"Love Dive" by IVE (아이브), Sunday, January 29, 2023

 

The two biggest upcoming Korean girl groups these days are NewJeans and IVE. The two groups follow in a long line of girl K-pop traditions following a reign of male K-pop bands. Of course there's BLACKPINK who is headlining a night at Coachella later this year. G(i)dle and Twice are still making music. But the omnipresence of NewJeans' "Ditto" and IVE's "Love Dive" on Instagram, in the Korean grocery stores, cafes,  clubs and bars in Korea, K-pop clubs in WEHO--practically everywhere. 

I'M REALLY CURIOUS ABOUT YOU.  "Love Dive" has the musical a bas for an electric dance track--a marching beat, musical change ups between verse, bridge, and chorus creating multiple hooks, with sound waves expanding and diffracting at key moments to keep listeners interested. In addition to the song itself, the school girl uniforms  the members of IVE wear  in a few of the scenes are reminiscent of Britney Spears' classic "...Baby One More Time." The effects in the video further the expensive videos of electro teen pop in the '00s, with IVE flying on a fantastical birdlike aircraft. All the while video stays grounded with the dance sequences taking place in what looks like a mansion fit for cupid--the girls even donning heart arrows at one point before the first chorus.  Lyrically the song draws upon the myth of Narcissus, a man who loved his own image so much that when he looked upon himself in a pool of water he falls in and drowns. The comparison between this song and the myth, though, falls flat as the word narcissist apparently besets the meaning of the song. The lyrics seem to not deal with narcissism, but rather falling in love with someone else so much that the speaker must dive into it.

IT'S SO BAD, IT'S GOOD. Diving in head-first to a relationship can be scary. You don't know the other person and ultimately, in most cases, you will have more love for yourself than the attraction for the other person will allow you to commit to them. Your first relationship is with you, the narcissist, if we're going to make sense of this song. But ultimately, you have to put aside that self-love in a chance that you will fall in love and it will be reciprocated. It's a love dive. It's a leap of faith. It's risky and sometimes you dive into the wrong pool. But if you wade in, you'll feel cold and leave the pool. That's why we dive in. As I've been having many insightful conversations about my past as I've been home in North Carolina, I've realized that I jumped into the wrong pool in my past. But it wasn't love; it was religion. It felt cold when I stuck my toe in high school. But something told me that if I just dove in, everything would make sense and it would become true for me. But I had dove into the wrong pool and I was not happy.  

Lyric video:
Music video:

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