Red Velvet 레드벨벳_Ice Cream Cake_Music Video Review

Red Velvet is back, lalalalalalalalalala happiness
The Song
I really like this song in my first listen(which is rare)! Even from the teaser, the La La La s were enticing. I'd say it is a superb decision from whoever in SM that decided that RV would get to sing this song. Ice cream cake is a very catchy and interesting song to listen to. The English phrases were executed very well too.
♫ Its so tasty! Come and chase me! ♫
However, now comes the conflict. This might annoy some RV stans but I really hope that you guys understand where I'm coming from, ok?
Alright, yep, some of you must have been thinking this, no? Isn't this a concept that F(x) should have gotten? I am not saying that only f(x) is entitled to this kind of mysterious funky concept, but I just felt that despite coming from the same entertainment company, shouldn't lines be drawn clearer? F(x) has done songs like sweet witches, which I do believe belong in the same category as Ice Cream Cake... So... what i mean is that it is quite confusing to have idol groups that overlap each other in songs that they put out. I might be a little oversensitive now, so please don't bash me! I think that I just need more time to get used to the idea that RV can do any concept they want. :)
Overall, RV did a great job with this song, and this is my favourite song from them thus far! La La La La La La La La

The Video
Ooo, the visuals from this video complemented the song very well. Shot at very nice locations, the video felt like it was an experimental, indie film to a certain extent and was interesting to watch.
From touching their hair,

to the ball bursting into balloons,

to cutting the ice cream cake,

to plain shots of the members,

they were all tastefully done! :) Bravo, I award this the best SM music video ever!!! Haha, this is really my style, artsy and indie-ish but not too crazy nor have too many hidden meanings in them.

The Artist
So far, RV has been doing really diverse concepts from cute to sultry to mysterious, showcasing their diversity to challenge various genres. I appreciate this. However, there is a tradeoff by doing this. I tend to think that it is more iconic and unique if a group/idol do a certain genre for at least a few months/years as the audience can recognise them better. Perhaps, they are still discovering which concept works best for them, and hopefully they settle down with one for at least a few comebacks. It is the power of familiarity, while their songs might sound similar (cough cough owl city in the past), they will have a much stronger and hardcore fanbase in my opinion.
Also, moving on to the addition of a new member Yeri, I think that she fits in very well. Ok, maybe it is just that I'm not super familiar with the RV members, but she does not feel out of place in this MV at all. :)
I have heard that Red Velvet is a project group, so I guess we can look forward to seeing more changes the next few comebacks. May it be successful and refreshing!


Thanks for reading my first ever MV review in this blog! >< Hope you liked it, & don't hesitate to tweet me @raycherr about what you think! :)
In the meantime,
if you like Kpop, why not check out "10 Flaws of No Mercy" here?

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10 Flaws of NO.MERCY

Check out my other post/review on NO.MERCY

In no particular order,
1. Ranking
At first, despite seeming really cruel, it seemed like a really good idea to me, to help the trainees see where they stand, and to motivate them...

But, this is just crap, I'm sorry. There is no value in this, plus it only made the show seem even more bias than ever[see flaw 4] especially with Jooheon forever at the top.

2. Elimination
I really dislike it when I'm just getting to know someone, he is eliminated especially for a non-satisfactory reason.
For example, in Reality TV Game Shows like Survivor and The Genius, when players are eliminated, it is because the tribe has spoken or they didn't do well in a game. They are explicit reasons that I can see for myself and find a sense of justification... Even if I liked the player, I could accept the players' fate when eliminated. Here, I just do not understand their reasoning, if they even give one[see flaw 9].

3. Spoilers
Moving along, having this show filmed in public is a total disaster. Not only will people along the street (or amusement park) know about who has been eliminated, K-netizens will let everyone in the world know. Also, I do believe that this is the reason why many are so upset. After all, we get to know what happened weeks before broadcast. We had so many days to live in denial that some of our fave members are eliminated, and then face the reality that they really are gone(either from the show or the constant confirmation in the comments section). This was a really bad move, as we had so many days to garner our frustration and then become really upset at Starship Entertainment.

4. Bias
Yea, speaking of elimination, many of us are really unhappy about Minkyun's elimination/exit taking about 10 minutes but for the rest that were eliminated, only about a minute each. How bias is this.
Also, not to forget how #GUN was always picked on by Mad Clown for being old fashioned. Ok, yes he is the professional and I'm the noob at rapping but... I am pretty sure many of us didn't mind #GUN's old fashioned rapping, in fact we liked it A LOT. :/ Am I not right???

5. Lame Excuses 
I think one of the lowest point in this show was definitely K.Will's stupid excuse when he said: "I came to realize we don't have enough rappers" [watch it here]
I was super mad!!! ): It was just after the elimination of rapper Kwangji. Come to think of it, I am still quite mad. They wanted more rappers, ok. Did they debut more than 3 rappers that were left then? NO.

6. K.Will
I've never seen so much negativity towards a host. For K.Will, while he was good in the sense that he had the skills to host a show, he failed to charm the audience, instead creating dislikes against him too. I've seen comments saying that they deleted all his songs after watching NO.MERCY so this is definitely a first for me. I don't blame him though. They shouldn't have made him a host and judge at the same time. While judges like Simon Cowell were strict, I am pretty sure the audience didn't dislike dislike him the way they did for K.Will. Not only did he criticized the trainees(which is still acceptable), he delivered all the bad news if you can remember: from the eliminations to the addition of another trainee. What a way to market your new boy group while bringing K.Will's image to an all time low.

7. No clear direction
To be honest, I'm still unclear. I have a feeling that they want to have a hip-hop concept with more emphasis on the rappers. However, I didn't think about the trainees that way until i sensed that the company expected a lot from the rappers, had many songs in that genre, and looked up to find that they wanted to debut a hip-hop group. In fact, Kihyun definitely looked like he belonged in a group that focused more on ballads and Shownu in a group that did more mature sexy concepts... :/ Plus, I thought that the trainees did really well in more ballad-ish pop songs like their version of caffeine. Oh well.

8. Groupings in missions
I've no idea how they come up with groupings for the group missions and they don't explain (well). How can a group be formed without being impartial if you know them (quite) well? It is pretty upsetting how Wonho and Kihyun are paired together in almost all missions, despite me liking this duo. I do think that we tend to just jump to conclusions when they eliminate just one member of a group, thinking that they set it up for them to fail, especially when we feel that the better(or more favored trainees) are placed in a group...

9. Not debuting #GUN
I don't care if they have other plans for him or what, this was THE lowest point for most people. Fans love #GUN. Hey, afterall, his cousin is Minho from Winner, not to discredit #GUN's own effort or anything. In fact, i really like #GUN too ever since he rapped about his family. Also, I am not discrediting other eliminated trainees, each of them played a significant role in making everyone becoming at least slightly disappointed with Starship. However, the number of fans who like #GUN definitely made it a big deal when he was not chosen to be part of Monsta X. Starship, this doesn't make sense.

10. Addition of a new member
Alright, I was debating about whether to include this... True, I wasn't very pleased when they introduce I'M halfway through the program, but I wasn't too angry about it either. To be clear, I don't dislike nor hate I'M, I think he is pretty good actually.
However, I do dislike the fact that he was given a golden ticket that enabled him to skip the earlier process, which is deemed as unfair to most people. This, I don't think is too much or too shocking but I'M didn't exactly bring much to the TV aspect either except for the first few minutes when the trainees were quite awkward around him. I can't bring myself to hate on him, and I don't know him enough to like him. With such an addition of a trainee, I only wished that they had given us more background on him.

So there you have it, 10 FLAWS of Starship Entertainment's NO MERCY survival show.
If you have more views regarding this show, be it good or bad, share them in the comments section below! :) or tweet me @raycherr

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Thoughts on NO.MERCY

*Shakes head in disappointment*

If you have not heard of NO.MERCY, it is a Reality TV show that falls into a one of a kind category known as Survival Shows. As far as I know, such shows only exist in Korea(I might be wrong, do let me know if they are found in other countries).
Basically, these survival shows are pretty popular and Entertainment companies team up with Broadcasting Studios to come up with a TV show that will determine which trainees under the company can debut as singers.
If you are interested, you can watch them with English subs on Youtube here.
Generally, I enjoyed such shows(they do make create TV; I've watched Hot Blood Men & Who is Next), but this time round NO.MERCY's execution left more to be desired...

Background:
NO.MERCY is designed for trainees under a company named STARSHIP Entertainment.
Starship Entertainment to me was a company that had class. The artistes under the company were all really brilliant, and not to forget, Talented. If you are interested, you can check out Sistar, K.Will, Boyfriend, Mad clown, just to name a few. Also, I was generally pleased with Sistar's execution of sexy concepts on stage. They were able to appeal to both sexes and they had class, not something that is easy to do especially when many girl groups are trying to stand out [see: Too Sexy for Korea].

Hence, I had a great impression of Starship Ent, I generally liked everything they have produced. So, when NO.MERCY came along, i was excited, we were all excited for it. No one thought much about the ranking system, we all thought that it would be a fun show, to get us to like their trainees and then debut them.

Turns out, they had more installed for us and it revealed quite a bit about their company and the Kpop industry, both sadly not in a good way.

I am deeply disappointed about the show, and so are many others who have watched the show with me... Just look at the number of dislikes in the final episode where they confirm the members of the group who get to debut.

Totally disastrous... And the number of dislikes just keep increasing.
Makes me wonder how Starship Entertainment feels about this, or if they even care... :/

And so I've decided to come up with the flaws that NO.MERCY had. Check out: 10 Flaws of NO.MERCY

But that aside, I do feel that #GUN elimination played a huge role in so much frustration that the fans have. Most likely it would've been no big deal if the others were eliminated, sad but true.
And hey, I do think that it is great that so much dislikes are poured into this, how could Starship not just debut #GUN, but also Seokwon, Yoonho, Kwangji, MinKyun, YooSu!!! ):
Haha, ohwell, look at how cruel this industry is!
And just so i end on a bright note, at least, it happened on screen, and the eliminated trainees had a voice and the support of thousands of fans? All the best to them. XOXO.

P.S. I wonder why don't all of the trainees just rebel and idk make it big on their own? I'm sure after training for a few years, there will be many people/fans who would be supportive of such idea, for them to freelance or be their own manager, without the need of being under a an oppressive company.

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