I first heard K-pop on a rainy Friday afternoon in February. My office job would usually play music on those afternoons because everyone was relaxing and looking forward to the weekend. I didn’t usually pay attention to what the song choice was but that afternoon I was surprised to hear a completely different one than was the normal selection. The hard pop style beat mixed with foreign lyrics that would sometimes bleed into English and then back to something else. I was confused as to what the music was but eventually gathered from the conversation around the song that it was K-pop, or Korean pop, a genre of music I didn’t think I had ever heard before.
The group I had first heard of K-pop through was actually the international sensation Korean group BLACKPINK, who became the biggest girl K-pop band practically overnight. They were also the first K-pop group to perform at Coachella in 2019 and a Netflix original documentary about their rise to fame came out last year.
The documentary, called “BLACKPINK: Light Up the Sky”, was filmed over the course of their world tour in 2019 and began by focusing on each individual member of the band and their own personal journey to becoming a trainee for YG Entertainment, the company who was producing K-pop’s biggest bands. Coming from a diverse set of backgrounds: Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea, the girls met first as trainees and ended up just clicking as a group for their debut in 2016. Their producer and songwriter, Teddy Park, commented that, “All those different cultures in one pot, it’s just different how they walk, how they talk, and how they dress. And the perfect balance, how they compliment each other. It’s fascinating.”
One of the most interesting things that the girls each talked about in their interviews and throughout the film was the intense and grueling training that they all went through while trying to get good enough to make a debut. Over all, they each averaged doing 5 years of training before debut and that entailed almost 14 hours each day of training and then their own practice on the side. However, as insane as that may sound, they all also expressed the fact that they were so grateful for that time and that it was so worth it in the end.
The documentary did an excellent job of portraying their journey to the top and devoting time to each member’s story and what made them work so well together. One of the most compelling scenes that I enjoyed the most in the film was the sequence of their world tour performances and the challenges they faced throughout that time. The storytelling of their struggles and successes was beautiful and showed just how much they loved and were committed to what they were doing.
So far, I have been reviewing more serious investigative documentaries so this one was a refreshing change of pace. I loved seeing the inside look with this amazing band and the differences in the culture of their training. I also thought the positivity around the way that they appreciated the hard work they put into the process of getting big was very inspiring. I would definitely recommend this documentary to everyone, even those who are not necessarily K-pop fans. It will be a fun and engaging watch with inspiration about going after what you want to do with your life despite the difficulties that may pave the way.
The Beat @APU 