“Stupid in Love” is a collaborative track between Sistar’s Soyou and Korean rapper Mad Clown. After weeks of jockeying for the top spot on music programmes, the duo finally clinched a trophy on Music Core, and are continuing their reign at the top of the Gaon charts. Yet, as beautiful as the gothic-themed music video is, the chances of you falling madly in love with them are, sadly, not high. Check out the music video below:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DERBx6774FI]There’s no information given on Sistar’s or Mad Clown’s comeback after this, so this looks more like a buzz track put out to catapult Mad Clown into the spotlight via association with South Korea’s hottest girl group at the moment, Sistar. Check out the full-length live performances of this song:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZkRjgor2sk]“Stupid in Love” is a typical love song along the lines of Tablo’s “Bad” and Taeyang’s “Look Only At Me”. The lyrics are about a man who loves a woman, and is unable to treat her well, and of a woman who knows that the man is not good for her but still begs him to stay anyway. What is it with K-pop and pining women? Women, please leave men who treat you like that for your own sake, and men, I’m sure you don’t treat women like that in real life. I hope. Over soft instrumentals, Soyou croons, and Mad Clown raps unfalteringly about heartbreak and love.
The music video is hauntingly beautiful, with the gothic theme is done really well. The most striking scenes are when Soyou poses in a room full of black feathers like K-pop royalty, her face blank and cold. The best part about it is how smart the filming techniques are in showing the effects of this unequal relationship on both of them, and the eventual death of the relationship. First, there’s the establishment of this unequal relationship between the male and the female, with Soyou pining over coffins and sitting like K-pop royalty in a graveyard, black feathers falling around her. Mad Clown, on the other hand, sits on a black throne-like chair, red curtains cascading around him.
Second, the metaphor of death is woven simply around the video, using images projected on a white wall. We have scenes like Mad Clown sitting in a graveyard, when actually he’s leaning against a white wall, black wings springing out from Soyou’s back, and my personal favourite, criss-cross bars projected over Soyou’s face. It’s both aesthetic, like what women might wear dangling from their hats to a funeral, and also grim, because it looks like prison bars. The rest of the imagery falls along these morbid lines, with videoing techniques that segment Soyou’s face — implying her metaphorical breakdown of self — coffin-shaped images imposed over her and Mad Clown, and in a memorable instance, Mad Clown disintegrating into dust, ashes raining softly onto the ground. In the context of the music video, it would be about the death of their love.
If you can understand Korean, great for you. But if you can’t, watching this song with subtitles on would tug at your emotional heartstrings, but watching or listening to it without would leave one slightly cold. This is especially obvious in the live version. As beautiful as the melody is and Soyou’s voice is, sometimes songs just lack that immediate hook, that distinguishing factor which elevates it into a song you will remember and want to go back to next time. It’s a nice ride for the moment and clearly doing well in South Korea, but it’s just not a memorable song. Unfortunately, for a song that is supposed to be about destructive, fiery, hopelessly complicated love, this song feels too one-note at times.
The saving grace of this song is that it gives the spotlight to two clearly very talented individuals, who haven’t had their time in it. Mad Clown is a korean rapper who has been around for a while, but is only now coming into the mainstream. He had his first EP Luv Sickness, out in 2008, as well as an EP called Anything Goes in 2011. In 2012, he took part in Show Me the Money 2, and in 2013 joined Starship Entertainment. With this duet with fellow labelmate Soyu, he takes huge steps into the mainstream music industry, skyrocketing his way to an all-kill on the Korean charts and nearly bagging first place on several music programs.
And Mad Clown is something special. He has undeniable skills as a rapper, even if he does need to work on stage presence. Check out this rap video of him from Show Me the Money 2:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxh24wr2wwI]Let’s not forget the lovely Soyou. Hyorin has always been marketed as the voice of Sistar, and rightly so, but not many remember that Soyou has the vocal capabilities to hold her own against Hyorin. With Dasom having bagged the lead role in a KBS drama, Love Through Song, it seems that Soyou is the next member of Sistar to have her own few minutes of fame. Soyou started to make her own name with her featuring in “Officially Missing You” with Geeks roaring up the K-pop charts last year, and “Stupid in Love” is the next notch on her belt.
In short, you might not fall madly in love with this song, but it’s not a bad release by any means. You’ll get to check out two underrated idols through this as well.
Rating: 3.5/5
