I think Melanie is addressing the flaws of K-12 and making sure the movie is more organized, but I don't expect the songs to top Cry Baby.
Disclaimer: I'm talking about the official digital covers of the albums and mini-albums mentioned. Also the links I shared are to show you the album covers, but you can also take them as recommendations.
Comparing the first two LOONA EPs ([+ +] and [x x] ) and their 2020 EPs ([#] and [12:00]) in terms of the musical direction has always been a heated discussion, especially on UKO subreddit. For me, the thing that's been notably better on [++] and [xx] is the artful and mystical aesthetic of their album covers.
As someone who's really into listening to music, I believe that album covers are also a factor in making your craft appealing. It's supposed to reflect the atmosphere and the concept of your music. For KPop, their album covers were mostly either artworks that are not that interesting, just the members standing and posing with each other, or just texts with certain fonts that does nothing for impact. There are, of course, few exceptions though (I'll share some at the end of this post).
For albums outside of KPop, I think some of these albums captured those: Porter Robinson's Worlds; Sleep's reissued version of Dopesmoker; this year's Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers; my fave album of all time with the most beautiful artwork, Weyes Blood's Titanic Rising; and so much more. In KPop, Red Velvet's The Red Summer and Perfect Velvet are one of my favorites, and also my main topic for this post, LOONA'S [++] and [xx].
I do think that all of LOONA's album covers touch their specific concepts and vibe, but the 2020 EPs were just kinda lacking in execution, especially [#]. The girls in cool red outfits just standing side by side looking edgy with a crappy background weren't really doing anything for me. While the quality of the main (the one with their bohemian outfit) cover for [12:00] already looks good, I still think it could've been better.
[++] and [xx]'s album covers are very creative, especially the former. The filter, the location of the text, and the girls posing on diving boards (?) gave off a vibrant yet enigmatic feel for the album. If BBC releases a vinyl version for [++], I'd definitely buy it (if I have money). The poses of the members on [xx] also has that cr
... keep reading on reddit β‘
I really let these posts here fool me. Literally everything y'all post focuses on the negative parts but there are so many great things about it! I still don't think it's a masterpiece like Cry Baby. But please give this album a revisit. Perhaps give the movie a revisit too.
I've seen a lot of people giving way too much credit to her movie and saying it was so good. It was a kind gesture of her to leave it up to watch for free for a month, but it was just bad. The plot was your average cliche highschool movie with a twist of her own aesthetic into it and many unexplained plot holes. The political messages seemed like a high budget virtue signal to mainstream politics, she had no interesting hot take that everybody hasn't heard before. Some parts felt out of place for the plot, seemed like it was added in just to fit in with the music video themes. Some of the songs felt half assed and rushed. And finally, the ending should've aligned with the song at the credits instead of the weird one they went with.
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If you don't know what event I was referring to, then you're probably thinking that it's unbelievable for such an event to happen. 81 - that's more singers than there were in Michael Jackson's "We Are the World", which featured 46 singers. So, who was there? Where and when did this happen? What song did they sing together? Why did this happen?
I hope you guys enjoy learning some things from this post because I really do believe that this event is overlooked by international and domestic K-pop fans. There's some evidence of it's unpopularity, which I'll talk about at the end.
Here are the singers and groups that performed on the same stage together. Most of the groups mentioned here had their original line-up at the time, with CN Blue as the only exception.
| Singers | Companies | Members |
|---|---|---|
| f(x) | SM Entertainment | 5 (Krystal, Luna, Victoria, Amber Liu, Sulli) |
| EXO | SM Entertainment | 12 (Kai, Baekhyun, D.O., Chanyeol, Sehun, Chen, Suho, Lay Zhang, Xiumin, Huang Zitao / Tao, Kris Wu, Lu Han) |
| Crayon Pop | Chrome Entertainment | 5 (Ellin, ChoA, Sehyun, Gum Mi, Way) |
| B1A4 | WM Entertainment | 5 (Gongchan, CNU, Sandeul, Jung Jinyoung, Baro) |
| Roy Kim | Stone Entertainment | 1 |
| Davichi | Stone Music Entertainment | 2 (Kang Minkyung, Lee Haeri) |
| Ailee | YMC Entertainment | 1 |
| Kim Ye-rim (future member of Red Velvet) | SM Entertainment | 1 |
| CN Blue | FNC Entertainment | 4 (Lee Jonghyun, Kang Minhyuk, Jung Yonghwa, Lee Jungshin) |
| 4Minute | Cube Entertainment | 5 (HyunA, Jihyun, Gayoon, Jiyoon, Sohyun) |
| 2NE1 | YG Entertainment | 4 (Minzy, Bom Park, Sandara Park / Dara, CL) |
| Infinite | Woollim Entertainment | 7 (L, Woohyun, Sungkyu, Sungyeol, Sungjong, DongWoo, Hoya) |
| BTS | BigHit Entertainment | 7 (Rap Monster (changed his stage name to RM later), Jungkook, V, Jimin, Suga, Jin, J-Hope) |
| Apink | Play M Entertainment | 7 (Naeun, Chorong, Eunji, Bomi, Hayoung, Namjoo, Yookyung) |
| B2ST (also known as Beast; changed their name to Highlight later) | Cube Entertainment | 6 (Junhyung, Yoseob, Dongwoon, Doojoon, Gikwang, Hyunseung) |
| SISTAR | Starship Entertainment | 4 (Bora, Soyou, Hyolyn, Dasom) |
| SHINee | SM Entertainment | 5 (Taemin, Minho, Key, Onew, Jonghyun) |
It was such a unifying and symbolic event. Usually when we see singers from different companies together, they're either sitting together in the crowd or hanging out. But not this many or this close to each other. So for those of you that wanted the different companies to coexist, well... this is probably the single largest collaboration in K-pop
... keep reading on reddit β‘ok, so i couldnt sleep last night and a theory came to mind. so i think the ending is a metaphor for crybaby not wanting to grow up, and here's why. so the goddess is named lilith, and that is actually the name of a demon in jewish mythology, melanie is known to love mythology so she probably used that as inspiration. more on that later
in the end, when they all leave the school for good, it is a metaphor for graduating high school. lilith finally opens the gate and allows them to pass through, yet crybaby is reluctant.
this is because the door is a metaphor for growing up and entering the real world, yet some people are not quite ready to "grow up" yet and that is why she stays. also, throughout the movie she and her friends are constantly trying to pass through to the other realm with lilith, which symbolizes throughout high school you think you are ready to enter adulthood and leave for good, when in reality you want to stay as a kid forever.
and with lilith actually being a jewish dark lord, she poses as a goddess throughout the movie but in reality it is a trap, which symbolizes that growing up is a trap.
in conclusion, melanie uses metaphors to symbolize that growing up is a trap and at the end, her friends are entering the door to adulthood while she is not quite ready and doesn't go. her next album will probably be about growing up and adult life.
ok i know i worded it terribly but i hope you guys got what i was trying to say. i thought of this at 3am while trying to sleep so sorry if it's bad.
any thoughts?
Hi Reddit! Iβm Cyrus Patell, professor of English at New York University and of Literature and Creative Writing at NYU Abu Dhabi, and author of the forthcoming book Lucasfilm: Filmmaking, Philosophy, and the Star Wars Universe, which will be published by Bloomsbury this August.
In the past, Iβve written and taught about US literature, about the idea of cosmopolitanism, and about the Rolling Stonesβ album Some Girls. Iβm presently working on a book about how works like The Odyssey, The Ramayana, Hamlet, Frankenstein, Moby-Dick, and Star Wars circulate and become part of what we might call βglobal cultural heritage.β
Because itβs International Star Wars Day, Iβd love to chat about any aspect of the Star Wars universe.
But please also feel free to ask me anything about literature and cultural studies, liberal arts education, or what itβs like to teach and study at NYU or NYU Abu Dhabi.
EDIT: It's no longer May 4 where I am in the world, but I will happily answer any further questions that come in over night later in the day. Thanks for all the questions thus far!
I know hot topic has one shirt but the one I want is the show and tell heart but I have to buy the bundle that comes with the CD/DVD again. Is there any way to buy JUST the shirt?
Canβt wait yall Melanie martinez giving us hints after school is going to be so good just like k-12 canβt wait yesss πππ½
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