-based music video where the members are delinquents and robbers who set up a scam to get alot of jewelry and gold from a jewelry store. The story is set up i a way where the audience is left with the cliffhanger "to be continued" towards the end of the MV.
What's interesting about this approach to achieving public recognition, is that story-based music videos are a trend nowadays. Successful groups such as BTS, BAP, and VIXX have benefited from engaging their audience with a story and allowing fans to discuss possible music video theories. So, the focus on story in the music video, although a generic one, as well as the cliffhanger at the end, makes fans anticipate 24K's next release. This allows the group to have a consistent fanbase from comeback to comeback, in this case, from "Still 24K" to "Bingo."
The storyline emphasizes the betrayal of one of the members of the delinquent gang because of the girl and the money.
Music videos that deal with betrayal are not uncommon in KPop, but I noticed that 24K and Choeun Entertainment are bringing back trends from past successful music videos. One music video that the company and the group could have drawn inspiration from is "One Shot" by BAP. The emphasis on gun wars, money, blackmail, theft, and betrayal, is something that brought BAP alot of attention during that comeback. It's smart of Choeun Entertainment and 24K to cement their hardcore trendy style in 2016 by bringing back hardcore themes and concepts that were successful in 2013.
Aside from maintaining fans' interest through a music video cliffhanger between comebacks, and reasserting the type of audience 24K wants through this consistent hardcore image, the sets and styling are also indicative of the trends that both the group and the company want to follow.
The dancing scenes for "Bingo" take place in a set similar to Monsta X's "Hero" and Up10tion's "Attention" (both successful comebacks), so it makes sense that 24K and Choeun Entertainment use these sets in their search for public recognition. Although the group and the company focus on trends into making music videos, I think the drawback with getting inspiration from some other successful groups is that 24K loses some of their identity. What do you think?
Let me know through Twitter or in the comments in the Disqus down below, is this hardcore concept, (emphasized through music video plot, set, and styling) too general for a group like 24K or is it just what they need to really start getting noticed by the public?
