Musical Monday – We Are All in Our Own World

This past week I lept into 2019 by finally subscribing to YouTube. I looked inwards and realized that watching the commercials was making me angrier than I needed to be in this world of chaos and stress. Putting in the however many bucks a month required is basically like me going to therapy, and I’m worth it, damnit. 

Honestly, though, this week in YouTube content has been a thrill with so many great comebacks, new episodes of Going Seventeen and Nu’est’s [L.O.Λ.E STORY: INSIDE OUT], cover songs, and other great variety. Being largely ad-free is…well, freeing. One of the things I had been looking forward to since the teasers started is the mini docu-series Welcome to My Baverse. Billed as a “brain digging” documentary, the series is meant to explore and restore the world view held by three recording Kpop artists – Woodz, I.M (Monsta X), and Su Min. 

This week, we saw the first episode with Woodz. The show included a look into the artist’s background and the trajectory of his career including his own telling and insight into his mental health and how that informed some of his music. The artist then sat silently across the room from both people meaningful in his life as well as people who represent figures from his past. It was incredibly intense and emotional. Woodz is and always has been someone I admire, but this new type of exposure was humanizing in a way that not even the glimpses into his home life and work like reality TV shows.  

Welcome to My Baverse, Woodz

As a companion to this release, we were gifted additional behind-the-scenes footage around the interactions between Woodz and Kino (Pentagon) and Seung Woo (Victon), both of whom are very close friends. Each of the two shares unique and interesting histories with our hero – one a friend since high school with all of the history in the world and one with whom he has shared big dreams and dashed hopes. Let’s just say, tears. 

Baverse Behind the Scenes

And finally, because he IS a recording artist, after all, Woodz released the song Lullaby, as a real-time, interactive video where the graphics react to his voice and movement. Let’s just say, nary a year has gone by since his debut as a solo artist that Woodz hasn’t appeared on my top 50 list and this year I fear I may have to break my own rules and include oh so many of his recent releases. 

Lullaby, Woodz