#i need jjcc to stay together

[deartaetae]

RE: Personal post on unionizing and how it relates to BTS’ contract

A few people wanted me to make a (serious) post / talk about my thoughts on BTS re-signing a 7-year contract with BigHit because they felt they had the same opinion and it wasn’t being represented in the fandom.

But from the people who are aware that BTS could be together without BigHit and are unhappy with the contract renewal, I’ve only seen them wish BTS had signed with a different agency or started their own. That isn’t my opinion so I’m taking this moment to show y’all how "jobs” and “working” can and should be!! And I hope you still feel like you agree with me at the end!

The problem with BigHit Entertainment & their stockholders:

BTS’ and staff’s (hereby “the BTS Team”) work is what puts value in the fucking huge amount of content/products BigHit and affiliated companies sell, yet they don’t get to decide anything about how they work, and do not get most or even half of the ($32.9 million in 2017) profits they create.

Example: 2016 Income Divisions of SM, YG, JYP, FNC, etc.

May be of interest: disbanded JJCC’s Prince Mak on idols’ income

Stockholders get money doing absolutely no work. To demonstrate how the whims of BigHit and stockholders affect BTS...

In 2015 (until early 2017) Signal Ent., a telecommunications company on the verge of bankruptcy, bought a bunch of small entertainment companies that needed funding like BigHit (source). Signal stated they planned for BTS to do a lot of overseas promotions and branch into variety and acting (source).

2015-2016 fans were saying they felt like fans were being treated as money cows and BTS were being overworked cause of an intense TRB world tour where multiple members were dazed or fainted on stage and unannounced on-site merchandise sales occurred.

By nature of the competitive industry BigHit needs to make as much profits from the BTS Team’s work and reduce expenses (i.e. wages).

People complaining about how ruined Jin’s stage outfits are, how crazy BTS’ LY tour schedule is, how lax security is with fan-sites and stalker-fans is cause companies care for profits over respectful treatment of their workers.

What the profits are used for is decided by BigHit and their stockholders, not any of the workers who actually made that profit!

Why a different agency or starting their own sounds like the same BS:

They will be treated at about the same level of disrespect under different agencies because companies run on the same profit principles as BigHit. BTS likely are also emotionally attached and feel morally obligated to stay (or else the staff working with BTS will all lose their jobs).

I don’t think BTS have the money, time, or even desire to branch off on their own either and I’m not particularly excited about BTS being profit-driven bosses if they want their new company to succeed.

Alternatives to re-signing from least to most resource-demanding: What I wanted them to do was more like...

Hire a labor lawyer to negotiate better working conditions and re-sign contracts of a shorter lengths.

Unionize the BTS Team and have union representatives collectively bargain for as long as they are employees through contracts.

Establish a worker cooperative with the BTS Team by starting a new company or buying out BigHit (LMAO).

Worker co-ops are businesses that are owned by the workers together so how profits are used is decided by democratic voting.

Yes, there are worker co-ops across the world. The largest co-op being Mondragon Cooperative in Spain (source) where General Motors and Microsoft pay to send their scientists to train (source).

[the-jade-goblin]

Hi! I've seen that you really like k-pop, I've been trying to get into k-pop but I don't know where to start. What was your first k-pop song? Or your favourite groups?

Hi Nonny! I’d love to help you out in your k-pop journey, there is a lot of content out there so it can be intimidating to get started. 

I’ll combine your questions to give you some solid recommendations - my first songs that I heard from some of my favourite groups, AND I’ll throw in my current fave songs from those groups so you can check them out! 

My very first k-pop song that I heard was Sad Tango by Bi Rain; I was in primary school (middle school) and teaching myself Japanese, so I went on this anime site to find some Japanese bands that I could listen to, and the Japanese version of Sad Tango was listed there. 

I really liked it and became obsessed with Bi Rain, but as I was young, my friends peer pressured me into stop listening to him and “Weird” stuff and instead I went back to listening to the Jonas Brothers and Nickleback bc I didn’t want my friends to stop liking me. 

It wasn’t until I was in yr10 of highschool did I re-immerse myself into k-pop. I was in the library and a girl I’d just met in math class the day before was listening to something on her laptop - she was watching an MV and I got curious and came over to ask her what it was. 

She told me it was called Lucifer, but a k-pop group called SHINee. My instant reaction was “oh that’s so weird?” but I took the earphone she offered me and watched it with her. I loved it. She then showed me other MVs from SHINee, and I was hooked. With a friend who was also into it I felt more confident in my passion for k-pop, and she became my k-pop supplier haha

She and I still best friends to this day, though we now have many more k-pop friends (and friends we’ve converted to k-pop *evil laughter*) and we’ve gone to so many concerts together to meet some of our favourite groups.

Now that my personal history is over with, I’ll get to the recommendations! 

I’ll go through my favourite groups, and the first songs I heard from them + my current favourite songs of theirs! I’ll go in alphabetical order to make things easier to navigate, and I’ll provide links to all songs listed

Under the cut because this is a LONG POST

1. B1A4 

My first B1A4 song was Beautiful Target, their debut song. My current favourite is not a title track but I love it, and it’s called Wonderful Tonight (unplugged remix) from their first album It B1A4. My favourite title track is 걸어 본다 (Tried to Walk) from Into the Wind.

B1A4 was my very first kpop concert, I went to see them in Sydney in 2014 - their first Australia concert - with my friend, literally the DAY after we graduated from highschool - while others went to the afterparty after our formal (prom), we went to the airport

2. B.A.P

The first BAP song I heard was, once again, their debut song Warrior, back when we called them Blonde Asian People bc at the time they all had blonde hair haha 

My all-time fave BAP song is One Shot, but there are SO many others that could hold that title too - like 1004 Angel, Wake Me Up, Save Me, Honeymoon, Hands Up, Skydive, Young Wild & Free - there’s so many. I really recommend BAP for beginner kpoppers

I saw BAP in concert in Sydney in 2016 for their Live on Earth tour - their 2nd Australia concert

3. Boyfriend

I was with Boyfriend since debut (no surprise there I’ve followed many since debut lmao) so my first song of theirs was their debut song Boyfriend. My ultimate favourite Boyfriend song is Janus

I saw Boyfriend in Sydney, along with JJCC, in 2016 - their first Australia concert

4. BTS

BTS is one of my all-time favourite groups, I’m so emotional about these boys I love them to death. My first song of theirs was their debut song No More Dream. I have a thousand favourite BTS songs, there’s so many that I adore, but if I really had to pick I’d say currently my favourite title track is Save Me, and my favourite non-title track is Best of Me, but there SO MANY others I could have picked, like Serendipity, Dope, Fire, Danger, Boy in Luv, Hip Hop Phile, Let me Know, DNA, Dimple, MIC Drop, We On, If I Ruled the World, War of Hormone, Blood Sweat and Tears - ALL OF THE SOLOS Begin, Lie, Stigma, First Love, Reflection, Awake, MAMA - Lost, Spring Day, 21st Century Girl, Wings, Cypher 4, Not Today, I Need U, Converse High, Young Forever, Run, Butterfly, Ma City, Baepsae, Autumn Leaves, TO NAME A FEW  

I saw BTS in Sydney a few years ago, their first Australian concert

5. B2ST 

Beast is no longer called that, it’s called Highlight now since they lost a member and re-branded themselves, and tbh I haven’t listened to any of their stuff under Highlight (my bias was Hyunseung, the member who left) but I still love B2ST even if I don’t listen to them much anymore

My first B2ST song was, unsurprisingly, their debut song Bad Girl (when you watch the MV you have to remember this was 8 years ago, and kpop was…very different back then. Like Asian Eurovision. It was…bad)

My favourite song from B2ST is a non-title track called I Knew It, but my favourite title track is probably Fiction, it’s old but it’s good

6. CNBLUE

Again my first song of CNBlue was their debut I’m A Loner. CNBlue isn’t a dance group like most kpop groups, they’re an actual band so they play their own instruments. 

My favourite CNBlue song is a toss up between the non-title tracks Lie (tho I prefer the Japanese version) and Sweet Holiday. My favourite title track is In My Head I think, but again that’s a Japanese release

7. EXO

Mama was EXO’s deubt song, and surprisingly this was actually not my first EXO song. I came a little late on the EXO train, I wasn’t following the hype of EXO pre-debut, so my first song was actually their second single History.

My absolute favourite EXO song is Miracles in December from their first Christmas album, and will always be my fave

I went to see EXO at K-Con in Sydney last year

8. FTIsland

FTIsland is another k-pop band, and my first song of theirs was Love Love Love, which isn’t their debut song Love Sick. My favourite FTIsland song is an old one called Hello Hello

9. Girl’s Day

My favourite girl group! I wasn’t into girl groups for a long time so I came into Girl’s Day quite late; my first song of theirs was Something, which is still my favourite Girls Day song, tied with Expect

10. Infinite

My first Infinite song was Paradise, which is from their first album but not their debut song. I’ve had a lot of favourite Infinite songs, like Before the Dawn, Last Romeo, Destiny and Bad, but I think my favourite currently is Back

11. MBLAQ

MBLAQ are an old favourite of mine. My first song wasn’t their debut song, it was a song called Stay (again, kpop was…very different back then) and it’s probably still one of my favourite MBLAQ songs, but my ultimate favourite I think is This Is War (its a great karaoke song)

12. Monsta X

I love Monsta X with all my heart, though I got into them a little later. My first song was Hero from their second extended play, and is still a fave. I have many favourite Monsta X songs, most of them non-title tracks, Ex Girl, Perfect Girl, Incomparable, Amen, Broken Heart and Miss You to name a few, but for title tracks I think my favourite is a tie between Beautiful and Shine Forever - I also adore the acoustic version of Beautiful

I saw Monsta X at K-Con last year

EDIT: MONSTA X JUST HAD A COMEBACK LIKE YESTERDAY AND ITS’ THE BEST THING EVER

My new favourite Monsta X song is Jealousy, Destroyer, and Lost in the Dream - wait no Special, idk they’re all lit as fuck

13. NU’EST 

My first Nu’Est song was their debut song FACE. My favourite Nu’est song is probably Yeoboseyo, but I adore Not Over You and Good Bye Bye equally

14. Pentagon

My first Pentagon song was their debut Gorilla, and while my favourite used to be 감이 오지 it’s now Like This and Runaway

I saw Pentagon at K-Con last year

15. Seventeen

Seventeen is amazing; my first song of theirs was Shining Diamond, which is technically not their debut song Adore U because it’s not the tile-track, but it’s the first track on the album and I pre-ordered it before I listened to any of their material and Adore U was the second track is listened to so like idk point is I’ve been here since debut. Seventeen is made up of three sub-units that’s important, the vocal unit, the hip-hop unit, and the performance unit

I have a lot of fave Seventeen songs, including If I, Rock, 20, Say Yes and Adore U (vocal team ver.), and while Don’t Wanna Cry has been a long-standing fave,  lately I’ve fallen back in love with three songs in particular; 13월의 춤 from the Performance Unit, Trauma from the Hip-Hop Unit, and Change Up from the Seventeen leaders, a new unit made up of the leaders of each sub-unit

I saw Seventeen in Sydney a few years ago

16. SF9

I’ve been a fan of SF9 since their debut of Fanfare. I love this group and have so many favourites, like K.O, Easy Love, Jungle Game and Roar, but my favourite is O Sole Mio

I saw SF9 at K-Con last year

17. SHINee

SHINee was the first kpop group I fell in love with, my first song of theirs was Lucifer. There are so many faves I could list from SHINee. Dazzling Girl, Juliette, Amigo, Hello, In my Room, Romantic, SHINee Girl, JoJo, Up & Down, Electric Heart, A-Yo, Ready or Not, Love Pain TO NAME A FEW

My forever-fave is Replay their debut song and Quasimodo (and yes, I don’t listen to new SHINee stuff, I haven’t listened to any new songs since the Sherlock album, oh except like the title track Everybody and Why So Serious. I’m an old-school SHINee fan I prefer their old music)

If you’re going to get into SHINee you should be aware that their main singer Jonghyun recently committed suicide, so there’s a lot of pain in the community right now. I personally have not been able to listen to a single SHINee song since he died. I burst into tears when I tried to play Replay, and I did listen to Crazy, Jonghyun’s single debut, twice since then but I cried half way through both times and had to skip the song. 

18. Super Junior

MY ULTIMATE BIAS GROUP! 

My first song from SuJu was No Other, but since then I have loved all their other releases. I’ve bought every CD they’ve ever produced and practically devoted most of my life to them, so you could say I’m a bit of an ELF expert XD

My absolute favourite songs will always be Neorago, Evanesce and A-Cha (my must karaoke songs) but there are so many others.

Super Junior also has many sub-units including; Super Junior M (Chinese unit) Super Junior T (trot music unit) Super Junior Happy (cute concept unit) Super Junior K.R.Y (the vocal line unit consisting of Kyuhyun, Ryeowook and Yesung) and Super Junior D&E (dynamic duo unit with Donghae and Eunhyuk) 

Most of the members have their own solo careers too; Kyuhyun, Ryeowook and Yesung in particular, also SJM members Zhoumi and Henry. Heechul also has his own band with TRAX member Jungmo called M&D, they write their own lyrics and music, perform and film the mvs on their own - which is why they’re so weird xD Heechul’s a weirdo

A incomplete list of my favourite main group SuJu songs; Shake It Up!, Oops!!, 나쁜 여자, 사랑이 이렇게, Reset, What If, Dead at Heart, Happy Together,  Hit Me Up, Don’t Leave Me, Islands, Scene Stealer, Haru, Bittersweet, Daydream, So I, Over, Love U More, Sapphire Blue, Missin U, Our Love, 사랑이 죽는 병, One More Chance, Shirt, Opera (Japanese ver.), U, Don’t Don, Sorry Sorry, Marry U      

If you’re gonna check out the subgroups I recommend; D&E - Still You, Growing Pains, Sweater and Jeans, Don’t Wake Me Up, Breaking Up | SJM - Break Down, Perfection, Super Girl, Go, Strong | M&D - 울산바위, Close Ur Mouth, Springs Days of my Life (which is a cover I believe), Narcissus

and I’ll leave the other subgroups and solos to your own browsing pleasure, I’ve rambled about SuJu for too long already ^^;

19. Stray Kids

MY CURRENT OBSESSION! I LOVE THESE BOYS SO MUCH ;O;

Stray Kids originally appeared an a survival reality show for JYP’s next boy group. There was lots of pain and tears during the elimination rounds, and I won’t spoil it for you if you want to watch it, but I’m so happy the ot9 got to debut together - plus Chan and Felix are Australian! and Felix’s Aussie accent is thicker than mine xD it sounds so bad 

Since Stray Kids have only just debuted, as of like, freaking yesterday, they’ve only got a limited number of songs. But they’re all so good I HIGHLY recommend! Stray Kids released a pre-debut mixtape made up of the songs they wrote on their survival show, and yesterday they made their official debut with their second mixtape. 

So because they’ve only got those two albums so far, I’m going to link the entire albums here, along with their performance videos of Young Wings, Grr,  because honestly I can’t pick a favourite song from the two I love them both so much. Needless to say my first Stray Kids song was both their pre-debut title track Hellevator, and their official debut title track District 9 xD

Their first mixtape can be found in its entirety here, and their second album “I am NOT” here

AGAIN, I CANNOT RECOMMEND THESE BOYS ENOUGH

I HAVE SEEN THEM GO THROUGH SO MUCH PAIN AND ANGUISH TO GET TO THIS POINT AND I’M SO FUCKING PROUD OF THEM OKAY I’M VERY EMOTIONAL ABOUT THESE SWEETHEARTS

Ahem, moving on...

20. Teen Top

Teen Top is another old school fave of mine. My first Teen Top song was Crazy, which wasn’t their debut song Clap, but they both remain very nostalgic faves for me. 

My favourite Teen Top song is probably Love Is, tho it used to be I’m Sorry and Missing

21. UKISS

Ukiss debuted the same year as SHINee, so they were sort of overshadowed in their debut. My first UKISS song wasn’t their debut song, it was Man Man Ha Ni, which is most Kiss Me’s first song. 

Ukiss have lost a lot of members over the years, and gained new ones in return. Mostly they’re active in Japan rather than Korea so they have a lot more Japanese releases than Korean ones, tho my favourite remains 0330, a Korean release.  

Other of my faves include, Love On You, Mysterious Lady, She’s Mine, Quit Playing, Heartless, Tick Tack, Forbidden Love, DoraDora, Alone, Sweetie, Believe, Standing Still, Every Day, I Don’t Understand and Neverland

While I haven’t seen UKISS live, I did meet one of the members, my bias Kevin, at K-Con last year. He was the host and I got to meet him during my hi-touch event with UP10TION briefly - best day ever

Speaking of UP10TION...

22. UP10TION 

Another group I highly recommend, all the members are such talented sweethearts. My first UP10TION song was their debut song So Dangerous and it’s still a solid fave of mine, as well Runner 

Currently my fave song of theirs is tie between Going Crazy and their latest release Candyland in terms of title tracks, it used to be Catch Me! and Wild Love tho. Non-title tracks, I love Everyday, Be My Luck, Come With Me, and Holic  

I saw UP10TION at K-Con last year - I told Sunyoul he was really cute and he got so shy it was adorable, but I digress

23. VIXX

We’re nearly there just bear with me haha

VIXX is life, VIXX is love. My first song of theirs was their debut song Super Hero, which was..fine, I mean I’m very glad they’re where they are now they’ve progressed so much. 

My fave VIXX title song is probably Error, but I die for Fantasy, Hyde, The Closer, Shangri-La, and Chained Up too. For non-title tracks I adore Love Me Do, Eternity, Rock Ur Body, Six Feet Under and The Romance is Over. 

I saw VIXX last year in Melbourne    

24. Winner

Winner is the forgotten group of YG, who’s only interest lies in Big Bang let’s be real. Personally I prefer Winner, but that opinion seems to be controversial in the kpop fandom (Big Bang is overrated, there I said it). Winner is the product of a reality survival show, who won their debut that way over their competitors iKon who debuted later under the same label.  

Anyway, my first Winner song was their debut song Empty, though my favourite remains Different. For title songs my favourite is a tie between Really Really and Fool. I love their first album the most so I can only rec my faves from that album, Don’t flirt, I’m Him, Love is a lie and Color Ring.

25. Day6

I know this is D but it’s down here bc they’re not on my playlist I was working from and I forgot to add them earlier. 

Day6 is another band group, from JYP the company Stray Kids has just debuted from. They have consistently released a comeback every month for the last year so they work hard to get where they are and we need more fans for these sweethearts. 

My favourite Day6 is also my first song, I Loved You, which isn’t their debut song but I got into them a little late. From them all their songs are stellar, but I recommend Free, How Can I Say, When You Love Someone, What Can I Do, Man in a movie, I Wait, I Smile, Out of my Mind, I Like You and First Time  

ps most of the mvs tell the clearly obvious one-sided love story between Wonpil and Sungjin and no one can tell me different

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

For groups that I love but didn’t make it into the top *counts* 25 apparently 

NCT, including their sub-units NCT U, NCT Dream and NCT 127. My favourite are NCT U and 127 

For NCT U I recommend Without You, The 7th Sense, Baby Don’t Stop and Boss

From NCT 127 I recommend Cherry Bomb, Mad City, Good Thing, Whiplash, Baby Don’t Like It

Wanna One - a product of another reality survival show called Produce 101, out of 101 trainees these boys from various companies were picked. Their contract has been extended but it does end this year, so they will be disbanding and returning to their companies. Still, they have some good music that I recommend, Energetic, Boomerang, Burn It Up, and Beautiful   

VAV - ABC, Flower, Under the Moonlight

GOT7 - also from JYP, I recommend Girls Girls Girls, Just Right, If You Do, Look, and Never Ever  

VICTON - Eyez Eyez, Blank, #Begin Again

ROMEO - Love Sick, Miro, Without U, Hustle

MYTEEN - Amazing, Mr. Misery

Madtown, who have sadly disbanded now - OMGT, New World, Lie

iKon - Rhythm Ta, Dumb & Dumber, My Type

JJCC - BingBingBing, Be Good, Insomnia, Fire, Trauma, Where you at

Cross Gene - Billion Dolla, Shooting Star, La-Di Da-Di, Sky High, Black or White

History, who have also disbanded recently - What Am I To You, Queen, Might Just Die, Psycho    

[popliar]

K-Con Australia, 20170922-23

The first Australian K-Con was held over the last two nights in Sydney, and @proteinscollide​ and I were there. I'm very behind on everything else as a result! I need to watch Knowing Bros! ANYWAY, short version: IT WAS SUPER FUN. Lots of rambling under the cut as usual.

22 September: SF9, Pentagon, Victon, Girl's Day, Exo

23 September: SF9 (again!), Up10tion, Cosmic Girls/WJSN, Wanna One, Monsta X

Overall this was an extremely well produced show and a really fun show - I had such a good time! Okay, the "convention" part not so much (I'll talk about this a bit at the end of the post) but at both evening shows, the concert ran like a slick machine, stage following stage with no pause, good sound and no technical hitches. Visually the show looked great, with massive screens giving good views of every performer as well as fantastically atmospheric backdrops.

It didn't sell out on either night, and again I'll talk about possible reasons for that more later, but as a vehicle for hallyu and for promoting Korean culture this is potentially such a powerful instrument. One of the most striking K-Con images for me is the footage of K-Con Paris from 2016 - the pan from the section of the crowd for the French dignitaries and delegates, all politely seated and clapping, to the massive auditorium of French youth going absolutely wild for these pop groups from the other side of the world. This show didn't have that element of official endorsement, it was much more a straight-up pop show, but hey you never know, that might come…

Soft power has its limits, for sure, but within those boundaries Korea is working so very hard at being the very best it can be. I admire the gumption, and more importantly to Korea I am happily consuming the product! Give me more product! I'm here for this!

As far as line-up goes, this K-Con wasn't the best. Exo are absolute stars of course and there were other notable groups like Monsta X and Girl's Day; on balance however this was a really rookie-heavy sausage-fest. The prevalence of rookies is probably partly bad timing - the show coincided with the DMC Music Festival (which was eventually cancelled anyway due to labour disputes, argh, we could've had it all!).

But the boy-heavy line-up? Frustrating. Apparently WJSN and Girl's Day are the first girl groups to perform here since 4 Minute some three-four years ago. WHY? Perhaps there's a perception that since Western fans are mostly girls then they'll only turn out for boybands - I know in Korea the audience for girlgroups is skewed towards boys. However, here in the West, pop as a whole is coded so heavily female that I'm sure wouldn't be a problem. I've been to many Western female pop star concerts and trust me, the girls SHOWED UP. Hell, at this very same arena, Little Mix are performing later this year. Besides, this argument falls flat if you look at other K-Con line-ups which, although boy-heavy, still manage more than a measly 2 girl groups. Gosh I'd have been so happy with the addition of any ONE of Red Velvet, Mamamoo, Blackpink, Pristin, Gfriend, Twice, etc…

...that was a long intro. Let's talk the show.

Chanyeol (EXO)

Night 1

The first night of K-Con began with a pre-show of kpop dance cover groups (they were all good but some were REALLY GOOD) and Kevin from U-KISS as MC (did u know he looks like Lee Pace around the eyes?), doing his cheesy best to hype up the crowd and also promote the con's primary sponsor.

Then the show got started with a VCR, featuring Monsta X's Minhyuk in a sort of spaceship-themed narrative? I don't know what I saw but apparently K-Con's first Oceanic showing needed heroes or defenders or something, i.e. kpop groups? Whatever cool. I do know it involved Minhyuk looking at a picture of a kangaroo so we're all good.

Also apparently Sydney is the city of "arts and culture" and also "romance"? I'm flattered on behalf of my home, and I can assure you we have plenty of all three, but really?? Those are not, like, the first words I associate with Sydney. But ok, you do you K-Con!

Exo's Suho and Sehun then came on as the night's special MCs to deliver a brief introduction and be cute together and make the crowd scream. Naturally, there were Exo jerseys and banners and lightsticks all over the place; earlier in the day I got handed a cute banner to celebrate Chen's birthday, which I then promptly used to test proteinscollide's knowledge of Exo band names. (She improved greatly through the evening!)

First group up were rookie boyband SF9 - I've enjoyed their songs and MVs without knowing much about them. This rapidfire 3 song performance made me more of a fan! They just hit all their beats really well, both in terms of performance and in their brief introduction ment, advantaged by one member who was a fluent English speaker. Their line distribution is kind of weird - there's maybe three members who dominate the vocals and the dancing, especially Taeyang who I kept thinking of as "that one guy who looks like Shinee's Jonghyun" - but not enough to detract overall. I have no favourite but maybe my favourite is the rapper with currently red hair who reminds me of SVT Jeonghan and Pentagon's E'Dawn.

Something like K-Con is the perfect platform for a rookie group to get this kind of exposure. My own first exposure to kpop (aka the reason for my eternal downfall) was winning free tickets to a Boyfriend & JJCC show - I knew nothing about them, knew next to nothing about kpop, and JJCC were a hot mess sorry - but seeing the groups in person and live was enough to make me want to know so much more. I feel like this SF9 set functioned in much the same way. It was SO much more impactful than just an MV or a youtube clip or a gifset. This is how fans are made! (That said… I'll get to it, but SF9 got two bites at the cherry. Why?)

Next up were Pentagon and their brief set was great. Their songs are such bangers - I SAID BANGERS, DON'T AT ME - and they were really polished and powerful. Kino's opening dance solo was super charismatic, and E'Dawn (aka the only one I can consistently recognise) was working that jawline of his so well, lol. He does the bad boy thing very well! I admire it! For their ment, they played the "Pinata" game as seen at other K-Cons this year, i.e. a random game was selected. (Would the game be 'Propose'? It was not propose, but one member did get down on one knee to E'Dawn anyway, good job good fanservice.) In this case it was a random dance play, and it was very amusing and silly.

Probably my favourite thing about Pengaton is how far and fast proteinscollide has fallen for them. Can you believe at this time last year she didn't even know all the MX member names? Now the student has exceeded the master! Post your Pentagon post bro!

Sehun and Suho came back to introduce a special stage: Exo's Chanyeol in duet with WJSN's Seola, for his OST track Stay with Me. This was a nice, pretty interlude and a bit of a breather after the fast pacing of the first two sets.

Seola (WJSN)

Third rookie group Victon bopped cutely to a very Australian-themed video backdrop and they were very entertaining, without necessarily making me want to seek them out further. I think that's more to do with their concept being more cute than Pentagon and SF9's, so less appealing to me on those grounds. But they have their charms and most importantly one had a mullet! I'm HERE for the mullets, don't even think I'm joking.

Next up were Girl's Day. They're down to 4 members now but their experience and their casual confidence made them so enjoyable to watch. They played their hits including Something, Expectation and Ring My Bell with such a sense of fun and sexiness, dominating the stage and playing to the crowd with the relaxed ease of vets who have nothing to prove. There was a hunger to the rookies that gave them more edge but sometimes you just wanna watch really talented ppl relaxedly doing their very talented thing.

With everyone acutely aware there was only one act left to take the stage, a couple of SF9s came out to MC a special stage. They did the usual "how are you guys enjoying the show" and "we love Australia" and all that jazz, and then made the fatal mistake of asking an open-ended question:

SF9 MCs: so who is Australia's favourite boy group? Crowd: BTS!!! MCs: Yes, Exo!!! #awkward

I lol'd! I am sorry! Bless you Exo but c'mon!

This was followed by a brief VCR of Australian fans naming their favourite boybands, and then a really fun special stage of boyband covers:  Pentagon covered GOT7's Hard Carry;  SF9 covered Exo's Monster; and Victon did BTS's Fire.

At last it was time for EXO - MUCH CHEERING FROM CROWD!  Exo-Ls were out in force. There were also tons of lightsticks in the crowd and everyone was hyyyyped.

Now some context for my reaction: I can name all the Exo's and I like some of their songs, but I don't quite click with their aesthetic/dynamic in the way that I do with BTS, etc. They were also at something of a disadvantage, with D.O absent from the line-up (I had to count them twice to make sure sob) and Lay MIA from this entire comeback (though I guess that's no longer surprising).

So let that be the background for me saying that I was totally entertained and impressed by their set. Starting with Power and ending with Ko Ko Bop, they came out and gave a great show. They are after all professionally charming and who was I to resist?

For me again it's that idea of a live show being so much more powerful than a video, even for something as preplanned and artificially constructed as pop. A concert is such a powerful reminder that it's more than the performer, and it's more than the audience too - it's about the relationship between the two, that alchemy of atmosphere and act that you only get in that specific environment.

Yes, Kai was deadly with his fucking winks and seductive looks (how dare you sir), but the way the audience reacted to his performance is what made the show go off. Xiumin aka Cat Pirate was also a scene stealer for me, and it was very darling when Chanyeol threw confetti at his head at the end awwww.

(I just wish, like, SM were less SM-y. I got a message from proteinscollide after the show - "Girl walking thru car park: shout out to SM who never give reasons for why members aren't there and if they're ok". Um, yep. I had to check on twitter to find out that D.O was off filming a movie.)

Ending stage was as usual with everyone coming out as tons of confetti rained down. I think a SF9 hugged a Victon? AWWW FRIENDS. A good night.

Night 2

We started again with dance cover groups - colour me EXTREMELY impressed by IME Dance Studio - and Kevin from U-KISS giving away a prize to whoever in the crowd did their best impression of their favourite thing to do in a hotel room. This led to a really hilarious scenario as the cameras zoomed in on 2 girls "dancing" together. "Yes, they're dancing!" Kevin said, "of course they're dancing!" Everyone just cracked the fuck up, Kevin included. They got the prize, bless them, which was - ofc - a free hotel stay!

The show started with the same VCR as the day before and then I was EMOTIONALLY DESTROYED by Monsta X's Jooheon and Shownu taking the stage together to drop an absolutely fire performance. Jooheon's duality is amazing - cuddly scaredy-cat off stage, fucking monster on stage - he was SO GOOD. Shownu's dance break was great as expected and I cried tears in my heart bc I love them.

SF9 returned for the second evening - again, they were slick and impressive, and they namedropped kangaroos and meat pies in their intro ment, good work on ticking off those keywords lol. But I really don't know why they got sets on both days? Did FNC decide they really wanted to build that fanbase and made the necessary commercial arrangement with the promotors? Like I said, stages like this can be real turning points in making a fan. So that's fascinating. If anyone knows, lemme know?

Daehwi (Wanna One)

Three Wanna Ones then took the stage to briefly MC. It was definitely Kang Daniel and uh, two other Wanna Ones! *hastily googles* It was Daehwi, who was the most fluent in English and was super cute & cheesy, and Minhyun, who was also cute but I don't remember much? Sorry team. The only Broduce bro I can 100% identify is Daniel, and sometimes Jaewhan. But! I think I'll remember Daehwi from now on - he was pretty memorable and did the most heavy lifting in the ments. Anyway they delivered some potted intros and then on to the next one.

WJSN then performed a special stage, covering two Kylie Minogue songs as two subunits - Locomotion (which I note came out in 1988, older than every single K-Con performer except for Sojin of Girl's Day) and I Can't Get You Out Of My Head (2001 - there are rookies debuting born in 2001! And younger! God i'm so old). Firstly much love for preparing a special stage with local appeal that didn't feel pandering and really spoke to the long history of amazing women in pop, and secondly THEY WERE SO GOOD. Fun, bright, poppy - I love them.

They were followed by Up10tion who did a high energy set and I remember why I liked them! They're good! I don't quite click with all their songs, especially their more recent ones which I feel are a bit hit and miss, but just like every other group in this K-Con they delivered their set with professionalism and skill and charm.

There was then a brief interlude with MX's Kihyun and I.M, MY TWO LOVES, MCing an audience dance game. We got to see Kihyun doing the Twice TT dance and my world was made. Gosh I love them.

WJSN

WJSN then came back for their set and I just really like them so much. They have that sleekness that I've come to associate with Starship because of them and MX, with both groups always having good choreo and catchy hooks. I like their concept a lot too - they're cute sassy cheerleaders, yes, but I also feel like there's this very cool edge to them, they could easily cut you! I love that! As they acknowledged in their ment, 2 members couldn't make it due to filming schedules (I think it was Cheng Xiao, the dancey/gymnastic one? And Mei Qi, possibly? I'm sorry, I don't remember) but they were still very good and I enjoyed their set a lot. And their main rapper - god, I'm sorry, I don't know if it was Bona or another member - she was SO GOOD? She had so much stage presence. Gosh. I need to find out her name.

Next up were Wanna One. Now, ofc, Produce 101 never officially aired in Australia. We had to watch it on the internet like a bunch of animals. And yet out of all the groups on both days, their fans were definitely the most intense and the most scream-y - yes, more intense than the Exo-Ls and the Monbebes!

I only ever saw snippets of P101 and as I said I can only ID Daniel with certainty, but I was, hmm, not surprised I guess that they turned out to be endearing? CAN U IMAGINE, a group of young men voted for according to their charms turns out to be extremely charming?! The shock!  (From a purely commercial standpoint, what a brilliant exercise this has turned out to be. I think the limited timeframe for Wanna One to make bank lends an edge of urgency to their fandom and means their machine is also geared to maximum efficiency. Make! Bank! Now!) And because they're young and new, there was a certain edge of rawness and spontaneity to them which is naturally part of their appeal too. I still don't quite know what I feel about Kang Daniel - like I know he's very fond of cats and therefore a good person, and he has this easy, cocky stage charisma which makes his appeal seem very straightforward. But I think I found him most endearing when he missed a step at the end of his dance solo and there was just the cutest expression on his face, like "my bad."

For their Pinata game, they did photo time with hyung line posing "cutely" and maknae line posing "sexily" followed by some kind of free for all - A HOT MESS, lol.

Daehwi also went off script - or at least, he said he went off script, but can you ever really know? We need to go deeper! - and wished happy birthday to Kuanlin, getting the whole audience to sing along too, awww. As I said: what a group of charming young men; the self-awareness that they were constructed to charm ultimately means nothing.

FINALLY MONSTA X. They're, like, my second favourite group after BTS so I think I would've been just fine if they'd shown up and waved at us and sang like a song or two. But they didn't! They were really, really good. As headliners they had a signficant chunk of time and I think I was smiling from start to end, non stop.

They've turned into such good performers - with something similar to that same easy confidence that Girl's Day and Exo had - and I felt like they really did the most, on the second night, with connecting to the audience. Their performances were all on point, and everyone of them looked and sounded great but Jooheon especially killed me with swag and Wonho's collar & cleavage can fuck right off, ISTG. It just made me so happy to see them doing these songs and choreo I love so much - Shine Forever and Beautiful and Fighter - and they ended with Hero, my very first MX song, which was amazing. (I am a little sad they skipped All In but ok I can live with it.)

For their ment, they played the proposal game, with three members doing their very best fanservice lol. A very happy woman in the standing area got to be audience surrogate as I.M laid on cheesy lines (something about angels and heaven, IDK, why is he like this and why do I love him so much), Kihyun sang a ballad to her (next to me proteinscollide died a death), and Wonho came down to the barrier to to give her a heart, selfie & cheek kiss. It was so! Cheesy! And Wonderful! #the selfawareness does nothing

Everyone then came out for the goodbye, though MX were the only ones who felt relaxed enough it seems to actually get silly with the confetti and do some more spontaneous bows & waves to the crowd. By comparison to every other group on the 2nd night, they must be the old hands at K-Con by now - they've done SO many. Gosh I hope they come back to Australia for a full show. I love them so much.

Fuck, I'm now at 3300 words so let's wrap this up quick:

Unlike other K-Cons which seem to have a proper programming and convention stream, the "convention" part of this was really a disappointment. Minimal programming, minimal stalls (less than 10 vendors), all in one room. It was free entry which is fine I guess except that people were queuing up forever to get inside due to the limited capacity and it was H O T (over 30 C each day) out there. In the end I queued for an hour, and spent about 15 minutes inside. It was really not worth it. Luckily proteinscollide & I had options and just went away for a few hours to pass the time before the show, but I imagine there were a lot of kids left hanging around Olympic Park all day with nothing to do.

The shows didn't sell out. What does this mean? Possible thoughts:

-It was really expensive and the audience skews young. Like, the premium tickets were REALLY REALLY expensive and good tix were expensive. I could afford decent tix, but if I were in my teens? No way. I'd have had to ask my parents for it.

-Sydney has had a run of shows including an Australian-exclusive BTS show. If you're interstate and you already spent $$$ going to BTS, or for that matter $$$ to go G-Dragon in your own state, how much money do you have left over for concerts in this year? There is a limited capacity for this audience to keep spending. Promoters should be careful not to spread us too thin. Put more shows on in Melbourne! (Though I don't know - are there more Koreans and east Asians in Sydney? I suspect there are. The audience, again, skews heavily to those of us who are Asian-Australian.)

-Exo, MX, and Wanna One are very popular but don't have the same mainstream reach in Australia as BTS. BTS also had the advantage again of being earlier in the year, only the 2nd major kpop tour in the year I believe. Since then there's been other kpop and khip-hop shows for people to spend their money on. I really thought Exo would give BTS a run tho, given how well their latest album performed on Australian iTunes charts.

...that was not a quick wrap-up.

TO CONCLUDE: I HAD A GOOD TIME, THANK U FOR READING.