Joe McConnell
BBCMillions of screaming fans. A global phenomenon. A billion-pound business. No, it’s not Taylor Swift (this time). We’re talking K-pop.
And with Four of the 10 best-selling artists of 2023 are from South KoreaThe English want a slice of the action.
Step forward Dear Alice, a newly formed boy band who have applied to take part in BBC One’s latest talent show, Made in Korea: The K-pop Experience.
Here’s Blaise, Dexter, James, Olly, and Reese. Maybe you’ll hear more about them from now on.
None of them knew each other before auditioning and being put together as a band by the showrunners.
The fresh quintet then flew to South Korea’s capital, Seoul, for 100 days of rigorous K-pop training in a bid to achieve fame.
Most K-pop training takes years rather than months. Not for the faint of heart, the boys’ experience involved long hours of vocal coaching and learning intricate choreography with a little Korean sightseeing thrown in for good measure (and good TV; the South Korean tourism board will be thrilled).
The six-part series is a collaboration between the BBC, K-pop powerhouse SM Entertainment and Moon&Back Media, run by TV veterans Dawn Airey, Nigel Hall and Russ Lindsay, whose credits include The X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent and Saturday Night Takeaway.
K-pop expert Hee Jun Yoon, the creative force behind some of the biggest K-pop acts of the past 20 years, critiques the band’s performance at the end of each week and it’s safe to say she doesn’t hold back. Even the BBC’s head of non-scripted content, Kate Phillips, says Hee Jun “makes Simon Cowell look like Mary Poppins.”
Former X Factor head judge Cowell, of course, is launching his own search for a boy band for an upcoming Netflix series still in production.
Without giving too much away about the first episode of Made in Korea, Hee Jun gives the band a huge wake-up call in the first week with some unsparing criticism. “The choreography level is so basic, it’s kindergarten level.” Ouch. His facial expressions alone could go viral.
The kids won’t be interested in knowing if any of them want to leave the show at any point. “You’ll have to wait and see,” says Olly Quinn, 20, from Sunderland, a recent dance and musical theatre graduate. (Of course, the media training was challenging, too.)
They declined to reveal whether they have signed a record deal yet, only saying that they are still “trying hard” and commenting that all the effort and brutal feedback has been worth it.
Londoner Dexter Greenwood, 22, who also trained in musical theatre, says: “It was hard work, a lot of hard work, but the end justifies the means. Everyone at SM was really supportive, but I think we were different to what they expected!”
Reese Carter, 20, from Wiltshire and a former cruise ship passenger, added: “It was a huge blow at first, but we had a fantastic social care team… and it was all done with love.
“They’re honest because they want to push us to be much better. I like the feedback. They’re on our side. We had social work, we had a life coach, we had people living with us all the time, you could walk downstairs and talk to someone,” she adds.
Olly agrees: “It’s the brutality, honestly. We needed it.”
There is certainly a big difference between the band’s performance in the first episode and the subsequent video clip previewed to journalists.
Coco Yeonsoo Do is a K-pop dancer and choreographer, and a former member of KAACHI, considered the UK’s first K-pop girl group.
“It’s really hard to get a K-pop group to be on the same level as BTS or Blackpink,” she tells the BBC, but it’s the lineup that sets successful groups apart.
“It’s very intense and competitive,” says Coco.
A key difference between UK and US pop groups and K-pop ones is the latter’s level of production, he adds.
“It’s obvious, but K-pop groups function more like a group and emphasize group identity, rather than individuality,” he adds.
Following allegations of very severe and punitive training regimes from aspiring K-pop stars of recent years, The Korean press has reported the introduction of rules to prohibit certain unfair practices in contracts between K-pop trainees and entertainment companies.
It is evident that animal welfare was a priority for the producers of The K-pop Experience series.
Helen Wood is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at Aston University and is working on a research project into duty of care in TV.
In 2019, a parliamentary inquiry and Ofcom consultation was launched into the Broadcasting Code, following the suicide of several reality TV stars.
In 2020, The media watchdog has announced new rules to protect those who take part in television programmes.
“There is now more pressure on production to make sure that proper care is taken for the well-being, dignity and health of the participants who go through the production,” she says.
“That’s not to say that things weren’t in place before 2021, but there are a lot more regulations now.”
Another key difference introduced by the new Ofcom code is the requirement to demonstrate to the public that a duty of care is being fulfilled towards participants, he adds.
This means pulling back the curtain to show audiences some of the behind-the-scenes production processes, to ensure audiences understand and feel confident that contestants are being properly looked after.
A spokesperson for Made in Korea told the BBC: “The well-being of the band members was at the heart of their formation process,” adding that there was a “strong support team” in place and that the band’s well-being “remains the top priority.”
Reese says they also relied on each other for support.
“We have [the band] they’ve gotten closer and closer over the last couple of months. As nice as it was to have social work there, there have been a lot of times where we haven’t needed to go to them because we’re pretty strong as a group.”
Blaise Noon, 19, from London, is the baby of the band, but he seems to take it philosophically. He graduated from the Brit School and seems the most confident.
He says they’re really “lucky” to have had the advantage, as a British band, of being immersed in the Korean training regime: “There’s a lot of really positive things we can learn from creating this hybrid fusion.”
Interestingly, most of them have never had the desire to be in a boy band until now.
James Sharp, 23, from Huddersfield, is one of the Sharp twins, whose TikTok account has amassed 5.5 million followers.
Saying he thought boy bands were “awkward,” Blaise laughs as he recalls feeling “too cool” for them, despite Dexter always being a fan. And Olly got a K-pop education from his aunt who runs K-pop fan pages.
Everyone agrees, however, that this was too great an opportunity to miss.
But how did they come up with the band’s name?
After Olly’s suggestion to eat British Bulldogs was quickly nixed (I can’t figure out why), they stumbled upon a restaurant in Seoul called Dear Alice.
Everyone liked it and it made an impression on them.
“‘Dear’ is like a letter to the fans,’ and Alice stands for ‘a love I can’t explain,’” Blaine says.
More concretely, according to the boys, the restaurant “sold the best Beef Wellington in the world”.
It’s not exactly your typical Korean dish, but Dear Alice hopes that such cultural fusion is the secret to its success.
The first episode of Made in Korea: The K-pop Experience will begin on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Saturday 17 August at 5.15pm BST.
Further information is provided by Ruchira Sharma.
