CRASH Plays 4 Times on Shinsegae's Giant Screen: Where Annie Was Once Unwelcome

The music video for CRASH played four times on Shinsegae Square, the three-basketball-court-sized media facade on the outer wall of Shinsegae Department Store's Myeongdong flagship, on the 28th. The artist on screen was Annie, stage name of Moon Seo-yoon. The owner of that building is Annie's mother.

That detail is what makes this week's release from All Day Project worth pausing on.

The family veto that almost held

All Day Project is a co-ed group under The Black Label, the YG-affiliated imprint led by producer Teddy. Annie is the eldest daughter of Jeong Yu-gyeong, Shinsegae Group chairwoman, and the granddaughter of Lee Myung-hee, Shinsegae Group's honorary chairwoman, one of the most prominent families in South Korean retail and luxury.

In a documentary released last year ahead of her debut, Annie described telling her mother for the first time that she wanted to become a singer. The response, as she recounted it, was essentially: absolutely not. When she raised it again years later with more seriousness, Jeong opposed it just as firmly the second time. The family's resistance, Annie said, was considerable.

What changed the equation was a negotiated condition. Jeong Yu-gyeong agreed to help bring other family members around, but only if Annie first gained admission to an Ivy League university. Annie enrolled at Columbia University in New York, majoring in art history and visual arts, and graduated this past May. The music career followed.

Debut, then CRASH

Annie debuted with All Day Project in June last year. The group's double title debut, FAMOUS and WICKED, charted strongly on Korean music platforms immediately after release, drawing attention both to the music and to the headline-ready story of a fourth-generation chaebol heir pursuing an idol career against her family's wishes.

The second EP, CRASH, was released on the 28th. Its title track music video is now running on Shinsegae Square through October 18th. The screen has previously featured content from BTS, G-Dragon, TXT, ILLIT, and global luxury brands, making it one of the more prominent media placements in central Seoul.

This is the first time All Day Project's work has appeared there. Notably, Shinsegae Department Store did not distribute a press release for this screening, something it has done for other artists in the past.

Annie is now, by any practical measure, a working musician with a Columbia degree, a second EP, and her group's video running on one of the busiest display screens in Myeongdong. The billboard that once belonged entirely to the mother's world now carries the daughter's image. Whether the irony was intentional or simply the natural outcome of two people who both got what they wanted is a fair question to sit with.