K-Pop Generation (Keipap Jeneoreisyeon / 케이팝 제너레이션)

To me, K-Pop is

a beautiful hybrid cultivated by so many people.

I thought about it for a long.

Why are people so hyped about K-Pop?

People work on even tiny little details for one performance.

So many people's thoughts and meticulousness got gathered to create it.

You can never do it alone.

To make things as you wish,

K-Pop became too big of a show.

The highlight of the entertainment industry is casting.

I got a call from JYP, so I went to take their audition.

But they drove me away.

You fail them and pass them repeatedly.

Make them dance in one combination and sing in another combination.

And you repeat that process countless times.

Oh, that part.

I love it.

I saw someone spending more than 3 hours just to make a kick in one sitting.

It's amazing!

If you look carefully into BTS's music, all the answers are in there.

It's not restricted.

There's no correct answer to the music we do.

It's not just about the music in this one genre.

It includes our look, the album jacket,

choreography, and costumes.

You have to show everything in this short 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

K-Pop has all comprehensive entertainment mixed.

K-Pop is an industry.

Let us say hello. One, two!

Step out! Hello, we are Stray Kids.

Since when we got debuted, we have been making our own music.

We are a team that writes the lyrics and composes music on our own.

If I talk about producing in detail,

it's a comprehensive work.

There's a saying, "Well begun is half done."

I think that starting point is the most important thing.

I lived to my fullest when I was a trainee.

I enjoyed it so much that I did my best,

but I always had a full day of training.

During the day time, I either did a group practice with my members

or personal training alone.

And when it became evening, I'd practice singing on my own,

and after midnight, I'd listen to the entire playlist

in the same practice room.

I think I was so happy that I had a space like that available to me.

Who's turn? 8TURN!

Hello, we are 8TURN!

We are a boy group debuting at the beginning of 2023.

Yes!

No matter how hard our schedule became after we got debuted,

I still think it was harder when we were trainees.

I agree with him.

The trainee time left a huge impression on me.

So I respect all the trainees so much.

Yes, I respect them so much.

They are all amazing.

Of course, our daily schedule is all practicing.

I think one of the biggest characteristics of K-Pop is the trainee culture.

There are so many prohibited behaviors.

There is a system called movement reporting that reports where we are and what we are doing.

Also, it's banned to use cell phones inside the company building.

I was waiting on the fifth floor to take the audition.

And an extraordinary-looking guy with curly, bleached-out blonde hair.

He was emitting this dark energy.

So I thought, "I guess being a trainee is so hard."

I honestly liked that time.

The company is taking away your phones and stuff.

When you are young, you are really energetic and don't know where you might go.

So I think a certain level of restriction is necessary.

It felt like I was going to another school after school.

Rap class, choreography class, vocal class,

modern dance class, gym class, and English class.

You learn Chinese, Japanese, and Thai.

It means, "Where's the restroom?"

I became interested in music editing, composing, and writing lyrics.

So we took classes and learned how to do those works.

We also learned gender cognitive sensitivity, teamwork, speech, and stuff.

If we had taken those classes outside on our own,

we would've had to pay so much money.

So I think our agency(SM Entertainment) is a great company.

But I don't want to come off as a fanatic of SM Entertainment.

On the other hand, we received a lot of training for building good personality traits.

The thing that left the biggest impression on me was writing a book report.

It was from Executive Director Kim Hyung Gyu.

That's me.

When you only study how to dance and sing,

you may lack the development of

basic knowledge and humanities thinking.

What are the things to be successful as a K-Pop artist?

Of course, good looks are plus.

Who can deny that people love a good-looking person?

Of course, the look is important,

- but vocal skill is crucial. - The singing ability.

The ability to grab the opportunity is important.

I took JYP's audition three times in total.

I failed it once.

But months after failing it, I got a call from JYP.

They said they wanted to see me again

and asked if I could not take any other auditions until then.

They restrained you.

But I had no idea when they'd call me again.

So I took other auditions.

I think each producer or company has very different standards for good singers.

Like what JYP's Producer Park Jin Young said about good singing, the half air and half sound,

I understand what that means so well.

I.N, were you street-casted?

No, no. I was taking a class at an academy.

Oh, an academy?

It's not like you can take an audition right away when you get into an academy.

There's a class called audition preparation class.

And one day, the director of my academy asked me if I wanted to take an audition for this place.

In my case,

even before my ego was formed,

I loved dancing and singing so much.

I was a child who loved singing so much.

I went out to a competition and got cast by the company.

They gave me the business card and told me they'd contact me in a month, but I didn't get a call.

So I wondered why weren't they calling me.

Receiving the business card is just receiving it.

And usually, they have to come to the company to take the first audition.

The audition is very stiff.

It's very exciting but also nerve-wracking.

In that quiet space,

you have to appeal your feeling to them.

And it's not quite easy.

Usually, you sing two to three songs.

And we have questions for you.

They asked about my favorite books or movies.

They asked about my school life.

They asked about my parents' height and...

I remember them asking about my height and weight the most.

Hello, I'm Kim Seungmin, who got second place in the 13th open recruitment of JYP.

Honestly, I didn't have any time for questions.

Since there were thousands of people attending, it was passing fast.

But I remember them asking me about my height and weight.

I was a bit chubby.

And I don't have a typical pretty face.

But I really loved myself, regardless.

So I had faith that it would work out.

Someone who's good at it, with lots of talent. [Kim Do Hoon / RBW CEO, Composed BTS "Blood Sweat & Tears," Mamamoo "Mr. Ambiguous"]

People always like someone who's good at what they are doing.

That's always been it

in the whole history of it.

Should I call it image training?

I did a lot of that.

Imagining it.

I imagined what it would be like if I did this or that.

I loved practicing my facial expression while looking in the mirror.

I think I always practiced my facial expression.

There are so many close-up shots of your face in K-Pop.

So to look attractive on the screen,

I think it's necessary to study a lot of angles and facial expressions that suit you.

I think raising my chin up

and looking down a bit carelessly suits me.

I think this kind of feeling works for me.

You're doing great! You're doing great!

It is important how you can express yourself in front of the camera

with ease when you go up on a stage.

It's important to make people want to see you once again.

If you can't make that, that's it.

You have to be the host or actor of a show

that coordinates your ability very skillfully in broadcasting shows or concerts.

You might think the point of making them practice

is to not make a mistake in a song.

You make them do that at first and teach them about this at some point.

What's the difference?

That's the most important thing.

You have to be different. Being different was the most important thing for me.

This person is doing great, and this person is also doing great. Let's gather them together.

Great! Is there any good music we have made lately?

Okay, debut them. The system is not like that.

Looking at the individual artist and we think about if they should be a solo singer or a team.

And if it's a team, should it be two, three, or four people?

The process of thinking about what kind of music this artist should do and how to grow from now on

is the basis of producing and the most important part as well.

In that process, with so many other trainees,

you make multiple different combinations of them.

Make them dance in one combination and sing in another combination.

And you repeat that process countless times.

I think it always goes like this for us.

We make many attempts to get out of the range of expectations.

[NCT: There's no limit to the number of members, and it's free to recruit new members and works in combination with various units.]

NCT is a team that makes sense to do something new every time.

One of the people who trained us brought a chalkboard

and explained it to us while writing on it.

But in fact, I didn't fully understand the concept at the time, even though we heard a thorough explanation.

Even if it's a little unfamiliar,

I think there should be at least one singer or a team

in this music market who keeps introducing new, unfamiliar things.

But I think Mr. Lee Soo Man took that direction.

Rather than making music that everyone likes,

he made them make music that only these people could.

First of all, K-Pop is a genre of music,

but I think it's a whole big culture itself.

And inside of that, I still have an idea that I want to create a genre called "Stray Kids,"

and we're still working on it.

People often compare it to the taste of mala. [T/N: Mala is a spicy and numbing seasoning made from Sichuan peppercorn and chili.]

I think I can say it's a very spicy mala taste.

- It's a deep mala taste. - That's right.

The forming of the group Mamamoo,