South Korea's national girl group Girls' Generation returns into the scene with their lead track "Mr.Mr." under their Korean 4th Mini Album of the same name. The comeback was a bit of surprise (and also a treat) to most of us because as we all know, these girls have been busy promoting themselves in Japan with the release of "Galaxy Supernova" and "My Oh My" consecutively. This comeback might not be as strong as their previous ones but how can we turn the other cheek towards these girls? We just can't! Incorporating techno into their title track, "Mr.Mr.", these girls are showing us a new concept altogether!
The music video opens with flashes of a hospital setting only there is a twist. Instead of the typical white bed sheets and coats, these girls seemed to have glamourise the whole place up! The girls can be seen to be wearing in what seemed to be what was left of the coats as they have been altered to look a lot more approachable - not something you would find in a normal hospital. The girls seem to be playing the role of nurses attending to a certain patient, their "Mr." perhaps, throughout the video. From the lyrics, the girls are cheering their "Mr." to be a lot "stronger" and to have confidence in leading the relationship and this concept itself is delivered by an overarching metaphor which can be seen as the girls play the roles. We can see their "Mr." to be either the doctor or the patient. In the former case, nurses are helpers for them and we can assume that the girls are aiding him to lead whatever transitional process they are supposed to dive themselves into. In the latter case where their "Mr." is the patient, we can see the girls as the attenders to him as he seeks assistance to fix himself up to be a better man. It is entirely up to you how you want to speculate the case but I think I have gotten a good grip of the plot. If I was to elaborate, I would be needing a completely different post. What caught my attention the most though was the dance break. The girls had donned manly outfits, complete with the infamous black vests, straight-cut trousers and not to mention the hats, indicating that girls really do know how to be the "man" of the relationship, the one leading despite popular belief being the female is the weaker of the two. However, I am sorry to say that it was probably the only thing that had saved the video. If SM was to omit the dance break, the song and the music video will not be able to survive.
The song opens with a heavy electronic beat and I have to admit that it had sound promising then. Not even halfway through the song, the beat quickly slows down in tempo although not necessarily in a bad way. At first, the song had sounded a little odd to my ears but as I keep repeating it, I find it to be quite addicting especially the "Mr! Mr!" part which was repeated throughout the whole song. The initial verse sang by Sunny and YoonA followed by Jessica was probably the only highlight I have for the whole song. Despite the very obvious catchy beat of the dance break, other parts of the song are not as appealing as many hoped that they would be. They were flattering for these girls but it did no justice to their already big name. The climax, where Tiffany instead of Taeyeon sings the high note, felt as if it was not the climax point at all. Something is seriously missing although I am not sure if I can figure that out in time.
Despite all the critics, these girls had also received praises from the public and netizens alike. Just a few days ago, a legendary singer from South Korea, Lee Sun Hee, had complimented the girls saying “I do monitor music shows… But female idols these days show a lot of skin, so I don’t know how to feel about that. If I had to pick a girl group I liked, SNSD (Girls' Generation)." These girls will continue stealing new hearts in our wake, despite all the competitions, old and new, going against them every single day. I hope to see these girls as the eminent national girl group of South Korea even in 5-10 years to come. Good luck and congratulations, eonnideul!
By Nani Azlan