#exo dancing machine

[theresattrpgforthat]

THEME: Cyberpunk

Yes, I've seen your ask, @efangamez. Here's my (first) list of cyberpunk game recommendations!

24XX: Dire Pulse, by zebramatt84.

BUILD A BETTER TOMORROW – Only the Company stands between humanity and extinction. Help us reverse environmental collapse with Project Omega! Injured on the job? Unable to work? Our cutting-edge exoskeletal rig (Exo-Rig™) technology gets you contributing again. Sign up today! 

Enter a grim corporate future where humanity augments itself with neural interfaces, industrial exoskeletons and cutting-edge nanite technology. This is an original work loosely inspired by the The Surge series of video games by Focus Home Interactive. 

Standard of the 24XX Micro-game series, Dire Pulse is lightweight, easy to learn, and pay-what-you want. Your missions are dangerous and bloody, but rather than roll up a new character, your character gets regenerated by the Company in Exo-Rigs, which can be customized using the pieces of enemies that you’ll find never stop coming. If you like brutal, dystopian fiction with technology and massive creatures, this might be the game for you.

Balikbayan, by Rae Nedjadi.

It is the far future. Earth has been abandoned for generations. Humanity left for brighter stars, richer planets and shining colonies. To fuel their dreams of a better tomorrow, the humans turned to the Elementals and their magic. This magic is an invaluable source of power and labor. Machines were created to harness and enslave the Elementals . You were one of these Enslaved Elementals. You are machines that echo the legendary magic you once possessed. You and your friends are among the few who have managed to return to Earth. What remains of Earth’s cities is falling apart. The Corp won’t let go of you so easily either. But shining through the cracks is a magic that is ready to be reborn.

BALIKBAYAN is great for veterans ready for a more narrative experience, and perfect for people new to the hobby. Bring your dystopic post-Cyberpunk fantasies to life, revel in supernatural Filipino folklore, and dance along the threads between magic and technology.

If you’re interested in mixing fantasy elements in with your cyberware, you’ll want to check out Balikbayan. It can be played with or without a Game Moderator, and provides excellent advice for running the game either way. If you are newer to roleplaying games, or if your group doesn’t feel comfortable yet with a game that’s primarily narrative, you might want to have a GM for your first time playing this game. BALIKBAYAN uses a system called Belonging Outside Belonging, which does not rely on dice. Instead, it has a series of moves, called Strong, Neutral and Weak Moves. Strong moves require the use of a token and reflect success, Weak moves provide opportunities for failure and generate tokens, and Neutral moves move the story forward, without requiring or generating tokens. If you are interested in breaking free of the chains of your corporate overlords or burning yourselves out in the process, you should check out this game.

CBR+PNK (AUGMENTED), by Emanuel Melo (old version)

CBR+PNK (Cyber plus Punk) is a tabletop RPG for one-shot sessions in the cyberpunk genre. You play as a team of RUNNERS — mercs, criminals, activists living on the edge and running in the shadows of a gritty, ultra-violent world.

The game uses a minimalist version of the acclaimed Forged In The Dark system to produce cinematic action. No playbooks: characters are differentiated by their combination of approaches, skills and gear. Because it's more action oriented, there is no Downtime and Stress is relieved by a special action during the Run. There’s also some additional mechanics, called Cyberware and Glitches, which can add enhancements and complications to your play. 

CBR+PNK has a number of supplements available if you like customization, from nemeses, to heists, to extra rules. Both the player brochure and the GM handout are jam-packed with information, dice and rules. The old edition is no longer available, but the newest version, CBR+PNK: AUGMENTED, is available for pre-order thanks to a successful Kickstarter! 

FSG#4: Gay Crime, Sapphics Against Capital, by Evey Lockhart.

The everyday cruelty of petty market lords is a terrible enough thing to combat, but of course the rich assholes have magic too. Clues to the myriad death cults of capital lie nearly naked all around. It's safe to assume most folx with MBAs regularly sacrifice the poor not just as a source for wealth, but for immortality and other preternatural boons.

These are the queer women standing in the rich cultists' way. The time for direct political action is now. 

This is a deconstructed zine for use with the Troika! Tabletop Roleplaying Game featuring: 5 Backgrounds and a Modern Fantasy Microsetting, complete with an introductory assassination! Troika is a game system that allows for chaotic storytelling, both in narrative and in combat. It facilitates easy character creation and regeneration, should your character meet with a grisly end. 

The micro setting and assassination provided make this a great option for a one-shot. The playbooks are incredibly tongue-in-cheek, but may be a big draw for any queer-friendly table. If you like the idea of bringing revenge upon rich cultists, and if you’re interested in queer stories of resistance, this playset (and one of Evey’s other supplements, Cyber Explosions) might be worth checking out!

CY_BORG, by Free League Publishing 

The world is ending. Again and again and again and again and again….

A Nano-infested doomsday RPG about cybernetic misfits and punks raging against a relentless corporate hell. CY_BORG is a complete rules-light, rage-heavy tabletop roleplaying game based on and compatible with MÖRK BORG. Easy to play, easy to hack. It’s got quick and dirty character creation, an introduction to Cy (a megacity with neon cathedrals and a toxic industrial hell), and a d66 table full of headlines and plot hooks to get your characters invested from the get-go. 

CY_BORG is as modifiable as the tech it references; there is a plethora of rules and add-ons and supplements outside of the core rules - and even the core rulebook has optional rules that you can choose to add on or take away, depending on the kind of game you’re looking to run. The setting itself is gritty and unforgiving and dirty; with foes and villains attempting to thwart every step you take to bring down the rich and powerful. If you liked MÖRK BORG’s ruleset but want to bring it into the squirming, writhing future, then you should check out CY_BORG.

Repo Man, by Ziva McPherson.

In a poisoned world where illness and injury are the norm and corporate greed has reached a peak never seen before, a savior has emerged: CureCo. Led by the greatest medical minds in a century, CureCo has lifted us out of tragedy and answered our prayers with their artificial organs and miraculous cures.  But of course, everything comes with a price…and if you can’t pay it, CureCo sends the Repo Man to take back what’s theirs.

This is where your story begins. Your debts are due, and one way or another, CureCo intends to collect. Tonight. The Repo Man is on your trail, and you need to escape at all costs.

Repo Man is a cyberpunk horror zine game for 2 or more players inspired by Repo! The Genetic Opera. To play it, you will need 1 d6 per person and a copy of this game. Character creation is reliant on description: you’ll want to describe what you look like, a special skill or secret, and a thing they hold that is a reason for being hunted by CureCo, such as a replacement organ or a prosthetic. 

If you are looking for a game that combines the feeling of a clock running out with the creeping dread of something always catching up with you, Repo Man might be your cup of tea. Be warned however: in this cyberpunk hellscape, body horror and violence are all too common. You’ll want a robust set of Safety Tools at your side with this game, as with any good game table.

Boy Problems, by boyproblems.

It is many years into the future. A wealthy and powerful person (or persons) has claimed a rare and much sought-after prize: the “vault” of 200 unreleased songs from renowned Canadian pop artist, Carly Rae Jepsen. Hired by an anonymous sponsor, your team of highly trained individuals will raid a well-defended location to retrieve said item. From planning to set-up to execution, you will see this heist through to its completion, whether that be a success or failure. There will many twists and turns along the way, and don’t always trust the specialists by your side.

Boy Problems is a game whose mechanics are inspired by Lasers & Feelings, by John Harper. It’s been highly reviewed by a number of publications, so you might have heard of it already! There are roll tables for the GM to help you set up the plot in a few minutes, including some twists and turns that cause the players to alter their plans on the fly. The Quickstart has some great pieces of advice for folks who might be running a game for the first time. 

The creator has a Quickstart that is free. There’s also a paid option that gives you a larger, more fleshed-out game, and a Side-B supplement with new mechanics, new art, and three new heists! If you want an up-beat game that prioritizes problem-solving over combat, whether you want a one-shot or a multi-session storyline, and if you want a game with easy-to-learn rules and evocative playbooks, Boy Problems just might be for you.

Neon Black, by NotWriting.

Free an AI from their corporate prison. Hack a CEO's credit account. Rescue your friend's digital consciousness from a vending machine.Capitalism sucks. The rich are villains. Community rules.

Neon Black is a role-playing game about a community of poor people fighting back against tyrannical corporations and the indifference of the rich, as well as surviving in a dystopian city state. It’s like real life, but in this world you can kill the CEO’s, rob banks to pay rent, and help your friends do the same. You'll help your community, go on dangerous heists, explore artificial realities, and encounter friendly and nefarious machines. We play to find out if the community can survive amidst warring corporations, an unforgiving climate, and the negligence of the extravagantly wealthy.

This is a rulebook full of advice, albeit not yet accompanied with art. It’s built on the structure of Blades in the Dark, complete with Clocks, Playbooks, Scores and Downtime. It also comes with a chapter on Drugs, Hardware and Software, all must-haves for a Cyberpunk game. At its root, however, Neon Black is about community: your characters will face hard choices and be forced to make sacrifices for the good of the people they care about. Right now the game is still in beta, but it shows an immense amount of promise - and it’s perfectly playable in the stage it’s in right now! It also comes with some well-designed Playkits, available for free in the game description. I recommend that you check this game out!

[ronearoundblindly]

The Stark Legacy (9)

Ghosts, part of Book 1: Reality (see previous or series)

Summary: A fight leaves team members wounded.

Warnings: Short chapter of quick action fighting a slightly disturbing enemy. Paranormal horror for like three seconds. Rated Teen/Mature, so 15+ only, please.

CHAPTER NINE—June 2038

“This is some real Game of Thrones sh—” Tony was interrupted by a dirt zombie, as he dubbed them, lunging to eat his face. “Fresh out of brains. Please come back tomorrow for salisbury steak.”

“Only you could look at these things and think of food,” Falcon mumbled into his comms, flying high across the battlefield assessing the movements of hundreds, now thousands of temporarily animated bodies.

“Maximoff, you got any dragons?”

“Stark, you’re a child,” Wanda replied, ripping apart an entire group of demons with her mind and a graceful gesture.

Iron Man flew over to hover in front of her. “It’s so nice to be noticed.”

Bucky lifted his gun after reloading, back to back with Natasha. “Can I retire yet? I can’t take another twenty years of this.”

“I swear, Barnes, if you leave me with him…” Nat jumped headlong into a cluster of the evil dirt clods. The bodies broke apart easily enough, but the noise—their howling cries from hell—it was very disturbing. “Oh, god, it got in my mouth,” Nat spat.

“This feels like a video-game,” Peter Parker exclaimed joyously. “They’re not even scary.”

“Coming in hot,” Rhodes warned, peppering the flank with machine gun fire.

It all seemed so standard and even comfortable. This was their element, sass-fighting, and it made Tony almost happy to relinquish his considerable brain power entirely to wiping out these pitiful foes in the Siberian tundra.

“Anyone else feel that?” Wanda’s voice dropped. “Is that an earthquake?”

“Get ready,” Nat warned solemnly.

Now he could see it in flight, a visibly rolling, barren field beneath him, and a great hole collapsing in its center, glowing like lava.

“Falcon,” Tony yelled, launching to get Wanda out of the way.

“I’ve got him.” Sam Wilson swooped down to grab Spider-Man before the ground fell.

A massive blood-red body emerged from the crevice, thin and stretched to four times the size of a man. A starving form of bone and sinew that rose higher and higher as the earth fell away from the demons he commanded. They all had faces, souls of those who had left this world.

Surrounding Bucky and Nat were the ghostly victims of their assassinations. Men and women staring blankly at them while closing in. People they had already watched die, people daring them to do it again. Problematic politicians, clinging mistresses, rival businessmen, and one small figure Bucky didn’t recognize: a child, maybe a teenager. He heard Nat whisper beside him.

“It can’t be.”

Tony set Wanda down at a safe distance. He turned and began to say “what is that thing—” Then he saw his mother, gossamer and despairing. “Mom,” he breathed.

A flash of blue circled Wanda, slowing to stand in front of her and wink. “It’s not real, Stark. They’re not real.”

The great fiery figure let out a roar, flailing his gangly arms and spiked tail into the air. A hand clipped the EXO-7’s wing, crashing Sam and Peter into the ground among a crowd of souls. The mouths of every wraith unhinged to resonate the horrible shriek of their master.

Lightning struck.

“MEPHISTO,” Thor called, “you will leave this world and its people alone!”

Satan and his hoard replied with a cry, the specters all turned to attack the God of Thunder.

“I do not ask twice,” Thor threatened as the sparks began to dance around his body. The air turned electric, and no sooner had the ghosts sailed into the air to meet him than the field exploded with light and death.

[Ch 10: Wedding]

[Main Masterlist]

[boysplanetrecaps]

Recap of Boys Planet Episode 1 (Part 1)

It’s time for another giant MNET show! Are you excited, fellow Star Creator? Woo!

This is Boys Planet, also called Boys Planet 999 by random incorrect people, including me. And this thing you’re reading is a “watch along” guide/recap to the show. You can read it as you watch the show to get the behind the scenes dirt, or to keep track of who is who and what is going on, or after you watch, or whenever. I don’t spoil anything with respect to who gets kicked off, but I will help you connect the dots with respect to who is who. I’ll use helpful pictures and stuff, too.

All time stamps will correspond to the version on Viki. When I list ages, I’ll use international ages (Korean ages have historically always been 1 more than the way the rest of the world accounts ages). 

Who am I? 

An internet rando. I live somewhere in the United States and am over 21 years of age. I used to sing acapella and have a strong sense of pitch, but for dancing I just know what I like. I can read/understand a bit of Korean and a bit of Japanese as well, and can tell the difference between spoken Korean, Japanese, and Chinese, so at times I might be able to shed a little light as to what’s going on. When it comes to evaluating performances,  I’m not likely to be mean, and I try to understand what might be going on with people but I will be snarky and honest, especially about the editing. Cool? Cool! 🙂To the recap!

Feel free to skip past the drama-teaser to 1:25 for an earnest promise that the show’s producers have paid other people to watch them so that they can’t possibly cheat, before the show can begin and of course, immediately begin to cheat. Yay!

The show’s host, I’m sorry, “Star Master”, Hwang Minhyun, talks earnestly and dully about how there are stars in the sky and foreign members of kpop groups. Hilariously, he appears to be in a futuristic room looking out into a starry sky, perhaps aboard an orbiting space station with a really good gravity system in place. His desk, a cheap Ikea looking affair, is bedecked with a model of the main seating area for the show -- The Space Council Chambers  --  a name plate that says “Star Creator”, an unusually huge yellow desk lamp, and an old fashioned globe. This is the shit I live for. 

Minhyun is known for his appearance on Produce 101 Season 2 (aka, Broduce 101) as well as for being a popular member of both Wanna One and NU’EST. I’m more of a Baekho girl, but I like Minhyun just fine. There’s something about his face that I never, ever, ever recognize him when I see him, which I find is often the case for Korean “visuals.” He is nice looking, if a bit… personality free? But that could be the directing. 

Anyway, Minhyun gets up and pushes a button that says start…

And then we see a (computer generated) room which has been set aside to house a large…. gumball… machine... thing (that is computer generated). Large plastic balls fall from the two parts of the machine to meet in the center. None of this is necessary, or real, and I find that delightful. 

Minhyun tells us that now, we are all Star Creators and we’re going to make the next Kpop boy group that the world wants. You know, in case you’re not happy with A.C.E, Astro, Ateez, The Boys, BTS, Ciipher, CIX, Day6, DKZ, Drippin, Enhypen, E’last, Exo, FTIsland, GOT7, Golden Child, Highlight, IKON, JustB, Kingdom, Lucy, Monsta X, NCT, Oneus, ONF, OnlyoneOf, Pentagon, The Rose, Seventeen, SF9, SHINee, Stray Kids, TO1, Treasure, Trendz, TXT, TVXQ, Up10tion, Vav, Verivery, Victon, Vixx, WEi, Winner, Xdinary Heroes, Younite, or Z-Stars. But yes, we need more groups. Bring ‘em on. 

Minhyun goes on to talk about how there are two groups of trainees -- K group (Korean) and G group (Global), represented by blue and pink respectively, as well as two heavily mic’d flags. 

“Please vote for the boy shining brightest!” the shiny boys chant in unison.

You can vote for whoever you want, whether K or G, though the editors do strongly suggest you vote K, and the votes will again be weighted the way they were in GP999 -- ie, Korean votes will be weighted as 50% of the votes, and Global votes will be weighted as the other 50%. If you want to skip past the voting instructions, skip to 5:20. 

So, we look down at what looks kind of like one of those rolling-marble puzzles, 

but it turns out to be the hallway through which all the trainees have to walk on their way to the Space Council Chambers.

Lee Da Eul (18) and Lim Jun Seo (17) from 143 Entertainment,  the first to enter, are offered sparkly star stickers, and they decide to give themselves 1 star each, adding that they aren’t totally sure if they even deserve those one stars. Ok, politeness is sweet, but why go on this show if you don’t believe in your abilities? Anyway, these chosen two get to say “woah” and “eego buyo?” as the lights turn on loudly. They explore the Council seating, feel the soft seats for the top 9, then decide to sit in seats 4 and 5. (Later on, they’ll perform “Replay” by SHINee as their audition.) 

Next to enter are the trainees from Wakeone, who, we see in a flashback, had a pre-show meeting with their sunbae, Kim Chae Hyun from Kep1er, who did really well on GP999. Chaehyun encouraged them to be confident on the show, saying, “If someone is very good but has no confidence then there’s no charm to them.” The five Korean trainees from Wakeone gave themselves 7 stars each -- these are Kim Taerae, Park Hanbin, Lee Jung Hyun, Mun Junghyun, and Park Minseok. Their confidence spurs Lim Jun Seo to go move to seat 9. Wakeone’s maknae, Mun Jung Hyun (17), sits in the chair for #1. (Later on, these 5 will perform “The Real” by ATEEZ.)

From here there’s going to be a lot of fighting as to who gets to sit in that chair, and I’ll be honest, I don’t care that much. 

Next to enter is: Canada! One of the Wakeone trainees says “I would’ve never imagined someone from Canada” as the on-screen words say, “What will this Canadian trainee look like?” The combined impression from those two sentences is that people from Canada are unimaginably weird looking. Mun Jung Hyun wonders, “Will people with blonde hair and blue eyes show up?” Which, again, hilarious. Do they not know that Somi (IOI/soloist/future Star Master this season), Wendy from Red Velvet, Mark Lee from NCT, and a bunch of other k-idols are from Canada? Why do I know that, come to think of it? Why do I know that, and not where my keys are? 

Also, whenever Koreans talk about Canada, all I can think about is the k-drama, Goblin, in which they talk about “Canada” as if it is a single city with maybe two restaurants, and where it is always the beginning of autumn, encased in a gentle fluttering of orange maple leaves.

We meet Seok Matthew (20), who is independant, and has given himself three stars. He looks a tiny winy bit like Xiumin from Exo to me. In an interview, we can see that he speaks Korean reasonably well. His sister got him into dancing and now he really likes it, and he came to Korean to reach his dream. 

Then we meet Japanese trainee Takuto, born November of 2007, dressed for… boxing? He has boxing gloves hanging from a string around his neck and has a sweat band around his head. In his intro package, he speaks in sort of halting Korean -- hey, it’s a lot better than my own Korean -- and poses in power poses to show he’s a “manly man” (they translate it as “tough guy” but google translate says “manly man” and I think that’s funnier). 

An up close shot reveals he has actually stenciled “Takuto” in English letters on his cheek with blush. 

As the MNET editors mercilessly play the clip of him saying he’s a manly man ( “상 남… 상 남 자” /“Sang nam… sang namja…”) over and over and over again as if to teach us the proper pronunciation, Takuto looks around at the older bigger guys and makes a big heart over his head with his hands. All the other guys react by laughing and clapping, charmed. 

MNET obviously isn’t showing everyone who comes in, as eagle eyed viewer will spot additional trainees in the Space Council who were not shown entering, but hey, I mean, whatever, it’s MNET. This has been edited so much it’s basically fiction.

In comes Wumuti (23), who has such a unique look to him that I was curious as to his background. My internet roving tells me that he was also on the MNET show Under 19, and that he’s an ethnic Uyghur from China. I was like, ok, what is a Uyghur? Turns out they’re a sort of Turkish ethnic group but mostly they live in Northwest china, and oh…. It’s really sad and awful, guys. The Chinese government is doing things like work camps and forced sterilization and stuff to try to wipe them out. I can’t help but root for anyone who comes from a background like that. Also, his name written in Korean characters looks cute: 우무티. Later on he’ll perform UN Village by Baekhyun.

So, Wumuti comes in and we see he’s given himself 6 stars. He makes a beeline for Chair 1, where he loses Rock Paper Scissors. Come on, can’t the guy catch a break? 

Then we see a montage of trainees fighting for Chair 1, and again, I don’t care. They plank for it, thumb war, etc. Kum Jun Hyeon, 19, who has absolutely covered his nametag in stars to the point you can barely see even his name, is cheered on by his Redstart ENM labelmates as he nabs the chair. They have also gone completely HAM on those stars. (Later on, he’ll do Nunu Nana by Jessi.) I feel worse and worse for our initial two guys, giving themselves just one star. 

Apparently, MNET isn’t interested in spending time watching each trainee come in this time, and that’s possibly for the best, but it does make it a bit sketchy that we see certain trainees. 

For example, we meet the trainees from Taipei, who come in like this: 

Left to right, this is Chen Kuan Jui, Qiu Sheng Yang, Chen Ren You, and Dong Dong. Kuan Jui, holding that bejeweled stick, has given himself 5 stars, while the others have given themselves 2 or 3 each. Mun Jung Hyun and Kim Tae Rae wonder to each other, is that a magic staff? Like the kind that Sun Wukong carries? (Sun Wukong, aka the Monkey King, is a famous character from Chinese mythology.) (Later on they’ll do Tiger Inside by SuperM.)

Kuan Jui marches up to Chair 1 and does a full standing split that would actually put Le Sserafim’s Kazuha to shame

And thus, he earns the seat. 

I don’t know if the ability to put one’s ankle behind one’s neck is a something I need from a kpop idol. But I mean, good for him? I guess? 

In come the trainees from Jellyfish, and Lee Ye Dam reacts as if someone has splashed him in the face with cold water, which, given that this is MNET, is not impossible. Someone says, “no way!” which is very odd, because Jellyfish always sends trainees to shows like this. I mean, Mina and Sejong came out of PD 101. And it’s not as if Jellyfish is doing all that well. They squandered Sejong, they murdered Gugudan, and their most successful group is Verivery, who are very sweet, talented, and hardworking but not exactly smashing sales records. So yeah, not sure what Yedam is so excited about.

We get a bit of a slow-mo to take in what we might reasonably be excited about: sexy Park Gun Wook (18).

To be clear: I don’t personally find him sexy; he’s way too young to seem sexy to me personally. I’m saying that that is obviously what he’s going for. He gives off big time Kang Daniel vibes to me, not really in looks but in terms of what he’s aspiring to. He and his fellow Jellyfish trainees are tall and manly, and Gun Wook already may have a fan following since he did pretty well on another survival show called Wild Idol.  Gun Wook goes straight for Chair 1, and the other trainees comment on how muscular he is. He challenges the current seat sitter, a Japanese trainee named Riku, to a thigh wrestling game (??).  Poor Riku -- we didn’t see him take the seat, but we sure see him lose the seat.  

Time for an American trainee! I love that the Korean word for USA is “MiGuk” (or Bi-Goo, as it’s usually pronounced). Apparently it translates to Beautiful Country, which is so kind of them to say. I hope that the USA will do more things to earn that name going forward. 

Out come Jay and Na Kamden. Jay, lovey, there are already enough Jays in Kpop --you have to think of a different name. It seems like Jay strongly prefers speaking English, but understands some Korean, while Kamden understands Jay’s English but prefers to speak Korean. Kamden appeared on Wild Idol as well. 

Then we get a montage of tall global trainees, mostly Chinese. For people like me who don’t readily understand heights in cm, it’s good to know that 183 cm is 6 feet. So someone 188 cm is like, 6’2. 

We also meet Cong and Dang Hong Hai from Vietnam, who later on will perform View by SHINee. Hong Hai speaks Korean, even if it’s with a really thick accent. It has to be so hard for the global contestants. 

Then we meet the group from Osaka, Japan, and it turns out one of them is Keita, who the whole Space Council recognizes. He was on YG’s TreasureBox, the show that made the group Treasure, and then later on debuted with Ciipher. It’s not too weird he’d come on this show, as Ciipher is still, alas, in semi-nugu territory. 

Ah, here is Yuehua, who are sending in 4 Korean trainees and 4 Global trainees, each entering via their respective doorway, which is so charmingly unnecessary. The Korean trainees come out in all black, while the “global” team is a bit more colorful in faded denim. If you’re not familiar, Yuehua is a Chinese company with branches in Korea. They co-manage WJSN with Starship, and manage Everglow outright. They also manage new boy band Tempest. 

Anyway, then there’s a montage of the trainees finding each other handsome and saying they look like other famous people, capped off by the entrance of Sung Han Bin to the strains of tender piano music that presumably plays in his wake naturally due to his extreme handsomeness. 

Even I can tell that he is in fact, quite good looking in that classic kpop way. He looks like he should be with SM entertainment, but he’s from STUDIO GL1DE, which doesn’t bode well for his skills. A guy who looks like that who could do a nice step-touch and could at least carry a tune in a bucket would get picked up by a more prestigious agency. But maybe I’ll be proven wrong on that…. Hmmm…. 

Cube’s trainees are announced, and we’re treated to a brief montage of Cube’s top artists, including BtoB, Pentagon and G-Idle. The camera pauses for a moment on Hui from Pentagon as the group performs Shine. The trainees talk about how talented the Cube sunbaes are -- how talented would their hoobaes be? Out comes Bak Do Ha, looking like a figure skater. (Later on he’ll be performing My House by 2PM.) 

There’s still one more empty chair, and the Space Council wonders: what agency could sending the last trainee? It turns out it’s also… Cube?!? Bak Do Ha smiles and laughs to himself as the other trainees are wondering why this last trainee is being announced last and separately. They all immediately recognize him as Hui-sunbaenim from Pentagon, a group that debuted in 2016, has had some serious ups and some serious downs, and won a bunch of music shows as recently as a few months ago. This 29-year-old man who has already done his military service bows to the 15 year olds and introduces himself as Lee Hoe Taek from Cube, politely saying “I look forward to working with you.” 

Guys. GUYS. I have a lot of feelings about Hui from Pentagon being on this show. I could talk endlessly about it, but the upshot is: negative. I have negative feelings about this. When Pentagon went on Kingdom, they actually kind of… fell in my esteem. Hui seemed so sad, like the group was just so sad, and Hui was pushing so hard to make his song remixes cool that he forgot to make them… pleasant to listen to, or fun to see performed. I think Hui is a genuine, top-tier talent when it comes to songwriting, producing, and singing. I love a lot of Pentagon songs, including ones people don’t talk about but should, like Can You Feel It and Sha La La. I am still angry that E-Dawn got kicked out over being a human being with a love life, and angry that it hurt Pentagon a lot, and heartbroken that a lot of that probably landed on Hui’s head.I get it that he’s doing this to get people to notice Pentagon. After all, their contracts are up in 2023, and no doubt they’ll want to leave that awful agency. Maybe they’ll pull a GOT7 and all leave together and stay together. So I get it that he wants to promote. But the thing is, I don’t believe that “all publicity is good publicity.” I think having people feel sorry for you will make them not feel impressed by you, or attracted to you, and I think that will hurt you. I think this was a big mistake and it makes me feel second-hand-humiliation. I hope I’m wrong. Sincerely, I do. 

Anyway, this award winning songwriter and top-tier vocalist has rated himself 3 stars. Thinking about it, that was kind of the only move he could make -- he has to pretend to have a reason to be on the show, and that reason can only be to “work on myself and continue to improve to be the best Lee Hoe Taek I can be”, or something along those lines. To be Hui and give himself 4 (or more) stars would feel like an NBA star who came to dunk on a bunch of high school kids. 

We cut to his first interview with the staff, in which he said that he had only gotten discharged from the military a week ago and feels shy in front of the camera. We get a brief montage of trainees saying they’re not sure why he’s here, some of them seeming a little irritated. Others say that it’s a honor to be on the same show with Hui. 

Hui decides to challenge the current number-1 chair sitter (16 year old Park Ji Hoo, who says “I just got here!”) to a contest to win the chair, and bowing deeply and speaking politely, says he’d like to have a singing contest. Of course. He lets out a delightful musical phrase, and Ji Hoo stands there listening, then scurries away without singing a note. 

There’s something so poignant about Ji Hoo saying, “I just got here” to Hui. He just got here in the show, he just got here in this industry -- he just got here on this PLANET compared to Hui. And here comes Hui to take the chair. I like Hui, I do, I just…. Ugh. 

Ollie, who is representing China but seems quite comfortable speaking English, notices that the two sides of the room are really different, with K-group mostly wearing suits or leather, and G-group more varied and colorful. Yes, that is obvious. Can we have another season of Youth With You that doesn’t end with a milk scandal, please? Anyway… 

Interestingly, Ollie can also speak a decently pronounced, if slightly halting, Korean in his interview. Zhang Hao can also speak a bit of Korean -- it sounds to me like he has a Chinese accent on his Korean, but it’s not like I would really know. But they’re both Yuehua trainees and it wouldn’t surprise me if their agency gave them intensive Korean language training. Love that. It’s really smart of Yuehua, and so truly helpful to their trainees. 

0:23:00  The Judges Come Out

The room darkens and the trainees watch a short video about how they’re on Boys Planet now and are trying to become shining stars or whatever the shit. Turns out this year, there will be multiple hosts, and the viewers will be called Star Creators. The boys are nervous in general and in specific. 

Time to meet the vocal master: Lee Seok Hoon. The trainees recognize him, and while they clearly respect him, they’re scared of him after his time on Produce101. He’s known for turning his head to the side and looking disgusted when someone hits a sour note, or for nodding appreciatively with his eyebrows raised when someone hits a good note.

Solji is the female vocal master and their enthusiasm seems bigger -- it’s Solji from Exid! Who doesn’t love her? Wrong people, that’s who. A trainee says that she’s been teaching at a University, and like, I hope so. I just want Solji’s life to be full of respect and comfort. She just seems like such a class act. I bet she’s an excellent teacher. And then Onestar comes out, who we might recognize from GP999. The trainees cheer for him and he makes them cheer more. 

Then the rap master: pH-1 from H1ghr music, who introduces himself in rapid English. Several of the trainees claim to be big fans. I’ll be honest and say I’ve never heard of him. And I actually do listen to some k-rap. Per Wikipedia, he was born in Korea but moved to New York when he was 12. I guess he chose English as the lingua franca, but in that case, talk more slowly, dude. Anyway. Wikipedia adds,  “As the three keywords he pursues in his music are truth, positivity, and experience, his work contains positive or honest messages, generally excluding references to drugs, money bragging and excessive "flexing", and explicit sexual content.” So, look forward to that. Or not. I don’t know what you’re into. 

Dance Masters: From 1Million, Back Koo Young and Choi Young Joon. Look I don’t know much about much but I *do* know that 1Million is top tier when it comes to dance. So these guys are good. The trainees are psyched to see them. Also, Lip J, who is “the living legend of waacking.” The trainees say their judges/trainers are like the Avengers. 

The judges immediately move into intimidation mode. It’s time to find out how the trainees rated themselves, star wise. The Korean group was more confident, overall. 

What’s sort of interesting about this is that during GP999, the Chinese girls were far more confident than the Korean girls. That’s because Chinese culture isn’t as self-effacing as Korean culture is, in general. Kind of interesting, too, that they had the boys do this, but not the girls. With the girls it would have been such a mine field because it’s “unfeminine” to have faith in yourself. Anyway. 

Japanese trainee Haruto interviews, in Korean, “Only a maximum of four stars were allowed, but almost everyone did whatever they wanted.” Yep.

The judges explain that their first performance will be the “Style Level Test”, during which their self-assessed star levels will be replaced by judge-assessed stars. Also, we learn that K-group and G-group are being pitted against each other; the team that wins more stars overall will get access to the next song that they have to practice a day earlier. Kind of cruel -- my assumption, without having seen the whole episode, is that the K-group will win, and the G-group will be at a further disadvantage, having one day fewer to practice and needing even more time due to language barriers. Why do I watch these shows? Am I mentally well?  

Auditions Begin: 0:32:58

Finally, we get our first audition -- Team Jellyfish, who gave themselves all 4 stars. The trainees are suitably cowed; after all, Kim Dayeon from Kep1er is from Jellyfish. Kim Gyu Vin (who is a serious talent in his own right, and will later on perform Kick It) calls Park Gun Wook “Park Gun-Wook -nim” even though, as he notes, Gyu Vin is actually a bit older than Gun Wook. It’s just that Gun Wook looks so big and mature. Little boxer Takuto met team Jellyfish backstage and backed away from them as if scared, his hands in a fig leaf position, and they encouraged him to come closer and were nice to him and called him cute. Gun Wook is the leader, the all rounder, and is also apparently pretty nice. See? Kang Daniel vibes? 

They’re going to be performing GBTB (Go Beyond the Barrier) by their sunbaes, Verivery.  One of the dance masters actually choreographed this, but the boys seem confident to perform it in front of the choreographer. Fighting!

Left to right: Jang Yeo Jun, Park Hyun Been, Han Yu Seop, Park Gun Woo 

My thoughts:

I’ll be honest, this is my first time hearing this song, and I’m ok not hearing it again after this. Just sort of… like what if you took all the NCT songs and threw them in a blender with an electric guitar? Sorry, VERRER. I still think Verivery are very cute and charming and my bias is Dongheon.

As for the performance: I have not a ton to say, because it was fine. All four of them did fine dance wise. Gun Wook stood out with his charisma and his big nice face. (I know the Korean ideal is small faces, but I like big faces.) I think Jang Yeo Jun danced a little bit better than the others, doing those weird leg kicks a little bit better, and Park Hyun Been rapped really fast and pretty well. Their singing was on key, too. I think Han Yu Seop was the main vocalist, but I actually think his singing was among the weakest -- there were times that I couldn’t even hear him sing. But they were dancing really hard. So for an audition for one of these shows, he was ok. 

They ask GunWook to dance by himself, and he chooses a song by Seventeen. The dance masters warn him that it’s hard, but he’s unbothered. He has good charisma, great facial expressions, and sharp movements. As far as I can tell, he’s good. 

The judges give them all the same score -- 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐ . They took away a star because the boys didn’t sing loud enough. The boys do their best to accept their fate. 

WakeOne doing Glitch Mode. 

The team comes out in a choo choo train formation -- sorry for that extremely technical term --  then introduce themselves (and I’ll tell you a little more): 

Super Charming Anthonny! (He’s almost 19, from Japan, and got all A’s on Produce 101 Japan) 

Refreshing energy Min! (He’s 22, from Thailand, and also went on Under Nineteen)

Powerful Dance Haruto! (He’s 18, from Japan, specializes in dance, and went semi-viral for complaining that his profile picture didn’t look like him, even tho it kinda does….)

After they introduce themselves, Haruto asks if they can have a moment to check their formation -- basically, they want to rehearse on stage during the audition? The judges let them, sighing about kids today, but everyone is mildly impressed that these foreigners are talking to each other in Korean. Min’s profile says he speaks Thai, Korean, Chinese, and English, but not Japanese, so maybe that’s why they’ve settled on Korean to talk to each other -- plus it looks better to the judges that they know enough Korean to communicate. 

My thoughts: 

I have to note that Glitch Mode is the kind of song I’m a bit over. I really like Cherry Bomb and Firetruck and even got on board with Kick It but this sort of shouting-in-unison, wandering base line, jazzy-melodic-SM-bridge when the singers can sing… I just am a bit past it. Sorry, folks. (Update: But I do love Ayo, so who knows anymore?) So I don’t know this song super well. I listened to it twice before watching the performance trying to figure out what the melody is and kind of failed. So. There’s that. 

This was a really cute performance, though. I watched the full version on youtube before I watched the show version. All three of them danced well, with a lot of energy and great facial expressions. 

Haruto obviously stood out for dancing, doing aerials and backflips and splits. He rolled with the fact that his mic pack fell out of his pocket right at the beginning, and didn’t let it show on his face. But his singing was egregious. He’s not a singer, and this song is incredibly difficult to sing even when you’re standing still. Also, his rapping wasn’t too bad. 

Min did some high kicking and acrobatics as well, and his rapping was actually good. I won’t say his singing was good but it was on key as far as I could tell, which is an achievement. 

Anthonny was the vocalist of the team and as such didn’t do any flipping around, but he sang the best. Like I said, overall, pretty charming. I have a soft spot for Anthonny for no darn reason. He’s just a cutie. 

Interestingly, the version that aired on the show had most of the bad singing edited out. I think the show wanted Haruto to look better. The judges ask him about his dancing ability and he says he used to do ballet and proceeds to do a sort of crazy 30 consecutive ballet turns. Haruto is obviously a really good dancer, but so was Min, who also rapped well. And Haruto’s singing was very, very bad -- did I mention that? But they still gave him an All Star rating  ⭐ ⭐⭐⭐ , which strikes me as objectively incorrect. I like him, you guys. I do. He’s charming and cute and a great dancer. He didn't sing well in his audition. That isn’t an opinion; it’s a fact. I think maybe 2 or 3 stars would have been fairer. Or maybe Haruto sang a separate song and did a lot better in it, but we didn't see...?

Min and Anthonny both get 3 stars 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐ , though the show doesn’t care enough to bother to show it. 

Next up, at 49:00, is Team Taipei. I’ll put their photo back up so you don’t have to scroll back and forth.

Again, left to right, that’s Chen Kuan Jui, Qui Sheng Yang, Chen Ren You, and Dong Dong. 

The judges immediately ask about the big stick and he explains he needs it for performance. 

My thoughts:   They perform Tiger Inside by SuperM. As always, I checked out the Youtube version first, before I watched the MNET edited version. I like this song just fine, if you’re wondering. 

The flexible Chen Kuan Jui is 22. His online profile mentions he does ballet and that one of his hobbies is “stretching.” Yeah, that checks out. His dancing is very good -- little details like how he bends his fingers, stuff like that. You just know his toes are pointed inside those boots. That said, his vocal color is unpleasant, and his choice to retrieve and spin that dumb stick was…. You know…. A choice. A wrong choice, but a choice. Sorry if you liked it, but I found it really unimpressive. I’d rather just watch this talented dancer dance.

The blonde Qiu Sheng Yang is 21. He also was on Atom Boyz with Ren You, on the same team but eliminated much sooner than Ren You was. His performance here is not fabulous but not awful. He seemed uncomfortable to me, like he was overdancing a bit. 

The distinctive looking Chen Ren You is 19. His online profile states that he’s a singer; he was on a Taiwanese reality show called Atom Boyz that sounds like a frickin’ hoot, but doesn’t seem available in full with English subtitles, anywhere. Ren You has one of those faces -- like GunWook on this show, or Sehun from EXO, or that one guy from Drippin, Junho. Like a face that’s just like HI, I AM A FACE. I dig it, don’t get me wrong. Anyway, his performance was good. I thought his dancing was purposeful, but sort of calm, and his singing was really good. On key, on rhythm, pleasant, all that good stuff. I’m rooting for him.

The delightfully monikered Dong Dong is 22 and represents Stardust Entertainment. I’m old as shit but I am still apparently 12 years old on the inside because I can’t. He apparently was on a Chinese reality show called The Coming One 2. Anyway, he does fine, I guess. On key, dancing is decent, it’s not awful. Bring it on, bringenon, brigggedon! 

So yeah, I say Chen Kuan Jui was the best dancer in the group, and Renyou is the best singer in the group, but they were all basically ok. Of course, the MNET editing focuses almost entirely on the stupid stick, and Renyou’s excellent singing is edited out. They give Renyou 2 stars ⭐⭐ . Are we watching the same thing? Maybe his dancing was bad and I just can’t tell because I know nothing about dancing.  

The judges focus on flexy Chen Kuan Jui and give him time to dance, and of course, he’s genuinely a very very good ballet dancer. He can get up with his toes and flip around and do all sorts of crazy stuff. But I really dislike his singing voice and I don’t know, I find him off-putting for no good reason. That’s not fair of me, but yeah, it’s where I’m at. Regardless, the judges give him 4 stars.  ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐ We don’t see it, but Dong Dong gets 1 star  ⭐ and Sheng Yang gets 2 stars ⭐⭐ . 

Now we have a montage of G group groups: team Vietnam doing View, team Thailand doing Kokobop, and a Chinese group doing God’s Menu.  The editing here is brought to you by MNET’s editing team, shown here at their most recent staff meeting.

We barely see any of these teams, so I watched their full performances on Youtube and will let tell you about it! 

Team Kokobop:

A Thai duo who greet everyone with a sawadee ka. Zhang Hao from Yuehua (good looking guy with auburn hair -- we’ll meet him soon) tells Ricky from Yuehua (distinctive blonde guy, giving us Keifer Sutherland in Lost Boys vibes) that he wants to be friends with the Thai guys because he likes Thai food.

Winnie, from FirstOne Entertainment, claims his specialty is freestyle dance. He’s 24. I’ve seen his name spelled Winne, but more official sources spell it  Winnie. He’s a member of nugu group NINE.i -- two other members of that group are on the show, but they’re Korean, so we’ll meet them later. 

Nice is an individual trainee. He’s 22. He seems scared to look up or into camera lenses. 

My Thoughts:

They perform Kokobop, and I watched the whole performance on Youtube. I’m a huge EXO-L (my bias is ALL OF THEM) and I really love this song, so I know it well. Winnie was actually pretty decent, singing a really difficult song. He was a little sharp here and there but really not that bad. He also looked pretty comfortable and hit the dance moves reasonably well. I never know what the Korean public thinks looks good, but I think his styling isn’t working for him. He’s wearing way too much foundation, that shade of hair color doesn’t suit his skin, and his contact lenses just give him an unearthly, fake look. He looks better in some photos I’ve seen of him online, like this one: 

Winnie, I hope for good things for you going forward. 

Nice was terrible vocally; the dancing was ok but the vocals were unacceptable. He also looked really, really shy -- like he can’t even make eye contact with the camera. I think he is way out of his league, bless him. You’re very cute, Nice. I assume you’re rich or you wouldn’t be here, so I hope your personal wealth cushions the blow when you are rightfully kicked off. (Smash cut to Nice making the final line up because he’s cute….???)

MNET editing was pretty kind, honestly. Nice can only benefit by being edited down. He’s like the shark in Jaws -- looks great as long as you don’t see him for long. The judges give Nice 0 stars, and give Winnie 1 star ⭐ .

Next up is a G-group team: Team God’s Menu

Oh, these poor guys. They look good in their outfits, to be fair, but poor guys. Non-native speakers of Korean, trying to do this song? As someone said online, “Their souls probably left their bodies when they found out they had to do this song.” I’m trying to think of a group who could cover this song and do it justice. Monsta X probably could. And I mean, of course BTS could. Probably Hui or Jeon Soyeon could do a cool remix that would suit their own teams. Regardless, this is not an ideal song for a rookie group of non-native Korean speakers. 

I watched the whole performance on Youtube. I’m not obsessed with Stray Kids but I do like them (my bias is Changbin!), and I love love LOVE this song. Here’s my take: 

Xuan Hao also appeared on Youth With You 3, which I didn’t watch. He ended in 62nd place and apparently also uses the name “Swen.” He says on his initial profile worksheet that God’s Menu is his favorite song, and maybe that’s one of the reasons that he did a great job here. His dancing was sharp when it had to be sharp and fluid when it had to be fluid, and his singing was on key and on the beat. He’s a better singer than I.N. anyway. Yes I said it: I.N. is not a good singer. Come find me and kill me for it, I guess? That’s the kind of thing you should end a human life for, right? Anyway, I like Xuan Hao. 

Lin Shiyuan was apparently once a Cube trainee, but is now independent. He has the job of rapping Changbin’s intro rap. He doesn’t do very well. He very noticeably rushes the beat pretty much every time it’s his turn to vocalize in any way, maybe because he’s nervous, and his pronunciation is not great. He had definitely learned these complicated dance steps, but he wasn’t dancing them, just doing them. I could see the fear in his face, and when he wasn’t singing or rapping, you could almost see him counting the steps. When they were flipping the pancake, he didn’t look up to wait for it to come back down, which is 90% of the fun of that move. I can’t blame him and I’m not blaming him. Poor guy. 

Feng Junlan actually did pretty well. His rapping was on the beat and sounded good, and his dancing was precise. He looked up when they flipped the pancake -- it makes such a difference. If the judges have any sense that have to have noticed how well he did. 

When I tried to watch it to focus on Chen Liang, Feng Junlan kept stealing my attention. Liang did fine dance wise, as far as I could tell (but didn’t look up when they flipped the pancake!), but his vocals were very off key (if at least more or less on the beat). 

The judges are kind in their manner, but not generous with their stars. 

Xuan Hao gets 1 star ⭐ , which seems too low to me. 

Lin Shiyuan gets 1 star ⭐ , which must be for the dancing.

Feng Junlan gets 2 stars ⭐⭐ , which seems low to me, but I’m glad it’s not 1 or 0. 

Chen Liang gets 2 stars ⭐⭐ , which seems high to me. 

Team View - Vietnam

My thoughts:

Obviously, like any sane person, I love this song. 

Basically, none of their performance gets shown, but you guys, they were pretty good! Honestly, they sang on key and tried to keep their energy up and yeah, I don’t speak Korean but I know this song well and it didn’t sound awful. Check it out on Youtube and see for yourself -- compare their singing to that of Haruto’s and you’ll see what I mean. 

The judges give 22-year-old Cong just 1 star ⭐ , which is cruelly low, and give 19 year old Dang Hong Hai 2 stars ⭐⭐ , which is ok, I’m on the fence between 2 and 3 for him. But it’s like the judges are watching these auditions from Minhyun’s space station. And maybe… I don’t know… is there a little racism? Just a little bit? Against these two Vietnamese trainees? 

From what we can tell from the editing, the judges really dinged them for their pronunciation, as if that matters the most? As if the ability to sing on key isn’t, perhaps, more important? 

In an interview, Cong says, in Korean, that he practices Korean every day.  His pronunciation is pretty bad, though. You probably wouldn’t guess from hearing it that that was Korean, but if you listen closely you hear the Korean verb endings. It must be so hard for someone coming from a tonal language, like Vietnamese or Chinese, to learn a non-tonal language like Korean.  I think it’s much easier for Japanese speakers to speak Korean -- they’re totally different languages but have similar sounds in them. (To be technical: Japanese and Korean are not related at all, but they have similar phonemes, which are the basic sounds you make when you speak. Korean has additional vowel sounds that Japanese doesn’t have, and there are other small differences, but if you can pronounce one language it wouldn’t be too hard to learn to pronounce the other.) 

Then we get a mini montage about how much global trainees want to be kpop idols. Thai trainee Winnie says (in what sounds like very good Korean) that he wanted to be an idol since he was a kid. He turned down an opportunity with a very prestigious university, Chulalongkorn University (it’s the highest rated university in Thailand) in order to come to Korea and pursue this dream. -- in the audience,  Kim Ji Woong, a 24-year-old individual trainee we haven’t met yet but who I assume is handsome,* mutters, “Can I go to that school in your place?” which strikes me as… super sad. Like, there’s stuff going on here we don’t know but can kind of guess.

*I have to say things like “I assume this person is handsome” because my standards of handsome/not aren’t always the same as everyone else’s. For example, I think that Chen is the best looking member of Exo. I think all of these boys are nice looking, and some of them are cute or charming, etc, but I can’t always tell who is going to be the “visual King” or whatever for a given season. 

At 55:36, we see Qiu Sheng Yang (who we met earlier, in Tiger Inside), then his teammate, the flexible Chen Kuan Jui, then Osuke, a Japanese trainee we haven’t met (he’s going to do Crown), then Min, the Thai trainee who did Glitch Mode, all talking about how much they admire Korean pop music, all to the tender strains of gentle piano, and Koreans everywhere smile in satisfaction, I guess.  

And that’s enough for one post! Part II will be linked here. 

[exoplanetupdates-blog]

EXO at SMTOWN Concerts (2014-15)

SM Town Live World Tour IV

140815 - SMTOWN in Seoul - EXO

Teaser

Zhou Mi, Victoria Song + Xiumin, Tao, Sehun - Loving You

Henry ft. Chanyeol - Bad Girl

f(x) ft. D.O. - Goodbye Summer

Kyuhyun, Changmin, Minho, Suho - Something (Girls Day Cover)

EXO - Let Out The Beast

EXO - Lucky

Henry, Luna, Wendy, Chen - That's What Friends Are For

EXO - Machine

EXO - MAMA

EXO - Growl

Taemin ft. Kai - Pretty Boy

Ryeowook, D.O., Fly To The Sky - Missing You

EXO - Wolf

Changmin, Taemin, D.O. & Jaehyun - You Needed Me

Dance Battle

EXO - Overdose

Ending - Hope

141004/05 - SMTOWN in Tokyo - EXO

Henry, Luna, Wendy, Chen - That's What Friends Are For

EXO - Machine

Taemin ft. Kai - Pretty Boy

EXO - MAMA / [1]

EXO - Growl

EXO - Wolf

Changmin, Taemin, D.O. & Jaehyun - You Needed Me

Dance Battle

EXO - Overdose

BoA ft. Sehun - Only One

Ending - Hope

141018 - SMTOWN in Shanghai - EXO

Zhou Mi, Victoria Song + Xiumin, Tao, Sehun - Loving You

Henry ft. Chanyeol - Bad Girl

EXO - Lucky

Henry, Luna, Wendy, Chen - That's What Friends Are For

EXO - Machine + MAMA

Taemin ft. Kai - Pretty Boy

EXO - Growl

EXO - Wolf

Changmin, Taemin, D.O. & Jaehyun - You Needed Me

Dance Battle

EXO - Overdose

BoA ft. Sehun - Only One

Ending - Hope

150321 - SMTOWN in Taiwan - EXO

Henry ft. Chanyeol - Bad Girl

Zhoumi ft. Tao - Rewind

EXO - Lucky

EXO - Machine

EXO - MAMA

Taemin ft. Kai - Pretty Boy

EXO - Growl

EXO - Wolf

Changmin, Taemin, D.O. & Jaehyun - You Needed Me

Dance Battle [1] [2]

EXO - Overdose

BoA ft. Sehun - Only One

Ending - Hope

150705/06 - SMTOWN in Tokyo - EXO

Zhoumi ft. Chanyeol - Rewind

Changmin & Xiumin - Mackerel

Changmin, Baekhyun, Xiumin, Key - We Are.....T [baekhyun]

Changmin, Baekhyun, Xiumin, Key - Somebody to Love [baekhyun]

EXO - Machine

EXO - Wolf

Ment

Taemin ft. Kai - Pretty Boy

EXO - Love Me Right

EXO - Growl

Dance Battle

Baekhyun & Yesung - Natsu No Owari No Harmony

Changmin, Kyuhyun, Chen - Bolero

EXO - Call Me Baby

Ending - Hope

150725/26 - SMTOWN in Osaka - EXO

Zhoumi ft. Chanyeol - Rewind

Changmin & Xiumin - Mackerel

Changmin, Baekhyun, Xiumin, Key - We Are + Somebody to Love

EXO - Machine

EXO - Wolf

Ment [RAW]

Taemin ft. Kai - Pretty Boy

EXO - Love Me Right

EXO - Growl

Dance Battle

Baekhyun & Yesung - Harmony of Late Summer

Changmin, Kyuhyun, Chen - Bolero

EXO - Call Me Baby

Ending - Hope

SMTOWN : THE STAGE DVD

Trailer

Preview [1] [2]

Greeting Messages [1] [2]

Premiere Red Carpet - EXO Cut

Dongdaemun SMTOWN The Stage Greeting - Baekhyun [1] [2]

Full Documentary

One Night TV SMTOWN The Stage Cut

Undisclosed Interview Cut

Chanyeol & Sehun Interview

EXO Backstage Collection [RAW] 

[fff777]

I just learned about the Save One, Drop One game so I'm going to try it out! Here's the video for the Exo edition.

I made some choices I did not expect I would make. I actually think the toughest decisions are between two songs I don't care for lol. The only time I really struggled between two songs I really liked was #60 .

Cream Soda vs. Lotto

Artificial Love vs. The Eve

Private Party vs. Ooh La La La

Butterfly Effect vs. White Noise

Candy (Baekhyun) vs. Bambi (Baekhyun)

Love Shot vs. Tempo

Hurt vs. Baby Don't Cry

Paradise vs. Touch It

Blooming Days (CBX) vs. Hey Mama! (CBX)

One and Only vs. What If..

Monster vs. Obsession

Oasis vs. Runaway

Trauma vs. CInderella

She's Dreaming vs. Fall

Jekyll vs. Going Crazy

Rover (Kai) vs. Mmmh (Kai)

Black Pearl vs. Machine

Unfair vs. The First Snow

Forever vs. Sign

Stronger vs. Lights Out

Call Me Baby vs. Love Me Right

Hear Me Out vs. Boomerang

Gravity vs. Baby You Are

El Dorado vs. Diamond

Promise vs. Cosmic Railway

Mama vs. History

Trouble vs. Damage

Chill vs. Cloud 9

Beautiful vs. Baby

Rose (D.O.) vs. Beautiful Goodbye (Chen)

Electric Kiss vs. Coming Over

Love Fool vs. Tender Love

Can't Bring Me Down vs. Transformer

Been Through vs. Let Me In

Non Stop vs. Heaven

What a Life (SC) vs. 1 Billion Views (SC)

Ya Ya Ya vs. Regret It

Smile on my face vs. Walk on memories

Power vs. Don't Fight the Feeling

Exodus vs. Lady Luck

Stay vs. With You

Ko Ko Bop vs. Growl

Love Again (Baekhyun) vs. Cry For Love (Baekhyun)

24/7 vs. Sweet Lies

Universe vs. Sing For You

Brand New (Xiumin) vs. Hurdle (Suho)

No Makeup vs. Groove

Playboy vs. Thunder

Bad Dream vs. They Never Know

Lightsaber vs. Overdose

Beautiful (Baekhyun) vs. Stay With Me (Chanyeol, Punch)

What U Do? vs. Another Day

For Life vs. Miracles in December

Ka-Ching! (CBX) vs. Horololo (CBX)

Don't Go vs. Lucky

Monodrama (Lay) vs. Curtain (Suho)

Lovin' You Mo vs. Into My World

Peaches (Kai) vs. UN Village (Baekhyun)

Lucky One vs. Dancing King (feat. Yoo Jaesuk)

Just as Usual vs. Day After Day

We Young (SC) vs. Young (Baekhyun, Loco)

[heartcravings]

for exo ask game: 1,3,4!! :D

hi!! thanks for asking some back! <3 1) my favourite exo mv ahhh this is so hard!!!! idk... i love them all, how can i choose?! we have the when the skies and the ground were one "mama", the hands on the pants pocket "history", the chanyeol is dora the explorer "what is love", the coolest high schoolers jump around in a dusty warehouse "growl", the chogiwah "wolf", the saddest collective stood up ever "miracles in december", the craziest cube "overdose", the cool "call me baby" exos, the "lmr" rugby players and the "lmr - romantic universe" computer game, the last three jedis in "lightsaber", the astronaut sehun meets a space whale while myeon and yeol punch each other "sing for you", the red force cloned the boys "lucky one", the you can call them "monster", the one where they are kingpins of illegal activities but save a girl "lotto", the one where nini isn't the dancing machine but everyone is "dancing king", the we are one drugs but let's pretend is our powers are malfunctioning "kokobop", the we are still on drugs but who are these weird masked girls in pink "electric kiss", the everything is about coffee "universe", the we fighting space robots "power", the one where we can't mess their "tempo", the one where they are wearing suits "love shot", the we are both evil and good "obsession", the we are fighting in space but actually just having a rave "dftf" xD (did i miss one? xD) in all honesty i love the game concept mv's like "love me right - romantic universe" or "power" cause they are fun and geek, but i also really like darker mv like electric kiss, obsession, monster, lotto, cause i like those darker sounding songs too. so yeah i guess these are my fave mvs, but i love all of exo! "universe" for example is such a beautiful mv!! 3) favourite concept answered here so i'll do a bonus one: 23) Which animal slippers would each member wear sehun — vivi's!! jongin — bears obviously kyungsoo — something black, maybe a panther? could also go fun like those shark eating feet! chanyeol — nick and judy from zootopia (fox and bunny) jongdae — cute chubby dinosaurs baekhyun — corgi butt slippers ^^ yixing — dragon claws!! junmyeon — bunnies!! minseok — he'd probably wear comfy but manly slippers but then when he was watching tv or on the sofa he'd have this cat paw warmer slipper for both feet together ^^ 4) least favourite exo song there isn't an exo song that i don't like, all of them have at least a few parts that i really enjoy. that said, the back crescendo in black pearl sometimes gets me feeling irritated. the same with the bass rhythm and the fast passed high notes in lady luck. maybe it's cause i am an anxious person but these two songs kind of trigger my anxiety so i do skip these two sometimes.

[dojae-huh]

Have finished 5 out of 6 eps of "Made in Korea" show about Dear Alice.

British are as foreign to me as Koreans. Actually, I can relate to the latter easier. I do watch British tv-series, but rarely. As such, the members of the group were a big contrast to what I got used to after years of k-pop.

The biggest struggle for everyone, the boys and the SM team, was to beat out self-importance out of the members, and make them into one group. The Evil queen used different "bring dow to Earth" tactics to remind them they are lacking in everything. You think people will pay for your performance with this level? You are winded after 2 choreo routines, how do you expect to hold a concert, will you tell the audience to come home after one song? You can't cry or be angry everytime you make a mistake, you are not a baby anymore. And so on.

Funny thing, although she didn't praise the boys often, she was still very polite talking to them. None of that harshness and verbal abuse we can see on idol-survival shows. The boys were treated with care, and still broke down all the time due to lack of positive reinforcement. Instead of "I can fail and not get into the group" it was "they don't want me here".

I really expected some SM artists to talk to them, but they only got a cheering message from their crush aespa as a treat. I would like to look at their faces after Johhny tells him about his 8 years of training, not getting into Exo, not getting into 127, and how long it took for the unit to become famous, heh. Or for them to sit at a dance practice.

Everyone, even those who did sports, had problems with stamina. Neos look gaunt, but at their level of idolship and 2-3 hour concerts they are performance machines. (It is nutririon, as mentioned in the docu, but it is also about the developed capillary system that supplies all tissues with oxygen, the number of myrochondria in cells that produce energy, the correct breathing methods, etc)

As of now, it is hard to believe DA will last more than 3-5 years. The members have become close, but they are still pretty individualistic, with egos.

It is easy to see why they were chosen, though. Less attention on skills and more focus on star-quality, looks and charm.

I also had a thought that k-pop busy choreo may not be as weird for a non-k-pop group today. People like TikTok and dance challenges, afterall. It's less about god-like stars and more about cozy influencers and parasocial friendship/crush.

[finalshaper]

polycule win!!!!!!! but yeah i had o14 on the brain. what’s the red and white exo’s name btw???

hihi apologies for getting to you so late on this!!

AWW Yeah the Idiots is what immediately came to mind, o14 was an afterthought cos I was talking to my friend about the idiots lmao.

the warlock is my boy Pulsar!

he is in fact seven feet tall and built like a light breeze could knock him over. he and nebs (my titan) are like, polar opposites and they originally had a one-sided hatred for each other (pulsar had it OUT for nebs before chillin out and getting used to him) that is played mostly for laughs. We love seeing a pretentious arrogant asshole warlock get all spluttery and flustered out of annoyance because nebula won't stop pushing his buttons but he has to play nice cos he doesn't want to risk the mission or get in trouble. he also hates how this titan, stereotypically the stupid ones, keeps managing to out-think him and out-plan him. he hates this man so much he wants to kiss him. he wants to shut him up but it seems the only way would be kissing him with tongue, oh nooo, whatever will he doooo?

Aside from being a Guardian he is a lisenced Cryptarch, and when he isn't assisting Rahool or any local Cryptarchy institute he is a professor at a local university, and when he isn't doing THAT his hobbies include fencing, knitting and textile arts, and he also enjoys pole dancing and ribbon acrobatics/aerial silks! He's won some awards from fencing competitions/pole dancing competitions/aerial silk competitions, and he enjoys making textile things to sell or submit to art museums and some of his designs he's even won more awards for. Some of his creations he's even donated to clothes drives and those less fortunate -- every single piece is made with meticulous, machine-like precision and perfection.

his inspiration is pearl (steven universe) and uhh, his voiceclaim is Zeno Robinson (SPECIFICALLY how they play Eclair Cookie from cookie run) while his ghost's voice is Deedee Magno Hall (also pearl stevenuniverse)

[shop-korea]

DEAR - KOREAN - GIRLS,

IS - KAI - EXO - STILL - WITH - JENNY - BLK PINK

'SPRING - HAS - COME' - JAPANESE - WASN'T

EASY - 2 C - IT - WAS - ALSO - DEPRESSING - 4

DISCUSSED - POVERTY - AND - VIRGINITY - OF

TOKYO - JAPAN - HOW - YOUNGER - SEPARATE

2 B - HOOKERS - CALL - GIRLS - BUT - 1ST BORN

WINS - BIBLE - LIVING - HOLY - AS - GOD - IS - JP

HOLY - BUYING - FR - JAPANESE - CHANGING

STORY - MAKING - IT - BETTER

NO - FATHER - IS - TRANSVESTITE

HE - ALWAYS - WANTED - 2 B - ACCOUNTANT

BUT - NEEDS - RETENTION - AS - BARBIE

PROGRAM - AND - JAPANESE - AS - THEY

USE - CHINESE - CALCULATOR - WITH

BEADS - AS - HE - MASTERS - AND YES

HE - BECOMES - LICENSED - IN TOKYO

ACCOUNTING - AS - THEY - YES - ALL

DECIDED - HAD - LAST - BORN

ADOPTED - BECAUSE - HOOKER

HER - FUTURE - SO - THEY - YES

SURRENDERED - 4 - ADOPTION

RICH - FAMILY

BECAME - TOKYO - UNIVERSITY

STUDENT - AND - TUTORS - SHE

BECOMES - DIFFERENT

NEW - COURSE - OF - ACTION

KAI - KOREAN - PHOTOGRAPHER

NO - LONGER - BEAT - UP - BY JP

GANG - NO - LONGER - SICK

AGENT - WHO - IS - A - HOMO

WITH - A - CRUSH - ON - KAI 2

KOREA - INVITATIONAL

2 - GO - AGAINST - TOKYO

PHOTOGRAPHY - COMPETITION

WINNER - $250,000 - TAX - PAID

KAI - WINS - 1 YEAR - IN - ART

SCHOOL - HOUSING AND JOB

INCLUDED - SO - HE - HAS NO

FINANCIAL - PROBLEMS

HE - WON - MAJOR

THIS - TIME - SINCE - KOREAN

FILM - NOW - LEAD - FEMALE

IS - GISELLE - AESPA

ROOSTER - KAI

DRAGON - GISELLE - LIKE ME

LOVE - TEST - 90% - EXAMPLE

OF - LOVE BIRDS - MATCH - EA

OTHER - PERFECTLY

PERSONALITIES - & - ABILITIES

GISELLE - JAPANESE - WORKS

4 - LINGERIE - SHOP - SHE WAS

SELECTED - 4 - SALES - GREAT

TASTE - VERY - FRIENDLY

KAI - WAS - LOST - SAW - HER

AND - HER - YOUNGER SISTER

IS - NING NING - AESPA

SAW - GISELLE - TRYING - THE

LINGERIE - BUT - HELPS - THE

CUSTOMERS - SMALL - SHOP

BUT - GREAT - PLACE

THEY - TALKED - SHE - HAS

COUPONS - AND - THEY ATE

AT - HER - FAVORITE PLACE

THEY - MEET

THIS - TIME - MOTHER DOES

NOT - DIE - KAI - SAID - WITH

HER - MILD - BRAIN - TUMOR

DIAMONDS - STOP - MIGRAINE

HEADACHES - CHEAPEST - AT

ALI EXPRESS . com - CHINA

BOUGHT - HER - SOME

MINIATURE - MOSO - BAMBOO

2 - HELP - HER - SLEEP - 35%

MORE - OXYGEN THAN TREES

LOTS - OF - FRUITS - VEGETABLES

KAI's - FAVORITE - FISH - RECIPES

KAI - HAS - NUTTY - MOM - WHO

TRIED - 2 - DROWN - BOTH AS KID

KOREAN - MALES - STOPPED HER

KAI - HAS - PRIVATE - VENDETTA

2 - KILL - HER

BUT - KEPT - 2 - HIMSELF

AS - GISELLE - HOW - 2 - YES

WHEN - A - TERRIBLE - PERSON

WHAT - DO - U - DO - JAPANESE

GIRL - GISELLE - CHINESE POWDER

GIVES - HEART - ATTACK NO TRACE

WHERE - 2 - FIND

CHINA - OF - COURSE - LET - ME

GET - U - SOME - JUST - HAVING

SOMETHING - THAT - IMPORTANT

GOT - HIM - THAT

KAI - GAVE - 2 - KOREAN - MOM

AND - SHE - DIED - SO - HAS TO

MOURN - 1 YEAR - OR - LESS

THEY - HAVE - FIGHT

GISELLE - SO - ADD - 2 YRS

MILITARY - SERVICE - HE SAID

HE - FORGOT - THEN - 2 YEARS

THEN - SHE - WAITS - 4 - HIM

BUT - THEY - HAD - FIGHT

U - THOUGHT - JAPAN - WON'T

KNOW - ABOUT - YOUR KOREA

TWIST - AS - SHE - PRAYED

GOT - A - LOOK - ALIKE YES

JAPANESE - AND - ASKED KAI

CAN - SHE - MARRY - HIM AND

HE - SAID - 'FINE' - HANGED UP

SO - SHE - DID - THEY - GOT

BOY - AND - GIRL - AFTER 2

THEN - HE - COMES - BACK

AS - GISELLE - NOW - PARTNER

OF - LINGERIE - SHOP

MORE - BEAUTIFUL - AS - MOM

HE - KIDNAPS - HER

WELL - END - THAT - MARRIAGE

FINE - THEY - HAVE - 2 - KIDS

TANAKA - FILMS

PRESENTS - LEGAL - PERMIT

'COME - WINTER'

SONY - KISSING - MACHINE

RAUNCHY - SITUATIONS

ARGENTINIAN - TANGO - AS

KAI - AND - GISELLE

THAT's - MY - OFFER

900 BILLION - WON - PER - HOUR

900 BILLION - YEN - PER - HOUR

DOUBLE - EACH - HOUR

ALSO - FILMING - IN - FRANCE

HER - MOM - MAKES - IT - DOES

NOT - DIE - WRITES - BOOK - YES

ABOUT - IT - NINGNING - TRULY

HAPPY - AS - RICH - GIRL

TANAKA - FILMS - PRESENTS

'COME - WINTER'

MUSICAL - DANCE - DRAMA

ROMANCE - ADVENTURE KR

COMEDY - CAN'T - WAIT FOR

WE - NEED - CHEER

NOT - DEPRESSING - FILMS

TV - EPISODES

DEAR - KOREAN - GIRLS,

WAS - MEANT - 2 - WRITE

ME - A - WRITER

JESUS - IS LORD

GIVING - KAI - AN - EXCELLENCE

AWARD - WE - CAN - DO - THAT &

GISELLE - JAPANESE

BEST - ACTRESS

COMING - 2 - KOREA

[experimentik]

Experimentik #68 / Oct.18.2023 / Julie Rousse / Pierce Warnecke

October 18. 2023 / 20:30- (doors 20:00)

Solo x 2

Julie Rousse - laptop, sound card, controllers, tape recorders, loop pedal

Pierce Warnecke - electronics

FB event: https://fb.me/e/1x5kBhd2J

----------------------

Julie Rousse Her work is diverse and expressed through several different experimental music projects based on improvisation : live performances, sound installations, electroacoustic compositions, music scores for dance, performance, films, visual artists and photo documentaries.

Passionate phonographer and noise lover, she is always looking for new sonic sources in her worldwide travels, exploring the possibilities of sound capturing in specifically chosen contexts, working with different recording devices. She oscillates between the purity of the recordings and a special attraction for archaic, lo-fi machines. She uses that sonic collection - in an experimental process - as her raw material, an infinite source of rhythms and colors which she shapes with a real time sound treatment software - real time being the essential element of her spontaneous and chaotic approach. She digs in the sound - intruding in the detail - exploring in search of new textures of raw sounds.

In 2015, she was Laureate of the Institut Français programme Hors les Murs, for a3 months stay for a research around the musical culture of the Mapuche people autochtones from the south of Chile.

With Félicie d’Estienne d’Orves, they created the monumental audiovisual installation EXO - Spatio-Temporal Archeology, inviting the audience to turn towards the sky and contemplate while listening to the multiphonics spatialized compositions the Julie created for each objects pointed by Felicie's lasers.

Since 2018 she is living in Marseille. In 2020 she integrates the Collective Les Ateliers Jeanne Barret where she will have her studio as associated artist.

Since 2001, she has been playing in various festivals, events and venues around the world Festival Les Musiques (Marseille ; 2018) ; Nuit Blanche (Paris ; 2005, 2011, 2015, 2018) ; Centre Pompidou (Paris ; 2017) ; Musée de l’Homme (Paris ; 2017) ; Festival REEVOX (Marseille ; 2016) ; Festival PiedNu (Le Havre ; 2015) ; Festival de Arte Sonoro Tsonami (Valparaiso, Chili ; 2013, 2015) ; Le Fest (Tunis, Tunisie ; 2011) ; Send and Receive (Winnipeg, Canada ; 2011) ; Suoni per il Popolo (Montréal, Canada ; 2002,2004) in solo or in collaboration with emerging as well as renowned improvisers from the experimental noise music scene.

Her pieces have been edited on the labels Sub Rosa, TsukuBoshi, Zeromoon, NoType et diffusées sur les ondes d'Arte radio, France Culture et Radio Libertaire.

photo © Florent Kolandjian

----------------------

Pierce Warnecke is a multidisciplinary digital artist at the interection of experimental music, digital arts and video art. He has presented his work in the form of performances, concerts and installations at Rewire, Mutek, ZKM, ManiFeste (IRCAM), CTM, Elektra, KW Institut, La Biennale Nemo, Sonic Acts, Martin Gropius Bau, MAC Montreal, Gray Area SF, Scopitone, LEV Festival, SXSW, FILE, etc.

He co-curates emittermicro label and festival with Kris Limbach and Seiji Morimoto in Berlin since 2011, in addition tp co-curating Le Signal Festival in France with Louis Laurain since 2020.

Between 2017 and 2019 he composed several audiovisual works for the Institute for Sound and Music's Hexadome project in Berlin, San Francisco, Montreal and more. Pierce collaborates often and has worked with Frank Bretschneider, Matthew Biederman, Myriam Bleau, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Louis Laurain, Rodolphe Loubatière, Clémént Edouard and more.

His music has been published on raster (DE), Room40 (AU) and Contour Editions (US). He is represented by Disk Agency in Berlin.

Experimentik 2023 is supported by inm

[bikerchanyeol]

Booooooo military gonna be weird to see exo cb without kai the dancing machine

[virginiaprelawland]

The Popularity, Controversies, And Defamation In The K-pop Industry

By Elizabeth Wolnik, George Mason University Class of 2024

March 24, 2023

Korean pop music, or K-pop, has quickly risen to popularity all over the world and it is currently South Korea’s biggest exports, bringing in $4.7 billion in 2016. K-pop is known for its massive budgets for music videos, creative outfits, and impressive dance moves and vocals [6]. The term “Hallyu”, or “The Korean Wave”, is the idea that South Korean pop culture has grown in immense prominence to become a force in global culture [10]. This is seen not just in K-pop, but with Korean food, beauty trends, and TV shows. With millions of K-pop fans worldwide, it is surprising that K-pop has only become popular in the past five to ten years, despite its beginnings in the early nineties. Seo Taiji and the Boys are known as the first ever K-pop group and they debuted in April of 1992 with their song “I Know”. This song topped South Korea’s singles charts for 17 weeks and held the longest number one streak in the country’s history. “I Know” represented the first time American-style pop music fused with South Korean culture. Between 1995 and 1998, three of the most well-known music studios appeared on the scene. SM, JYP, and YG would become famous for cultivating idol groups. SM founder Lee Soo-man created the first idol group H.O.T. in 1996 by assembling five singers and dancers who represented what he thought teenagers wanted to see in a modern pop group. Another SM idol group Girls Generation released their hit “Gee” in 2009 which came at the most opportune time when K-pop was beginning to turn heads internationally. Arguably, the most well-known K-pop group BTS had two songs hit the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. Due to their popularity, BTS was many people’s first taste of K-pop and Korean culture, “and their fun singable melodies made it clear that the South Korean music industry had perfected the pop production machine into an effervescent assembly line of ridiculously catchy tunes sung by ridiculously talented people in ridiculously splashy videos” [10].

HYBE is another popular music company in South Korea that controls around 52% of the K-pop market [2]. They represent groups such as BTS, Tomorrow X Together, and Seventeen. In 2021, the company that used to be known as Big Hit Entertainment rebranded as HYBE and sought the partnership with American music manager Scooter Braun, who sold his Ithaca Holdings company to HYBE for $1.05 billion. At this point, Braun was now HYBE’s U.S. chief executive. HYBE has acquired other South Korean entertainment companies as well as the American music company Quality Control. As mentioned previously, SM was one of the first well-known Korean music production companies. They rose to prominence with groups like SHINee, EXO, Girls Generation, Red Velvet, and NCT and the company is valued at around $4 billion [2].

As of recently, a feud between HYBE and SM has ignited. This began when HYBE bought a 14.8% share in SM and became its largest shareholder. HYBE was planning to buy up to 40% of SM, which costs one trillion won or $900 million. This is a problem because if HYBE had full control of SM, they would own two-thirds of the K-pop market [2]. SM released a video on their YouTube channel with Chief Financial Officer Jang Cheol-hyuk explaining why the company is opposed to HYBE’s acquisition of a controlling stake in their company [1]. In the video, Jang outlined consequences of a potential merger between the two companies. Jang stated that HYBE did not request due diligence material from SM during the merger and acquisition process despite the fact that the deal was worth so much money. Due to the amount of money HYBE would have to spend to acquire SM, they would have to take out a loan in order to finance it. Jang said in the video that this was an indication of HYBE’s corporate governance and that it is “far from sound or rational”. Jang also mentioned that SM artists would be likely to be de-prioritized compared to other HYBE artists since HYBE’s roster of artists is already saturated. Jang stated that HYBE’s takeover would undermine fair competition and would create a monopoly that would ultimately be detrimental to the K-pop industry as a whole [1].

SM’s founder Lee Soo-man left the company in October 2022 and HYBE bought all of his shares of SM from him [2]. During his time at SM, Lee had been accused of financial misconduct and maneuvering his personal business interests into a Hong Kong based company that would allow him to avoid paying South Korean taxes. SM’s new CEO, who is Lee’s nephew stated that he believed his uncle allowed SM to sign consulting deals, where SM artists would sign overseas deals with Lee’s own firm and that Lee would take a 6% cut of SM album sales for 70 years and 3% of management fees until 2026. In HYBE’s initial response to the video released by SM, they said that they would focus on improving SM’s corporate governance to revise their internal management structure as well as continue to maximize shareholder value [1] and that SM created all their problems themselves and that HYBE was coming in to solve them [2]. The Korean government is also looking into this merger and acquisition between the companies since it has been such a large-scale mess. Im Kyeong-hwan of the Korea Fair Trade Commission said, “When a merger and acquisition takes place, we look at management, record sales, streaming, tours, and merchandise. We look at whether they could gain market dominance to make sweeping changes in the prices and quality of their services in the market.” [2].

Only a few weeks after HYBE announced their intention to take over SM, they called off their takeover bid [3]. They said they made their decision “after observing that the market has been showing signs of overheating due to competition with both Kakao and Kakao Entertainment.” A week before HYBE’s decision was made, tech giant Kakao and its entertainment unit had doubled down on their pursuit to take control of SM. They sought to buy up to 35% of the company, just a few days after a previous share sale agreement between the two companies was blocked by a South Korean court. Kakao offered SM shareholders 150,000 won, or $115 per share which was much more than HYBE’s previous offer of 120,000 won, or $92 per share. HYBE also said that the price of acquiring SM had “exceeded the fair acquisition price range as the competition with both Kakao and Kakao Entertainment intensified”. HYBE and SM both issued statements that they would continue to work and cooperate in the future. Kakao and its entertainment unit stated that they will continue with their existing offer to SM shareholders which is set to end on March 26 [3].

Despite the colorful façade of the K-pop industry, there is a seedy underbelly lurking. Common problems in K-pop include mistreatment, suicide, grueling training schedules, strict contracts, and sexual abuse [4]. The abuse in K-pop starts as soon as a young artist is scouted by a company and are enrolled in a training program where they learn how to sing, dance, and act, sometimes as young as 12 years old [6]. The company will enter the trainee into a legal contract which have been categorized by some as “slave contracts” which have exploitative and inhumane clauses in them, and the contract can last anywhere between seven to thirteen years. However, some see these clauses as “normal” like not allowing artists to date, not letting them see their family for long periods of time and forcing the artists on extreme diets and sometimes forcing them to get plastic surgery. When an idol group is promoting a new song or album, they are expected to give three to seven performances a day, with barely any rest in between. When they aren’t performing the artists are also expected to interact with fans constantly on social media. As for their pay, once the company’s fees are deducted from the group’s earnings and the pay is divided among the members, some groups make less than minimum wage for their hard work. The individuals who join a company are often too young to understand the legal and ethical implications of what they are getting into when they sign a contract to become an idol. Due to their encouragement to always present a perfect image to their fans, it is common for K-pop artists develop severe mental and physical health problems. However, in South Korea it is considered a sign of strong work ethic and is met with praise if someone works despite being sick or exhausted [6].

The most recent controversy that has appeared in the K-pop industry has been the revealed mistreatment of idol group Omega X. The members announced during a press conference in November 2022 that they were terminating their contracts with their company, Spire Entertainment [5]. In the press conference, the group exposed their company’s CEO, known as Kang, for her abusive behavior against the members. In October 2022, a video circulated on social media showing the CEO abusing the members during their United States tour. The video clip went viral and follow-up reports by the media showed that the members were also stopped from returning home after the video was leaked. Some of the members were forced to pay for their plane tickets out of pocket while suffering abuse from the CEO until they boarded the flight. Also in the press conference, all eleven members of the group disclosed the detail of the former CEO’s abuse, which included frequent sexual abuse, which had gone on since the group’s debut in June 2021 [5].

Defamation is also a huge deal in the K-pop industry. Before its rebranding as HYBE, Big Hit Entertainment stated that they intended to go after “malicious postings” related to BTS and was looking for fans to help supply them with information [11]. The company released a statement on social media site Weverse warning that the company had recently filed “criminal complaints against postings with personal attacks and defamation” against the idol group. BTS’ fans, known as ARMY, are well-known for criticizing people online for saying anything bad about the K-pop group. Big Hit said they had found one out of many defamatory social media user uploaded posts containing “insults against BTS using dozens of different IP addresses on DC Inside, a South Korean internet forum”. Big Hit is also known for their policy that refuses to settle cases and refuses to initiate leniency towards the individuals that they are pursuing legal action with [11].

This is considered a big deal in Korea since they prosecute defamation criminally, instead of civilly as the United States does. Defamation is a statement that injures a person’s reputation, and can either be written, known as libel, or spoken, known as slander [9]. Article 307 of South Korea’s Criminal Act states that a person who publicly reveals facts that are damaging to another person is subject to punishment, even if the statement is true [8]. A person in South Korea can face up to seven years of imprisonment and a fine if they are found guilty of defamation. The truth is also not a valid defense here if the court finds that what was said or written was not in the public’s interest [7]. In the United States and Canada, the truth alone is accepted as a complete defense in a defamation case. In the United States, there must be clear evidence of malicious intent for the defamation claim to stand in court, but this is not the case in Korea [8]. As a result of this, Korea’s defamation law remains open to abuse by people in positions of power. Organizations like the Human Rights Watch and the United Nations have expressed concern that the Korean government uses criminal defamation laws to prosecute critics of them. The #MeToo movement in Korea further revealed that their current defamation law prevented victims of sexual violence from speaking out for fear of being sent to jail. Some people believe that changing the defamation law would violate Article 17 of the Korean Constitution which protects the right to privacy [8].

South Korea’s strict defamation law creates an atmosphere of constrained expression, and “does not adequately distinguish between truth and falsehood and can act as a powerful tool of repression” [11]. Especially in the entertainment world, the threat of defamation has led South Korean media outlets to self-censor. Despite the strict defamatory laws, South Korea has been under high pressure to crack down on cyberbullying after a series of celebrity suicides. In 2019, actress and singer Sulli from the girl idol group f(x) was found dead after receiving online abuse for years. She became known for speaking out with her struggles with mental health and the cyberbullying she received. Sulli’s death prompted several Korean celebrities to call for better support for those in the turbulent K-pop industry [11].

______________________________________________________________

[1] https://www.nme.com/news/music/sm-entertainment-video-hybe-hostile-takeover-cfo-jang-cheol-hyuk-3401324

[2] https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2023-02-22/k-pop-bts-hybe-sm-entertainment-scooter-braun

[3] https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/11/media/hybe-bts-kakao-sm-takeover-hnk-intl/index.html

[4] https://thediplomat.com/2022/12/the-dark-side-of-k-pop/

[5] https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20221220000785

[6] https://medium.com/@hvaddadi7/ethics-in-the-korean-entertainment-industry-the-dark-underbelly-of-k-pop-469b7bcd91b3

[7] https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/country-chapters/south-korea#:~:text=Criminal%20defamation%20laws%20already%20have,not%20in%20the%20public%20interest.

[8] https://keia.org/the-peninsula/problems-with-koreas-defamation-law/

[9] https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/defamation#:~:text=To%20prove%20prima%20facie%20defamation,entity%20who%20is%20the%20subject

[10] https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/2/16/16915672/what-is-kpop-history-explained

[11] https://www.billboard.com/pro/bts-bighit-recruits-army-personal-attacks-defamation/

[jnzoe]

Good morning, Jongdae 😘.

Jongdae instructed his teammates in the latest Love Shot dancing practice. OMG! Our chensing machine really improved a lot 👏🏻.

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#LastScene

#첸_노래_전력

#첸_보고싶어_응원해

#종대 #김종대

#첸 #엑소 #Chen #EXO #KIMJONGDAE #JONGDAE @weareoneEXO

[dojae-huh]

hii....I am just going to pour my heart out..

My bias Is dy...i just love him no matter what...he is an interesting one to follow...but u knw it really hurt to see when he himself lose confidence in dancing when he is around pro dancers...and it even more hurts when his membrs tease him abt this..it is not that he didnt try or work hard on it...as far as I knw he is really really really improved a lot..that's who he is... he can work on matters which he lack....still he is not a good dancer??

I was watching bgj bts...evryone knw he is the least dancer among them okay I accept...even he acknowledges that...my ask is there was a moment when dy said we can ask others neos to do challenges on nct nation..then ty said yes...dy would do it...kinda teasing manner...I knw they are best friends and I have no right to intrude between them...but he was teasing dy with his dance...nd ofcrs he must have heard lot during that time..maybe that is one of the reason he is didnt do that much challenges considering how he did it with djj...even jinyoung was took a leave to do it for him...he was desperate...

My dbt is isnt he the main vocalist..if ty is dance then dy is vocal right...then all other who cant hit a highnote should get teased right??sorry for being rude..I knw in bgj team didnt need that much vocalization...I mean there were not a hignote to prove dy's worth.... the same way as a vocalist demanding him to be a great dancer is kinda like asking a fish to climb a tree...

The problem with other neos is they can boast abt dy behind his back...even ty said hidden dance machine is dy in one of the nct content..even if it is for joking saying smthng into someone's face about their weakness is very wrong right...especially people like dy is a worrywart..who lacks confidence time to time..still seeing him in a teasing manner abt dancing really breaking my heart. ..afterall they are singers..like xuimin from exo said to the new nct members that singing is imp than dancing..

Actually I dont knw how did I wrote my thought...if it is very rude pls dont get offended...I was just emotional...thankyou

Are you talking about this moment? Because there was zero teasing or mentioning of Doyoung as a dancer. Doyoung didn't say he will do challenges with non-NCT idols, he said they should seize the opportunity of NCTnation concerts and do tiktoks with other members.

You are making up an issue where there is none.

I already said that Doyoung was tired during BgJ promotion. A tiktok requires time to find and greet the other idol, to teach this other idol the dance, to coordinate and make a few takes. It's additional work. Tae was already doing it, there was no need for Do to do it (like it was with DJJ). More people will watch tiktoks with Tae anyway.

The times of Doyoung being hurt over teasing are way in the past. Please stop babying a grown up man, who everyone is looking up to/cherish in NCT. Yuta was the one who teased Do the most about dancing. Not only he asked Do for singing advice in the past, he always says on his radio show in an emergency or a difficult situation he'll ask Do for help and that Do is the most reliable person he knows.

Doyoung doesn't have interest in dancing and he doesn't put much effort into improving his skills. Not more than absolutely necessary. In his head he is a singer, he doesn't even learn musical instruments. Taeyong offered him dancing lessons before. It's Do's choice. He is good enough for a k-pop idol and doesn't bring his group down, he doesn't strive for more. It's his decision.

[omgsevimlibambim]

😏

[fy-badracula-blog]