#is my ideal group shinee or a.c.e or cix? who's to say

[sanstropfremir]

Thank you so much for your blog - you manage to explain to me a lot of the feelings I have bubbling up these days when I watch kpop so I can finally understand why I do/don’t like something. It’s really nice to have some deeper perspective!

Since you’ve given a lot of your kpop pros and cons, a scenario: someone tomorrow magically puts you in charge of making a new kpop group. What type of people do you look for for the group? What sort of music/dance would you pick? Obviously also what type of fashion would go with it? I’m curious what your theoretical ideal is!

here anon take my whole heart i'm <333333333 sincerely i'm glad that i'm helping people to better articulate and understand how they engage with art!

ok first thing's first, my actual ideal job would be creative director for two midsize sibling groups to do a paired concept. like shinee's view and f(x)'s 4 walls. basically i would like to be min heejin. doesn't have to be two opposite gender groups, it can be two of the same; oneus and onewe could be doing some REAL dope shit, especially because they have actual twins hello rbw do something with them and/or hire me please!! second ideal actual job is to creative direct for a male soloist, someone like taemin, key, or woodz; someone who has good creative instincts and understanding of character and confident sense of self.

ok so ideally, in this fake scenario, i don't think i'd want to design a debut. i'd instead go for a boy group with minimum five-six years of experience and average age of the group is 24-25+. not because young kids aren't springy and spritely, but because they've all settled into their bodies and also have settled into their confidence. i also just don't have the feel for 'youthful' type content, i didn't ever feel young even when i was young so it's always been out of my wheelhouse. gimme a bunch of adults please and thanks.

- as far as makeup of the group: five members, generally all with good dance skills but it's not a must, at least three vocals and one of them HAS to be a baritone. actually, since this is my ideal group you know what? fuck it; three tenors (countertenor optional), baritone, bass. music? either classic rock/opera inspired (something like bad love, maniac, fever, valkyrie (rock version) OR go real crunchy and horrible and americana with it. i'm talking iron smashed together with l'enfer with devil with the beast with idea with jungle with eat raw meat = blood drool with impressionable. we're gonna get real dirty with it. the bside they also promote is gonna be a combo of hypnotized/love on the floor/sugar. there's also solo bsides for each of the members and the main dancer does a blend contemp/urban choreo routine to so handsome hello.

ok styling. this one could go a lot of different ways depending on song and lyrics and theme and truly i don't think there's actually a specific type of styling that i need to see, because my personal methodology is always to come up with something that fits those themes, not necessarily all the things i want to see ever in a styling. but let's do some brainstorming:

- IF classic rock route: since i'm imagining the theme of this as a very aggressive critique of celebrity + fan culture, we're talking a second crack at the fake reality concept and we are doing it RIGHT this time. think that combined with the maniac set design combined with papaoutai combined with this 2019 paper magazine shoot:

yes including the doll makeup. thom browne suiting x the new 2022 moschino:

big boots and square toed shoes, transformative references/silhouettes/shapes/colours from the late 50s/60s thru to the early 70s, plus throwing in some references to to surrealist photography + filmmakers like dora maar and maya deren. honestly maniac got really close to what i was thinking but personally i wouldn't have taken it in the pop culture/horror film direction because that isn't where my brain goes first.

- IF crunchy americana route: this one is a little harder to illustrate because the type of clothing i'm thinking about would be custom handmade builds for each of the performers, but here's some of the vibes i'm thinking about. this would likely be along similar theme lines of a critique of the fan + celebrity relationship, but with a stronger emphasis on the violence inflicted on the celebrity, whether it be from external forces or from internal ones:

yep. would love to do some choreographic/mise en scene stuff with mirrors and the idea of mirroring/things that seem the same but are different. also thorn imagery. lots of thorn imagery.