Category: Kpop

BTS Billboard Takeover

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I know this is basically a week overdue that’s partially why I debated on if  I should continue and finish it as I originally planned. Now, this is kind of old news, but this is history we’re talking about. (Plus, my excuse for why this post is late is that I’ve been watching my thirteen-months-old nephew for basically the entire month of May while his parents were out of the country. Single mothers out there I commend you because it was a struggle and you all truly impress me) Regardless of excuses, we have to discuss history.

Sunday, 21 of May, the month-long social media whirlwind surrounding the Billboard Music Awards: Top Social Artist came to a conclusion.  A.R.M.Ys (members of BTS’ fandom) and other fans of the Kpop community worked together to secure BTS’ victory with a record-breaking total of over 300 million votes. This was not only record-breaking for Kpop, considering that BTS was the first artist in the Kpop genre to be nominated and also to win this specific BBMA (if any), but also record-breaking for the BBMAs in general.

The Voting

Now,  I have been heavily invested in voting for BTS as well as monitoring the voting situation myself and I can promise that just when I thought it was getting boring, something would happen to spark up interest again. There is never a dull moment in the world of Kpop especially, as an American stanning Kpop (people just think you’re crazy. Granted… it can seem that way, but I prefer to say that Kpop fans are just extremely dedicated.) Thanks to the dedication of ARMYs and other Kpop fandoms, who wanted to see the recognition of Kpop, BTS was invited to attend the BBMAs and then ultimately took the award home with them back to South Korea.

The Determination

It was through the determination of fans that BTS was invited to the BBMAs. I would consider myself to be an ARMY (I have other groups I really like too. I may make a post about that later), but even I started to feel a little overwhelmed by the sheer force of presence that ARMYs and a few non-ARMYs (I know there were other imagesKpop fandoms who pitched in to help see Kpop succeed. I’ve been on those aminos.) had across Twitter. I was also very impressed and proud to see what unity among the fandoms could do. Such as, break servers and leave a clear gap between first and second place. Three-hundred million votes are completely insane to even comprehend. Every person who voted could vote up to two-hundred times (100 on Twitter and an addition 100 on the BBMAs’ website) 300,000,000/200 is still 1,500,000. If we divide that number by the twenty-one days that BBMA voting was open, 1,500,000/21 we end up with 74,428.571 that means at least seventy-four thousand four hundred and twenty-nine people voted every day. Bear in mind not everyone is going to do the max amount of voting every single day (I know there were days I forgot because after dealing with my nephew all day I just wanted to go to bed most nights) so there were probably a lot more people who voted for BTS during the BBMAs. If that doesn’t blow your mind, I don’t know what does.

Leaving a Mark

BTS arrived in Las Vegas for the BBMAs on May 19, and just as anyone who has fallen into the black hole that is Kpop and its fandoms know, they left their mark on the people they met. Laura Marano (also known as Aly from the Disney Channel show Austin and Aly) learned some of the boys’ choreography (where she was dubbed the eighth member of BTS) and later interviewed them on the magenta carpet. In a short youtube video, Marano shares her experience (which may have involved her accidentally hitting one of them) and her overall opinion of the members. bts-jadi-sorotan-dunia-di-bbma-2017Kim Seok Jin reminded all of us why he is the visual of the group as he traded in the title ‘car door guy’ for ‘the third one from the left’; in fact, it drew so much attention that ‘the third one from the left was even brought up during interviews that BTS had following the BBMAs. “The third one from the left took over Twitter (and you better believe some ARMYs had fun with that). And of course, BTS met a lot of other artists, but it really seemed like The Chain Smokers and Halsey got to be real close with BTS during the short time span. Halsey even bought them churros and BTS gave her some authentic Korean snacks. The Chainsmokers may have formed the closest bond with the boys (though this is just speculation) the group took some very cute, goofy pictures,  the Chain smokers both followed BTS and tweeted hints about a possible collab (maybe as early as this summer), they tweeted their congratulations to BTS on winning Top Social Artist, and even the Billboards official Twitter noted how BTS seemed to form a friendship with both the Chain smokers and Halsey.

However, BTS’ phot-up with America (and some worldwide) artists and personalities didn’t stop with Halsey and the Chainsmokers. Camila Cabello, Steve Aoki, internet personality Logan Paul,  radio presenters Liam McEwan, Dean McCarthy,  actor/producer Aj Gibson, host/producer Cassie DiLaura, and the Dick Clark Parent Company  President Mike Mahan can all be added alongside Laura Marano, Halsey, and the Chainsmokers as people BTS spent time rubbing elbows with at the BBMAs.

Camila Cabello
Steve Aoki
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Liam McEwan
Dean McCarthy
AJ Gibson
Cassie Dilaura
Mike Mahan
Laura Marano
Halsey
The Chainsmokers

Tension

Considering the fact that BTS beat out names like Justin Bieber (who has won top social artist every year since 2011), Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, and Shawn Mendez, there were a lot of spectators who weren’t too pleasedbtsbbma1_LI with the results. Many people upset that their favorite artists had been beaten by ‘newbie, no-name foreigners’ and some were upset that the Kpop fandom had taken over Twitter on Sunday. Since I’m home from university for the summer, my mother the unfortunate soul who got to overhear my opinion on the subject. I find it funny that to these people who are complaining thought that just because this was their first time ever hearing aboutscreen-shot-2017-05-22-at-3-06-22-pm_li.jpg BTS thought that they were brand new to the music scene. I believe my exact words in my fit of rage was, “some people get so offended about a situation without educating themselves on any details.” Firstly, BTS officially debut June 13, 2013, and because this is Kpop that the members we in training prior to that from a period between one and three years. that also means that they have had a music career longer than Halsey (2014), Charlie Puth (2015), Sam Hunt (2014), and Fifth Harmony (2015), and they officiallymaxresdefault_LI debuted around the same time as Travis Scott (2013) and Lorde (2013). Next month BTS celebrates it’s four-year anniversary since it’s debut so I wouldn’t say that they are no-name newbies who came out of nowhere unless you want to say that about all these other artists. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how upset these other people were about their favorite artist winning or not, what actually matters is that BTS won Top Social Artist ‘fair and square’. And, the fact that some of these people feel the need to call out racial slurs or just be plain petty aboutimage-20_li.jpg the situation is uncalled for and pitiful. Am I happy BTS won, yes. Would I have been sad if they had lost, yes; however, I would not have started criticizing whoever won and I would have been just as happy if another Kpop group had been nominated and won the BBMA. I also would have thought that is was just as uncalled for if ARMY started criticizing the fact that Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendez are both Canadian, that Selena Gomez’s father is Mexican, and that Arian Grande is part Italian… the BBMAs is a worldwide award show so every artist in every genre has a chance to be nominated and win.

*My favorite video of someone responding to people’s comments about BTS’s win*

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Killer Choreography

If someone types ‘difficult choreography into the Google search bar, most of the results are going to have Kpop in the name as shown below. I even had my roommate, who has a deep personal hatred towards Kpop ever since her brother came back from Korea and would force her to listen to it, to double check my search results to make sure that they were not biased. They were not. (Here are screen shots of the results below.)

One thing that it seems any Kpopper can get a nonKpopper to admit is that Kpop has some noteworthy dance moves. Some may argue that it’s the difficult and unique choreography that has been aiding in the steady increase of views of Kpop music videos over recent years.  When Kpop was first starting to develop, many routines were heavily based on traditional dances or didn’t include any choreography at all. However, in the early to mid-1990’s, the influence of western music and dance began to flood Korea and the choreography of Kpop began to morph into the art form it is today.And funnily enough, western music doesn’t really include dancing the way it did back in the early to mid-1990’s (the entire era that influenced Korean choreography). Three main styles of dance make up the core of the Kpop choreography world; B-Boying, Freestyle, and Hip-Hop.

It may be called B-boying in Korea but break dancing originated in the Bronx, NY in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.maxresdefault B-boying became a staple in the U.S. choreography industry and influenced more modern modes of dance, such as hip-hop. It consists of the top or up rock, footwork, spinning moves (power moves), and freeze.  A prime example of a Kpop group that is probably known for using B-boying the most, is JYP’s Got7 who combine B-boy with martial arts to add flair, appeal, and uniqueness to their choreography.

Freestyle originated from the early days of disco in the 1970s on street corners and public places where dancers would show off their improvisational skills.

Some performances are choreographed or partially choreographed, but improvisation is the main force behind freestyle and many people prefer the freedom of Freestyle dancing to other conventional types of dancing.
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95ae75135d24fec867c0989ddc6a68c3The roots of Hip Hop were informal and group-based, but today the art form has become so popular that audience cultures informal performance venues started developing during the 1990s. Popular hip hop dancers can not only ‘rock a club scene, but they can also mesmerize an audience of dance experts or wow national television audiences.

So, the real question remains… what Kpop group or Idol has the most difficult choreography? There is no unbiased source for this information so I watched thirteen very different countdown videos for most difficult Kpop choreography with over 237 choreographies in all thirteen videos. And because no list is ideal, some videos were male groups, some were female groups, some dated back to a few years ago and some dated back to as recently as a month ago to balance each other out. I also looked at different list people made online, but at least with videos, I can see the dances too, so I promise I did my best to make the lists as fairly as possible and they will probably be out of date by the time I finish it. With that many videos a person is bound to get a couple different answers, so I’ll have two lists.The first one, (list 1) will just be groups who had multiple songs throughout the different videos the more videos a group or an Idol had and the more often each video appeared the higher their rank will be. The second (list 2) will be the songs and groups that appeared the most often and they won’t be ranked because there are a lot of ties for some of these songs.

List 1-groups with the most difficult choreography based on how often and how many of their songs appeared.

List 2-Songs that had the most difficult choreography based on how often they appeared.

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WINGS is Soaring to the Top of Charts.

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1.Begin 2.Lie 3.Stigma 4.First Love 5.Reflection 6.Mama 7.Awake. To the unknowing public these just seem like words that have nothing to do with each other, but for those who thrive on the life source that is Kpop, these seven subjects are titles to seven solo tracks whose messages plagued the minds of all who watched them with innumerable questions. These seven solo tracks come from an album that has taken not just Korea but the world by storm.

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Bangtan Sonyeodan (BTS) has been capturing the attention of music lovers around the world with the release of their newest album WINGS on Sunday, October 10, 2016.With the release of WINGS, came a series of record-breaking feats. After dropping the album and music video for their title track, “Blood Sweat & Tears,” on, Sunday. BTS’ record-breaking streak was officially sparked.

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The title track,  “Blood Sweat & Tears”, was written with reggae, moombahton, and trap influences but still, manages to capture BTS’ signature style. Within hours of its music video release, “Blood Sweat and Tears” broke the YouTube video view record for most viewed video in the first 24 hours with 6.34 million views. And,  BTS only continued to claim record after record. They were the second Kpop performers, after PSY, to break 10 million views.  Today the “Blood, Sweat, & Tears” music video already has over 83 million views.  The WINGS album also managed to sweep music charts across the globe from South Korea to South America.

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 What is the meaning behind such a successful album? BTS’ leader Kim Namjoon (Rap Monster) explained the concept of the album as the temptations of growing up, “the harder a temptation is to resist, the more you think about it and vacillate. That uncertainty is part of the process of growing. [Blood Sweat & Tears] is a song that shows how one thinks, chooses, and grows.” Lead Rapper and assistant composer/producer Min Yoongi (Suga) added, “the wings pictured in the music video are one of the symbols of growth, the song relays an optimistic determination to use our wings to go far, even if we are met with temptations in life.”

Not only did BTS break YouTube music records, WINGS broke Kpop history by ranking 1st place on the iTunes Top Album Chart immediately after it was released, setting the record as the first Kpop artists to ever place 1st with a full-length album on the Top Album Chart. And for the first time in history, all fifteen tracks from the album  place spots, 1st through 15th on the iTunes K-Pop Chart,dance  deeming the event in history as “Lining Up.”  BTS set records all over the globe on charts in American, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Sweden and more for a total of 27 countries. 

Several world-famous music channels, such as FuseTV, I Heart Radio and more all sent out praise for the group. The very next day after the album’s release, Billboard wrote an article with the title “BTS Soars to New Heights With ‘Blood Sweat & Tears’”. The article claimed “2016 has been a big year for BTS”, and described how each member has grown as musicians through their 2nd full-length album. Billboard cited the group as a key player in spreading K-Pop all throughout the world

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Watch “Blood Sweat and Tears ” MV

Whether people’s attention is held hostage by story behind BTS’ album/songs, the extraordinary video quality,  the  difficult choreography that’s made to look simple, captivating vocals, the hypnosis of how strange the whole Kpop thing is or any number of other things, BTS has made it clear that they are not here to be just any other idols. There’s a saying when it rains, it pours; BTS are proving themselves to just be the first raindrop in a flood of Noah proportions.

Extras:

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Maybe not Organic but Definitely Real: Part 2

Link to Maybe Not Organic but Definitely Real: Part 1

 Maybe Not Organic but Definitely Real: Part 1, covered the three ways that people join a company and become a trainee. Already the task of becoming a Kpop or a South Korean entertainer in general (because of dancers, singers, actors, models, they all have to go through auditions, signing to companies and training) is off to a daunting and difficult start. One thing that may not have been made clear is that a contract must be signed with a company before a person can even be considered a trainee, let alone an idol, then the trainee enters the training period.

Training Period

To most people, the word training or trainee would ” a process by which a someone is taught skills that are needed for an art, profession or job,” or a preparation period, in trainee world, it’s a little different. Trainees practice and learn skills to be entertainers, but (and you’ll get tired of this phrase) there is a lot more to it. For the sake of saving time let’s look specifically at a Kpop idol’s training.

Long Training Period.

Some may wonder why Kpop idol hopefuls even need to go through a trainee period the answer is simple, companies will not let any trainee debut until they feel a trainee has either proven themselves in training or in the rare circumstance that the ideal group the company wanted the trainee to be a member of has already debut (for example Super Junior’s Kyuhyun). gsoulAn “average” training period for trainees is between 2 to 4 years, but it can be several more years or as short as a few months. Jo Kwon, who’s a member of the JYP group 2AM, was a trainee for 7 years before he was able to debut; however, Kyuhyun, a member of the SM group Super Junior, only trained for 3 months before debuting in the group. G.Soul, from JYP entertainment, was a trainee for 15 years and is now known as the Kpop idol with the longest training period before debuting. There is no such word as average when it comes to these companies.

The Schedule.

Trainees will take singing, dancing and acting lessons along with some language classes (most idols will learn either Japanese, Chinese, English, or Thai). The trainee life can be hard

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because of the tight schedules depending on the age. Some trainees are students, so they’ll start training right after school; this means it the trainees may have their classes in school and then have singing and dancing classes. The training hours for trainees who are students “typically” start from whenever school classes are finished, to 10 pm. Other trainees may have a different schedule depending on the company they’re in. Some companies have trainees practice both before and after school, so wake up at 5 am, have a lesson, go to school, do  some dedicated homework, have a company lesson, and be sure to finish the school homework from earlier plus the company homework these trainees are given and practice again sometimes until 1 a.m. in the morning. Most classes will last and an average of three hours, dance practices will last roughly five hours (not including the time spent practicing individually) and the company homework trainees are given, failure to not complete company homework or perform well in evaluations can lead to termination from the company.

Some companies have trainees practice both before and after school, so wake up at 5 am, have a lesson, go to school, do  some dedicated homework, have a company lesson, and be sure to finish the school homework from earlier plus the company homework these trainees are given and practice again sometimes until 1 a.m. in the morning. Most classes will last and an average of three hours, dance practices will last roughly five hours (not including the time spent practicing individually) and the company homework trainees are given. A trainees’ failure to complete company homework or perform well in evaluations can lead to termination from the company.

Weight.

Aside from scheduling, trainees must also maintain certain weight requirements. Some will have to lose weight while others will have to work to maintain weight despite the intense work out that dance practice can be. On the darker side of Kpop, this means that they may not be able to eat certain foods (depending on which company they are in since each company may do things differently). It’s not like trainees and idols are left responsible for monitoring their weight themselves, some if not most companies usually check each trainee’s weight day-to-day to see if they’ve lost or kept their weight.

Distance from family.

Think back to foreign Kpop idols, even the ones from countries as close as Thailand and China. Not only throughout the training period but also throughout any part when an idol is promoting new content, it is almost impossible to contact their family. Trainees will find themselves lucky being able to sneak in an email, quick phone or maybe a Skype section but that one is unlikely. It is more often the case of the family needs to visit the trainee/idol (if they have time off their schedule); however, if a family member isn’t in well enough health to travel, it can be years before a trainee or idol sees their family. When these families finally meet again it can be heartbreaking yet heartwarming.

What is it all for?

The question is what is all of this for, who is gaining anything from this other than the companies? These trainees have demanding schedules, lesson/practices, most of the time they are separated from their families for extended periods of time, homework, dieting and weight restrictions. All of this for a matter of months to 15 years with no promise of even getting to debut. Any given moment a trainee or even an Idol could be told by their company “sorry you’re not marketable, you’re not learning, you’re not what we want anymore,” just like that no debut, just like that everything was for nothing and just like that no one will know that they even existed. They are monitored by their companies 24 hours a day to ensure that they’re not tarnishing the reputation of the company and staying marketable. So, why do these hopefuls put themselves through all this? Because they want to be singers.

Kpop video views in 2011
Global Spread of Korean Pop Culture 2013

The Kpop industry is formed differently than any other music industry, and to those of us that aren’t from South Korea or that haven’t delved deeper into the world of Korean entertainment, it seems strange and artificial. That thought isn’t wrong. members of a group/band will not have known one another before becoming trainees, the companies will already have an idea of what they want to do with each trainee, but just because South Korean singers don’t just show up overnight does not mean it’s not 100% real. It is really these trainees who become idols. And it is those idols who are dancing, it is really these idols who are singing and performing; it seems unreal because that is what Kpop formulated to be, as close to perfection deemed achievable. Kpop is designed to be successful companies like The Big Three made it that way.

 

 

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Maybe Not Organic but Definitely Real: Part 1

Perhaps K-pop idols singing well is not enough for some people to overlook the fact that he/she cannot understand download-2them, or maybe can’t stand, as some have put it the quote, “cheesy pop style of music” (granted Kpop isn’t the typical style of pop it’s much closer to hip-hop, but the fandoms will forgive) every person has their own musical preferences. However, one thing that cannot be said about these Kpop groups is that they are not hard-working.

Unlike artist from the U.S or western Europe, who can go into recording studios to audition, be discovered on social media or win the hearts of a nation on national television, the process of getting into the music industry in South Korea is much different and arguably more difficult. The Korean entertainment industry requires near perfection and only the most talented and most attractive people will succeed in the industry. There is a lot of information to cover, so in this post let’s just cover the leading companies in South Korea and the first step to becoming a Kpop idol.images

The first step in becoming a Kpop idol is to join a company and become a trainee. Companies are the equivalent of record labels or entertainment companies, but it is important to mention that in South Korea the most successful companies will never just be recording labels; they will be talent agencies, publishing houses, fashion companies, film production companies, and any number of other things. In South Korea, there are five major companies that a person trying to become an idol, actor/actress, model or anything in the entertainment world will want to join.

  1. SM Entertainment
  2. YG Entertainment
  3. JYP Entertainment
  4. FNC Entertainment
  5. Starship Entertainment

Link to more about each company

An idol-hopeful can join a company usually one of three ways,
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  • Auditions (talent). companies will hold auditions every year (sometimes maybe more than once) all over the world because the larger companies will have offices set up in China, Thailand, America, the Philippines, and all major countries that CEO’s think there could be talent. Thus several people from all around Asia show up and have to compete with talent from across the globe if there isn’t something that stands out about a person auditioning the chances of passing auditions is basically a zero. An audition is the most probable chance a person has but even then it’s slim to none.
  • Street Casting (looks). This system is a little unfair because it doesn’t rely on a person’s talent. In order to get street casted, a person has to be beyond good-looking (have the star look) because only the most beautiful/handsome get chosen.  This is also how a lot of trainees and Idols from countries outside of Korea (like America, China, Thailand, and even Canada) are selected. After being chosen for his/her looks, the company will have a person audition to see if they possess any real talent. As crazy as it sounds the entertainment companies in south Korea still street cast, and they can get away with it because there is a position in every Kpop group called the “visual” whose job to draw and bring in attention with their good looks.
  • 005ghqjwgw1esmby8sw5tj30m813ik1sWinning a Sponsored Contest (talent/luck). Sometimes companies will sponsor or put on their own singing contest and the prize might be a contract with the sponsoring company. This one is probably not recommended because idols who get signed this way usually aren’t treated the best. In 2008, EXO’s Xiumin (Kim Minseok) won 2nd place on SM’s Everysing Contest and won a contract with SM entertainment, but it’s been said in a video, that has since been taken down that, that he receives fewer lines in each song, placed in the back for choreography (even though he has been praised for picking up the dances quickly), and less screen time in music videos than any other member (It can be seen by just watching a few of EXO’s music videos).

 

 Link to Maybe, not Organic but definitely Real: Part 2

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Language Barriers?

The one comment that fans of K-anything, be it Kpop, Kdrama, K-fashion, and so on hear most often goes along the lines of, “How can you possibly enjoy that, you can’t even understand what they’re saying?” If these fans got a dollar or even just a nickel for every time they heard that line, they could probably pay to fly to Korea and take Korean lessons inimages-3 Seoul. Considering most of these same people were singing along to PSY’s “Gangnam Style” it seems a little funny that they are so insulted by K-fans participating in something that’s not in English. People don’t seem to understand that just because learning other languages, especially ones like Korean, Thai, or Vietnamese, aren’t stressed in our school systems, it doesn’t mean that learning foreign languages isn’t stressed in other countries. According to the World Bank in 2015 the U.S was the leading economy based on gross domestic product and is has been since at least 1960, and before China took the second place spot it was held by the U.K for a long time. So, naturally, it would make sense that other countries would teach foreign languages, especially the ones that belong to the leaders in economics,  to their student.

6f7e0fdd4b4bdf3afc2413efd8cfeadb The same thing applies with Kpop and Kdramas. Firstly, there is, in most fans’ opinions, the obvious comeback of subtitles and translations. There are multiple sites dedicated to translating the newest, most popular, and most beloved songs into English so that foreign fans can learn them, and a lot of the music videos and Kdramas now come with an option to turn on subtitles. If the option isn’t there, almost any television show, movie, or online video that can be found, the same can be found with subtitles that were translated by a native speaker; in fact, more often than not the companies that run either the Kpop singers or the k-drama will have two channels made on YouTube and other social medias one with subtitle/translated and one without because the presidents of these companies are aware of the fact that there are foreign fans. The fact that foreign fans get so much consideration from these companies is probably one of the reasons that foreign fans don’t mind having to go the extra mile to understand the content that is being presented to them because, in turn, extra effort is being put into things just for them.

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Also, a lot of idols and actors become fluent in English and other languages over time,76428753acab19965064f1d5a4dee401 and some Kpop idols may only be half Korean and some aren’t Korean at all, so they spend time learning Korean. For example, the Kpop group Got7 is famous for having members from different countries like Korea, China, America, and Thailand. Kim Namjoon (Rap Monster) from famous Kpop group Bangtan Sonyeondan (BTS) taught himself English when he was in middle school and received a perfect score on the English language section of the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication). Some Kpop Idols are even known for their ability to sing full covers of English songs  like “Stitches,” “Nobody Like us,” and “All of Me.”

Here are some other examples of Kpop Idols speaking not just English but multiple languages. English Videos

Lastly, there is an old saying that “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”  There is no easy way to describe the lack of a barrier to someone who refuses to listen to an explanation, but it’s similar to trying to explain the existence of the wind to a small child; a person can’t see the wind itself, they can see the effects of it and they can feel it, but they cannot see the physical embodiment of wind. Understanding another language is the same.690ab1d34cebab7b9e92e32c4de1c25e A foreign fan may not understand any part of the language, but they can see the context clues in music videos, the passionate expressions on performers’ faces, and most of all they can really feel the emotion a performer is singing with. “I Really Didn’t Know” is known as a classic because of the sad love story it tells dating back to when China invaded South Korea, and lovers could only call each other with a whistle. The song tells the story from the perspective of a woman whose lover has either been called off to war or died in the war, yet she can still hear the sound of whistling because she never thought he would leave her (perhaps permanently in death), “[she] honestly, really didn’t know.” This song was covered by two members of the famous Kpop group EXO, and as they sang you could feel loneliness in their voices. The point was further driven in when the t.v camera panned around the audience to see most of them crying at the mix of touching lyrics and moving vocals.

 

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