"Dream Girl" by SHINee Review

Click on the album cover to watch the video.

Popular k-pop group backed by SM Entertainment, SHINee released a music video entitled Dream Girl. Already, the video has reached nearly a million views in one day. Although this song and video has left Shawols (the fan club name) completely infatuated; I share a different opinion.

SHINee is known for their unique sound and intricate dance moves. A few seconds into the song, I already could see their names written all over it (aside from the fact they say “SHINee’s back in the beginning). The first part of the song was amazingly catchy, revealing their fresh sounding vocals, but once the chorus played, my interest for the song completely diminished. The chorus was a let down, in my opinion, because it wasn’t as memorable as the previous verses, and soon my attention started to divert elsewhere. As catchy as most of the parts of the song were, it still seemed lackluster.

The most issues I had with the music video were the costuming, sets, and video editing. The costumes worn in the intro were the best-looking outfits throughout the video, but that isn’t saying much. As much as I appreciated the colorful choice in clothing, the styling seemed mismatched and tacky. Wearing loose clothing or nightwear would have made a better impact since the concept of the music video was dreamlike, often showing images of the members falling onto their beds, sleeping or waking up.

Another problem was the sets. The first set used in the music video was extremely pointless and uninspired and made the video like any other typical k-pop video. The slanted room with green walls, black and white lined room, and rooms involving the woman’s portrait were all stunning, but the redundant use of those sets became boring. There should have been more sets and a larger variety of shots that would better portray the concept of dreamlike. The portrait used with a faceless woman was also one of my pet peeves. All the portraits merely included close ups of her body and legs objectifying her, which was a problem for me.

The video editing was probably my biggest complaint. The flowers sprouting from the woman’s face were poorly edited. The glitches used as “cool effects” and transitions merely made the video look cheap and cheesy. I would understand if the glitches were used in a video game concept, but it did not add to the dreamy effect whatsoever. Rewinding clips forward and backward was also a cheap trick that I found kind of embarrassing. You could tell by the video editing that this was a low-budget music video.

Overall, I would rate the song 6/10, as it is catchy and pleasant to listen to, but is just not memorable. I rate the music video a 4/10 though. The concept of the music video is apparent, I appreciate the color in the outfits and scenes and creative uses of sets, and the choreography was nicely done, but the production needed to push the envelope more in order to make the concept more apparent and unique.