Recently, the October 19 episode of Korean music show “Music Core” revealed its winner to be aespa’s Karina for her solo song “UP”, while AB6IX’s “NVKED” and QWER’s “My Name is Malguem” was nominated in the top 3.
However, according to previous predictions, it was BLACKPINK’s Jennie’s “Mantra” which was supposed to be in the Top 3 nominations instead of AB6IX’s “NVKED”.
This difference is suspected to be due to Jennie’s “Mantra” MV being banned by “Music Core”’s broadcasting station, MBC, leading to Jennie having no SNS scores and dropping to No.4. Additionally, AB6IX supposedly has high enough broadcast points to surpass Jennie.
Regarding the reason Jennie’s “Mantra” MV being banned, it is alleged that her MV used the explicit version of the song, not the clean version, which changed the word “ass” in the lyrics to “bass”.
Hearing about this, many netizens were angered, pointing out that despite having even more explicit lyrics, AB6IX’s “NVKED” was not banned, allowing the boy group to be nominated. The song is known to include sexual innuendos such as “naked baby” and “getting funky”, while the MV shows the members drinking alcohol and showing off the word “naked” uncensored.
As a result, some suspected that MBC is being misogynistic, seeing that a female artist will be banned because of the word “ass”, while “male artists get away with everything”.
Below are some comments from netizens, who clearly express their frustrations:
- Jennie gets banned from a music show cause her lyrics are too “explicit” whilst this other song by a random bg (boy group) gets pushed to top 3 in the nominations… Korea never beating those (misogynistic) allegations
- Jennie was right all along, they really didn’t plan for women to woman up, cuz wdym a song that sings about being naked is allowed, but a song that uplifts women gets banned? misogyny is alive and well in kpop, as always
- Jennie released a song about self-love for pretty girls then there’s MBC banning her mv for being ‘too explicit’ while the other bg sings a song about being naked. MBC fraud and misogynist
- The double standards of this show lmao
- Korean men can sing about an approach to women and get promoted but a woman can’t make music for women
At the same time, some defended AB6IX, stating that the song’s meaning is not actually explicit like other claims. They also express doubts that Jennie’s “Mantra” was banned due to the word “ass”, as in the past, (G)I-DLE’s “Nxde” was able to win on Music Core despite including the word “Nude”.
On the other hand, Korea indeed has a history of banning “sexually provocative” lyrics, even when not explicit, as shown in the case of (G)I-DLE’s “Wife” in the past, while BLACKPINK’s “Kill This Love” was banned for an even more absurd reason.
Source: X
