2PM - My House: A Fairy Tale Mash-Up (KpopXBooks #5)

Hello, everyone! This week, we are back with another instalment of KpopXBooks. It's already the fifth post of the series and I have to admit that it has become one of my favourites. As a Kpop fan and a bookworm, it's always great to find the opportunity to combine them.

The previous instalments, like The Fairy Tales of IU, The Bookish Concepts of SHINee, and VIXX: The Book Concept Kings required a lot of research. However, this week I'm trying a different take on the series. In the fifth instalment of KpopXBooks, we are going to explore the concept of a single music video.

For this post, I had a few contenders. But I decided to go with 2PM's "My House". It's a song that I really like, and it's (almost) considered a classic in the Kpop community. The concept of "My House" is fairy tales. Some imagery (which will see in more detail later) refers to specific and well-known fairy tales. Moreover, other imagery reveals a fairy tale origin, even though I couldn't trace a specific one. Some examples are the castle, the goat's head, and the crests shown on the walls.

Before we start talking specifics, let's take a look at the MV of "My House" by 2PM.

Cinderella

Surprise, surprise! The music video begins with the clock striking 12 and our protagonist trying to run away from a posh ball. From all the fairy tales referenced on the MV, I believe that Cinderella and another one (I won't reveal it now though) are the main inspirations. The Cinderella reference becomes even more obvious at the ending of the video, where the protagonist takes off one of her shoes and throws it at the staircase. I like this more modern twist of the fairy tale, which is not the only one I have spotted in the music video! 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a favourite book for the Kpop art production teams. We've already seen a handful of MVs inspired by it, both by IU and SHINee. Furthermore, I have many other videos in mind, and one of the future instalments will be dedicated to this concept. The Alice in Wonderland imagery in "My House" is just the protagonist running through a long corridor and encountering this cute rabbit. 

Red Riding Hood

In the same corridor that the protagonist encounters the rabbit, she then meets a wolf. It could be Red Riding Hood or any other shapeshifter wolf. However, since we are talking about fairy tales, I thought that Red Riding Hood is the appropriate choice.

Snow White

Snow White is much clearer to spot in the music video. First of all, we get to see the apple (what else could it reference?). If it was this imagery alone, I would be hesitant to call it. However, we do get another one: one of our handsome princes/monsters is giving the apple to the protagonist, which she accepts. 

Beauty and the Beast

This is the second fairy tale hat I believe inspired this MV, even more than Cinderella. This visual is taken straight from the Disney movie. You can even see the fur in the back of the chair. As if this wasn't enough, we get more pointers that Beauty and the Beast is our main fairy tale.

The next Beauty and the Beast imagery couldn't be any clearer. The protagonist tries to leave and the beast grabs her and leads her back to the castle. While we get a closeup of the hands, we see that the prince's hand has turned into that of the Beast. Once more, the imagery reminds of the Disney movie.

Lastly, we get this shot. In my research, I've read that this might be Romeo and Juliet and even Rapunzel. If this were the case, the roles are reversed from the originals and I really like it! However, for me, this is just imagery from Beauty and the Beast. The red roses are huge in this fairy tale, just as the balcony is shown numerous times in the movie. 

This was it for today! Did you get any other fairy tale imagery in 2PM's "My House"?

Stay tuned for more KpopXBook lists!