G Dragon is finally back with his trademark unique sound, with new song ‘Michi GO’.
Concept
Like the song title would suggest, the concept for this music video is nothing short of crazy. That being said, it matches the sound of the song, as everything seems all over the place and downright trippy, and yet it works so well.
The MV starts out as G Dragon steps onto what looks like a New York subway train, where the other passengers are creepy people with doll-like faces, and from there nothing seems to make much sense. There doesn’t seem to be any coherent theme or storyline throughout the video, but seeing as the song is about wanting to go crazy, this is pretty appropriate. There just seems to be random scene after random scene, starting from GD stepping onto the train with clown-sized feet, then he’s having a party in the carriage with the other passengers. In other scenes he seems to be being spanked by parental figures, in a doctor’s office with people utterly perplexed at his clown feet, shooting at himself with a laser gun, and even at one point he is dancing around in a bathroom. Everything you watch is vivid, eye-catching, and very visually exciting to watch, even if you just keep watching out of fascination. It feels like you might blink and miss something really interesting and is incredibly entertaining from beginning to end. It’s all very strange, yet oddly cool. I think that’s just the G Dragon charm.
During the party on the subway, GD is bouncing around on an inflatable pink elephant head. Obviously, in English, pink elephants are a euphemism for being drunk, and as such, it made me curious as to whether the inflatable was meant to have the same meaning, or whether it was a coincidence.
The style and outfits worn in this MV are pretty much typical GD, and you see him work his fashionista credentials with outfits such as a full-on 80’s punk rock look, at one point he sports an androgynous hairstyle with excessive makeup while wearing leather trousers and jacket, an afro, cow spot trousers, an unusual suit with shorts instead of trousers and a square hat, and many others. It’s like he takes on different personas with every style concept, as at one point in the MV, he shoots at a different version of himself with a laser gun. These outfits are incredibly eclectic, and despite matching the feel and concept of the song perfectly, I fear they would be way too over the top for the mainstream UK market. I have said it before, but here in the UK we are used to female pop icons such as Madonna, Nicki Minaj and Jessie J wearing outlandish and high-fashion outfits, but most male celebrities generally wear much more refined and toned down outfits. I’m not entirely sure whether the UK is quite ready for GD’s unique style just yet.
While G Dragon is dressed as the character with the big feet, he has a few moments of aegyo, which isn’t really unheard of for him. I do have to wonder how well aegyo would be received by the UK audience in general though, as it’s not a concept we’re used to here. There isn’t an overwhelming level of it in the MV, and it might even go unnoticed, but boys acting cute probably wouldn’t be massively popular with some people.
There were a few cameos of members of the YG family in the MV, and if you’ve seen it then you probably won’t have been able to miss appearances from Taeyang, Teddy, and Se7en! This is an added bonus for fans of YG family, but it won’t really mean much to non-Kpop fans I would imagine.
UK Potential: 3/5
Choreography
I’m not sure whether any of the dancing that you see in the video will be official choreography for Michi GO, seeing as it mostly consists of what I can only describe as relatively measured flailing. There’s not really too much else to say about it, other than what dancing you do see in the video matches the concept and sound of the song pretty well as it’s weird and wild, and I’ll be very interested to see what the official dance routine actually is if he promotes this song.
(Why do I have the feeling that it’s going to be banned before that happens?)
If nothing else, the wild movements are definitely memorable, and I can imagine all-to-easily that many people would like to recreate the dancing. I think this ‘routine’ would be some kind of popular in the UK as it’s quirky and funny, and people would be able to have a lot of fun with it.
UK Potential: 4/5
Song
How to describe the sound of this song? If anything, it’s a unique and stark-sounding electro-pop track that has a very distinctive sound. You could never confuse Michi GO with another song. The infectious beat is strong and repetitive which would make it good to dance to, and I think it could make just about anyone want to jump about to it as it is the kind of song that forces you to pay attention to it. I can imagine it being a bit too much for some people if they like mellow and genteel music, but I bet that it would appeal to many people of a younger generation as it is undoubtedly a very cool sounding party track.
The English used in the song is scattered throughout the lyrics as little phrases and one-off words. The most noticeable is probably ‘I say, Mother, Father, who are you?’ which is fairly odd sounding with no context. Other bits of English used are ‘Now six in the morning, so where are you going?’, and ‘t-shirts’, ‘sneakers’, and even ‘energy drink’.
Normally I’m not a fan of G Dragon’s or even BIGBANG’s use of English, as it doesn’t often sound very good, but this time round I found myself pretty impressed. Most of the English used was well pronounced and easily distinguishable while listening which would benefit the song if it were to be released in the UK. Potential listeners are going to prefer listening to a song with English lyrics they can easily sing along to, and this song delivers that!
UK Potential: 4/5
Highlight: – A party in a library? Count me in!
Overall UK Potential: 11/15
It’s all very strange, from the setting of the scenes to the outfits, and yet the whole concept is so enjoyable. The styling and clothing is very out there, but somehow it matches the sound of the song so well that it’s not even as jarring as I thought it might be. The MV might need to be toned down a little if it were to be released here in the UK in order to appeal to more people, but I think the song itself would do well here.
As I have done before, I think I’m going to have to liken GD to Nicki Minaj, in the sense that with wild style and a unique sound, people tend to either love or hate them, with no middle ground. As such, this is probably something GD would face if he were to release this song here. Many people find Nicki Minaj’s sound and style to be jarring and unappealing, and I think this could occur with Michi GO, but despite that, I think the song would actually still appeal to a lot of people, and I would hope that it would do well.
Thanks for reading! Post your thoughts and votes for next week below!
