July 06, 2013
If I were to ask you to name me any K-Pop group, what would be the first group that comes out of your mouth? Girls' Generation? 2NE1? B2ST? Whether or not your answer was one of the groups that was listed above, you all undeniably had at least one K-Pop group in mind.
But what we usually don't have in mind is how that K-Pop group even came to form... hell, we don't know how any K-Pop group came to form! I mean, we all know there's training, there's slave contracts, and sometimes plastic surgery involved... but that's pretty much it! Lucky for you, after this segment of "The Idiot's Guide", you will definitely know the right and wrong towards making a K-Pop group, so let's get started!
What you'll need:
•A group of minions trainees who're willing to fight to the death for debut
•A song & music video
•[Optional] Money for Plastic Surgery
•[Optional] Money for Plastic Surgery
No surprise there:
They need to train
Whether they're talented or not, almost every single K-Pop idol goes through the extensive period of training.
1. Figure out the reason they're training
Every single K-Pop Idol goes through training, but what's the reason? If they're naturally talented like SISTAR's Hyorin, then they truly just have to sit there and wait until a group is ready to debut, and passing time by bettering their singing and dancing skills. However, if they're not talented like Girls' Generation's Yoona (who, I must say, trained for more than 7 whole years), they either use the training to refine skills or to simply have another excuse to be in the group rather than just visuals.
2. Put your focus on one skill then train them in that the majority of the training period.
The skill can be singing, dancing, rapping, even acting, just train them on their best one and don't waste time trying to make a singer into a rapper or a dancer into a singer. The more experience they have in one area, the less time it'll take to train them and the less money you'll spend training them! Likewise, as stated in a previous post "Are K-Pop Idols Useless?", most companies usually just concentrate on improving one of their talents and more-or-less skimp on the other ones... hence the reason why many people are labelled as a singer, but not a dancer or rapper and vice-versa.
3. Realize that it might turn to a metaphorical bloodbath
Saying "We're only going to debut 5 males in our group" when there are clearly 20 of them who've been training for years isn't going to please anyone... in fact, it just brings stress, stress and more stress. Don't be surprised if you see competition or bullying because, hey, that's how the cookie crumbles in the industry.
4. Finally pick the people from your line-up and get ready to go to the next step.
Now let's move on to the next step:
Picking the members from the line-up
Ever wondered "How many members do I need in a typical group?"? Well, now, the answer to your question will be answered.
1. Realize Guy and Girl Groups are Different while Choosing Members to Form the Group
Everyone has their own double standards, but this time, it applying to the members of guy and girl groups. The typical member amount in any group is five, however, for male and female groups, there are different ranges towards how many people are acceptable and how many are too much. Regardless of whether you're a nation's girl group like Girls' Generation, a typical girl group should have at the very least three members and at the most, five, anymore than that, leading to members, like Girls' Generation's Sooyoung, getting only eight words per song... or even less if you're in Hyoyeon's boat. Because girl groups "put on a leach" more than guy groups, people worry about how much talent the group has more than that of guy groups and much would rather quality over quantity. In contrast to girl groups, guy group's acceptable range is around four to seven, members passed that just being redundant... for example, Pledis Entertainment's newest boygroup, Seventeen... which (you guessed it!) has seventeen members.
2. Pick the positions.
For a typical K-Pop group, the talent-based positions are main singer, lead singer, main dancer, lead dancer while the ones not requiring talent are visual, leader and maknae. Though groups usually appoint the oldest member as the leader, it's sometimes a better decision to appoint the one who you find best at leading... as the leader! For example, 2NE1's CL is the second youngest, however, the leader; Big Bang's G-Dragon is in the direct middle, however, the leader; SISTAR's Hyorin is the second oldest, yet, the leader, and more! Also, the visual position is simple... the member who is the prettiest in the group according to Korean beauty standards.
3. Pick the individual member names as well as the name of the group
This should be self-explanatory. Picking all of the names is basically like picking an identity. If you fuck up on the name, the person's identity will be fucked up, too. Of course, even with shitty names like MBLAQ or B1A4, sometimes if the group's popularity is high enough, the shitty name could possibly sound... well, less shit.
 |
| His name is Rap Monster... could've been worse |
4. Record a Song, Make a Music Video & Debut
There's three ways to go about releasing a song--you can have one of the group member's compose one themselves, you can have one of your already-hired composers to write one and of course, you can hire someone who write one or pull an SM Entertainment and buy one. Next is making the music video, and though on a different episode of our series, we'll unscramble how to make a music video, to make the long story short, just a get a set, a decent camera and try not to make it so shit... such as videos like Six Bomb - Chicky Chicky Bomb, Heart Rabbit Girls - Round and Round or Purplay Love & Remember.
Now let's move on to the next step:
Extra Things You'll Probably Need to Know
•Plastic Surgery is indisputably the way to go if the person just can't be cured with make-up.
•Most rookie groups are flopping like pancakes nowadays so it just seems likely that your group isn't different!
•Most rookie groups are flopping like pancakes nowadays so it just seems likely that your group isn't different!
•Apparently, if you're over 50kg, you're a pig. So get your starve on... oink~
•Lastly, if you're actually considering making a K-Pop group, realize that a blog isn't the best way to get answers.
Like our stuff? Follow us on Twitter and Facebook!
•Lastly, if you're actually considering making a K-Pop group, realize that a blog isn't the best way to get answers.
Like our stuff? Follow us on Twitter and Facebook!
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Rap Monster?! Please tell me you're kidding about that one omg...
ReplyDeleteI wish I was. And there's another guy in the group named Suga pronounced like Sugar.
ReplyDelete/facepalm
I legitly think a lot of entertainment companies go "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo" through an English dictionary.
What group is that, even?
ReplyDeleteBangtan Boys/BTS/Bulletproof Boy Scouts
ReplyDeleteCheck them out here: http://tinyurl.com/mf9dftp
I like the group, just wish the names we less...
meh
Oh I see...I have no comment on them...lol
ReplyDeleteXD
ReplyDeleteI sometimes wonder if being a sociopath (every K-pop CEO I can think of) is a prerequisite to starting a successful K-pop group.
ReplyDeleteIt probably is - in a way. Personally, I would have a hard time making decisions like cutting kids from my company who had been training for years. Or working them to death to make the group profitable. For a sociopath, those are easy decisions since there is no emotion attached to it.
Lol nice job with the article. You should have included the token useless member! they're always are fun to laugh at. Also "Most rookie groups are flopping like pancakes nowadays" is a lie. Pancakes are amazing and delicious. maybe flopping like an uncoordinated middle aged guy at the pool on the fourth of july but not pancakes :S
ReplyDeleteThanks. Ah, I should've! Every group has their useless member, how could I have forgotten!
ReplyDelete'Pancakes are amazing and delicious. maybe flopping like an uncoordinated middle aged guy at the pool on the fourth of july but not pancakes'
^lol!