K-Pop Throughout Lockdown
As the world went into lockdown and peoples’ lives were put on hold, more people became reliant on the internet to stay connected with family and friends. But most of all entertained. Some turned to streaming services such as Netflix, while some others turned to music. Either it is listening on the radio or on Spotify, these two different platforms had a spike in new listeners and downloads. Spotify said 31% of active listeners had risen in the starting months of lockdown.
The question is, what genre of music have people been listening to? The most notable one being K-Pop, also known as Korean Pop originating from South Korea, where the soloists or groups are called Idols. In recent years, K-Pop has been dominating global charts such as BTS’ Dynamite. It stayed number one on Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks back in August 2020 before returning to number one in early October. This is a huge step for BTS and K-Pop as they became the first Korean boy band in history to achieve this. Along with breaking Youtube’s record of most viewed music video within twenty-four hours, with a whopping 101 million views.
Other than K-Pop Idols breaking records, they also have been raising peoples’ spirits. Throughout lockdown, they have been releasing new music in the forms of albums, mini albums, and singles. These scheduled comebacks give the fans something to look forward to, even though most comebacks are scheduled around March or October they still happen all year round. These new releases coming with amazingly produced music videos and different concepts. We can’t forget the vocals and spitting raps that come from these Idols, the well thought out choreography that you can get tired from just watching them perform it. Everything that goes into these comebacks is thought out all thanks to the teams that you don’t see on the stage, but the Idols putting in endless hours in practising get our thanks too.
When you think about K-Pop, where do you think it would be most popular? Most people would say South Korea or the USA, they’re not wrong. There are K-Pop fans everywhere in the world even in the European country of Denmark. I interviewed a Danish K-Pop fan called Emilie from Lolland to find out more about her K-Pop life but also the K-Pop music that she listened to in lockdown.
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Jessica: Which music apps did you use to listen to K-Pop throughout lockdown?
Emilie: I used Spotify the most often but when I was at home, I used YouTube to watch music videos.
Jessica: On Spotify which K-Pop idol would you say is the most likely to pop up on your playlist?
Emilie: Ateez and Stray Kids, they have a lot of new music out at the moment so they’ve slowly taken over my shuffle.
Jessica: What was/is your go-to K-Pop song throughout lockdown?
Emilie: That’s a really good question. I didn’t have a specific song, because I have a playlist over twenty-four-hour on Spotify. It’s on shuffle all the time.
Jessica: Are there any upcoming anticipated comebacks you’re looking forward to?
Emilie: NCT 2020, because they are an unlimited group, this means new members are being added every now and then. But there are different sub-units, like NCT 127 and NCT Dream that create and promote music separately. We rarely see them together, last time we saw them together was in 2018 so I’m very excited to see all twenty-three members together.
Jessica: When and how did you get into K-Pop?
Emilie: I got into K-Pop in January 2019, a co-admin of a group on Facebook in the Admin chat she spammed BTS memes. Also, she got BTS’ song, Idol, stuck in my head.
Jessica: Do you remember the first K-Pop song you ever listened to?
Emilie: Does Gangnam Style count? Laughs If not, League of Legends song Pop/Stars by K/DA.
Jessica: If there was one K-Pop song or Idol(s) you would recommend? What or who would that be?
Emilie: I would recommend a favourite of mine, who is a very underrated group named Pentagon. Even with a member have a dating scandal and got kicked out, and a member on hiatus, who just came back. They never stopped working hard with their career and now they’re on their way with their 10th mini album and having their 4th anniversary soon. But sadly, they’ve had no award wins yet.
Jessica: Has K-Pop changed your life in any way?
Emilie: I guess? But it’s at the same time hard to tell, but I think I would just say I’ve learnt how to love myself more and not give up on my dreams.
Jessica: Would you say K-Pop is popular in Denmark?
Emilie: Yes, but I would say a lot of the K-Pop fans can be found around Copenhagen, the Capital of Denmark. The further you go away from the capital the harder it is to find fans but it’s not impossible.
