How K-pop elevates live music performance
By Lucie Duffy
When you hear the word ‘K-Pop,’ what do you think of? Does your mind jump to BTS, the 7-member group currently dominating the US Billboard charts? Or does it lean towards images of obsessive teenage girls, and ideas of manufactured pop music sung in a language you can’t understand? What is often lacking from mainstream associations with ‘K-Pop’ is any connection to the word artistry, or even performance art. Yet, live performance has always been a strong asset of the K-Pop world (BTS’s complex choreographies or BLACKPINK’s success at Coachella in 2019 are examples of this). In fact, it forms the backbone of the Korean music industry. In a style reminiscent of the UK’s Top Of The Pops, K-Pop artists promote their new music through live performances on different weekly music show competitions. Even these simple productions feature themed outfits, usually consistent with those appearing in the music video for the song. Each week, the artists switch between the multiple costumes and concepts in an attempt to create fresh and eye-catching shows.
HyunA and Dawn’s recent release ‘Ping Pong’ is particularly wild and colourful, and shows how art and music can come together in K-Pop performances:
This focus on live performance, and the creativity which accompanies it, means the experience of K-Pop music is more than simply auditory. It becomes a visual experience, with multiple levels of possible interpretation and interaction. In a post-pandemic world, this model of live performance is projected directly into the online imaginaries and virtual spaces occupied by fans. A key force behind the rise in K-Pop’s popularity in the last year, this allows supporters to engage with the performances individually and privately, and then contribute towards a collective community through interpretation and online debate.
Airing this past spring, Mnet’s reality survival show Kingdom: Legendary War perfectly demonstrates this. Have you ever wondered what would happen on X-Factor or The Voice if, instead of unknown contestants, already-established bands competed against one another? This is essentially the premise of Kingdom. Six groups, ranging in experience from veterans of the industry to fresh-faced 19-year-olds, compete every episode in a series of live music performances. Hoping to gain the most points and be crowned the ‘kings’ of K-Pop, the show saw newly popular Stray Kids compete against established groups SF9, iKon, and BTOB, as well as rising groups ATEEZ and The Boyz. Through reimagining their own musical catalogues in each of the four rounds (or covering from, and collaborating with, the other groups), these concept-based live stages capture the viewer’s attention entirely. Fans of the groups engage with the performances not only through visual consumption, but by endlessly debating their conceptual meanings and storytelling on social media, introducing another plane of interaction lesser seen in the Western pop world. True, American pop fans spend hours analysing conceptual music videos (Ariana Grande or Taylor Swift come to mind) but their consumption of live music performances often go no deeper than simply listening and viewing. In the K-Pop world, a live performance is considered lacking without a conceptual theme accompanying it.
In the NO LIMIT round of Kingdom, Stray Kids performed a mash-up of their breakout song ‘God’s Menu’ combined with BLACKPINK’s song ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’ – appropriately titled ‘God’s DDU-DU DDU-DU’. This highly conceptual, Deadpool-themed performance has since amassed 24.8 million views on YouTube (at the time of writing) and prompted a response from Deadpool actor himself, Ryan Reynolds.
The recreation of Deadpool’s iconic opening scene in the beginning of the performance by member Felix occurs not overlooking a busy highway, as in the film, but on top of a giant rice cooker. This subtle and comedic linking of a prominent Western pop culture figure to a common Asian household item demonstrates what Stray Kids achieve with this performance: the blending of multiple global pop culture references under one conceptual theme, all whilst pulling off an epic-scale staging of their mash-up song and choreography. With equally impressive raps from members Changbin and Han, the performance moves from set to set, all contained within the same stage. Cleverly combining both Stray Kids’ own ‘DU DU DU’ refrain with BLACKPINK’s ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’ refrain, the artistry here comes not just from the stage performance itself, but the high level of music production at work behind the scenes. Known as self-producing idols, members Bang Chan, Changbin, and Han have written and produced the entirety of Stray Kids’ discography, including their weekly reworkings for their Kingdom performances.
Despite being known for their ‘noise music’, Stray Kids’ cover of ballad ‘I’ll Be Your Man’ (originally by BTOB, competitors on Kingdom) in the show’s RE-BORN round takes the conceptualisation of live performance even further. Using complex sets, props, and costumes, Stray Kids turns BTOB’s romance narrative into a complicated story of brotherly love, as the members venture to the underworld to save the soul of a young boy.
The intricacy of live stage performances like this go beyond what other groups can offer in terms of theme and concept, and for many fans filled the gap of missing in-person concerts not possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All of Kingdom’s stages were audience-less, and viewers instead were able to see the reactions of the other competing groups watching from their waiting rooms intercut with the performances. Not only were viewers able to debate their interpretations of the themes online in Twitter threads and Instagram posts, but they engaged further through re-posting clips of the other groups’ reactions, which in turn highlighted the key focal points of each performance.
Equally eye-catching was SF9’s standout rendition of Taemin’s ‘Move’, which combined stage lighting and choreography with a clever use of colour to send a clear message: that we should celebrate what makes us unique. This celebration of diversity was interpreted by many online as a subtle celebration of the LGBT+ community. Watch closely and you might even spot member Dawon doing a chemical experiment on stage.
The performance takes the viewer to a futuristic factory setting, where back-up dancers are seemingly manufactured in the same costume and wigs, and no individual differences are permitted. More colour is introduced to the stage as the performance progresses, and the movements of the choreography become stronger and more assertive. Apart from an out-of-place final scene where the SF9 members stand in the rain, the performance demonstrates how even more subtler uses of theming in live music performance elevate the experience of the consumer and create multiple outlets for creative analysis and debate.
With six groups performing multiple times across four themed rounds, here are some more notable performances from Kingdom:
The Boyz’s performance of ‘No Air’ – Game of Thrones Concept
ATEEZ’s cover of ‘Rhythm Ta’ by iKon - Money Heist Concept
SF9’s cover of ‘The Stealer’ by The Boyz – Noir Concept
ATEEZ’s performance of ‘Symphony No. 9 “From the Wonderland”’ – Pirate Concept
This collaborative performance of ‘Colours’ by members of Stray Kids, BTOB, and ATEEZ.
K-Pop music has a history of being criticized as ‘inauthentic’ and K-Pop artists as lacking agency in their music creation. By understanding the artistry and creative force that goes into the staging of popular music in Korea, we can reinvest the agency into these productions and understand why K-Pop music continues to amass thousands of fans and dominate the global charts. Music is essentially a social phenomenon, in both production and dissemination. The added elements to the fan experience K-Pop achieves through its emphasis on live stages, and the production and re-production of this experience through video sharing apps such as TikTok and Instagram, widens the social potential of what music can do. In the K-Pop world, at least, the auditory comes together with the visual to create something that is part-music, part-theatre, and part-performance art, interacted and engaged with by millions worldwide.