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