Cultural Post #4 Vivian Shon

[Vivian Shon]

For my last cultural post, I have decided to explore and analyze BIGBANG’s new comeback single, “Still Life.” “Still Life'' is BIGBANG's first song as a band since 2018's “Flower Road.” This is a huge moment for the boy band since they have been on a 4-year hiatus due to controversial scandals, military enlistments, and marriage. Before, BIGBANG was a 5 member group, however, this is not the case as they have made their comeback as a quartet team. The reason is that Seung Ri was kicked out of the group due to his scandal regarding aiding in prostitution and embezzlement which led him to be get sentenced to three years of jail. To be honest, I thought BIGBANG would never be able to make a comeback because all 5 members were highly problematic and were involved in many ugly controversies. For instance, TOP was accused of smoking weed in the military. For context, I learned that weed is a huge crime in Korea and even the possession of it can get you in very serious trouble. In addition, one of the other members Daesung was accused of driving under the influence which led to him accidentally killing someone. Lastly, G Dragon, the leader of the group, was also accused of doing drugs and tested positive for the drug test. All of these circumstances combined led many of the Korean fans and viewers to assume that it would be almost impossible for BIGBANG to ever come back into the spotlight again, however, they were all proven wrong as they came out with a new single 2 weeks ago. The public opinion has been pretty positive as many fans longed to hear music from this infamous group once again. When I heard the song, I was deeply saddened as it was about “seasons passing” and it greatly reflected the members’ somber days as it seemed like they were ready to walk away forever from their flamboyant lives. Although I was really ecstatic about their new single, it seems that the new single is their formal goodbye to the music industry as the members are all seen walking away from their place in the music video. In addition, the music video does not show a shot with all four members in the same location. They are all scattered throughout the scenes and singing separately. They are all separated from each other which netizens are assuming that it means they are all going on a different path and thus disbanding in the near future. I am unsure if this was their intention behind the video, but I really hope to see more of their presence in Korea’s music industry.