No big deal or anything, but K-pop sensation Big Bang just dropped not one, but two music videos, from upcoming album Made, after a prolonged absence. Even if you know nothing about K-pop, you’re going to want to watch.
The band shared the videos unexpectedly, a day in advance of their original release date. Both tracks feature lyrics by the band’s most well-known members, Top (stylized T.O.P.) and G-Dragon. The first single, “Bae Bae,” is basically one giant attempt at trolling the entire K-pop industry by producing something so ridiculous you have no choice but to take it seriously, because this is entertainment at its best. This music video is basically an elaborate attempt to convince you that you’re having a drug-induced orgy. Be on the lookout for the following:
- Flying rice cakes.
- Band member Top symbolically ejaculating onto a bunch of flowers while cosplaying as the Joker.
- Band member Taeyang just hanging out in a pirated spaghetti Western.
- Band member Seungri masquerading as a Christian Grey-esque sugar daddy in what looks like an Evanescence video circa 2000.
- Rice cakes colliding in outer space.
- The whole group partying with a gang of Disney princesses on the moon.
- Lots and lots of metaphors for sex—ranging from the unsubtle (flowers! glass clown boobs!) to the bizarre (rice cakes! venus flytraps!).
Yeah, this video just speaks for itself, honestly. Bae, bae, what more do you want?
GIF by Aja Romano
The second track, “Loser,” is darker and a lot more low key, in that it basically consists of a lot of suffocation symbolism as G-Dragon and Daesung wander listlessly around town while Taeyang paints religious allegories, Seungri stalks his ex, and Top hits on girls. There’s also a lot of impressive hair action, but compared to “Bae, Bae,” this is more along the lines of your average K-pop video.
The two videos have been a long-time coming—it’s been just over three years since the band’s last studio album, Alive, made history as the first Korean pop album to chart on the Billboard 200. The group’s major single from that album, “Fantastic Baby,” made a splash worldwide (it was even featured on an episode of Glee) and was a significant part of Hallyu, the Korean wave—a nickname for the global trend of interest in Korean pop culture.
Although the album’s official release isn’t until September, the band has already announced a major world tour which has confirmed dates for most of Asia and Australia so far, with hints that they may be coming to the U.S. as well. They even have a trailer for their tour:
While you wait for the album to drop, you can follow Top on his new Instagram account, where he’s garnered a million followers in just under two weeks.