The Meaning Behind Maison, sung by K-Pop Group, Dreamcatcher
By Samuel Liang | He/him/his | Buddhist Church of Stockton
Sea levels are rising in the southeastern U.S. and air pollution threatens Thailand’s tourism industry. Now, a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change just gave us another reminder of the looming threat of climate change. The message is crystal clear: ACTION must be taken NOW. Not tomorrow, not next week, not next month, not next year, and certainly not by the end of the next decade. NOW. Climate change is now the biggest health crisis of our time, bigger than COVID. An example of this is air pollution, which has been linked to an increase of chronic health conditions such as lung cancer and other respiratory diseases, which went up 160% over the past 30 years.
There’s a K-Pop song that has a hidden meaning about environmental issues (more so a dystopian reality). And it’s not your typical K-Pop song like music you’ve heard from BTS or BLACKPINK. This song is called “MAISON,” sung and performed by Dreamcatcher.
MAISON, from French to English, means “Home.” The song may not be easy to understand by itself; however, it does match with what happens in the music video. The music video starts off with an immediate showcase of what appears to be a futuristic dystopia, showcasing an abandoned city. The visuals are similar to any post-apocalyptic film that you can think of. But you’ll also see the members of the group as Greek goddesses, signaling that they are the saviors in the post-apocalyptic world.
As stated in the lyrics (chorus):
Save my home in the jungle
Save my home in the polar
Protect my home
Please someone fight for us
Save my home in the ocean
Save my home in the desert
Protect my home
Please someone fight for us
The lyrics of the song highlight what the state of the world has become and just how ugly it truly is, and it’s up to the listener to decide if it’s a metaphor for society or if it’s directly discussing the decline of Earth itself.
Now in our reality, our dystopia may not look like a post-apocalyptic world (yet), but it is undeniable that plastic fills our world's oceans, fossil fuels choke our atmosphere, the polar ice caps are melting, wildfires are burning our ecosystems, and there is an ongoing war in Ukraine. And we the people are the saviors. It’s up to us to continue advocating for climate change; to protect OUR homes, we have to fight for all of us. We have to protect our “MAISON.” And if we don’t, we probably won’t live long enough to see what we have done to our home. Overall, "MAISON" depicts a very realistic scenario, while also being able to hide very specific layers behind it. The idea of climate change, and its relationship with human society, is so broad, that there are probably multiple combinations of how it may ultimately cause the destruction of Mother Earth.
