#dollconcept

I published the original "Doll People: A Compendium on the Doll Concept" in May 2012, on the cusp of a generational shift. Now in a funny bit of kismet in the same month, a decade removed, I am announcing a lateral move for the project moving it from a blog post to its own website: https://kpop.mjohnso.com/dollpeople

I recently made some some major changes to, “Doll People: Revised Compendium on the Doll Concept in K-Pop” that I had previously published back in 2012 and revised in 2013. One of these changes consisted of paring it down from four sections to two.The reason for this is because working back on this post crystallized the fact that the doll concept exists primarily and is defined principally by visual concepts. Once I came to that conclusion it only made sense to concentrate on where the doll concept both most articulated and where it is most frequently used.

The other part of the revamp included a new introduction to the compendium that I am also publishing below.

When I declared in 2014 SNSD’s “Gee” to be The Doll Concept, I did so based on not seniority or originality but ubiquity. At the time I justified my decision, writing,

“Instead “Gee” owes its status to the explosive popularity it enjoyed in its wake as it broke records and has continued to enjoy even as “Gangnam Style” toppled its records. It is the song that inspired a whole generation of international k-pop fans, becoming a point of common ground among all k-pop fans, no matter how casual or serious. Everyone knows “Gee.”

I stand by this assertion and the status I granted to “Gee,” but with some additions. Ubiquity was an important part of the equation of what makes “Gee” so important in regards to the doll concept, but it was not everything; timing played a part too. Prior to its release, idols had used the doll concept so sparingly that it hardly even constituted a concept at all (at the time of writing, I have counted nine instances of the doll concept between 2000 and 2008). Whether due to it serving as a catalyst or coincidence, following its release on January 5, 2009, use of the doll concept increased. That year, per the below compendium at the time of writing, singers and groups would use the concept 12 times. Between 2010 and 2018, the doll concept would be used over 63 times, with each year seeing at least 5 instances of the doll concept.

Some post-“Gee” versions of the doll concept took inspiration from their predecessor, having people play the part of the dolls, while others opt for different, sometimes profoundly new takes, like blurring the relationship between literal and people dolls (see Ladies’ Code’s “Hate You”). Herein lies the appeal of the doll concept. The only real “rule” is that there has to be a doll, with all other details customizable allowing those who use it to mold it to fit their intended theme or mood. The dolls can be life-sized or miniature, retain their doll-like limbs and limited range of motion or not. They can be displayed in shop windows, display cases, doll houses, factories or none of the above. They can fall in or out of love, with people, their existence as dolls, or other dolls, etc. etc.

—Still from Fanatics - “V.A.V.I Girl” (2020)

Lee Jung Hyun’s “Joolae (Give It to Me)” notwithstanding, dollhouses in k-pop music videos are rarely portrayed as homey, quaint spaces. Rather they are often portrayed as unwelcoming, the literal physical space often out of proportion to its would-be resident. For example, the music video for Song Ji-eun’s 2016 single, “Bobby Doll,” the space is much too small for her, or she is just too large. She must duck through doors to get into still small rooms, where she is as tall as windows, her head occupying the same level as the light fixtures. Similarly, in the video for A.KOR’s 2015 single, “Always,” the members are trapped in rooms that so small they cannot even stretch out their arms or legs.

In the video for Fanatic’s recent release, “V.A.V.I Girl”, the house is so small the members cannot even fit inside. Instead, the most they can do is look through the two front doors reach in to move furniture that looks comically small in their human-sized hands.

In the scheme of the ‘doll concept,’ the dollhouse usually serves as more than setting. The point of having a dollhouse is so that the video can include a dramatic scene where the ‘dolls’ breakout, thereby symbolically rejecting ‘dollhood’ and all that is attached to it. Yet because Fanatics has never been in the dollhouse, they can neither break free from the house nor their dollhood.

—Heize - “MIANHAE” (2018) (Dir. Digipedi)

According to the science poster in the music video for “MIANHAE,” Heize is portraying a humanoid, not a doll. This fact technically means that it does not warrant inclusion in the Doll Compendium, but I decided to make an exception and include it anyway on the grounds of not nomenclature, but proximity. That is while she may not be described as a doll, she certainly possesses the characteristics of one, especially when compared to other dolls in k-pop. For example, she is shown on display, much like the ‘mannequins’ in SNSD’s “Gee” are and as Jang Jane is in the video for the cover of “Dumb Dumb” she did with Giant Pink and PERC%NT. Her stilted movements and fixed expression recall the members of T-ara in “Sexy Love,” who move and dance in a similar, stiff and unnatural way. And that scene where she is shown in a workshop — or is it an operating room? — is not entirely without precedent. Ladies’ Code had a similar scene in “So Wonderful,” where Rise is shown as a work-in-progress.

That is all more than enough for this video to qualify for a place in the Doll Compendium, but it is hardly all. There is another angle to this worth mentioning and that is the lyrics. Although the lyrics of “MIANHA” never explicitly mention a doll, they are similar to songs that utilize the doll as metaphor like FT Island’s “Like A Doll.” In that song, the speaker from whose point of view the lyrics take describes an artificial smile intended to hide their pain,

I'm smiling. I’m always smiling because I’m afraid that I’ll cry.

I’m smiling like this every day.

Like a smiling doll, I’m always smiling the same smile with her. [1]

Consider also Han Una’s “Mannequin feat. Maboos,” both of which a mannequin describes feeling sadness but being unable to cry,

Dancing, I’m a mannequin All fall in love with me (call me) You snatched my heart I’m a pretty mannequin

Even if I’m lonely, Even if I’m sad, I don’t cry (Don’t cry pretty girl)

It’s difficult and tiring but I don’t hide [2]

And the lyrics of DIA’s “Mannequin,” which like Han Una’s song, is about a dancing mannequin who is on display and thus unable to reveal her true feelings

I’m just smiling, that’s what I have to do Wearing different pretty clothes every day Putting on a fun face under flashing lights I’m a mannequin dancing for you

Like a flower in a glass bottle I don’t know when I’ll wither

I’m just having fun I’m just dancing in the rhythm After the day is over, I’ll be left alone (But I can’t shed tears) [3]

Now compare these to the lyrics of Heize’s “MIANHAE” which as previously mentioned takes the form of an apology,

I’m sorry please don’t be mad I’ll be more careful Without knowing Like a robot I’m just a machine who can’t be emotional A machine that just sings I’m really sorry

Sorry for hurting Sorry for being sad For being someone who is emotional For being so damn weak I’m really so sorry [4]

Although the speaker in “MIANHAE” is less successful when it comes to hiding their feelings, it is in agreement with the others on the central point: emotions, particularly so-called negative ones, are undesirable. Better, even preferable, to be something inhuman that can neither express emotions and are at least outwardly pleasant, like a machine or a doll.

Footnotes

[Trans] Like A Doll – FT Island

[LYRIC/TRANS] Han Una - I'm Mannequin

DIA - mannequin

—Stills from APRIL’s “April Story” (Dir. NAIVE) (2017)

The defining feature of APRIL’s doll concept for the “April Story” video is scale. We know APRIL are portraying dolls because of their size relative to their surroundings. They are smaller in stature than the baby dolls that appear in the background of one shot and only slightly larger than the other figurines that, lacking their same spark of life, stand behind them. They are tiny enough that they can easily fit in the very window boxes that are the de facto packaging of any doll. In comparison to the man who peers at them as they stand posed on a shelf they are positively miniature.

Because APRIL’s size remains constant throughout the video, they are not tied to the other aspects of being a doll like stiff poses and vacuous expressions. Instead they can don and discard dollhood at different times. They can enjoy full-unfettered movement to do whatever they please, be it play around, throw a birthday party, or as APRIL does, merely watch a boy from afar, until the sole human sees them. Only then must they fall back into the role until the human turns his attention away from them.

Even as I eulogized the doll concept in 2019, I knew it would return. History supported me in this belief. As I noted in my introduction to Doll People: A Compendium of the Doll Concept the doll concept is cyclical. Groups and singers will reach for it frequently until they do not. Then it will lie dormant for months or years before making a comeback. Case and point: I have never found a single instance of the doll concept that dates to any year between 2003 and 2007. But following the release of SNSD's "Gee" in 2009 though, it was suddenly everywhere. By 2018 though, its popularity waned and it all but disappeared.

That is until now. There are indications that the doll concept may return, although I hesitate to call it a comeback. The numbers are not there right now. Unlike other moments though, the present one feels more heavy with potential, as if this could and maybe will being changing soon. Leaning into this feeling, below I wrote about three instances of the doll concept from this year. They not only represent three different takes, illustrating what I mean when I talk about its elastic nature, but they also offer glimpses into a possible future that may yet come to pass.

(G)I-DLE – “Tomboy” Release Date: March 14, 2022

When Soyeon emphatically declared herself to be “not a doll” in (G)I-DLE’s “Tomboy” she was not breaking new ground much as adding her voice to a chorus that already exists. Others have declared in songs that they are also not dolls, like the girl group Sunny Days. In their 2015 single, “Blah Blah,” they sang, “I don’t wanna be a baby doll/I’m not your baby doll what” telling off an ex-boyfriend who refuses to leave them alone. Likewise, Nine Muses’ Euaerin in their 2013 single "Glue" declared herself free from the baggage of a past relationship, announcing, “You’re bad news to me, no more, I’m not your doll.” And as for CLC’s Yeeun, in her 2020 song “Barbie Doll” she makes it clear that she is both not a Barbie doll but also “won’t play with dolls.”

Technically, Soyeon’s declaration is not wrong. She is not a doll, but in the “Tomboy” music video, she and the other members do have doll counterparts. The dolls first appear around the 2:10 mark, during which the video undergoes a distinct visual shift. Before that point, the members of (g)-idle play the main parts. After a quick shot of a closing clapboard the dolls temporarily take over, kidnapping their ex-boyfriend—also played by a doll—and getting their revenge.

While this may appear to put "Tomboy"-as-song and "Tomboy"-as-music video in conflict, there is no tension here. How the lyrics of this, and similar songs, use the doll differs from how it usually plays out in the video. In the song, ‘doll’ is used as a metaphor, with Soyeon rejecting not the doll as an object but the meaning it carries. In the context of the video, the use of dolls creates a visual distinction between the action of the music video versus the film embedded in the music video. In doing so though, it reduces the doll to its very utility, in a way not often seen in the doll concept. That is this is the doll as prop, or object.

CHOBOM – “Copycat” Release Date: July 13, 2022

It took an M! Countdown stage to sell me on the idea that CHOBOM’s “Copycat” music video counts as an instance of the doll concept. Before, despite teaser images showing Bomi and Chorong as dolls I waffled. If indeed a doll concept, their take seemed too subtle, contrary to other versions that announce themselves as such. I expected a doll concept about twin dolls escaping (the premise of their video, according to Bomi) to look something like the video for Song Ji Eun’s 2016 single “Bobby Doll”. Before even hitting the play button, that concept is clear from the song’s title alone. The lyrics (“Take me out of this box/I’m your bobby doll/Baby, on your bobby doll/Play with me”) and video then further emphasize it. In the case of the latter, there are multiple shots of Song Ji Eun as a doll, including her seated in a chair on a rotating platform, arms bent at sharp right angles, expression frozen, and also dancing while strung up as a marionette.

CHOBOM’s “Copycat” music video is never that obvious. Instead, in the video scenes where the doll concept is most present, it is in the details, literally background to the action. Opening with a woman dressed in white pushing a rolling cart down a hallway, adorning the walls behind her are shelves decorated with various mannequin heads, hands, and anatomical torso models and heads. She enters a tiled room that, like the hallway, is full of doll parts, including heads, hands, and legs. Life-sized mannequins line the wall, and it is among these that the woman places the twin dolls, Chorong and Bomi, styled identically from their blonde hair to white dresses. On the wall behind them is a poster titled “Diagram of a Doll.”

There are several other shots where the doll concept does peek through, including a memorable scene where Chorong and Bomi literally come apart, although that is all it ever does. It neither asserts nor reveals itself as a keystone detail of the music video. At most, it serves as a fun detail, on par with the cat motifs, both playing on the song’s title. Dolls are, as attested to by all of the identical mannequins in the video and doll parts, mass-manufactured and frequently identical, which is to say they are copies, at least of each other. Ironically, the same cannot be said for their take on the doll concept.

Red Velvet – “Feel My Rhythm” Release Date: March 21, 2022 Among these three takes on the doll concept, Red Velvet’s “Feel My Rhythm” is unlike the others. Theirs is a more traditional take, in line with the version of the doll concept popular among the second generation. That is the members, not actual dolls, play the part of the dolls. For example, in their individual ‘calmato’ video teasers, each member is styled as a music box ballerina, complete with white tulle skirt and pink tweed bustier top, posed on a round base decorated with Rococo flourishes against a black background. As a music box version of Bach’s “Air on the G String” plays, the platform rotates and moves but Red Velvet is fixed in a pose.

In another of their ‘calmato’ teasers, this time a still photo, the members are again cast as music box figurines, in the same pose, on the same platforms in the same outfits, only now wearing pointe shoes. Instead of being set against a black background, they are literally in the center of a larger tableau, resting on a bureau. On either side of them are various objects including a teddy bear, vases of flowers, bottles of perfume, and porcelain figurines, none of which Red Velvet towers over as much as matches their size. The implication here is not that these objects are huge, but that the members are small.