Taeyeon Serves A Summer Hit With "Why"

I was actually planning on not writing anything for Taeyeon's first comeback as a soloist because although I like her voice and her in general I'm not a huge fan and I don't really keep up with her various promotions, however I was quickly swayed over with "Why" and had to make at least a short post about it. After her first release last year with "I" and a mini album made up almost entirely of ballads I was actually quite surprised that she went for a house-inspired dance track this time around, but so far it's become one of my favorite songs of this summer.




Actually the first time I heard it I wasn't much into it at all, and that goes for both the song and video, but after listening to the song a couple of more times (and watching the dance performance MV, funnily enough) I've grown to like it a lot. One thing that's become clear the past two years with SM Entertainment is that they've slowly but steadily started to incorporate different genres of EDM into their artist's releases. I'd say it started last year with LDN Noise's productions both for SHINee and f(x), and now we've also seen it with Luna, various SM "Station" releases and now also Taeyeon. This song is vastly different from the rock inspired mid-tempo ballad "I" last year that I was a bit taken aback when I first heard it, and I suppose that was mostly what put me off about this comeback initially. Now when I'm used to it I really appreciate the electronica pop sound which I can tell draws many influences from various western releases within the same genre that have come out during the last few years. If I were to describe the song as anything I would definitely say it sounds like a contemporary western house track.




As for the actual music video I still quite don't get the context, because although I can tell it is connected to the pre-release MV for "Starlight" which she did with Dean I don't know exactly in what way they are related. For the most part this video is just a collection of shots and scenes showing Taeyeon living the dream life in California (or wherever else the video was filmed), and naturally the scenery and shooting locations are gorgeous and perfect for a summer video.

There really isn't much substantial content or a linear plot of any kind, but if you enjoy summer aesthetics and beautiful imagery (and Taeyeon's face, of course) than this is just the video for you. I do like it even though it's not perfect, and I like the way the "free" feeling of the lyrics are conveyed through the video's youthful and carefree spirit. Like I said however there are a couple of scenes where this video is linked to the other, but I don't really know how to make sense of them. Anyhow since the majority of the video is just stunning visuals and not much more those few confusing sequences it doesn't bother me that much anyway.

I don't think this comeback will be one of the more memorable SM comebacks this year and although the response has been good it hasn't been that great for Taeyeon standards, but that has more to do with this still quite unfamiliar genre of music that SM is trying to make mainstream. Personally for me I enjoy this song much more than "I" although I like both, and while I might like the video for the other a bit better this one is a good watch as well and Taeyeon herself looks healthy and happy. It is really a perfect song for summer, and although it isn't shown in the video the choreography for the song is actually really great (and I'm happy to see her dance). Taeyeon does seem to have figured out what she will do after SNSD eventually disbands and it's clear that doing music is certainly what she does the best.


MV: 3,6/5
Song: 4,25/5