CORTIS’s debut single What You Want doesn’t play it safe. It’s not the slick, polished K-pop rollout you’d expect from a BigHit act. Instead, the music video throws us into a bizarre desert road trip where everything goes wrong. The car breaks down. A strange man offers snacks that look more cursed than edible. Then, casually, one of the members gets devoured by a giant insect.
The question practically writes itself: what on earth is this supposed to mean?
Nonsense or Narrative?
At first glance, the MV feels absurd for absurdity’s sake. If you take a step back, the pieces start to click into place.
The broken-down car is a symbol of leaving the expected path behind. The strange snack? A surreal take on how the world offers up “solutions” that don’t actually nourish us. The bug swallowing a member whole? That’s the crushing weight of expectation, or the entertainment industry eating its young alive.
It’s messy, grotesque, and funny all at once. Exactly the kind of boundary-breaking you’d expect from a group whose name literally comes from “Color Outside the Lines.”
Why Surrealism Feels Like “Nonsense”
CORTIS isn’t trying to give us a linear story. They’re creating a mood. Surrealism thrives on confusion, on moments that feel too absurd to make sense. By dropping us into a world where nothing works the way it should, the MV reflects the disorienting experience of being young.
This is less about watching a story unfold and more about being invited to walk through the chaos with them.
Expecting Perfection
Let’s not forget that most of the members of CORTIS are kids. Literally, their ages range from 15 to 20. Expecting every single project they make to be as perfect as older, more experienced idols is unfair. They have a long runway ahead of them, with years of growth and experimentation still to come.
K-pop debuts often present idols as finished products. But CORTIS makes it clear they’re not polished marble statues. They’re clay still being shaped. That’s exactly what makes this debut fascinating. We’re watching them stumble, reach, and test the limits of their own creativity in real time.
What You Want is not a “bad” music video. It’s different from what we typically expect from rookie idols making their debut. CORTIS aren’t here to be perfect or to live up to haters’ expectations. They’re showing us who they are right now. Bold, reckless, and unafraid to throw giant bugs at the screen if it helps get their point across. If that makes some people uncomfortable, that’s a good thing. That means they’re doing something right.
