The Future of K-Pop Was At Lollapalooza
After decades of being ignored, K-Pop took over last weekend’s Lollapalooza with performances that will likely change the trajectory of the genre.
NewJeans made their Stateside debut last week at Lollapalooza. Roger Ho
K-Pop has never been as relevant to pop culture as it is today, and no festival has taken it as seriously as Lollapalooza did this year.
Last weekend, TOMORROW X TOGETHER made history as headliners, NewJeans made their North American debut, The Rose performed both at the festival and an after show, and K-Pop adjacent renegades DPR IAN + DPR LIVE lit up with an electrifying set. In 2023, only a handful of festivals included K-Pop groups in their lineup, most notably Coachella, which booked Blackpink to headline in April. But for the majority of music festivals, K-Pop is still an outsider genre. At Lollapalooza, to be sure, there were audience members who scoffed at K-Pop. On Saturday night, before TOMORROW X TOGETHER”s headlining set, I overheard one fan dismiss the K-Pop groups — and their fans. “But there’s more of us than them at this point,” my friend said – and I agreed.
Aside from Lana Del Rey’s massive crowd, the groups that pulled in the heaviest fan power was by far from K-Pop. On opening day, NewJeans fans, known as Bunnies, waited for hours for a chance to experience Spotify’s immersive installation Bunnyland. Next to Bunnyland was the merch tent where Lolla-themed merch for TOMORROW X TOGETHER, The Rose, and NewJeans was sold. That merch was largely sold out by Sunday, with resale climbing up to $200 on eBay. On State Street, TOMORROW X TOGETHER opened a pop-up shop where fans could buy albums, Lolla merch, and participate in Lucky Draws. That merch, too, largely was gone by the end of the festival. And this is not even counting the large number of cupsleeve events hosted by fans at Boba tea shops and the parties hosted by K-Pop store K-Pop Nara.
But aside from fan power, K-Pop groups’ performances demonstrated why they should be included in all festivals. The most festival ready-made was The Rose, a band who plays their own instruments and writes their own songs. Had a festival-goer walked up on their set, they likely would have never known that the group comes from K-Pop. The only dead give-away was the lightsticks, which lit up around the park in a show of solidarity of multiple fandoms coming together for the Korean rock band. The Rose’s set was urgent and loud as hell. The group tore into many of their best songs, including “Sour” and “Candy (So Good)”, while addressing their fandom, known as Black Roses.
Woosung of The Rose at Lollapalooza. Dusana Risovic
“We believe that music is healing,” Woosung, the group’s lead singer and electric guitarist, said. “We make music because it heals us and hope that it can heal you in some way.”
The group celebrated their sixth anniversary that night, and explained that this was the first time they had performed at Lollapalooza at night. “We didn’t think so many of you would show up,” Woosung commented. “There’s so many other great artists playing tonight.”
On Saturday night, TOMORROW X TOGETHER headlined the festival at the biggest stage of their career. Unlike last year, where the group played primarily with a live band and minimal choreography, Saturday’s set was a testament to the beauty of K-Pop. The group leaned in hard to their background, with no apologies, to prove why they are arguably the leaders of the genre. Though they did not address their fandom Moa by name (likely to not confuse casual observers), TXT played a set that catered hard to their biggest fans. They brought out some of the most beloved songs from their discography, including “Cat and Dog” and “New Rules”. They included huge, fresh dance breaks like a sick breakdown during “Good Boy Gone Bad”. And they brought back some of their most iconic choreography, including the dance break – with cowboy hats! – for “Blue Hour”.
TOMORROW.X TOGETHER performing LO$ER=LO♡ER. Roger Ho
“Last year at Lollapalooza,” Yeonjun, the group’s talented dancer and oldest member, told the crowd, “was one of the best moments of life.” The group felt pressure to deliver again, and as he admitted in a new Disney+ documentary, Yeonjun didn’t feel like they deserved their slot at last year’s festival.
But TOMORROW X TOGETHER proved that a group does not need to go the traditional American route to headline a festival. TXT got here because they are the ambassadors of K-Pop, and because they are loved by Moas for being themselves. Their set will likely go down as one of the biggest moments of their career.
For fans looking for an alternative to K-Pop, they could still find Asian musicians killing it. In a one-two punch, Rina Sawayama performed Sunday night in the best performance of the entire weekend. It was a tour de-force, and one of the top five performances I’ve ever seen in my life. Directly after her set, DPR LIVE + DPR IAN performed a 45-minute set that spanned hip-hop, funk, and alt-rock. All three performers are wildly popular both in K-Pop fandoms, and in a new rising culture of alt-music made by Asian artists.
NewJeans performing Thursday afternoon. Roger Ho
But perhaps the most anticipated set of the weekend came from NewJeans. Though they were not headliners, their performance drew 70,000 fans that stretched far into the park for a chance to see the Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein. Backed by a live band, NewJeans’ set was unexpected and fierce. B-sides like “Cookie”, which felt flat when released last year, exploded with riot girl energy live. “Attention”, the first song the girls debuted with, similarly lit up on stage. But it was the music from the girls’ latest EP “Get Up” that made the biggest impact.
“Get Up” was divisive when it was released a few weeks ago. The songs are short, and the whole EP clocks in at just 12 minutes. At times the beat threatens to overwhelm the girls. But there is a daring whim to each track, a quest to push the genre to it’s limits and to destroy what you think a K-Pop group should sound like. Not since f(x), another brainchild of NewJeans’ CEO Min Hee Jin, has a group so adeptly wrecked the concept of K-Pop.
Live in Grant Park, “Get Up” singles like “ASAP” and “ETA” sounded weird, innovative, and at times even sparse. Observers who wanted to discover the reason for hype around NewJeans found a group mixing a diverse catalog of sounds and influences together to create their own color.
After just 45-minutes onstage, their Stateside debut was complete. “We’re never going to forget this,” Minji, the group’s leader said humbly, perhaps not aware that on a massive scale, they just turned the needle on the future of K-Pop.
