Before reading this review please watch the video: Heaven - Ailee (Official MV)
Ailee
Ailee debuted earlier this year (2012) with YMC Entertainment after releasing a teaser that caught the attention of many either from her powerful vocals, B2ST's KiKwang or the guy who, ironically, resembled Jesus.
I hadn't really been following the new K-pop releases because it was really all just slurring together and becoming the same sound, the same dance and the same story lines. It was becoming so useless to follow up on which new groups were debuting because I felt like I already knew what the product was going to be. Especially when it came to the female groups and solo artists. So it wasn't a big shocker that I didn't discover Ailee until weeks after her debut when a friend of a mine pointed out how much he enjoyed her music.
I listened to the audio before I watched the music video and my initial reaction was just goosebumps all over. There was not one part of my body that did not have those pesky little bumps riddling it. I kid you not, I was in utter shock over the power this girl held in her voice. There was so much emotion packed into one song that I almost felt like I was living in the shoes of the person in the story. While listening to this song I found myself inspired and moved along with six hundred other things that I'm not able to decipher even in this moment.
I was very disappointed in myself for not having followed Ailee because she really was this fresh, new talent brought into the lulling Hallyu wave. She in herself is an amazing talent that strays from the original K-pop style by adding in a R&B edge while still maintaining the pop quality that creates the genre.
My theory of why she's attracted so many fans in such a short amount of time involves her voice. When she sings Ailee has this husky, rugged edge to her voice and yet she still manages to keep this cute edge to her voice that female singers in Korea seem to be so renound for. These qualities in her voice (as well as just pure, raw talent) are what I believe has drawn such a large audience to her.
But not everything is based on the song. Especially not with K-pop (even though I would probably just leave it at this being a great song, but unfortunately I can't do that).
The music video was a fresh new taste to accompany this brilliant song. Unlike so many other videos clogging up the business these days the video wasn't packed with flashy backgrounds, close-ups to the face interrupted with random fits of dancing and a story line about either chasing after a girl/boy or shooting someone for betraying you in one way or another.
The first thing that catches your eye with the video is the way the producers set the lighting to make it foggy and very bright almost as if you were in heaven. Following the curious lighting, the next thing that caught my eye was the odd (maybe a bit disconcerting?) looking man hogging up the screen. My first impression of him was that he gave off a very fatherly air about him and I thought he might have been related to Ailee in the scheme of the video plot line, but the more the video progressed I realized he might not be her father after all but a deceased ex-boyfriend.
The intricate plot line to the song and video is only one of the unique things pertaining to this video. I love how there are different plays on the camera angle. The way it zooms up close to Ailee's face then zooms back out to the bigger picture leaves my head reeling a bit but in a good way. When it's combined with that foggy lighting it kind of makes you dizzy but you're so over powered by the song anyways that you barely notice it.
What I particularly enjoyed about this video - other than the bouncing angles - was that the plot line was a different play on matters of the heart. Instead of the song talking straight up about losing a loved one and mourning over it, it worked differently by focusing on the after math of losing a loved one. The video (from what I can grasp from it anyways) is a story being told in the perspective of two people: Ailee and the guy with the unreasonably long hair. When we're in the guy's perspective we can clearly see him reminiscing over old times as he smiles adoringly at Ailee and goes about their daily activities with her. He always seems to be focused one hundred percent on her but not in that K-pop creepy way where we sometimes see the actors/actresses going out of their way dramatic to make their point get across. I find that his caring comes across subtly. Not by his actions but just by the persona he managed to hold throughout the duration of the video. When we're in the point of view of Ailee we almost always see her laughing and smiling (and gosh, doesn't she look beautiful with that squinty smile of hers? I adore it) no matter what she's doing. Watching TV or eating she comes off as a generally happy person.
We don't realize that the long haired man is actually just an angel type being/memory until near the end of the music video when KiKwang makes his entrance. That's when we realize that this man is not actually enjoying those times with Ailee but watching over her in a way that makes it look like he's protecting her.
It's bittersweet. On one hand you see Ailee has come to terms with this loss of hers (probably after going down a long hard road of tears and heart ache) and has started moving on and gaining back her life. But on the other hand we see her looking at videos and pictures of her lost lover and we see said lover watching over her with an impossible longing. It's almost as if he wishes he could be with her again which is where the bittersweetness to the story comes in because we know he can't have her because he's up in heaven - or we assume he is.
I mentioned before how I found the inspirational and moving and the video played in with that. The inspiration comes from the fact that Ailee has this guardian angel watching over her as she moves on and discovers new areas of life. The moved part is negative and positive as I'm moved by the fact that they both still hold a deep and unforgettable love for each other but that they can't have each other.
Now that I've done a thorough probably unnecessary ananlysis of the music video I'll move on to the dance which I was surprised to see because the video didn't specify a dance at all. It wasn't until I watched a live performance that I realized there was a dance accompanying this song.
To be honest, I couldn't care for the dance. It does add character to the song in a live performance but with the stunning voice Ailee has I think she could have blown our minds by just standing in the middle of the stage with a microphone and her voice.
Nonetheless, here are a few live performances for you to judge this by yourself:
As you can see, though, there really isn't much point to the dance as it's very simple and Ailee only jumps in every now and then. I believe the dance was there just to add a better stage presence to the song.
All in all, I absolutely adore this girl. Her song is brilliant, the video is brilliant, she's brilliant. Everything about this song and girl is amazing and I'm happy she debuted and brought something new and likeable to the expanding K-pop industry. Even though she's still just a rookie I think she'll go far in the music industry as long as she keeps getting powerful songs like these to promote. We can do nothing now but enjoy her talent and cross our fingers so that her company promotes her the right way.
Rating: 9.5/10
And of course, we'll finish off with my favourite YouTube coverists. Watch and support them following the links down below:
Vocal Covers:
Dance Covers (Solo):
Dance Covers (Group):
Such detailed writing~!! Thanks for the feature too. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDelete