A look into Dreamcatcher’s dystopia trilogy
In 2020, Dreamcatcher released their first full album and kick started their Dystopia series; The Tree of Language, Lose Myself, and Road to Utopia.
The trilogy follows the corruption of the Tree of Language from people spearding hateful and hurtful speech. With the use of technology and time leaps as motifs in their story telling.
The girls work to fight against the hate and to bring back the Tree and create a Utopia, but -spoiler alert- fail to do so in the end.
The tree of language: Scream.
Scream as a song holds a special place in my heart, being the first song of Dreamcatcher that i listened to. Scream as a song, lyrically and through the MV, portrays a lot of symbolism.
So, let’s get to it!
In the MV, we are introduced to beautiful scenery. A white trunk tree, its leaves green, a blue sky, and chirping birds.
But then, the words “One day, suddenly, the light didn’t come. People forgot how to say good things” appears on the screen right before the almost fairytale-like scene changes. The tree turns dark, the leaves and sky purple, and the chirping birds are replaced by a howling wolf. We are introduced to a new horror, all because people forgot how to say good things. In the absence of that goodness, the tree of language now only breeds dark fruit (hateful words).
And the world, which was once a utopia, became a dystopia, and chaos erupted everywhere.
Lyrically, Dreamcatcher sings about being targeted for no reason, about being judged by gazes, and about stones being thrown at them. The girls say they are unfazed by all of that, but it is clear that they are not.
Toward the end of the song, the phrase ‘please, I don’t want to scream’ switches to I just want to make you scream, an indication that the girls are gearing toward fighting.
Scream shows us the importance of language and the awareness of hate speech.
Lose myself: Boca.
Let’s continue the journey.
While ‘Scream’ took place in an almost medieval setting, ‘Boca’ takes place in modern day, with cell phones and urban streets.
Boca, as a song, tackles themes such as cyber bullying, fake comments on social media, and hatespeech.
The first scene recaps the ending of Scream and introduces us to “Dystopia” , which by definition is a place that is undesirable and frightening.
Through the mv, we keep going from that dark red alleyway to that beautiful garden, almost symbolizing that the girls have been on both sides; the good and the bad, heaven and hell.
Lyrically, the song focuses more on the impact of words and the importance of silence. This is especially because Boca means mouth. With mention of getting hurt without a blade, talking about being used to that, hiding behind phones and anonymous personas facilitated by the Internet.
There is also a reference to a lot of suicides of kpop idols and Korean actors in the line “Why do you fill your precious time with hate? Too many angels are dying now. I’m gonna change your mind”.
Here, the girls literally tell the haters to go and shut their mouths (Boca) in the lyrics.
Boca as a song, and the second part of the trilogy shows us how words are sometimes stronger than weapons, the virtue of silence and how self-reflection is a much needed skill to master.
Road to Utopia: Odd Eye.
And now onto the final act.
For the mv, we are now going full-on cyberpunk, with glowing neon wires and computerized distortions. The masks — symbolizing the alternate identities enabled by the Internet- have become more sophisticated than what we started with.
Odd Eye, in comparison to the other songs of the trilogy, talks about how the media — represented on the mv by phones, TV and computers- is selling us fake comfort — represented by the mask chair- .
According to the lyrics, it is a sorrow covered by light. A perfect illusion covering reality.
Here, Dreamcatcher are asking us to use our Odd Eye, a secret hidden eye that sees beyond the illusion and lies. Telling us to not be fooled by “plausible lies overshadowed by sweetness”. They warn us that even hope may lead to despair in the end.
In the mv, we see how we are literally hurting ourselves, like in how Gahyeon is reaching into the computer just to end up in flames, or in how Handong has her neck in her own hands.
Odd Eye, as a song explains that the girls were lying to themselves with false hope they gained from Boca, where they had hope, in fighting negativity and stopping people from giving to it, but in reality that’s not possible. You can’t control people.
Most of the lyrics emphasise how they tricked themselves with lies and ideal dreams. But after a while, they realized that. There is no more utopia.
The main message of Odd Eye is to stop chasing this utopia because it doesn’t exist. Utopia is not something we should search for but is something we must make ourselves.
