Is dancing necessary in kpop?

I think choreo is important to presenting an overall attractive pop product, but it isn't absolutely necessary IF the person/group in question can survive on their vocals alone. This would not be an accurate description of most Kpop groups unfortunately. However, there are are already a number of soloists, including some with idol backgrounds, such as Taeyeon, who include minimal choreo in their peformances and instead focus on their vocals.

no...if I cared about dancing I'd go watch dance crews.

Bigbang never danced in sync and they are the biggest kpop group ever in Korea

Quote from CaraFIMIE

Mmm so you're telling me BP (I'm guessing you're a blink judging from your pfp) would be as successful as they are today if they just stood on stage and sang/rapped...?

likely. It's not like their choreo is challenging or elaborate. Some celebs just have that IT factor that attracts fans.

Quote from CaraFIMIE

Mmm so you're telling me BP (I'm guessing you're a blink judging from your pfp) would be as successful as they are today if they just stood on stage and sang/rapped...?

Is that not what they do?

Quote from CaraFIMIE

Name 5 kpop groups/soloists that don't dance and are very well-known domestically and internationally.

big bang aren't know to be a very dance heavy group even though they do dance

AMKU if one considers them kpop

dancing is not a necessity but strongly recommended

We also have Day6 that does not dance at all, just play instruments

most Kpop songs are catered to dancing and singing at the same time tho

most Kpop acts does this so it's kinda an odd ball when you don't see dancing on a Title song.

just asked jennie this question and she said hell no

face and name(company/brand) is the most important for shallow fans(huge pie if you're talking about being well-known, money pie skews towards parasocial obsessive fans most commonly fansites)

If they want any chance outside Korea, they better dance.

Because vocalists and soloists are found in every market, not much need for foreign artists.

It is only well executed group dance performance, that can appeal across cultural & language barriers.

And cases like Lisa, Jennie, Jungkook even with dance performances, will not at all have success as solos internationally, if they haven't been part of the groups.

Only Anglo-Western artists have that potential, not because of themselves but because Anglo-West is the cultural hegemon of our age.

So Kpop has very little chances outside Korea if they aren't a dancing group or have been a part of one

That's why IU, the most successful Korean soloists, even if she sings in English will have only a limited market in the West.

Or even cases like Day6.

Or say Arjit Singh, most followed artist on Spotify, but can't transcend the market of Indians.

Group+Dance is necessary for mass foreign market.

put it this way: dancing might need to be present, but certainly singing skill or visual can help balance out simplistic choreo.

Minimum effort dancing can be thought of as putting subway surfer videos on while another video is playing. It's to decorate the visual space to give the viewer something visual to grab onto. this is NOT saying that decent choreo is also like that.

I think that Kpop is unique in that it's probably an audio-visual genre, although as standalone audio-genre it is still pretty distinct.

Quote from Kataphract

put it this way: dancing might need to be present, but certainly singing skill or visual can help balance out simplistic choreo.

Minimum effort dancing can be thought of as putting subway surfer videos on while another video is playing. It's to decorate the visual space to give the viewer something visual to grab onto. this is NOT saying that decent choreo is also like that.

I think that Kpop is unique in that it's probably an audio-visual genre, although as standalone audio-genre it is still pretty distinct.

kpop is a visual genre...would BTS be successful if they kept the same dance and singing skills but all looked like William Hung?

Quote from 0ppar

kpop is a visual genre...would BTS be successful if they kept the same dance and singing skills but all looked like William Hung?

Put it this way: there's a lot of music (b-sides) that don't have choreo, or MV's to visualize them. They are distinct works, that lack visual content, and yet they are still considered part of the KPOP genre.

Dancing is necessary for the idol's career in kpop, but it's not necessary for a single work, like a song.

It all shifts when you look at it from different angles.

Dancing is just not important. They do it, but it's not a focus

Groups -

Bigbang

EXID

(G)I-DLE

Mamamoo

Brown Eyed Girls

BTS to a degree.

All those groups took the singing, the music and the concepts seriously first, and the dancing was designed to support the song and ideas, not the main focal point. That's what gets lost with the recent trends.

Do music, singing and stagecraft first. The dance then supports the ideas of the song and the vocals, not the current slop of intense aerobics on stage with little singing.

More importantly - all of the above groups could pull off an entire concert without having to dance at all, if necessary.

Quote from icyruios

Artists like IU, Day6, AKMU come to mind

And that's why don't none of them will achieve more than niche market outside S. Korea.

Mere singing does not cross cultural barriers, without the visual performance of movements/spectacle.

Quote from Disevidence

More importantly - all of the above groups could pull off an entire concert without having to dance

Sure, but if they had not danced or done intense aerobics, they wouldn't have captured any decent market outside Korea.

I feel like dancing makes performances more interesting to look at.

I remember being at a music festival in my country watching someone perform and I felt like something was missing, because he was just being alone on the big stage with some big screen in the background. And I felt like it probably would have been better if he had background dancers or something. (but maybe I'm too used to performances on kpop music shows and I had also been to a kpop concert some months before being at that music festival.)

I used to stan Voisper, which was more of a vocal group (even though they had a few songs that have choreography).

And well... they were nugu.

Quote from 0ppar

kpop is a visual genre...would BTS be successful if they kept the same dance and singing skills but all looked like William Hung?

Damn...taking me b‍ack to 2004 with that William Hung reference.

Not as necessary as singing.

Did Fifty Fifity go viral for choreo? Did they even have choreo?

QWER? Day6?

Does every great b-side have choreo?

Dancing is an important skill, but it's not 'necessary'. More important in this current era of kpop compared to before though.

Are you asking if a "kpop" group can succeed without dancing? Well clearly the answer is yes if you look at some of the examples already given (Day6, AKMU). The line between what is and isn't kpop is so blurred at this point it basically doesn't even matter.

Now should a group that DOES rely on dancing as part of their performance be reasonably skilled dancers? Yea of course, they are paid a lot of money to be good at what they do.

Quote from icyruios

What happen to the sold out world tours they had?

Must be Koreans flying over to see them

I did not say they have NO market, but they have NICHE market and yes ex-pat Koreans form a bulk of their overseas audience.

I went to see IU in the US, easily 70%+ of the audience were Korean/E Asian descent.

But BTS, BP, SKZ etc., will have far more % of non-Koreans. Because of the visual-dance performance.

(Even though IU team puts up fantastic spectacle, she simply is not known for dance.)

Also IU/AKMU/Day6 can sell out small to mid-size audience if they tour infrequently. But they won't be able to do what BTS, BP, SKZ or TWICE is doing, back to back tours selling out stadiums and arenas.

That is the difference between a niche market and mass market.

Without dance-performance, Kpop would be just a niche genre in the world, but with groups & point choreography, it has breached into mainstream market.

Dancing is necessary, not as a skill (group doesn't have to be filled with great dancers) but definitely in terms of choreography and performance for the popularity of k-pop acts. Even today, there are barely any songs that are popular without a dance challenge or point choreography attached to it.

There can be a couple of outliers who don't dance and are still popular but for majority of k-pop that is not the case.

Quote from LYK

even mamamoo had to learn to dance despite their vocal talent

What do you mean, "had to learn"? MAMAMOO has one of the best dance-line in Kpop since day 1! Moonbyul and Wheein. It's just that RBW couldn't even afford a choreographer for them, so they had to make their own, till HIP! That's 5 years without any actual choreographer!

This feels like I'm back in time when people thought Mamamoo can't dance, when they were better than most dancers in many mainstream groups, it's just dance was their main focus.

And this is the problem with Kpop btw. If a group has great visuals and the members can dance, the rest is not important.

I'm not saying Kpop groups shouldn't focus on the dancing, I mean, it's part of the performance, dance is an art form as well, the problem is when it's the main part of their performance, because that's all they can do, or even worse, they can't do that either, so they rely on visuals only.

Quote from DaisyTheGenuine

Most pop music has some form of choreo

But idols don't really need to be good dancers, have complicated choreography and perfect sync.

That started in 3rd gen and imo, is the main reason vocal standards are in the trash and concerts just aren't that great anymore. Most of them aren't good dancers like that and all of their energy goes into following their choreography

Exactly! Also, it's so easy to fool the fans. I'm not talking about lip sync and stuff. If an Idol is charismatic enough, the rest hardly matters. When people see a live performance, 8 out of 10 is talking about visuals and stage presence, while their stage presence is just acting cool for the camera or doing sexy stuff or making weird faces.😂

Not everyone can be a Gfriend where the members can sing and doing a hard and SYNCHRONIZED dance choreo as well..

Quote from bbgc

Sure, but if they had not danced or done intense aerobics, they wouldn't have captured any decent market outside Korea.

I don't really know how to tell you almost no-one in Idle's fandom got into them because they danced.

Like that assertion is so wrong I don't even know WHERE to begin with. The other 4 groups I'm not sure (i doubt it) but for Idle i very much know - ain't no-one got into them due to dancing mate.

the performance and visuals are what's been getting people into kpop, not the vocals

if it weren't for the dancing... kpop would be nowhere rn

Quote from bbgc

Also IU/AKMU/Day6 can sell out small to mid-size audience if they tour infrequently. But they won't be able to do what BTS, BP, SKZ or TWICE is doing, back to back tours selling out stadiums and arenas.

That is the difference between a niche market and mass market.

I'm not so sure about that. Americans literally asked EDAM to do a stadium tour.😅

Quote from Disevidence

I don't really know how to tell you almost no-one in Idle's fandom got into them because they danced.

Like that assertion is so wrong I don't even know WHERE to begin with. The other 4 groups I'm not sure (i doubt it) but for Idle i very much know - ain't no-one got into them due to dancing mate.

You can tell me if you has survey statistics that gives data on how people became fans of any group. If not, then it is all anecdotal assertions either way..

I can empathize, I am not IU - hardly known for her dancing.

But I don't use myself as a benchmark for such things, but instead reasoning,

These are the components - Music, Vocal singing, lyrics, dance/performance aspect.

Of the 4, Lyrics are the most localized to culture & language, very difficult to cross borders.

Music and vocals are the most universal, you hardly need imports.

Dance-performance is where acts can differentiate themselves the most.

Ergo.

Of course it is a matter of extents.

And GIDLE is hardly BP/TWICE/BTS/SKZ when it comes to international/Western draw.

They are better than IU/AKMU/Day6 etc,. and that I still hold is due to the performative aspect.