Girl crush concepts are nothing new in K-Pop, with quite a number groups making it their bread and butter. What is fairly uncommon though are girl groups that utilise the horror concept. Most K-Pop listeners can probably tell you about DREAMCATCHER, who can very easily be said to be the pioneers of that concept (although other groups have briefly dabbled in it before), but now we have a new contender in PIXY, ALLART Entertainment's rookie girl group. Managed by Happy Tribe Entertainment, the 6-member group debuted in February this year with title track Wings and wowed audiences with their outstanding live vocals as well as their powerful choreographies, all while spinning an insanely dark fairy tale. After a short period of less than 3 months, the girls are back with their first mini-album "Fairy forest : Bravery" so without further ado, let's dive into their latest title track Let Me Know.
Meaning: PIXY is one of the few groups that craft a storyline with their title tracks, with Wings beginning the story by depicting the girls as 6 wingless pixies. On a side-note, Celtic mythology paints pixies as mischievous and prone to misleading travelers, making them different from the more benevolent fairies, although this distinction isn't made in PIXY's lore as both terms are used interchangeably. The pixies come across and take pair of wings, only to be plagued with nightmares about a witch who will curse them unless they return the wings before a red moon rises. In truth, Wings was actually somewhat of an uplifting song purely based off the lyrics and the girls kind of sing about sticking together and soaring as one.
Let Me Know inverts this story on its head, with the same witch luring the pixies into a forest and making them doubt one another. Since they no longer trust one another, it's easy for the witch to instructs the sextet to sacrifice one of their own, with the MV showing us that the girls end up sacrificing Dia. In short, Let Me Know expands on the dark picture painted by Wings by showing the girls falling into the temptation of evil. The lyrics do kind of portray Let Me Know as a love song about a boy, with lines like "you light a fire in my heart" or "I just wanna know everything about you... you keep burning me up" but this can also be likened to the girls being tempted by the witch's evil. If you want a better understanding of the full story, you do have to check out PIXY's World View videos, which do give us a closer look at the lore. This dark fairy tale spins a story of betrayal as the pixies desperately search for their wings and I'm sure the story will continue in the group's future comebacks.
MV: As a direct continuation, to the story presented in Wings, Let Me Know's MV has a good number of storyline shots on top of the usual dance sequences plus visual shots. Throughout the entire MV, there're some callbacks to Wings' MV, such as flashes to the red moon or the white feather-containing box that Dia found. Anyway, the events depicted in Let Me Know's MV take place directly after Dia's sacrifice, which we see in the very first shot as part of the choreography. We see Dia being lifted up by the other members, who support her using their legs as they behave like a set of wings, heavily insinuating how her sacrifice is meant to give them their wings. What you'll notice is that most of the MV's storyline shots involve the girls being tempted by the witch's machinations to commit evil acts in exchange for gaining wings.
For example, Sua's individual shot sees her admiring a solitary tree in a completely bare room, with her picking up a golden apple that has fallen from the tree. This is likely referencing the Biblical forbidden fruit, which is sometimes depicted as an apple, that God commanded mankind not to eat, only for Adam and Eve to be tempted by a serpent into eating the fruit, causing them to be be expelled from the Garden of Eden by God. This narrative can be summed by with the term "original sin" and in the case of Let Me Know's MV, we're seeing Sua tempted by the witch to pick up the golden apple. Interestingly enough, her individual shot here is meant to be in the same location as where she was in Wings, except in the previous MV she was in a dilapidated building with a barren tree, trapped by menacing thorny roots. The tree does end up catching fire, freeing Sua but somehow, her surroundings have come back to life, with the area becoming pristine white and the tree regaining its leaves.
Sua's not the only one being tempted as we see Lola admiring jewelry or Dia staring pensively at a necklace on the floor but the most important member is actually maknae Dajeong. In this comeback's World View, Dajeong's actually the one directly tempted by the witch to call for a sacrifice for the girls to get their wings, with Dia ultimately being the victim. In the MV, we see Dajeong surrounded by blue roses, which symbolise attaining the impossible since blue roses aren't naturally occurring flowers. After Dia's sacrifice, one of the blue roses in Dajeong's hand gets burnt, which could mean that she thinks gaining wings is now more possible or more obtainable than before. The last few shots in the MV have the girls dancing in front of and eventually running towards a burning set of wings (that's how we can see it at least) and this is clearly symbolic of how these pixies are so desperate to gain wings and be like the other pixies that they'll willingly run into fire. This is probably a trap planted by the witch, who is trying to destroy the pixies under the pretense of helping them, with Dia's sacrifice being completely meaningless.
The actual final shot of the MV is pretty intriguing too as we see a giant butterfly-like creature appearing materialising from a cloud of smoke in the same room that the girls were dancing in. What is this butterfly? I have no clue. There're a ton of theories about the entire story that PIXY are trying to tell but I won't get into all of it in this post. I've always found groups that do their own worldbuilding to be really interesting and I'm very much looking forward to seeing where the story goes from here.
On to the MV's more technical aspects, it was honestly super frustrating to watch at first because there were various set pieces that looked extremely familiar or similar to other group's MVs but I just couldn't put my finger on them, although I did figure out the answer for some of them. For example, Ella's solo shot has her in a beautiful garden with lots of bright pink and purple flowers, extremely reminiscent of a set piece from IZ*ONE's Violeta and Sua's individual shot very closely resembles the Tree of Language from DREAMCATCHER's Odd Eye. I also got similar vibes to TWICE's Feel Special from Lola's individual shot with all the sparkly jewelry hanging from the ceiling and throughout the MV, there're a number of other shots that reminded me of some of BLACKPINK's MVs as well as CLC's ME. The one that absolutely kills me is Dia's solo shot because out of everything I've seen, it looks the most familiar but yet I can't think of where I've seen something like this. If anyone has the answer please let me know I'm dying here.
Anyway, the set pieces are very well-crafted, especially considering how ALLART Entertainment is a small company. Compared to Wings, where you could tell that everything was shot in the same abandoned concrete building (which you might recognise from various dramas such as L.U.C.A.: The Beginning or Vincenzo) and the MV just looked a lot cheaper. Let Me Know is beautifully shot, with the dark and bright set pieces really contrasting with one another, playing into the story that the group is trying to tell. Utilising certain shots from Wings' MV was also a smart creative choice by the MV directors and is woven well into the MV's narrative, further reinforcing the universe that PIXY is building.
Styling: The girls aren't given too many outfits for this MV, with only two different styles for the dance sequences and then each member getting their own outfits for individual shots. Taking a look at the dance sequence outfits first, both are generally dark outfits (in line with PIXY's dark fantasy concept) with the main difference being that one of them incorporates quite a bit of purple along with sequins and other shiny bits. The purple outfits are actually really eye-catching and really break the monotony of the otherwise totally black clothing while at the same time still matching the overall dark concept. The purely black outfits on the other hand are quite plain, there's really nothing much to say there because they're very typical girl crush black clothing. They are however extremely reminiscent of one particular outfit worn in CLC's ME so interesting comparison there. The dance sequence outfits perfectly encapsulate "girl crush" without being unnecessarily revealing or sexy, allowing the girls to execute their powerful choreographies to the best of their abilities.
Now, what is far more interesting are the outfits worn by the members in their individual shots, not because there's a lot to see or whatever. Oh no, it's because these particular outfits are very important in allowing us to understand the story that the group is trying to tell. I didn't mention this in the previous segment but there're theories that the group's 6 members are split into good and evil. Ella, Satbyeol and Sua are meant to represent good, which is why their individual outfits (and sets) are far brighter and more feminine in a sense. Lola, Dia and Dajeong are decked out in black, signifying the dark path they're treading on, and this dichotomy is quite accurately represented by their styling choices, props to the styling team and the MV directors for putting this in effect.
Song: While both are classic examples of girl crush, Let Me Know is quite a bit different from debut title Wings. Wings was fairly slow, focusing on swelling up the song in the pre-chorus before exploding noisily with the shouty chorus and a ton of bass, making it not entirely my style but appealed to many listeners when combined with their powerful vocals. If anything, I might liken it a little bit to BLACKPINK's Kill This Love in terms of vibe. Let Me Know on the other hand is far faster, adopting a heavier EDM sound mixed with some elements of hip-hop. Personally, I think Let Me Know is a better song than Wings, partially because I find that it fits more into the typical K-Pop arrangement, with a pretty catchy hook in the chorus as well as a good mix of rap and normal lines.
In that same vein, Wings was fairly unique in the K-Pop scene, especially among girl group songs, whereas Let Me Know sounds a lot like many older K-Pop tracks, some of which I really enjoyed. First and foremost is CLC's ME, easily my favourite of their titles. You don't even have to listen too hard to figure out that both songs have very similar arrangements and utilise the same EDM/strong bass drop in the chorus. Both songs make use of a lot of percussion and are generally quite noisy while still maintaining a nice lyrical flow, which makes the experience all the more enjoyable. Another song I found similar (although slightly less) was K/DA's POP/STARS, especially in the second half of Let Me Know's chorus. It's pretty insane how similar both songs sound when you get to that part. I don't think it's a bad thing that Let Me Know fits into what I'd consider a very normal K-Pop mould, if anything it'll help to attract more listeners.
Line distribution: As a 6-member group you'd think PIXY would have a somewhat fair line distribution but oh no, things are so much worse in reality. PIXY doesn't really have fixed positions for their members, although some of them were introduced with specific roles at their debut showcase. While there're conflicting opinions about this, what's for certain is that leader Ella is undoubtedly the group's main vocal and you'd have to be a fool to think otherwise. Fun fact, she was the ex-leader and main vocal of Cherry Bullet, going under the stage name Mirae but she would end up leaving FNC Entertainment and now you're up to date. Anyway, it makes total sense for her to get the most lines as main vocal, that's not where the problem lies. The problem is that she has more than a third of the entire song to herself at 35%. I'm not here to deny that Ella's a good singer, she's undoubtedly PIXY's best vocalist but at the same time, some of her lines could've definitely gone to other members.
In 2nd place is Dia, who introduced herself as the group's main rapper despite having fewer rap lines than other members (more on this later), at 24.3%. I think that Dia can be considered the group's best performer and their ace, probably being their best dancer plus having pretty good rap skills and fairly strong vocals. Personally, Dia's rap in the second verse is one of my favourite parts of Let Me Know because the choreography there is absolutely insane but yet she spits such fire. To be completely honest, I actually think Dia should be considered lead vocal and maybe just a lead instead of main rapper but regardless, the facial expressions she puts on are absolutely awesome and perfectly fit the song's vibe, so putting her front and center in titles is expected.
It's a bit too early for me to say this but with their first two titles, PIXY is starting to become Ella, Dia and friends, although Wings' line distribution was slightly fairer than Let Me Know's. Seriously, when more than half the song is taken by only two members in anything bigger than a quartet, that's a big problem. I mean, 3rd place Satbyeol has less than half the lines that Dia got, only getting 11.8%, and Lola isn't far behind at 11%. I mentioned earlier that there're members who rap more than "main rapper" Dia and that's where we get to these two. Much like Ella, Satbyeol was formerly from another group (Girls' Alert) and was a lead vocalist there so it was a pretty big change to see her take on a rapping role in PIXY. As lead and sub-rapper respectively, Lola and Satbyeol actually take a majority of the rap lines, although the latter does return to her roots as a vocalist in Let Me Know. Even though they have very few lines, I do think it's fine because Lola does get a good portion of the chorus hooks plus a good amount of center time and Satbyeol also gets some of the more impactful lines in the song.
Now we get to the final two members, sub-vocals Dajeong and Sua, who have 9.7% and 8.2% respectively. This is actually quite a big drop for Dajeong, who was 3rd place in Wings (although she did get that long monologue at the start of that song) and like I said before, some of Ella and Dia's lines could've definitely gone to them. I can live with Lola and Satbyeol not getting more lines because they can stick to rap but come on, our vocalists are barely getting any lines. Sua could've very easily gotten Ella's lines in the second verse or half of her bridge lines, with Dajeong getting some of Dia's lines in the final chorus. Wings had a fairer line distribution than Let Me Know, although not by much, which proves that having a fair line distribution isn't that hard, especially in a group where the members are all pretty stable vocalists. The last thing we want to do is reach a gugudan or EVERGLOW situation, where only one or two members get a much larger portion of the lines than everyone else, and it'll be especially bad because PIXY comes from too small of a company where it's very easy for casual fans to not care about some of the members with fewer lines.
Final thoughts: Groups that focus heavily on lore or storylines with their songs and MVs aren't new to K-Pop but it's always interesting to have more. PIXY is carving out their path in the industry with their fairly unique concept and you can tell their fanbase is growing, with more and more WINXYs (fandom name) emerging. The storyline they're crafting is definitely something to look out for and with the group's stable vocals, I'm certain that once their line distribution becomes fairer, they'll become a force to be reckoned with in the 4th generation of K-Pop. Thanks for reading.
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