K-Pop girl group Dal Shabet has achieved something few K-Pop (Korean Pop) music groups have done. They got their new music video, "Joker," banned from playing for being too sexy. How is that possible, you ask? The answer might surprise you.
I know you're probably gearing up for a big answer like suggestive dancing, wildly provocative come hither looks for barely legal starlets, or even, God forbid, naked Korean girls doing whatever it is Korean girls do when they get naked. However, it is none of those.
It's inference and a little bit of an overactive imagination by the censors that stirred up the storm. According to Inquistr, the song is pronounced Joh-kuh. In Korean, "Joh" sound similar to a curse word referring to male genitalia. "Kuh" on the other hand means "big." People get the idea when both words are put together. There is also a brief scene of a man and a woman in the throes of passion but, again, imagination has to make up for more than is actually there.
Unlike some American pop music of today, K-Pop is a genre of sugary sweetness. Not a genre that generally makes waves, it does have its moments. Two notable examples were when Jessica Jung was given her walking papers from SM Entertainment, and Ahn Sojin committed suicide by jumping off of a ten story building.
The group Miss A was one of the first groups to incorporate a little edgier sex appeal into their music videos. Other groups began to play the game whatever you can do, I can do better, but stayed within the realms of good reason.
The video has been reedited and Dal Shabet is none-the-worse for wear, but as they say, no publicity is worse than bad publicity.
So, what do you think of the video? Is it really that scandalous? Certainly, it's no racier than a bunch of videos from the K-Pop's American equivalents.
