My music video is influenced by the K-pop industry, a genre that combines pop, hip-hop, EDM, and other musical styles, thereby forming a hybrid that highlights performance, visual aesthetics, and the artist's persona. The chosen song is “STUPID IDIOT”, a B-side track from the album “BEAM” by Hoshi and Woozi of SEVENTEEN.
One of the reasons I chose this song is that it brings a playful vibe and a unique sound that subverts typical K-pop conventions, where music is usually prioritize pop sensibilities, catchy melodies, and trendiness. Besides that, it allows me to explore themes of rebellion and fearlessness and to challenge the unrealistic expectations of perfection that are often imposed on individuals.
To support this concept, I created a new persona for an artist named WZ, a person who embraces the clumsiness and a sense of unpredictability as their brand identity. He believes that every imperfect moment is evidence of his self-development journey, turning him into an icon of self-growth and a “special” individual in the K-pop industry.
In my role on my production, I worked alone from generating the idea through scripting, filming, and editing. While I felt comfortable developing an idea, I struggled as a camera operator and as a director. My filming ability is not particularly strong, which could also contribute to barriers to pursuing my idea.
My music video primarily represents a group of young teenagers who have often been expected to be excellent, following the social norms. To ensure my representation was relevant, I created a survey in order to investigate and identify my target audience. The survey quickly received 40 responses, of which 84.6% were from 16-18-year-olds, indicating that my target group will include teenagers and young adults. As a result, I chose to set my music video mainly in an urban environment, using city streets, public spaces such as Nguyen Hue Walking Street, and sidewalks. The intention is to evoke a sense of realism and relatability during viewing, especially among young audiences.
66.7% chose visually striking as their preferred music video
They described my chosen song as energetic and fun
A majority of the responders believe that a balance between filming indoors and outdoors would be the most suitable options for this music video.
I believe that my artist, WZ, can be considered postmodern. According to the theorist Jean-Francois Lyotard, he mentioned that postmodernism rejects the grand narrative, meaning it challenges the dominant narrative. In this case, WZ has subverted the typical K-pop industry stereotype of a K-pop artist’s brand image, which usually portrays artists as “perfect” and “unreachable.” Instead of following the majority, WZ chose to brand himself as a boldly talented artist, and he does not hesitate to show his true personality and maintain his authenticity, suggesting he values self-expression over perfection. This rejection of the “perfect idol” narrative is evident in both the performance and narrative aspects of my music video.
For example, the dancing sequences are all set in the middle of a crowded public space or in front of large crowds, expressing the rebellious trait deep within a human being and indicating that he is fearless in the face of other people’s judgments. As a result, it encodes the idea that he is comfortable expressing who he is, especially in environments that typically demand social conformity. Besides that, the intention is also conveyed through the costumes in the music video. Casual streetwear such as jerseys, jeans, and multiple accessories, including necklaces, rings, and earrings. This choice was made because it represents the youth culture, where teenagers express their identity through fashion. Additionally, WZ’s movements are playful, chaotic, and somewhat awkward, challenging the highly controlled, polished performances usually associated with the K-pop industry. Consequently, I encoded the group's positive representation as confident and expressive individuals rather than passive followers of societal norms. Nevertheless, I also acknowledged the potential negatives of this representation. In accordance with the Hypodermic Needle Theory, which states that audiences are mostly passive and easily influenced by what they are exposed to, leading to imitation of the behavior. Therefore, this representation could potentially influence some viewers to imitate WZ’s rebellious behavior without fully understanding the intended message.
Dancing in front of people who was waiting for the traffic light.
Casual streetwear outfits
Regarding the colors and connotations, the music video's visual presentation features a bright aesthetic and a subtle cool-blue grading. This color palette evokes a sense of freshness, youthfulness, and freedom, which reflects the theme of self-expression. Also, dark colors such as grey and black are often used to convey conflict and negativity, so vibrant colors like blue would be more suitable for encoding a positive, uplifting message.
Moving on to branding, another key element of branding is typography. Throughout the project, I stick with bold fonts such as “Archivo Black” and “Horizon” across digipak, social media, and music videos, since this style can convey strength, confidence, and boldness, which directly reflects the image WZ is currently following.
digipak
Artist logo
Furthermore, I applied cross-media convergence by consistently presenting WZ across numerous social media platforms. This allows me to construct a recognizable brand beyond the music video itself. Also, branding is one of the most important factors for most K-pop artists.
For example, I designed a social media page on Instagram for WZ, where photos from the photoshoot and friendly behind-the-scenes are posted, which express WZ’s personality as hilarious, funny, relatable, and actively involved in engaging with fans. While YouTube is used for long-form content that requires high-quality resolution, suggesting that, although WZ is a silly and carefree person, his artistic professionalism is still undeniable. In addition, TikTok is utilized as a place for short-form content, where WZ shares humorous videos, spontaneous moments, and dance challenges inspired by the music video. This allows the audience to see a more informal, authentic side of WZ. The use of dance challenges is also one way to foster audience participation, supporting Henry Jenkins's idea that audiences are no longer passive but are becoming active participants, thereby creating a participatory culture (fans are encouraged to produce dance challenge content to engage with the artist).
Youtube
Instagram + Tiktok
Besides social media, in terms of audience engagement, merchandises play an important role, especially when the artist is from the K-pop industry, an industry that people often being called as “capitalist industry” in a funny way, since every K-pop artist usually release a lot of merchandises, such as T-shirts, Photo cards, or random subjects that pursue audiences to pay their money. I also made my artist photocards (sneak peek version) and some T-shirt mockup designs, which could help expand WZ’s brand identity beyond the main media products. The merch is all designed to match the digipak and music video’s look. For example, the T-shirt includes WZ’s real name in bold fonts, along with a tagline or funny elements. I believe that merchandise is the way to connect with fans physically, creating a sense of belonging and personal attachment to WZ, as they can express their support, show affection, and align with WZ’s identity and beliefs.
Photocard pre-release
T-shirt Mockup Design
Within the distribution, my music video will primarily be released digitally on YouTube and music streaming platforms such as Spotify and SoundCloud, accessible worldwide. One reason for this distribution choice is that the target audience falls between teenagers and young adults, who have strong internet access, and neither group is interested in traditional media (radio, TV channels, etc.). In addition, the benefits of releasing the music video in this new media age include the rise of algorithm-driven systems, which allow content to reach both existing fans and new audiences interested in this theme. Therefore, the engagement will be maximized.
From a marketing perspective, WZ would be a combination of major labels’ strategies and independent labels’ strategies. On the one hand, WZ can also be considered commercial, aligning with Star Theory by Richard Dyer, which views a star as a product meant to be marketed and sold, generating profits for the company. WZ is involved in many contracts for fashion and other products, which help the E.M entertainment company make money. This reflects how his image has been carefully curated in order to maximize profit and revenue. However, despite being part of a conglomerate, WZ views his artworks as art, not just an advertisement to make a profit, which is a feature of being an independent artist. Additionally, WZ relies on grassroots marketing strategies that target only social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and others. WZ also utilizes traditional marketing methods, such as appearing on television programs to promote his music. As a result, this hybrid marketing approach ensures the balance, allowing for both commercial success and artistic authenticity, making his brand both profitable and meaningful.