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Thursday, June 28, 2012

K-Pop: Exo-K

Exo-K is a relatively new Korean band formed in 2011 by S.M. Entertainment. The group which has twelve members is actually two groups Exo-K which is marketed in Korea and Exo-M is marketed in China. I will be focusing on Exo-K in this post.

The group's name comes from exoplanet which is a term that refers to a planet outside the Solar System. Exo-K is comprised of six members; Suho (Kim Jun-myun), Kai (Kim Jon-in), Sehun (Oh Se-hun), Baekhyun (Byun Baek-hyun), D.O. (Do Gyung-soo), and Chanyeol (Park Chan-yeol). All members were introduced to the public through teaser trailers. Suho is considered the leader of Exo-K.

Mama, their debut single was released on April 8, 2012. The group has exceptional dance abilities which are featured in the video for this single. Unfortunately, the first few minutes are very strange, a mish-mash of nonsense English. The opening lines quoted here will provide the listener with the general idea:

"When the skies and the grounds were one the legends, through their twelve forces, they nurtured the tree of life. An eye of red force created the evil which coveted the heart of tree of life and the heart slowly grew dry...."

So my suggestion is to pass up the first minute and thirty seconds and cut to the chase with the actual video. Overall the dancing is fantastic and the vocals are promising, but the screamo section at approximately 4:39 is bizarre and doesn't really fit in with the style of the song and video.



This video might be more representative of what the group is capable of. The short dance sequence with the jacket is innovative and should have been more than a few frames:




It will be interesting to see what this group's future efforts produce.

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