Korean Fans Think NewJeans’ Music Video For “Ditto” Is All About The Relationship Between Idols And Fans
NewJeans‘ “Ditto” has been receiving lots of love. It topped the charts instantly after being launched. There have been many interpretations of the music video. Some think that it is about growing out of a friendship, but Korean fans have deduced that it explains the relationship between idols and fans. A community post on a minor DC Gallery theorizes that it tells the tale of how a fan grows up and may fall out of the fandom.
The story has to be pieced together from both the side A and B versions of the music video, but once you figure it out, it matches up perfectly. One huge hint is the name of the semi-faceless 6th member of the friend group that interacts with the five members of NewJeans. In the music video, the character is named Ban Hee Su, which Koreans think is based on NewJeans’ fandom name, Bunnies. The 6th girl is always taking a video of her friends rather than joining in their dancing. This is just like how fans always take photos and videos of their idols who thrive performing.
The girl looks on with a proud smile.
Conversely, just like how idols can provide happiness and strength to their fans, the NewJeans girls also cheer on the 6th girl when she is hurt.
Although the 6th girl has an umbrella on a rainy day, she closes it and chooses to walk in the rain with the other girls. Fans also always try to shoulder the pains of their idols and walk down any road with them.
But her attention is suddenly captured by something else. For the first time, she turns the camera and her gaze away from the girls.
Just like her, fans may also face other events in life that distract them from their identity as a fan. It can be a real-life romance or something else entirely.
Sometimes, as fans, one can feel the harsh criticism or judging gaze of others. To others, idols are just something that is intangible and fantastical. The music video shows that the girls of NewJeans may potentially just be a figment of the 6th girl’s imagination. Everyone in class stares at her weirdly as she films thin air.
Sometimes, there will be pains and events in your life that your idols may not be able to help you with, or give you strength for. The scene where the 6th girl walks into the rain alone, despite the umbrella in hand, parallels the earlier scene where she skips in the rain with her friends.
She begins to ignore the girls, rejecting a call from Minji, wallowing in the corner of her room instead.
She also walks away from the girls, leaving alone under her umbrella. When fans begin to pull away from the fandom, they will find ways to stand independently. She is also seen walking with the guy from earlier as the camera falls to the ground and breaks. She chooses reality over idols.
Finally, the girl returns home in the last scene. She looks all grown up, with her hair curled and in a mature outfit. She puts a video tape into the monitor, and just like magic, the NewJeans girls remain as youthful and bright as ever on screen. She is the only one that seems to have grown up.
While fans grow up and out of the fandom, they can always return to their memories of the idols they loved. If they choose to revisit the past, their idols will forever be as glittering in videos or on screen.
This is a story that all fans can relate to, especially those growing up. No matter what, your love for your idols will forever remain a happy memory that no one can take from you.
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