K-pop girl group Kep1er released their fourth mini-album, “Lovestruck!,” on April 10. Alongside it, they released their latest single “Giddy,” and its accompanying music video has amassed 19 million views so far. Kep1er was formed through the Mnet survival show “Girls Planet 999,” and the group consists of Choi Yu-jin, Sakamoto Mashiro, Kang Ye-seo, Ezaki Hikaru, Seo Young-eun, Kim Dayeon, Kim Chaehyun, Shen Xiaoting and Huening Bahiyyih.
“Giddy” is about a girl’s love for her crush and how she feels around him, with lines like “I’m too nervous next to you” that echo the song’s title. As the girl falls for her crush, lines like “You’re shaking the world and pulling me / With your intense gravity” show her crush’s powerful attractiveness allows him to control her. To flirt with her crush, she reassures him of their compatibility with lines like, “We’ll probably be perfect together / To me now, you just cross the line.” These lines present this song as a progression of confidence, with the singer overcoming her nervousness and gaining the courage to talk to her crush instead of simply fantasizing about him. The evolution of the girl is attractive and the idea of her encouraging her crush adds a nice feminist touch to a seemingly ordinary love story.
A music video was released in conjunction with the song. At first, the girls roam around a city neighborhood during the daytime. But then, a sparkly heart appears in the center and explodes as the city turns to night, transporting the girls into a colorful maze. The contrast between the two locations — the fantastical and mundane — is evident in the transition. The rest of the video switches between the city scenes, maze scenes and other environments, such as a neon-lit subway tunnel and a purple room with furry seats. The environments are distinctive, giving a nice sense of scale and variety to the video, serving as an impressive short segment.
There were also many supplemental videos released to promote the song. In one promotional video, the members reacted to their “Giddy” music video, documenting their individual perspectives on this shared experience. While watching the video for the first time, they commented on each other’s beauty and the set design.
After reacting to the video, the members provided additional commentary. For instance, the music video ended with Ye-seo eating Chaehyun. During the video, Ye-seo said that Chaehyun tasted like a strawberry to her. After those comments, the group decided to watch the video again. During this second viewing, Chaehyun admitted that multiple cameras were used to film her in one scene, and she had to move her head to each of them. Dayeon also admitted that she and Hikaru struggled to stop laughing during that scene.
Another way the group promoted the song was through their performance video, where they danced to their song on each of the music video sets. Unlike the usual “dance practice” video, which has a group performing in a dance studio, they perform on a music video set. A performance video is an engaging way to demonstrate a song’s choreography, and given just how much of the genre focuses on it, the performance videos are a valuable asset to groups, as they help to emphasize that aspect, assisting fans with the desire to dance like their favorite idols. It also works because a standard music video frequently cuts away from the dancing to demonstrate reactions or graphics. A performance video focuses solely on the dancing, negating such issues.
As with most young K-pop groups, a dance challenge was also part of the song’s promotion, encouraging fans to dance to the song’s chorus on short-form video platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts. They released several videos in conjunction with the challenge by providing a mixture of collaborations and member-only videos.
The group also used these platforms to collaborate with figures such as Iz*One’s Chaeyeon and WayV’s Xiaojun. Given how neither of these idols are part of the group, it was surprising that they were able to keep up with the members and coordinate their moves with them. However, it also demonstrates just how much discipline an idol must develop in order to become one.
Kep1er also promoted “Giddy” through Korean music shows, where they performed the song on a stage as one of many groups releasing new songs that week. There are six main shows, and the members wear different outfits for each performance. For instance, while on Music Bank, Kep1er wore white outfits that made them look very coordinated, while their appearance on Show Champion had them wear a variety of distinct outfits that combined white, black and denim materials. The differing outfits helped keep each performance interesting as they added variety in spite of it being the same song.
Kep1er’s “Giddy” offers a unique subversion of the stereotypical love story. Through its vast array of promotions, it is sure to be a success.
Bailey Kanthatham is an Arts & Entertainment Contributing Writer. He can be reached at bkanthat@uci.edu.
