After watching Kpop Demon Hunters (movie review link), I had to revisit this scene to look at today’s hottest acts. While what’s presented is a fairly good look under a global lens, but I wanted songs that are more rooted rather than be another broadway musical. This week, Well GO USA will soon deliver video concerts Taeyong: Ty Track In Cinemas and Aespa: World Tour In Cinemas. Both are today’s biggest stars in South Korea. The former loves to rap, and the latter helped popularize hyper-pop.
Lee Tae-yong (이태용) is a singer, songwriter, and dancer. As the lead of NCT, a boy band managed by SM Entertainment, his fame grew as moved up the ranks. Record labels create and manage most of these bands; as for how they discover talents is almost like living that Hollywood dream of yesteryears. SM Entertainment trained Taeyong in their rookie project, and they selected him to be today’s face of this group because of his charisma and leadership. When considering how this film presentation opens with him talking about where he came from, this rags-to-riches story is a lot more engaging than the concert itself!
As a songwriter, Taeyong certainly learned from the best. When he wrote over 40 songs in four languages, released mostly by NCT’s various units and himself as a soloist, I’m sure that’s when his fame even rose further. He’s regarded as the first individual from this group to go solo, and have corporate approval.
For those interested in a set list, they are:
- Concrete
- Virtual Insanity
- ¥€$
- Ape
- Shalala
- H.E.R.
- Lonely
- Move Mood Mode
- Ruby
- Moonlight
- Moon Tour
- 404 File Not Found
- 404 Loading
- Ghost
- Back
- Solar Eclipse
- Ups & Downs
- What Is Love
- Gwando
- Tap
- Run Away
- Long Flight (Encore)
- Back to the Past (Encore)
For Aespa, they need no huge introduction as they are megastars. Coachella invited them as the third South Korean group to perform there, and I’m certain the media attention is well-deserved. Karina, Giselle, Winter, and Ningning make up this group, and their music is certainly more accessible to the global masses than other groups I’ve listened to in the past. While I don’t call myself a superfan, whatever music I hear played while at my favourite Korean restaurant (and now H-Mart), if it has a beat, I can stay at the operation longer than usual.
This production also includes some behind-the-scenes discussion about how the idea of the world tour started along with how they became like family. When the latter is offered, that’s when I really pay attention. Not every fan wants to see more performances; sometimes we want to know about the singers too, and they do when not preparing for the next show!
What’s offered is certainly a visual treat and I estimate there’s about 100 minutes of concert footage and 30 with lots of talk. Each member talks and performs their song, and although subtitles appear when performances lack them, emotion sometimes conveys the song’s meaning. When considering the runtime of the entire mini-doc/concert is two hours and five minutes, what’s presented even left me half hyped. When I’m at a live-show, the adrenaline keeps going even after I leave, but when I’m watching something on video, it’s not quite the same. But for those fans of either individual/bands who can’t always travel to attend for real, what’s offered is definitely a way to discover acts who are not likely to hit every major metropolis when it’s time to tour.
The songs performed are:
- Girls
- Aenergy
- I’ll Make You Cry
- Dreams Come True
- Thirsty
- Illusion
- Menagerie
- Savage
- Lips
- Life’s Too Short (English Ver.)
- 2HOT4U (SYNK: HYPER LINE Ver.)
- Better Things
- Wake Up (English Ver.)
- Salty & Sweet
- Black Mamba
- Next Level
- Hold On Tight
- Spicy
- ICU
- YEPPI YEPPI
- YOLO
- ’Til We Meet Again
Discover more from Otaku no Culture
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
