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K-Pop Meets Metaverse
By Vishakha Thakur
K-pop, Korea’s popular music genre has caught the attention of music lovers worldwide.
But not just in the traditional entertainment space, music reverberates in the virtual world, called Metaverse, too. After the pandemic, several industries saw technological improvements and breakthroughs including K-pop.
In this article, we will explore the popular K-pop groups embracing metaverse and understand how the K-pop industry is being transformed.
What is K-pop?
South Korean Pop music is a perfect mixture of music and performances.
As the K-pop industry grew, K-pop bands such as Twice, BTS as well as Blackpink gained mainstream attention.
This interesting sector is exploring the metaverse, where fan experiences become much more realistic and there is a game-changing development in music.
Which popular K-Pop groups are embracing metaverse?
● Aespa
● BLACKPINK
● BTS
● MAVE
New niches have been carved – As Aespa, BLACKPINK, BTS, and other K-pop titans have charted a new territory, embracing the metaverse’s boundless possibilities.
One of the recent highlights is Aespa’s foray into the metaverse. Their first music video,
‘Black Mamba,’ had YouTube’s fastest climb to 100 million views for a K-pop debut.
Well, the K-POP group has already made metaverse their home.
Aespa recently dropped a game-changing AI tool, granting fans the power to dive deeper into the aespa universe. With this innovation, followers can now swap characters and create personalized videos, blurring the line between reality and the digital dreamland.
Users can utilise the technology to explore and interact with the title track Drama, manipulating the song’s sound by interacting with items in the surroundings. You can also
dance to the tunes of K-pop with aespa members Winter, Karina, Giselle, and Ningning.
Verses, the music tech startup had released the video generator tool in the Zepeto aespa environment in order to improve the way people engage with music beyond merely listening.
Why has K-pop become a regular fixture in the metaverse?
K-pop has quickly become a regular fixture in the virtual world ever since their global virtual concerts were broadcast over the pandemic.
If we talk about K-Pop Titan Blackpink, it has launched a Roblox metaverse experience where you can also take pictures with fascination four, Jennie, Lisa, Jisoo, and Rosé.
You can even buy costumes and emotes for your own avatars as this virtual studio evolves.
Not only that; you can also upgrade your in-game stuff and interact with the band in an entirely new and interesting way.
The group intends to improve their fan engagement and reach a global online audience.
The Global K-pop juggernaut BTS, a boy band of seven singer-dancer phenoms J-Hope, RM, Suga, Jungkook, etc is not far behind.
In 2021, the boy band put on a vibrant and successful two-day virtual performance. BTS and
its powerful production company, HYBE, collaborated with VenewLive, an augmented
reality-enhanced live music platform, for the event.
Interestingly, BTS has 26 Guinness World Records, including the most Twitter engagements
and the most viewed music video on YouTube in a span of just two days.
Another interesting group is ‘Mave’ developed by Netmarble and is the first-ever virtual K-pop girl group, which has sparked excitement among fans anxious to explore this unexplored digital frontier.
MAVE appears to be any other idolised K-pop band at first glance, yet it only exists virtually.
Its four members live in the metaverse: SIU, ZENA, TYRA, and MARTY. Web designers and
artificial intelligence developed their music, dances, interviews, and even their hairstyles.
This virtual K-pop girl trio achieved viral fame with their first music video in less than two months, collecting nearly 20 million views on YouTube and paving the path for possible
international success.
Interestingly, popular K pop companies such as Cube Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, as well as YG Entertainment are all optimistic about metaverse.
Therefore, music too has made its path to the metaverse through K-pop. The virtual world has the ability to provide extraordinary experiences to fans in order to let them interact with their favourite superstars in a more engaging manner.
Not many know that South Korea has the world’s fourth largest gaming market and apart from the K-pop industry, the South Korean government too is giving importance to the emphasis on metaverse by making public as well as private partnerships as South Korea has the world’s fourth largest gaming market.
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