Awash in Americana – K-pop music videos by BTS, Sunmi and Somi evoke teen film classics and tropes, and there’s more to come from Twice
- In Sunmi’s music video for You Can’t Sit With Us she uses a pink Razr phone in a video store. Somi’s Dumb Dumb video has her in plaid in a school cafeteria
- BTS wear western gear in the music video for their latest English-language single, Permission to Dance, with scenes set in diners and a high school
August has seen a spate of Korean Americana, with two releases last week exemplifying the trend: Sunmi’s You Can’t Sit With Us and Somi’s Dumb Dumb.
Sunmi’s song, with a title taken from a line in the 2004 film Mean Girls, is the lead single of “1/6”, the latest album by the former Wonder Girl member. In the accompanying music video, Sunmi is transported to an old-school video store – probably a nod to the American chain Blockbuster – where she and her girls battle zombies. All the while, she’s facing boy trouble.
Fashion from that era and other trappings, such as instant messengers and landline telephones, appear in the music video, while people who remember the mid-00s will feel latent envy at Sunmi’s pink Razr phone. Similar motifs, and classic fashion from Juicy and Von Dutch, also appear in the music video for Taeyeon’s recent single Weekend.
As for Somi, in the video for Dumb Dumb she too faces boy trouble, and spends the music video singing about how she can win over the object of her affections – a varsity footballer (American football, of course) in a variety of settings. These include a slumber party with friends, a dance party scene and a one in a high school cafeteria with Somi wearing a plaid uniform that would make Cher from Clueless and Britney Spears circa … Baby One More Time proud.
Somi’s music video also leans into the horror genre – she attacks some jam-filled pastries and ends up covered in blood-coloured jam, channelling Carrie.
There are also references to the 1996 Romeo + Juliet, with Somi notably donning angel wings and posing during an animated final scene with the music video’s lead that channels a scene in the film where Leonardo DiCaprio’s Romeo places his hands on the shoulders of Juliet, played by Claire Danes.
In the video, the members of BTS don western-inspired garb and pay homage to essential workers such as teachers and postal workers, with several scenes set in places such as diners and a high school that evokes Anywhere, USA.
The group has previously taken inspiration from films, most notably in the music video for 2018’s What Is Love? where each member took on the role of a different leading lady.
