Wings bursting forth from a woman’s back… Two figures with the same face grappling over a toy wand… A towering figure of light appearing in a dark alleyway… A petite woman in a broad-shouldered suit strutting towards her prey… A wedding dress and suit floating from the ceiling like ghosts: These are just a handful of the mesmerizing images the best MVs of 2024 so-far have to offer.
Amidst a sea of excellently crafted MVs, these five rose to the top of my list because of their originality, meticulous execution, musicality, and their artists’ expressive performances. They also happen to all be from female artists, which isn’t to say male artists haven’t contributed great MVs to the year (BoyNextDoor and the always impressive DPR Ian just missed the final cut). In an industry that frequently fails to give female artists their laurels, however, it is somewhat gratifying to declare that in this arena, as in so many others, women are leading the charge.
A common thread among this list is embracing and reinventing film genre trademarks, particularly fantasy (“Birth” and “Accendio”) and horror (pretty much all five MVs). The most straightforwardly cinematic of the crop is IU’s “Love Wins All.” In the five-minute MV, IU and her love interest, played by BTS’s V, struggle to survive in an apocalyptic landscape crawling with murderous floating cubes. As IU’s lush, emotive voice sings a story of love defeating all obstacles, the disheartened couple encounter a magical camera that allows them to briefly see each other, and the ravaged world around them, once again whole, healthy, and glowing.
It’s a relatively simple but deeply affecting premise which wonderfully compliments the balladic song. The MV’s only weakness is the inconsistency of its imagery. While certain shots are striking and full of emotional weight, others are oddly clunky. The villainous cubes are especially weak, neither visually intriguing nor truly scary. On the flip side, the MV’s greatest strength is its performances, particularly IU’s (no surprise there, given her extremely successful career as an actress), which beautifully ground the MV’s science fiction elements. It’s ultimately IU’s deeply expressive eyes, swinging from desperation, to fragile hope, to adoration, to defiant rage, that guide you through “Love Wins All,” and stick with you long after the credits roll.
Another MV that hinges on its brilliant central performance is Taeyeon’s elegantly menacing “Heaven.” Sometimes steely-eyed and businesslike, sometimes full of impish joy, Taeyeon cooks, gardens, and dances her way to sweet, sweet revenge as she promises her (ex?) lover, “tonight I’ll show you the way to heaven.”
Stylish murder girlies are, funnily enough, far from a rare concept in K-pop. Indeed, there’s a version of this list, with Red Velvet’s “Cosmic” and Bibi’s “Sugar Rush” or even “Bam Yang Gang” added, that would be stacked with feminist power fantasies, many of them vibrating with the potential for violence. What sets “Heaven” apart is its execution, from the heady mix of noir and dark fantasy visuals it draws inspiration from, to the thousand blink-and-you’ll-miss-it details that richly reward repeat viewings. “Heaven” is a treasure box of lushly monstrous images and darkly comedic delights. Dig in, if you dare.
If “Heaven” takes a familiar concept and pushes it to new, polished heights, Ive’s “Accendio” takes a recognizable formula and sticks to it so religiously that loyalty becomes subversion. Inspired by the magical girl genre, “Accendio” sees ‘good’ and ‘evil’ versions of Ive compete over a powerful wand. The MV’s candy colors, highly stylized fight sequences, and pacing (complete with a “4 hours ago” flashback) are ripped straight from a kid’s cartoon, and that’s a compliment. “Accendio” is superbly playful: This is a world where the climactic battle begins with a dance-off. “Accendio” is also incredibly uncanny, not in spite of its adherence to its magical girl roots, but precisely because of it.
Transposing things directly from animation to live-action, especially physical movement, is often a recipe for disaster… just ask the thousands of failed live-action anime adaptations. Thanks to the immaculate VFX in “Accendio,” the MV is never in danger of being laughable. Nevertheless, the choice to adhere so closely to cartoon-like characteristics creates a delicious sense of off-ness that catapults “Accendio” from child’s play to a fun but eerie grown-up fairytale. “Accendio” is a creative homage to a niche but beloved genre, not to mention Ive’s strongest MV yet.
Despite the subversion present in “Accendio,” it is still light fantasy compared to ARTMS’s downright terrifying “Birth.” It is one of the most effective horror MVs I’ve ever seen, combining evocative live-action shots with bloody, fantastical drawings that could be ripped from a picture book, sometimes in the same shot. As the ARTMS members flee, futilely, from a glowing mother/captor figure, “Birth” conjures fascinating dread, like a gothic train crash you can’t help but watch, wide-eyed.
Musically, “Birth” is a screeching, atmospheric track, perfectly suited to its MV’s tale of terror. If you were prone to nitpicking (surprise: I am!), you could make a case that having a song that was slightly more melodic, even soft, might have introduced an intriguing contrast to “Birth,” as opposed to the sometimes too-neat correlation between visuals and sounds that the MV currently flaunts. However, when your one issue could just as easily be spun as a strength, that’s when you know that an MV has reached truly exciting heights.
“Birth” actually went head-to-head with another ARTMS release for its place on this list: the eye-popping (major, major flash warning) yet poignant “Virtual Angel.” The same can be said of Aespa’s “Armageddon,” my number one pick. Aespa’s pre-release “Supernova” is almost certainly the stronger stand-alone track, and comes with a wild and witty MV, but the bravura of “Armageddon” simply could not be denied.
On face value, “Armageddon” follows a familiar MV formula, intersecting stylized individual member and group shots with choreography scenes. However, saying “Armageddon” is a typical K-pop MV is like saying a croquembouche is a typical cake. “Armageddon” is the K-pop MV in its ultimate form, an example of what could be possible if every MV came with an unlimited budget and a creative team worthy of the name.
Frame after frame, the MV casts a fantastical, edgy spell; fantastical because of its embrace of a vaguely dystopian science-fiction concept, and genuinely edgy because of its flirtation with body horror and the grotesque. “Armageddon” throws a lot at the viewer, and quickly, which is why its editing deserves a special shoutout for knitting all of the MV’s elements into a cohesive and superbly paced whole. Those elements themselves are also each executed to perfection, from the styling (in particular, a set of shimmering makeup looks are stunning), to otherworldly VFX imagery, to the members’ confident performances.
“Armageddon” is a triumph for Aespa, both as a stellar MV, and as the marker of a potential shift in concept that would be a satisfying maturation without wholly sacrificing their original signature style. It’s my best of the year so far because it is audacious, at times deliciously creepy, and most important of all, so much fun.
2024 has gotten off to a strong start in MVs, with this list only scratching the surface of what is on offer. That pool will only get deeper as the year continues, shedding more light on the year’s lasting trends. Will 2024 continue to be a year dominated by sleek production, fantasy, maximalism, and female artists? Only time will tell, but no matter what themes and artists rise to the top, viewers are likely to be the ones who stay winning as we enjoy 2024’s parade of creative MVs.
(YouTube [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Lyrics via YouTube. Images via Modhaus, SM Entertainment.)
