Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
While “INVU” was at least a solid addition to Taeyeon‘s discography, the song was outpaced by its music video, which even at the surface level was a gorgeous work of art. The sets are beautiful and appropriately ethereal for the theme, while Taeyeon herself looks amazing.
But what elevates the music video to something worth paying more attention to is the cohesive narrative behind all the beauty. Describing it as a god/goddesses theme as I’ve been seeing seems to sell the music video short, as it specifically takes a Greek myth of Artemis and Orion and artistically applies it to “INVU”.
Long story short, Orion is basically a super hot hunter Giant and Artemis is a Greek goddess of hunting/chastity/the Moon, and usually the story goes that the two somehow fall in love and Orion dies, but she preserves him in the stars as a constellation.
If you’ve already seen the music video, the connection seems rather obvious, with Taeyeon playing the role of Artemis, as evidenced by the bow and the Moon references, and based on the sets she seems to be on Olympus.
There are many versions of the myth, but the one most likely applicable to “INVU” is the forbidden love angle where she cannot truly be with him due to her status as a virgin goddess. The pre-chorus seems to make this the most likely fit, with lyrics like “so I can’t love you, even though I do, even if I push you away, I can’t beat you, even I abandon myself, and lose myself more, the irony is that you shine more“.
The ending of the pre-chorus actually fits in nicely with the myth, with him now being a constellation and watching over us all. That’s nicely represented in the music video as well, by Taeyeon holding presumably Orion’s heart and releasing it into the sky.
The arrows going back and forth don’t make sense in terms of them fighting, but more either as a representation of their mutual hunting from the myth or a metaphor for their love, where they can never be together but exchange feelings. Or maybe it’s both.
Essentially then it’s a story about Artemis being cursed with a doomed relationship, hurt by a love that can never be attained, but she still loves to the end and resents that the lover has moved on, with that pain being expressed in the mix of somber and aggressive tones of the video.
It’s not exactly a perfect match between the song’s themes and myth as envy isn’t that prevalent — unless you want to go dark and imply the envy is that Orion is free from the mortal coil — but this came off as more of a modern interpretation of the myth, and it ends up being as thought provoking as it is beautiful.
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“INVU” is what a music video should be as a companion for the song, enhancing the viewer’s experience and drawing people into the soundscape, enforcing/conveying the music’s thematic content. Listening to the song alone, I wasn’t as enthralled as many were, but paired together with the music video it’s hard to not be drawn into the world and feel connected.
