What involves thoughts while you hear the phrase “Ok-pop”? Is it the worldwide boy band phenomenon BTS, carrying studded jackets and dancing in excellent sync? Or the lady group Blackpink, acting at Coachella in stylish fashions and completely curled hair?
How about an “impartial music collective” of casually dressed individuals, crowded round a mixing board in a one-room studio, throughout the road from a Seoul restaurant specializing in fried rooster?
“Give me some extra bass,” stated Omega Sapien, a vocalist with electric-green hair and grills, swaying his hips and grunting to the beat. The studio was cluttered with artwork, vinyl information, dumbbells and different odds and ends. One other singer lay inclined close by, nursing a foul hangover.
For Balming Tiger, that is day by day life as a substitute Ok-pop band. Their music, a fusion of various genres from electro to hip-hop, is funky and edgy. Their look, unkempt and grungy, is much from the skilled styling of the teams that a lot of the world associates with Ok-pop.
However they declare that label, too. Ok-pop is any music that comes out of South Korea, in response to Omega Sapien. “All the things in that realm is Ok-pop,” he stated.
Is it?
“Ok-pop” is shorthand for Korean common music, however it’s usually taken to imply one thing extra particular: the boy bands and lady teams whose members are often called idols (partly due to their fiercely devoted fan bases). Their music tends to be formulaically structured, the performances tightly choreographed. Administration firms make investments hundreds of thousands in these acts and train strict management over the ultimate product.
However in South Korea, it’s not the most well-liked type of music. Idol teams are far outnumbered by impartial and different artists, in response to authorities and trade knowledge. Hyukoh, a four-member band from Seoul’s hip Hongdae neighborhood, and Leenalchi are two different well-known native different acts.
“As of late, I get the sense that when most individuals hear the time period Ok-pop — and by ‘most individuals,’ I imply individuals all over the world and never simply in Korea — they usually simply consider lady teams and boy bands that match a selected mould,” stated Regina Kim, a New York-based journalist who writes about Korean popular culture. When she was rising up in New Haven, Conn., Ms. Kim stated, R&B and dance music from South Korea had been additionally regarded as Ok-pop.
In 2023, virtually 1 / 4 of South Koreans attended a dwell live performance, on- or offline, by an impartial artist, in response to a survey by the Korea Inventive Content material Company. The identical report discovered that ballads, not idol-group pop, made up the nation’s favourite style, with over half of respondents figuring out that slower-paced, much less flashy class because the one they listened to essentially the most.
Though Balming Tiger identifies as Ok-pop, they don’t take into account themselves idols. “Even when we wished to be like idols, we will’t,” stated Chanhee, a vocalist who additionally works on the group’s styling, movies and images.
“It’s our imperfections that really make us extra engaging,” stated one other vocalist, Sogumm, one in all two ladies within the group. “I need individuals to see us and suppose ‘Ok-pop is cool,’ not simply within the body of being fairly and good-looking, however being one thing that appeals to a various viewers.” It’s not the staggering ranges of fame they’re after, however somewhat, a wider acceptance and embrace of their model of Ok-pop. They’re already succeeding by many measures, having simply wrapped up a tour of Europe, Asia and the Americas late final 12 months, all with out the monetary backing or advertising energy of Seoul’s giant leisure firms.
Balming Tiger — the identify comes from Tiger Balm, a Singaporean ointment — began out as a celebration crew, organizing occasions with DJs round Seoul.
Singers and producers progressively got here onboard, they usually developed right into a full-fledged performing act. Chanhee and Omega Sapien each left faculty to commit themselves to the group full time. (“At first, I lied to my mother, saying I needed to take a break from faculty to enter the army,” Chanhee stated.) They launched their first album in 2021.
A grass-roots origin story like that’s virtually extraordinary on the planet of idols. The overwhelming majority of them audition for a administration firm after which, in the event that they make it, endure rigorous coaching that may final years.
The businesses’ authority over the teams goes past the music. Many idols are informed what they will and can’t say in public; typically their diets are even monitored. Some idols have stated that they had been informed to not date as a result of their most devoted followers would really feel upset or betrayed in the event that they did.
The advertising works, stated Daniel Anderson, a Ok-pop author based mostly in Seattle. Many followers are drawn to the personas that the businesses create for the idols. “They know how one can construct and assemble these tales,” he stated.
“Folks will latch onto these narratives that could possibly be real, however a number of occasions these pictures are crafted,” Mr. Anderson stated. “What they put on, what they are saying, who’s the humorous one, who’s the introverted one.”
However on the identical time, he stated, “followers need these idols to be extra genuine.”
Some observers of Ok-pop say its unyielding worth system displays a broader social strain in South Korea that enables for no errors. The outcomes may be compelling, as Ms. Kim, the journalist, famous. “Watching a Ok-pop music video usually feels such as you’re watching a brief Hollywood film with excessive manufacturing worth, insanely handsome individuals and wonderful choreography,” she stated.
However so many idol teams have entered the market lately that it’s getting more durable to face out, stated Shin Cho, the home advertising director and head of Ok-pop and its Japanese counterpart, J-pop, at Warner Music Korea.
“Folks had been one-upping one another on the ‘excellent’ scale,” Mr. Cho stated.
A technique of standing out in that setting could be to do issues your self. Balming Tiger’s “collective” has 11 members, together with individuals behind the scenes — producers, a author, videographers. The music, movies and choreography are all theirs.
For the principle dance transfer in one in all their songs, “BuriBuri,” they merely stretch their arms out to the edges and sway their hips. “This isn’t one thing that skilled choreographers would have provide you with,” Omega Sapien stated throughout a rehearsal in December. “It’s natural and comes from us. It’s higher.”
The group members, again of their common stomping grounds, are actually performing round South Korea and dealing on new music. No matter it finally ends up sounding like, they’ll take into account it Ok-pop.
“Ok-pop has an edge, which is what’s breaking via the market,” Omega Sapien stated. “We’re including a special layer to that edge, which shall be our legend and asset that we go on to future generations.”
