Since this past March, dozens of music tours, festivals and other events have been cancelled or postponed with no future date in sight. However, as artists raced to adapt to social media platforms like Instagram, K-pop idols were among the frontrunners, serenading us from their living rooms.
This should not come as a surprise: K-pop groups have been taking international chart-topping positions for years now. YG Entertainment girl group Blackpink broke YouTube’s record for most viewed music video premiere of all time with their most recent title track “How You Like That,” and BigHit Entertainment boy group BTS broke their tenth Guinness World Record when 756,000 fans from over 100 countries virtually attended their most recent online concert in June. They have since broken three more Guinness records, bringing their total up to thirteen.
BTS and Blackpink were not alone in their quarantine endeavours. Many groups may have been daunted by the thought of having a comeback—the new release of a song, mini album or album from a K-pop group—in the middle of a global pandemic, since comeback successes are largely fuelled by concert attendance and fanmeets.
Many groups also had to cancel their tours, not because South Korea had any travel bans, but because all the countries they planned to visit did, especially for anyone coming from Asia. SM Entertainment boy groups NCT 127 and SuperM both postponed tours in the US and still prepared their comebacks, hosting online concerts and fanmeets in order to engage with fans all over the world from the comfort of their studios. JYP Entertainment boy group Stray Kids held their comeback for their album “GO” and online shows right in the middle of summer, a time when concerts would usually be hopping with people, but this year, they performed on stage to an empty room, save cameramen. SM Entertainment Chinese boy group WayV had their first comeback since their debut with their first full album “Awaken the World!,” and the support that they received from their fans in China and internationally brought many of the members to tears during their first livestreamed performance.
As if holding a comeback during a global pandemic wasn’t hard enough, imagine debuting during this time. Fifth generation - or any groups debuted from 2017 to the present - idol groups TOO, Cravity, Cignature, MCND, DKB and Treasure, among others, all debuted either at the beginning of or in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic; some of these groups have even had their first comeback since then. It’s hard to pick up any steam as an idol group when so much of your livelihood depends on interacting with fans, and you got started right when interaction was hard to come by.
This is where social media comes into play. The world may have shut down, but idol Instagram pages have been hopping lately with silly selcas—or selfies—and updates about comebacks, photoshoots and life in general.
Recent albums and albums to be released include KARD’s “Way With Words,” A.C.E.’s “HJZM: The Butterfly Phantasy,” Blackpink and Selena Gomez’s collaboration “Ice Cream,” SuperM’s “Super One,” ATEEZ’s “Zero: Fever Part.1” and the much anticipated album from soloist Wonho, “Love Synonym #1: Right For Me.”
SM Entertainment has created a new, groundbreaking website for live concerts called Beyond LIVE. Their first show on April 26 starred SuperM, known by stans as the Avengers of K-pop. The label has produced 7 shows total with more to come. Some upcoming concerts include THE BOYZ with their first digital concert “[RE:AL]” on September 19, the Lotte Duty Free Family Concert featuring BTS, TXT, G-friend and more on September 27 and the annual SBS Super Concert “Super ON:TACT” which will be online on September 27, October 4, October 11 and October 18. Another event to look forward to is the release of BigHit Entertainment’s latest feature film on BTS, “BREAK THE SILENCE: THE MOVIE”, coming to cinemas worldwide from September 10-24, as well as “BRING THE SOUL: THE MOVIE” which will be re-released in cinemas ahead of the new film.