Reaction | Girls' Generation 少女時代 'MR. TAXI' MV (JPN Ver.)
Added 2021-01-27 13:28:52 +0000 UTCI'm back at it again with another Japanese MV from SNSD! This time we got MR. TAXI and oh boy, this was a ride (yes, pun intended lmao).
This was cool because they didn't have a multitude of outfits so I could try and figure out the members a bit better. As per usual I am still struggling though.
As for the song, I wouldn't say this is their best by a long shot. But it's neat.
Comments
I think the problem with a lot (not all) releases of "Japanese Kpop" is that they try to accomplish the bare minimum, so most of the songs sound like very basic Jpop songs, and the thing is, the Japanese market is so big (particularly compared to Korea), it has more than enough room for basic Jpop to thrive. What I appreciate of BoA and TVXQ/THSK and their managment teams is that they had a goal, and they worked towards that goal considering the system and the culture. Not all of their Japanese music is interesting and diverse, but it sounds a lot more genuine and "theirs" than most cases. Same happened with SNSD, after they started promoting in Japan with Japanese songs (even if some of them weren't my favorites, like this one), it started to sound more like "SNSD in any language".
Javi (42ariadna)
2021-01-29 03:13:17 +0000 UTCYeah, it definitely leaves somewhat of a bland taste in my mouth on first impression. I can see how it's a grower, but it's not gonna be in my top SNSD songs soon if ever. I still appreciate the fact they tried this though, I think it's important. But then again - Kpop groups these days are kindy still very iffy on the Japanese market it feels like. On the one hand, it's probably regretabble on a business standpoint but for me, musically, I prefer it this way. I don't dislike Japanese songs - far from it - but I don't vibe with most Japanese releases of Kpop artists, I don't know what it is. Taeyeon is funnily enough probably the only one that makes it work for me, so does (G)I-DLE. And BOL4 somewhat. But that's all I can think of. TWICE sometimes sounds fine but sometimes just nooo
cru3l tmo
2021-01-29 00:59:11 +0000 UTCUff, I have a weird relationship with this song. It's the first song they did in Japanese first. They had released Japanese versions of Genie and Gee before that, which was the usual for kpop groups that tried to work in the Japanese market back then. As a fan of Jmusic, a newer fan of Kpop and someone who was studying languages at the time, it was annoying to watch that lack of effort made by labels that tried to use songs made in one language to make it work in another, instead of presenting new, targeted content (plus the MVs lacked effort as well). It was frustrating considering all the work BoA did previously to adapt to the Japanese market to make it and the lessons that DBSK/TVXQ/THSK learned at their start in Japan. So when SNSD came out with Mr Taxi I was happy... and then the song was meh. To be fair, most songs sounded a bit like that during this period, but it was mostly Kpop exporting that sound to Japan instead of them trying to work with something that sounded more "Japanese" (which, in any case, it is hard to define). With time, I learned to like the song in the right mood. And clearly, SNSD did OK for themselves in Japan.
Javi (42ariadna)
2021-01-27 17:53:49 +0000 UTC
