The K-pop band who want to change the industry from within

Hong Eunchae, the youngest member of Okay-Pop band Le Sserafim, is strutting by way of Seoul’s notorious Nakwon Instrument Arcade when she immediately loses her footing.

With a crash, her drink flies into the air and the 17-year-old falls head-first down a steel staircase, touchdown with a sickening thud on a subway flooring.

There is a pause. Then she sits up with a shrug, utterly unhurt, as if that is how she usually navigates the steps.

Immediately meme-able, the scene options within the trailer for Le Sserafim’s third EP, Easy, which was launched earlier this 12 months. However Eunchae says it additionally carries a deeper that means.

“Once I’m following the trail I need to observe, tumbling and falling down would not matter,” she tells the BBC.

“I all the time begin over like nothing has occurred. That is the message I wished to ship.”

Such defiance and persistence have helped Le Sserafim carve out a distinct segment since they had been thrust into the highlight two years in the past.

With the eccentric vitality of Women Aloud and the impeccable hooks of the Korean pop machine, they’ve launched grungy, club-ready songs like Crazy and Antifragile, been nominated for a number of MTV Awards, and collaborated with Nile Rodgers and PinkPantheress.

To an informal observer, the quintet may look like the prototype woman band: Coiffed, choreographed and bristling with confidence.

However they’re unusually forthright in regards to the unrealistic requirements the trade locations on ladies.

On Eve, Psyche and Bluebeard’s Wife (a music named after three ladies who defied societal expectations), singer Kim Chaewon discusses the stress to carry out, even if you’re not at your finest.

“Smile greater for the gang/ Shut up, shut up, now shut your emotions out.”

On Good Bones, Huh Yunjin snaps again at her critics.

“You suppose it is OK to degrade somebody/ Simply because they’re true to themselves?” she protests over a spiky rock riff.

“As a bunch, we’re all the time attempting to indicate that duality of being robust but additionally being susceptible,” Yunjin explains.

“However it doesn’t matter what occurs, we have one another and that provides us resilience.”

Le Sserafim have an uncommon origin story, with members drawn from everywhere in the world at totally different ages and phases of readiness by their label Supply Music.

Sakura is a showbusiness veteran, with expertise in three different bands – KT48, AKB48 and Iz*One.

Aged 26, she’s the oldest member of Le Sserafim, and Yunjin calls her “a pillar” of energy who “all the time has good recommendation” in regards to the trade.

Chaewon was additionally a part of Iz*One, and acts as Le Sserafim’s chief, a job she characterises as being “a rock” who “makes every thing clean” when issues come up.

Yunjin was raised in New York and studied opera earlier than getting into the rigorous world of Okay-pop coaching. Against this, Eunchae solely had 15 months of preparation earlier than making her official debut in 2022. Aged 17, she is nicknamed Manchae – a portmanteau of her title and maknae (막내), the Korean phrase for “youngest member”.

Final to hitch was former ballerina Kazuha, who was swept out of the Dutch Nationwide Ballet Academy 5 months earlier than Le Sserafim’s first single. To this present day, she looks like she’s taking part in catch-up with the remainder of the workforce.

“It has been two years however each day is a brand new problem nonetheless,” she says.

There was initially a sixth member. Kim Garam appeared on the band’s debut EP, Fearless, however resigned shortly afterwards following accusations she had bullied college students in highschool.

That is not the one bump within the highway Le Sserafim have confronted.

Earlier this 12 months, the band apologised for perceived vocal weaknesses throughout their efficiency at Coachella in California. Responding to detrimental press, Chaewon mentioned the group had merely “turn out to be excited and misplaced management of our tempo” whereas taking part in their first outside competition.

A latest behind-the-scenes documentary, Make It Look Easy, uncovered extra in regards to the pressures the band confronted selling their first album, Unforgiven, final 12 months.

In a single scene, Chaewon breaks down in tears and confesses: “I do not actually know the right way to be completely satisfied.”

“To be trustworthy, I generally take into consideration quitting,” she tells an off-camera interviewer.

Kazuha additionally confronts insecurities over her talents as a performer.

“Typically I get super-confident and I am like, ‘I ought to work tougher. I can do that’,” she says. “However then I lose confidence and I am like, ‘I am unable to do something. I’ve no allure’.”

Yunjin is extra fiery. Maybe her American upbringing offers her a distinct perspective on Okay-Pop’s “idol” trade, however she’s expressed a need to alter it from inside.

“Idols want to do that, try this. There are all these unstated guidelines,” she says within the documentary.

“I might really feel it after I was a trainee, however again then I desperately wished to [make my] debut, so I simply conformed. However after debuting I used to be like, ‘Why does it should be like this?'”

She pours these frustrations right into a solo music known as I ≠ DOLL, which explicitly criticises the way in which pop stars are handled as merchandise.

“They choose aside my physique and throw the remainder away,” she sings. “Idol doesn’t suggest your doll to [expletive] with.”

Up to now, the 23-year-old has declared she desires to “change the idol trade”, breaking down its “strict requirements one after the other”.

By being clear about their struggles, Le Sserafim intentionally problem a establishment that calls for perfection – and their candour comes at a time when Okay-pop artists are more and more keen to confront the system.

Earlier this week, a singer with woman group NewJeans testified to South Korea’s National Assembly in regards to the bullying she has confronted at work. Final 12 months, the 11 members of Omega X gained emancipation from their contract following allegations of “unwarranted remedy” by their label.

Le Sserafim – who’ve a supportive relationship with Supply Music – put a extra constructive spin on their story.

“The message we wished to ship by way of the documentary was not that our job is tough and strenuous,” Chaewon says.

“Fairly, we wished to stress the truth that we’ve got lots in widespread with anybody who holds down a job.”

“We need to say that you do not have to be excellent on a regular basis,” provides Yunjin.

“Everybody faces difficulties,” Chaewon concludes. “So our message is, let’s overcome all these difficulties collectively.”

In a superficial trade, they make a advantage of their imperfections, projecting them as a energy.

Even the band’s title is an anagram of the phrase “I am fearless”.

Their camaraderie is expressed in songs like Chasing Lightning – the place Yunjin is teased for her obsession with Greek yoghurt, and Sakura describes her love of crochet – and their newest single, 1-800 Hot N Fun.

Powered by a sinuous bass guitar riff, it follows the band on an evening out, kissing random strangers, demanding the DJ performs Beyoncé, and clinging to the dance flooring till the break of daybreak.

“I really like that music,” says Yunjin. “It is virtually like a dialogue, we’re simply all having a dialog.”

Within the hook, the bandmates maintain asking, “The place the heck is Saki?” – their nickname for Sakura – earlier than somebody responds, “She’s ready down within the foyer.”

Does that imply Sakura’s all the time the primary to be prepared?

“Wow! Wow!” exclaims Yunjin. “That’s truly true! That’s the primary time we’ve considered it that approach. That’s genius.”

There gained’t be a lot time for partying this 12 months, although. Le Sserafim have been chatting with the BBC in the midst of an extended day of TV rehearsals, and followers have speculated they’re engaged on a brand new EP – finishing a trilogy of releases known as Straightforward, Loopy and Sizzling.

The title was hinted at in lyrics to Good Bones, however Yunjin skilfully avoids revealing any secrets and techniques.

“Will it even be known as Sizzling? We do not know?” she laughs.

“It could be chilly, it could be heat. However no matter we come out with, it will be fireplace.”

Based mostly on the proof to date, there’s no purpose to doubt it… so long as Eunchae avoids staircases.