by Nush Sikdar
It's finally the spookiest month of the year! Now that the leaves are turning color and the cooler breezes are setting in, it’s the perfect time to take a look back at some of our favorite Halloween comebacks. So sit back, grab a warm cup of tea and your favorite blanket, and let’s dive in!
1. TT - TWICE
Far and away the most classically Halloween-related music video, Twice’s “TT” leaves little to desire. The video begins with two young children walking into an expansive, dark mansion, ready to trick or treat. The song then begins, along with the iconic sequence in which each of the girls introduce themselves to the camera. This leads directly into the beginning choreography of the song, throughout which the camera playfully follows the girls’ movements.
Throughout the music video, the girls show off a wide variety of Halloween costumes and matching sets; ranging from adorable fairies to (less than) valiant vigilantes to fearsome witches, there’s a reference for everyone here. Of course, they can’t be dressed up the whole time—to combat the chilly weather, there’s a healthy mix-in of cozy outfits. One set, shown above, includes a variety of fuzzy cardigans, sweaters, and dresses, paired with endearing skirts and collared shirts. The other set consists of coordinating duo-chromatic blue and white sets that are akin to the stage outfits used during this era of TWICE.
The song itself contains a sweet pop melody that you’ll find stuck in your head for days. The title of the song, “TT”, refers to its online usage to convey crying (the top lines represent eyes, while the vertical lines are a stream of tears). Considering the rest of the lyrics, this makes perfect sense. A girl has fallen for someone, and she’s become extremely emotional over it, cycling between anger, confusion, disgust, discontentment, and pure sadness.
On May 8, 2017, “TT” became the most-viewed girl group music video on Youtube, and rightfully so. Though it has since been dethroned by more recent comebacks, its legacy remains. It remains a K-pop classic; ask any seasoned K-pop stan to dance to the chorus’s choreography and they’ll surely deliver. Give it a listen!
2. Zombie - PURPLE K!SS
Purple Kiss is a newer girl group that has quickly established itself as one of the most talented in the K-pop scene. They’re known for being entirely self-produced and self-choreographed, something extremely rare in the K-pop world. The music video “Zombie” opens to show us a world overrun by zombies, as per the song’s namesake. A glowing green sign illuminates the background reading “the kiss of death.” The upbeat track begins alongside the choreography to the intro of the song.
The video soon cuts to a neon post-punk diner in which the girls can be seen eating brains. This imagery of devouring organs, specifically brains, runs rampant throughout the entire video. To add to their undeadness, we see the girls slowly fall apart—literally. Dosie’s eye falls out when she sneezes, and the other girls rush to flush it down a conveniently placed toilet, much to their delight. Whether or not this is actually a humorous, good-natured prank is up to you.
The music video is full of ghoulish gags such as these. At the end of the song, to shower their person of interest with love, the girls present them with platefuls of delicacies consisting of…you guessed it, brains! This poor fellow has been so distraught from protecting himself, as is evident by the nail-embedded bat he answers the door with, that the shock of seeing seven zombies in front of him is enough to cause him to pass out. The girls, of course, are none the wiser—they seem completely shocked that he had such an adverse reaction upon seeing them (pictured above).
The lyrics reveal a blooming relationship between the girl(s) singing and her love interest. It’s a classic example of what the honeymoon phase can do to someone; the protagonist of the song is so obsessed with her lover that she feels like a zombie, mindlessly chasing them around. It’s a slightly insane yet relatable message that pairs sweetly with the morbidly cute concept the girls chose. Support the girls and listen to the song!
3. Married to the Music - SHINee
Among the kings of K-pop, SHINee has truly done it all. They checked “Halloween comeback in August” off the list and passed the creepy music video test with flying colors. The video starts with a rather ominous tone. “Marriage is a slow death,” a sign reads. Viewers are then shown the boys driving a classic “just married” car, complete with cans strapped to the back. They soon enter a house party with Jonghyun being carried horizontally by the other four. Thus commences a rapid descent into madness as we discover what horrors lie within these walls.
Just under a minute into the video, Key can be seen strapped to an upright spinning wheel. A partygoer instinctively knows where she can find a cleaver, which she subsequently propels at Key. His head is sliced clean off, and slowly slides and crashes to the floor. Immediately after it bounces off the floor, another woman kicks his now decapitated head straight across the room, much to Jonghyun’s horror. Key’s head, though dismembered, is miraculously still able to sing, and so we are informed that he, just like the other members, is “married to the music.”
In another sequence, Onew is bashed in the back of the head with a baseball bat, and his eyes go flying out of their sockets. We are then greeted with a wonderfully shot scene from the perspective of these tumbling eyeballs, making for a truly immersive experience. Following this, Jonghyun believes he has the opportunity to kiss a pretty girl at the party. However, after the exchange is complete, he finds that his mouth has been taken from him. Shenanigans in a similar vein to these continue throughout the rest of the music video until an interesting plot development arises involving a woman dressed for a wedding who is obsessively scrapbooking pictures of the boys. Stream the video to find out what it all means!
Of course, it wouldn’t be a SHINee music video without incredible dance numbers—they quite literally invented the idea of the dancing idol in 2008. These shots are full of fun confetti littering the screen as the members deliver nothing short of a showstopping performance. The lyrics paint a picture of an intoxicating relationship, in which love runs deep. “I’m married to the music,” “You are my music,” they read. “Married to the Music” is truly a masterpiece that deserves much more recognition and attention than it gets. Take a listen!