Aotearoa to Aespa: A K-pop Story

🎤 Here’s something special for all the K-pop stans and curious newbies out there! 🌟

Just back from a mind-blowing Aespa concert in Sydney, Nic Spring, spills the tea on what it’s like to vibe in the mosh pit, the wild fashion, and why K-pop is more than just music—it’s a full-on experience. Plus, find out how this young wahine Māori sees parallels between K-pop and Māori culture.

Welcome back, how was the ‘Aespa’ concert in Sydney? What was the vibe like?

This was Aespa’s second world tour and fortunately enough for me, they came as close as Australia.
The vibe was Next Level (song reference), they normally are. I bought the VIP experience which meant we were in the mosh pit essentially and got to experience the soundcheck session beforehand where they sang three songs just in their street clothes.

So many people dress up to meet the concept, whether that’s for the tour or just in general. I think it’s similar in a way to going to a rugby game, you don’t know the person sitting next to you, but by the end of it, you’ve shared a drink or too, rallied together and just vibe.

Imagine that, but instead we’re chanting and singing along in a language a lot of us don’t know too well, screaming and even dancing along to the group’s choreography.

How did you first get into K-pop? Was there a specific group or song that hooked you?

This question actually comes up a lot, I think anyone who enjoys K-pop has had to answer this several times. I fell into it in a way I think a lot of people may have. I was a big fan of watching the American Music award shows, all of them. MTV VMAs, AMAs etc.

In 2017, I was watching the AMAs and BTS were performing. I thought I was super into the performance and didn’t take the time to actually hear it properly, it was so good, their stage presence, their styling, their charisma, vocals, rap, dance. It was fun to look things up about them when I did have time and just learn more about their music and their messages. The messages in BTS music were definitely a massive contributor to their appeal. Love Yourself is pretty prominent in a lot of their music, including a whole trilogy album series. They partnered with Unicef to spread the same message and continue to do so.

Also having something as fast as K-pop to explore during COVID was definitely a blessing. K-pop idols, just like Western artists, were doing what they could to continue to make their music and share content with their fans, so there was a lot to just distract you from all the bad and the sad going around the world.

Was this your first time to attend a K-pop concert live in Australia?

Definitely not the first K-pop concert I’ve attended, not even the first one this year, or even the first in Australia.
February last year was my first international K-pop concert, technically as well as my first full scale K-pop production. The group’s name is Stray Kids and they have a couple of Aussie-Korean members, so it’s normally a safe bet that they’ll tour Australia.

I flew over to Melbourne and stayed with a friend of mine who’d moved over there. We actually met through our shared love of BTS and K-pop in general and went together despite not being sat next to each other, we were still there together. 

After that was Twice, the two groups share the same company. They were fantastic and the vibe for both concerts was so good. Everyone chats in the line, you watch videos, listen to music, ask who their bias (favourite member) or the bias wrecker (the member who can steal your attention from your favourite) and you can’t forget the fan freebies too. Some really dedicated fans make keychains, phone charms, print off photo cards or they’ll decorate toploaders (protective thicker plastic sleeves for your photocards) and just give out little goodie baggies to other fans, because they can.

I’ll have another concert in October for Stray Kids again, only it’ll be the stadium tour this time at Marvel Stadium, which is exciting. Can’t wait to see what they’ll do this time around, especially in a bigger venue so the performance will likely be even bigger in scale!

K-pop is a global sensation. What is it about K-pop that makes it so special?

I think like most music, people will typically resonate more with music that fits their preference,
K-pop does that. It’s a really broad genre if you look a bit deeper. BTS throwbacks for example are rooted in Hip Hop and can throw back to that vibe a lot. It’s not your bubblegum pop, ultra sweet, synthetic sounds. If you want to listen to ballads you’ve got some amazing ballads, or even original sound tracks that you can just listen to and mellow or let yourself get caught up in your feels. BToB, Ailee, Taeyeon, Kim Sejong, AKMU, Gummy, 10CM, Nell … there’s so many. K-HipHop is also a thing. 

One of the things that I think attracts people is that it is all so big. In most circumstances, idols choose to become idols at a young age. Primary school or high school, and then they train and go through assessment and work probably harder than I ever have in my entire life for the chance to debut either in a group or as a soloist, and they do this not knowing if they’ll make the cut or get left behind. If you want to look behind the curtain, there’s a few documentaries out on streaming services now, like Blackpink the Movie or BTS: Beyond the star where you get to see some of what went into it and what they went through to try to make it. 

One of the biggest things for me, if you step away from the music and the beast that is K-pop, is the community.

We’re talking about every ethnicity, every nationality, every colour, every size and every kind of person from any and all walks of life, coming together in support of other people and the dream they had. 

"It’s difficult to put into words how safe it feels to be a K-pop fan in a K-pop space, because you just want to look after each other." Nic Spring

You share food and snacks with people, you share socials, you catch up when you can, you share some unhinged memes with them despite you buy and sell merch to them or from them and agree to meet up in person. K-pop fans in some cases, especially when you’re an older fan or a professional and there’s that perception that liking K-pop is childish in the eyes of a lot of people, so you shouldn’t be doing it. But it's your community and you know they’re safe and they’ll listen to you and they’ll hear you and understand you. 

As a young wahine Māori, do you see any similarities between K-pop and Māori culture in terms of music, dance, or fan community?

The sense of community for sure, that hospitality and the need to care and generally look out for each other you could definitely draw parallels. The dance and songs are different, but in the same way someone might start Ka Mate and everyone would join in and do the same haka K-pop can do that.  The community thing though, that sense of belonging, it’s hard to explain, but to draw a parallel.

Similar to the way Māori will typically ask where you’re from when you meet someone, right? If you’re out in the street and you recognise a random stranger with K-pop merch, keychain, shirt, hoodie, hat, phone case, photocard, you’d typically ask them their bias, their ult (ultimate group or K-pop idol), their fandom and you’d reply with your own. 

Interestingly enough Stray Kids does actually have a song called Miroh with choreography that is inspired by the haka, so in a way, you could say that’s a similarity for sure. I do remember watching the music video for the first time and being like “wait, what!?”

What was your favourite moment from the concert? Was there a performance or song that really stood out for you?

My favourite performances were definitely Drama which they opened with, it’s a great song and it’s hard not to sing along and the second was definitely Armageddon which they closed with. Those songs I’ve always loved since I heard them the first time. We Go was another one I was so happy to see because it combined two of my favourite things, K-pop and Pokemon. I will always love just seeing how much fun they have on stage, when they’re not doing full out choreography and they’re just playing on the stage, giving a bit of fanservice and you can see them trying to read signs and interact with fans as much as they can. 

Drama I think is pretty iconic, so the cheers that erupted when it started was kind of epic.

One thing that also blew me away was the sheer amount of confetti and streamers they had! It just added to the experience so much! Even if it did give me a jump scare every time they went off.

Did you spot any cool outfits or trends at the concert
that you'd love to try?

Y2K is the big thing at the moment I think in the K-pop scene in general, so I definitely saw a lot of that! I love seeing people trying their hand at hairstyles, I definitely give them a go when I can. They’re not always the easiest, but it’s so fun to try.

I’m not a makeup girlie really, but some of the makeup looks are always so cool. K-pop makeup is a lot more understated than your Western looks, but you see people with amazing looking skin that’s just glowing and big bright eyes! 

I definitely try to push my comfort zone when it comes to concert outfits! I’m enjoying the looser pant styles for sure and the chunky boots. Those have been fun to experiment with.

What’s your go-to K-pop song or artist when you need a mood boost?

Currently the song I really like listening to is ABCD by Nayeon, it makes me feel a bit nostalgic to music from maybe the 2000s.

I stan U by IU, I listen to a lot when I want to feel supported. It just makes me smile and feel really good, especially the chorus.

Any advice for fellow K-pop fans in Aotearoa who dream of catching a live show one day?

Buy whatever ticket you can afford would be my advice. Most of the ticketing agents here like Ticketmaster and Ticketek have Afterpay, or maybe that’s not a good thing from a financial point of view. If we want more K-pop concerts here we really need to prove that it’s not going to be a financial black hole for them to hold a show here. We’re here for the sense of community and the music, but there’s still a lot of business decisions that happen in the background. Even if they’re not your favourite group, do what you can to attend the show, sometimes tickets can be cheaper leading up to the event to fill seats, if you have to wait until then to afford a ticket, then it is what it is.

If you could see a K-pop artist collaborate with a Māori musician, who would you pair up and why?

I would love to see Stan Walker with BTS, maybe V from BTS. Those would be some amazing blended vocals, or perhaps Jungkook from BTS. I’m from Ngāpuhi and am really proud to be Māori, it's something I identify with for sure, I always wonder how we could spread our culture further.

So when I see Māori doing amazing things I always think about that. Stan is definitely the one I’d love to see with any of the vocalists from BTS actually, or any member. They’re cultural ambassadors for Korea, so maybe it’s a good fit when you think about it like that.

Stan is a big ambassador for Māori culture, so it could be a pretty good pairing.