Music videos of all genres tend to follow trends from topics to camera tricks, and if you follow the world of K-Pop, you will notice something really cool… there’s a love of forensic science. Well, at least in some of their videos.
I mentioned a few times that my oldest is currently majoring in forensic biology, and as such she really notices when some of her favorite performers pay homage to the craft of forensics and crime-solving in general.
K-Pop stars also love to be on the “other side of the law” with a good amount of heist videos out there, but that’s a whole different category.
This was even prominent in their annual Seasons Greetings marketing when groups like ATEEZ ran with a definitive crime scene motif. Who stole “ATINY’s Heart”? All eight members are suspects:
One K-Pop idol took his appreciation for the science to another level last year. BTS leader RM (Kim Namjoon) made a sizable donation of 100 million Korean won (about $72,000 at the time) to the Korean Society of Forensic Science. RM has always donated to causes he feels are worthy each year around his birthday, and last year he made the donation specifying it needed to be used for education to train more in the field.
RM was co-host of the Korean talk show Dictionary of Useless Human Knowledge with forensic scientist Lee Ho when he started to become fascinated with the field. When he learned the demand for this profession far outweighed the number of people in the field, he wanted to do something to remedy that.
“I’ve heard the process of becoming a forensic scientist is extremely difficult,” RM said in an article via the Korean language website Daum News. “I sincerely respect those who walk the path of forensic sciences and sympathize with those who have a sense of duty with the field and its importance. I hope this will be of a little aid and support to the training of forensic scientists and the development of it.”
Good for you, sir!
Of course, there are also some fun (and, admittedly, much less scientifically accurate) showings of the love of forensic science and crime0-solving in general in the medium of K-Pop music videos.
One of the latest is from TEN of the group WayV, in conjunction with his first solo and self-titled mini album. In his single “Nightwalker” we get a dedicated forensic scientist who might have learned just a little too much in the search for a missing biologist:
Interestingly enough, WayV is a subunit of the NCT, and not long after TEN released his video, Taeyoung of NCT 127 and NCT U released “Searching for TY” for his 2nd mini-album TAP, coming out near the end of this month. You can see his character as a bit more obsessed with the mystery, and straying a bit from a conventional lab.
The detective vibe has been around for some time in K-Pop, and girl group Hello Venus gave us a Barbie-meets-Agatha-Christie-feeling video on the train, with guest appearances by K-Pop idols and actors Seo Kanjoon and Cha Eunwoo. The group broke up a couple of years later, likely because they never really solved this train mystery. Still, it shows some looks at fingerprinting methods and other nifty tech.
Finally, I’ll go back even further to one of my own favorite groups, SHINee, with their song “Sherlock (Clue + Note).” This video is much more of a Scooby Doo-like mystery than it is based on any Sherlock Holmes story. They even have a pup companion in tow. Still, they do some fun old-fashioned style sleuthing.
I could easily veer off into the many crime-solving-adjacent videos K-Pop groups love to depict, from James Bond and spy stories to old-timey gothic ghost tales, but, for now, these will do.
While many people look up to pop stars from all over the world, it is nice to see the people these K-Pop idols are celebrating are the scientists and detectives behind the crime-solving. Not every K-Pop lover can go on to be a performer, but maybe these videos (as well as the words of RM) will encourage others to pursue the forensic sciences.
I do recommend checking all these videos out, if for no other reason than for fun. It would be a crime to miss them.
