come with me.
Click to viewThis song is really, really interesting to me.
It's ridiculously catchy and I like the Alice in Wonderland feel. They really captured the mysterious feeling really well.
As I was watching it with the english subs, I was struck by how dangerously tempting this song and music video is. Disclaimer: I don't know korean myself; this is based off the translations that were provided, so that should be taken into account.
"I GOT THE MONEY MONEY
DON’T YOU WORRY LET’S PARTY
//
Come to me (whoa~)
My heart is calling for you
(I need you)
Like This, You & I (whoa~)
Delivered your body to the world
Throw Your Body To The World
OH OH OH OH OH OH
I can make you be the best
OH OH OH OH OH OH
Now is the best choice of your life"
The allure and excitement of this mysterious life is so seductively twisted, and I admit that I was drawn into it myself. Yet, its rather disturbing message is so clear if you take the time to think about it. Allow me to rephrase those lyrics in other words:
"Don't look back, we'll provide everything, so just have fun. //
Come with me, we need you.
You belong to this world; throw yourself into this materialistic life.
We'll make your life even better; this is the best choice of your life." The speaker(s) of this song (note: not necessarily the artist, just whoever is speaking these words, please, I'm not hating on Seungri; at this moment, I'm stepping away from this specific song to the general message itself) argue that you already biologically belong to this carefree lifestyle and all we have to do is to do it. Yet, there are contradictions: they're saying that they'll provide for you, but at the same time they need something from you. What do they need from you, then? Moreover, what does "world" mean in this song and what does it have to offer (how valid are these promises)? If we commit ("throw") our bodies to the world, do we commit also to their claims and directions? Is this really the best choice?
I am skeptical about their proposal to just give myself over like that. There should be more to life than this. Right now, I am weighing two things: the physical world, and God's Kingdom. It appears to me that they're providing an easy escape that only temporarily satisfies the body (money, party, fame), but not the soul. By giving ourselves over to that kind of shallow life, we have everything to lose, and they have everything to gain: if we fall into this trap, we feed their power.
In many ways, God is also asking us to give ourselves over to Him completely and is calling us to another life. However, God's arguments are different from theirs. Through the Bible, we know that we are created in His image (Genesis 1:27) and our first vocation in life is to LOVE (1 John 4:11). What is love? Let us read the Gospel together to see the perfect example; St. Paul puts it in short words though, in 1 Corin 13. Jesus loves us and promises us eternal life in God's Kingdom if we turn to Him. Evidence? His blood on the cross. God came down in flesh and died as a man by the hands of His people. Isn't that precious life that we threw away enough?
And what about them; did they say anything about how valid their statements are? Maybe it got edited out from the song, haha. No, they didn't. How promising are these promises? I would like to say that they would not sacrifice their lives for it -- maybe because they know it's not worth it, or maybe because they just don't care about the others.
But after analyzing it and coming to this realization, I don't know what to do anymore. Personally, I know that if I am extremely tempted to watch the music video again (and again..) because he's cute, the song has a great style, and the music video was well made. However, the girl in it is so innocent, and I find the message so corrupting. My goal this semester is to grow deeper in my faith, and I feel that this song might be drawing me away from that goal. I'm not saying that others should not listen to the song or anything; that is their own decision and I have made my own. Everyone has their own weaknesses and I feel that I might slip here.
Though for music, we can always say that we're in for the beats and melody, which I understand. This may be extremely exaggerating, because it's just one unfortunate song that caught my attention. There are plenty of songs that are like it out there, so what? No one's really going to be crazy like me and analyze it..
But, for the very reason that these themes are so prevalent in songs which so readily move our younger generation today, it is important that we think about them. Maybe these songs aren't meant to be analyzed, but every time we hear it, we naturally and instinctively process the words and who knows how much gets soaked in. Either way, we should all be aware of what we are putting into our brains. Even if this song isn't intended to make people make radical decisions to go down different paths, the origin of songs had to have come from somewhere, and many times that origin is society's mentality. We really should be careful; we should not be ignorant and dismiss this offhandedly.