A quick little info dump for SKZ's LALALALA
Added 2023-11-21 04:02:38 +0000 UTCSo we were just going through the comments on our YT video, and saw a few of you mentioning / questioning about the four Chinese letters shown in the MV.
Han-C brought that up mid-convo before we react to the Rock version, but by the time we got to the lyrical analysis, we completely forgot about it and never talked about it again.
So!
Basically, as many of you know, the four Chinese letters shown throughout the MV are 희 노 애 락 (喜怒哀樂) as in happiness, anger, sadness, and joy (joy being the main character '락' of 'rock'star album).
*Some may be confused about 희 vs 락: 희 is closer to happiness, and 락 is closer to joy. At least in Korean/Chinese, the big difference between the two is that 희 is a mental happiness that embodies pain and other unpleasant emotions - it's, in one sense, the true idea of 'happiness' that reigns above everything. 락 on the other hand is very sensual - it's about THE FUN, which isn't to say that it's lesser quality, but just a different type of joy and pleasure. Think, SKZ music often being about having fun and enjoying the moment. Eating tasty food, going out with friends, and capturing that raw sense of joy and bliss.
Anyways, therefore, 희노애락 (喜怒哀樂) is an expression used to describe all sorts of emotions a person experiences in their life - so not only are these four emotions the only emotions they suggest exist (it's an expression, after all), but it's also that the first letter, 희, meaning 'happiness', isn't used as a negative emotion or anything in the MV, but just a part of the journey - specifically, the journey toward '락', which is the last character of the expression, AND the name of the album itself.
And this is why each character disappears as the MV progresses, leaving only '락' at the end!
Of course, this is going off of nothing but the MV we watched and the comments asking the questions. How the narrative details of the MV itself fits into the order of characters disappearing are not the primary concern of this analysis! Just the big picture of leaving 락 for the end and getting rid of the other three characters with time.
Okay, that's it. Hope that helps :D
Edit: Apologies. I wrote 애 as fear, when it's sadness. Fixed!
Comments
If you just want to see the two duets, without the interview part, here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udpt9Xr_Xf8
J.A. Moore
2023-12-05 06:43:49 +0000 UTCOh this is cool - we will definitely add this to our must watch list XD
Handsome Sausages
2023-12-05 06:31:39 +0000 UTCIncredible read! :D Thanks for that! You're definitely on to something with this - we agree completely!
Handsome Sausages
2023-12-05 06:31:25 +0000 UTCOn a SKZ -related note..... Today they posted the first of a new series they're calling "2 Kids Show" where Changbin acts as the host / MC and interviews 2 of the members. In the first episode, the members were Seungmin and HAN. The interview part was good (and Changbin is a natural MC), but toward the end Seungmin and HAN sang two duets that BLEW ME AWAY. They sang their already-released songs, Volcano and Hold On. (HAN wrote both songs.) You guys, I can't even describe how amazing they were as a duet. They were just magic together, especially when they sang Hold On. You must, must, MUST go watch that episode. Link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2gEBq955jU
J.A. Moore
2023-11-22 21:21:32 +0000 UTCWhat's so fun in the music video too is you can see the four "emotions" hanging over them and they disappear one by one leaving only 樂 (락) behind. You can also see them represented in each one of the settings with the flags starting and ending with 樂 because the others get destroyed or surrender (the white flags), (In order I believe 怒，喜，哀）The characters are all over the place, literally on the walls and flags and stuff. The serious wordplay and subtlety (and the lack thereof too) in their videos impress me so much because using these variants of the characters is more than just the simplified emotions, it's uber-specific types of them, and I know they are too careful for that to be an accident when designing everything for the video. That type of sudden anger, passion and fury (like you said before the lyrics 날벼락, not just a thunderstorm, but a sudden onset of one); the sadness that is sorrow and grief, lamenting, not just tiny sad; the fond happiness, being pleased, delighted; and then the historical variant of 樂 which besides meaning enjoyment and happiness can also mean music (albeit with different pronunciation, it's a homonym [樂 lè being the emotion and 樂 yuè being music]). idk, being a major fan of linguistic nerdy shit like this it just made me so excited, and then the added background of you explaining more of the lyric choices and how the Korean lyrics back up the Characters and the overall message of the song. I feel like sometimes, even in lyric videos and translations, the translations are sometimes a little too direct and miss the intended meaning or cultural/colloquial meanings that can fly under the radar. So it's nice to have people who do know who can explain it well.
Emma
2023-11-22 18:29:03 +0000 UTCThat's so cool that so many people are studying Korean nowadays, and in part due to SKZ music especially! :D We hope to be able to provide more cool Korean knowledge, cultural and linguistic! :)
Handsome Sausages
2023-11-21 20:40:40 +0000 UTCThis was an amazing read!!
Tristana Keauna
2023-11-21 13:00:23 +0000 UTCThank you for this detailed explanation. I was fascinated when researching 樂 and all its meaning and the wordplay, it's really helpful to get to see how deep the meanings and wordplay go. Discovering SKZ has made me really love studying languages more (even if I might not be a quick learner) because I keep discovering how much more clever the lyrics and wordplays are when you have more understanding. I really love that you take time to help us understand the language and cultural details even more thank you 😊.
Ixaala
2023-11-21 08:33:43 +0000 UTCActually, yes! Exactly on point. It indeed would be the closest thing to the literal translation :D and yes, I WAS looking for a different word that could replace that for that reason (more or less)!
Handsome Sausages
2023-11-21 08:30:24 +0000 UTCThank you for this! Also: when you were talking about the translation of joy in your first reaction video being not quite right because it means something more like extreme joy, I wondered if ecstasy would be a closer literal translation, but one that was avoided because the word has additional implications in English?
sysrae
2023-11-21 08:24:10 +0000 UTCThis is why I like you guys!! We get these insights into the language, the culture and the wordplay that skz, in particular, likes to use. So helpful and educational.
BaadHamster
2023-11-21 05:37:08 +0000 UTCWhen I first saw the m/v I had such a flashback of my own childhood the first time I performed in front of an audience. The journey of emotions from being so happy to finally get to show all of my hard work, to the sudden dread when I stepped on the stage and saw the audience for the first time (truly seeing the giant monsters in the m/v was exactly how my stage fright felt), to being angry at myself if I froze at this critical moment, to feeling utterly depressed at the thought I could fail at this or worse that people wouldn't like it, to finally feeling the bliss of getting through the performance and hearing the applause knowing I did it. But also all those emotions (and more) happening simultaneously in just a few short minutes on stage. This is perhaps one of my favorite m/vs to date. Thank you so much for providing the additional context between the characters of happiness and joy/pleasure.
your name here
2023-11-21 04:57:42 +0000 UTCLol. Only bc I'm watching the Survival show all at once to get it over with ... 😅🤷🏻♀️ And I also seem to post last... lol 😆 And I am new to Patreon so I've been catching up on all the videos. :) I've seen you around too!
Estelle S
2023-11-21 04:27:59 +0000 UTCur everywhere
Ron Jackson Jr
2023-11-21 04:25:43 +0000 UTCAhhhh, okay!! Thank you so much!!!
Estelle S
2023-11-21 04:08:44 +0000 UTCIn SKZs TikTok, they label them as joy, anger, and sadness, if I remember right. And "rock" of course. And they dance the emotions. Pretty fun TikToks actually!
Star Dust
2023-11-21 04:08:05 +0000 UTCThank you! Lee Know commented on this a bit during the skz mv reaction, but didn't explain it thoroughly. I've been curious about this for days! Lol
Szank44
2023-11-21 04:05:53 +0000 UTC
