Cherry Bullet has landed with an almighty band with their debut track ‘Q&A’.
The colourful mv combines a futuristic world with more retro video game stylings such as the pixellated 8-Bit design style and consoles such as the GameBoy.
Interestingly one of the more prominent gaming styles used in the visual is the ‘first-person shooter’ format. This sees the members pointing brightly coloured video game guns at targets that are thankfully all CGI objects – given the ongoing global conversation about gun control it was wise to not have them pointed at human-like targets (at least when the viewer isn’t in the firing line).
‘Q&A’ has been likened to the mv for AOA’s ‘Bingle Bangle‘, though video game or 8-bit music videos are rather common in Kpop, examples include: ‘Rock Your Body‘ by VIXX, ‘Video Game‘ by Boys’ Republic, ‘Boy Go‘ by So Ji Sub and Soul Dive, ‘Rockstar‘ by ICON (No Minwoo).
It is possibly the more subtle references to the likes of Girls’ Generation and 2NE1 for elements such as colour and framing that really solidify the visual recipe that Kpop’s girl groups seem to have mastered of late.
Musically…
‘Q&A’ sits a little left of the current field of Kpop releases. It mixes layers of different sounds to create something that channels the retro games feel, with the futuristic digital world. The usual vibrant pop sound of Korea’s girl groups is mixed with synthesised 8-bit audio, instantly associated with video games. There’s also a hint of disco funk, and a moombahton drum line. The moombahton style caught on in Korea far after it did globally (as many music trends do – if you’ve ever heard anything by Rihanna you’ve heard the moombahton style of house beats blended with reggaeton) but it is a trend that has stuck around especially given the popularity of Jay Park’s ‘Me Like Yuh‘, NCT 127’s ‘Fire Truck‘ and BTS’ ‘Blood, Sweat and Tears‘.
The drum line itself is much more subtle here, but it is present, and sits well among the other features that make Kpop sit so well among its western counterpart – it sounds familiar enough to make an impression.
It will be interesting to see where Cherry Bullet go from here.
