I was a part of a wonderful audience of 3,000 a mere 3 weeks ago, on February 25th. I went to the Stray Kids Unveil Tour Concert at Big Top, in Luna Park. It was significant to me because it was the first concert I had ever been to, so I had no idea of what to expect. I saw Stray Kids because it would be a new experience, and I enjoy their songs. However, I was extra-excited because it was a K-pop act. K-pop groups also have choreographed dances for most songs, which was exciting to see live, especially with 9 members!
One negative was that the music was very loud, and I had a mild headache all the way through the concert from it, but I hardly noticed because I was so engaged with the performances. I also saw a girl in the pit at the barrier to the stage get pulled out by security, presumably because she was very hot and exhausted, which was a minor upsetting moment in an otherwise excellent show. If you’re ever at a concert, bring water and snacks if you can, it’s not worth being in the pit if you faint halfway through it. It was still an awesome time for the audience though and the concert ended up being a blast!
One of the things that hit me hard after the whole experience was that I wouldn’t have been there seeing Stray Kids on stage if it wasn’t for social media and our current digital age. Stray Kids is a Korean group, so this means all their songs and content is in Korean. If it weren’t for subtitles on nearly every video they had, or a thriving international fanbase that follows them, they wouldn’t have been popular outside Korea. The fanbase helps spread Stray Kids content and music on social media platforms such as YouTube and Twitter by trending hashtags, memes or talking about what the members have done recently. Stray Kids also have two Australian members that have grown up here and speak fluent English (Bang Chan and Felix), which help connect them to English speakers across the globe and relate to others despite cultural differences.
As a niche in the music industry, K-pop relies heavily on Korea exporting the product overseas via social media connections of content and music (called the Hallyu Wave) to make earnings as artists. This is a relatively new way of distributing music and people that could not have worked even 15 years ago.
In the end, it was a great experience to see them and well worth my time!
References
Group Photo– https://twitter.com/straykids_hp/status/987113029060870144Twitter.com. (2019). Twitter. [online] Available at: https://twitter.com/straykids_hp/status/987113029060870144 [Accessed 18 Mar. 2019].
Tour Poster –
Park, J. (2019). Stray Kids. [online] Straykids.jype.com. Available at: http://straykids.jype.com/ [Accessed 20 Mar. 2019].
Video of Stray Kids-
YouTube. (2019). 190224 스트레이 키즈 Stray Kids – My Pace FANCAM (UNVEIL Tour “I am…” in Sydney). [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gezvWcL38Iw [Accessed 27 Mar. 2019].
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