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When I researched SM Entertainment last year, I got into Girls' Generation, but I didn't write about them because I didn't want to confuse with too much information. So I focused on talking about Red Velvet. Red Velvet is a very weird group, but Girls' Generation is something different, they're like perfectly coordinated cheerleaders. In their performance at Madison Square Garden in 2011, everything shines in a lighting of gold, everything moves smoothly, everyone sings well and everyone is charismatic. There are really no weak points or wacky parts where things fall apart and get close to the edge. They're just good, and sometimes it's that simple. Sometimes you just want some skillful people being really good at something and not necessarily spacing out into some crazy madness that kbrecordzz would love to write a concise and passionate text about on his website. During the performance of "The Boys", the member Jessica Jung looks like a princess, which made me realize that people don't look like a princess very often, which got me into a chain of link-clicks leading through various wholesome / princess-like / "Disney sitcom" like vibes from Girls' Generation and Jessica Jung (Way To Go, Jessica+Krystal - Butterfly, Barbie Girl, Part of Your World), and then I was done thinking about that.
And that's when I found Jessica Jung's single "Wonderland", and most of all its music video. In it, Jessica Jung is just the typical K-pop singer walking around in her Swiss mansion, looking up towards Matterhorn and deciding to go up there. When I saw this music video I realized that, this is the new standard for how beautiful things should be. This is what we all should aim for. Here are some things I admire Jessica Jung for taking part in in this music video:
1. Being Jessica Jung
2. Having a tight grip on the ideas and the production (I suppose?)
3. Having a timeless, smooth and rich voice (her and Taeyeon's voice together was the sound of Girls' Generation, pretty much)
4. Actually flying to a snowy mountain top in Switzerland with your crew and your backup dancers, and removing your clothes and being insanely cold for the art
5. Filming the most beautiful scenes with a normal camera without any insane effects or post-production
Let's talk about the last point on that list. The scenes on top of that mountain make me want to get better at making things, in general. People try to impress each other with technology and creativity and shock value and whatever, but sometimes you can't really beat just being in Switzerland. These scenes are not made by a big-budget team, it's just how the world looks sometimes! They caught a perfect day to film on, and they found a perfect place. The fact that some shots are more muddy and cloudy enhances the fact that the beautiful shots are really that beautiful for real. The shot of Jessica walking around alone in the snow on top of that mountain looks more surrealistic than actually surrealistic (or maybe "unrealistic") artificial K-pop videos we're used to see, and that just makes me want to become more real. This "realness" is also why I wrote point 3, because I really feel like Jessica Jung has her own creativity in her art. She's not just "Jessica from Girls' Generation". This music video has too much imperfection, too many creative influences and is too good for that, it has to be a product of her personality to some degree. Another thing I like about this music video is that they have a "Coridel Entertainment" logo in the upper right corner the whole time, and I barely notice it. The video is too real to be ruined by advertisement, it seems like.
Now, if you excuse my somewhat fabricated chain-of-events in the first paragraph, the actual reason I got into Jessica Jung specifically is because she wrote a book. A book about K-pop ("Shine"), where she "spills the beans" about the industry, the company and her group (at least if you want to believe all rumors. In reality it's just a fiction! ;) ). At the time I wanted to know everything about SM Entertainment, and since Jessica Jung spent her 2000s and half her 2010s at that company, I read parts of the book to get a glimpse into that world. I learned some things, but now after a while I feel that what I really learned from Jessica Jung is that you can be a successful member of a pop group, turn into a solo artist, create your own fashion company and write a book, all of these things while still being one single person! You don't have to keep it simple, stick to what you know and limit yourself. No, you can be many things!