by Last year, K-pop starred one after another, headed to the online space. Representative K-pop stars, including BTS and Black Pink, held concerts online and met fans. K-pop singers introduced various cutting-edge technologies to communicate with their fans with a different sensibility than the offline stage, but this cannot be expressed with a simple ‘LAN’ connection.
The group Blackpink and Espa, in a word, used ‘avatar’ to face fans in an online virtual space. BLACKPINK held a fan signing event in a virtual, not real world, and attracted a whopping 50 million fans. The 4-member Espa is a ‘4+4=8-member’ group, and the ‘avatars’ crossing the virtual world and the real world. It is considered a representative example of communication through the so-called ‘metaverse’ (a three-dimensional virtual world by combining the prefix ‘meta’ meaning ‘virtual transcendence’ and ‘universe’ meaning the real world).
They were cheered by the global fandom in different ways. It broke away from the ‘traditional’ and general way of holding concerts and fan meetings after releasing albums and sound sources, accumulating sales, and expanding to the global stage. Of course, it was also due to the restriction that the offline location could not be opened due to the worldwide pandemic of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).
However, in the era of Corona 19, there were not a few people who think of the future of K-pop as a ‘new normal. Not just K-pop. Recently, Le Figaro, a prominent French daily newspaper, introduced a stage using cutting-edge technology based on Korean cultural contents, calling it a “future-oriented exhibition.”
This is the ‘Korea: Three-dimensional Imagination’ exhibition at the Korean Cultural Center in Paris, France. In the arrangement of ‘Korea: Three-dimensional Imagination,’ along with BTS’ performance of ‘Map of the Soul: One,’ content added VR (virtual reality) technology to director Bong Joon-ho’s movie ‘Parasite’ is meeting viewers. The exhibition, which runs until the 13th, has already been held at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris early last month, drawing a great response from young local visitors. Le Figaro praised the film, saying, “The audience who wears 3D glasses feels the tension of the movie ‘Parasite’ as if their life is in jeopardy.”
All of them can be said to be extensions of Hallyu content.
Cutting-edge technologies such as VR, AR (augmented reality), and XR (extended reality) were applied to the colorful online stages of K-pop stars such as BTS and Blackpink, as previously mentioned, giving fans the joy of an incomparable experience with offline concerts.
Such attempts continue.
BTS recently prepared another space at the Samsung Electronics Mobile Phone Galaxy permanent exhibition in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. According to the Korea Creative Content Agency on the 2nd, it provides visitors with an opportunity to experience using a mobile phone terminal. It is accepted as a more active and diversified promotion beyond simple advertising model activities.
Korean films such as ‘Gwimoon,’ which will be released on the 18th, and Black Pink’s documentary film ‘Black Pink The Movie,’ celebrating its 5th anniversary, use special screening techniques such as 4DX and ScreenX to expand the stage overseas. ‘Gwimoon’ will be shown at more than 2,000 domestic and foreign theaters, including 4DX and ScreenX theaters, and ‘Blackpink The Movie’ will be shown on the corresponding screens in more than 100 countries around the world. Beyond the flatness of general 2D images, it creates a dynamic screen with a vividness that stimulates the five senses.
Hwang Jae-Hyeon, head of the communication team at CJ CGV, which developed the related screening technique, said, “It is meaningful to develop a film that can reach audiences worldwide and grow the global pie for Korean films. cannot be ignored,” he said.
