Now under the Transparent Arts, The Rose has announced to their fans a new album along with an upcoming world tour to promote it. Along with these announcements, the group has even revealed their lightstick which is decorated with a black rose. The symbolism behind the black rose matches their music as it can be both beautiful and moody. Earlier this year, Woosung explained the group’s unintended hiatus due to a dispute with their previous agency and focused on his solo career with two albums and as the opener for Epik High as well as his own small tour. Now it is great to have them all together again, as they venture into music with a new agency. As we saw with “Beauty and the Beast,” we know The Rose still had a lot more to offer as a band.
The prerelease, for the album titled Heal, “Childhood” is a song about the nostalgia for the innocence of one’s childhood. The MV captures the purity of the song’s message with a naturalistic setting and with the use of interpretive dancers. As an introduction to their album, “Childhood” sets the direction for their album with a song about reflection. That is not too unusual, as “The Rose” has always created meaningful songs with equally artistic MVs.
Much like its performers, the MV for “Childhood” is bare with no glitz and glamour. The dancers, who are of various ethnicities, are dressed in tight nude-colored outfits which are set against the natural greens and browns of the forests. The implication of nudity symbolizes the purity of one’s childhood. In one of the beginning scenes, the dancers are in the fetal position which symbolizes birth. From that position, the dancers awaken to embark on their symbolic childhood. The dancing is structured following the highs and lows of the lyrics of the song. For instance, when the song hits the chorus, the dancers give a more hopeful interpretation than in other parts of the music. Throughout the choreography, the facial expressions are empty, but the dancing still gives you the overall message of the music.
The setting of the MV takes place in a forest and lake with natural lighting. As stated before, it adds on to the symbolism of purity and natural instincts of a child. While most of the MV relies on its natural setting, there is still some use of blurring effects. This adds to the nostalgic feel of the MV as if it is a past memory. Again, this also ties back into the concept of the song’s lyrics which is about remembering your innocence as a child.
Unlike past performances, the members of the band also join in on the MV’s concept instead of just the normal scenes with their instruments. This is a nice changeup to their usual and works well with the MV since it has a natural concept. All of the members are wearing beige-colored shorts while in the same background as the dancers. Like with the dancers, there is also some implied nudity with the blurring effect but this is all kept fairly artistic. The members do not participate in the dancing but are seen running and swimming enjoying their time in mother nature. This adds a layer of playfulness to the MV which again ties back into the concept of childhood and the freedom to be yourself.
The voice of the song is reminiscing about their thoughts from childhood. However, this is not a positive song, instead, it is to remark about their disappointments as an adult. When they, the voice of the song, were a child, they had dreams that they believed were possible. Now as an adult, the voice no longer feels as confident as they were in their youth. The voice goes on to warn the audience not to live their lives wastefully, and to instead take a note from their past selves:
Don’t forget when you were a child
Even when time passes
Let it stay in your mind
Don’t live your life like you have a thousand years
Ready for you to waste your time on regrets
Don’t you ever you will never…
The song itself has a simple guitar-based melody that plays almost like a nice lullaby. Woosung hits all the high notes with his breathy voice giving the song a sense of desperation. While Dojoon, who hits most of the low notes, adds a more somber and moody approach to his lyrics. Ultimately, it is nice to have both of them back as singers to give the song more variation with different interpretations.
With “Childhood,” The Rose leaves behind all the bells and whistles and instead, along with their agency, created a beautiful interpretation of childhood using dancers and a natural setting. With this concept, they created a vision of purity and youth in a unique way. Rather than including children, the concept of childhood is depicted more as symbolic to go with the overall message of the song. As a prerelease, “Childhood” helps set the tone for the new album, as well as showing us their creative use of symbolism. We can only look forward to the release of the album and their upcoming tour.
