[Special Feature] Song Hits when Dance Hits?

[Special Feature] Song Hits when Dance Hits?

by Park Hyo-Jae(mann616@kyunghyang.com) | Sep 20, 2013

Idol group’s code for success has changed.

A ‘hook song,’ song with short chorus with repetitive melody, is not enough, but the choreography needs to make an imprint on the public.

The wind of dance that has been calm for a while since Wonder Girls’ “Tell Me,” is blowing again. In fact, it started when Kara’s hip dance made a sensational hit in the summer of 2009 from their song, “Mister.” In the same year, Brown Eyed Girls continued the heat with the ‘arrogance dance’ from “Abracadabra,” which this year received attention again when Psy borrowed the move for “Gentleman.”

Left: Wonder Girls “Tell Me” / Right: Kara “Mister”

Choreography of idol groups has been much more diverse in recent years. T-ara lead the retro dance fever with hustle and disco from “Roly Poly” and “Lovey Dovey,” while After School performed high technique pole dance in “First Love.” Rookie girl group Wassup grabbed attention by grafting twerking, an African-American street dance, into their choreography. Twerking or a ‘hip shaking dance,’ is a type of dancing in which the dancer, shakes one’s hips in an up-and-down bouncing motion. Wassup’s music video as well as their practice clip was quite a topic on You Tube when it was released.

Left: Teen Top “Rocking”/ Right: T-ara “Roly Poly”

Boy group Teen Top adopted ‘free step,’ a b-boy dance where you move your feet ceaselessly, in their newest track “Rocking.” A formal Wonder Girls member Sunmi combined modern dance moves in her new solo single, “24 Hours.”

As such, it appears that the focus of popular music is expanding from ‘listening’ to ‘performing.’ There’s an analysis that the means of embracing music has been changed since the development of video-sharing website You Tube or SNS, etc. Han Dongyoon, a public music critic, commented, “There are many video clips that copy idol group’s dance, to the point that there’s ‘K-pop cover dance,’ which is almost a kind of a genre overseas.”

Such flow is in mesh with Idol group’s preference to retro disco music or electronic dance music. Han added, “Idols usually perform dance music. They have tendency to perform difficult choreography to appeal to the public by differentiating them from other singers.”

Entertainment agencies grapple with creating distinguished choreography as much as producing good music. Thus attempts to differentiate from standard idol dance routines of perfectly angled choreography can be visible. Baek Soo-Won, public relations manager of TOP Media, agency for Teen Top, stated, “Characteristic of Teen Top’s performance, also known as the levitation dance, is the ‘busy’ choreography that offers no time to rest. We thought that a flashy foot movement of free step would make a different impression than other idol’s ‘knife-like’ perfectly angled choreography.”

Orange Caramel, a unit from After School steer passed the knife-like dance routine by creating a new character. Their strong point is the concept that suggests characters from animations through comic hand motions and exaggerated face expressions.

“There are many video clips that copy idol group’s dance, to the point that there’s ‘K-pop cover dance,’ which is almost a kind of a genre overseas.”

EXO “Wolf”

Public’s eye-level heightened with more variety of dance moves. Bae YoonJung, the leader of Yama & Hot Chicks choreographers said, “You can’t compete with just point choreography that makes certain motions stand.” Choi Sun Hee, the leader of Switch choreographers, and who designed Wassup’s choreography said, “Not only point choreography, but the routine needs to fit with the whole flow of the song naturally. It is also important to define the group’s characteristics.” The two selected choreography from EXOs “Wolf,” which projected a tree, and Teen Tops free steps, as one of the best choreography with high degree of perfection.

However, emphasizing differentiation can cause side effects, such as injuries and suggestiveness of sexuality. It took 7 months for After School members to learn basic pole dance techniques. And it was common for them to have bruises on their thighs and legs. Public relations director Woo Young-Seung from their agency Pledis said, “The members went through a lot and it took a long time to create the choreography. There was also a lot of pressure because After School was known as the performer group from showing marching band, tap dance, etc. since their debut.”

Sexually suggestive content is also an old controversial issue to solve. For example, pole dance has a strong impression of being an American strip dancers dance in Korea, which is why there were disputes of right and wrong when After School first presented it.

Particularly, twerking has been regarded as a degrading dance that’s sexually provocative in America. There was a case where dozens of students were suspended from high school for creating a clip of them twerking in San Diego.

On this, Bae YoonJung commented, “There’s a tendency to perceive dances sexually when you spread your legs or shake your bottoms even just a little bit. But if that’s the case you can’t express dance freely. I hope people see dance as a form of a genre.” Regarding Wassup for attempting twerking she said, “I believe that the attempt itself is meaningful because it’s difficult to make the bounce happen with a physically different structured body from the African-Americans.”