K-Pop has given fans many memorable moments throughout the years. From legendary performances, unforgettable milestones, and epic collaborations. These moments in K-Pop history cover events that range from funny, unfortunate, unexpected, and iconic. Here are 11 moments that still feel like a fever dream.
1. The Wonder Girls movie
In 2012, second-generation K-Pop group Wonder Girls had their own movie on the American television channel, TeenNick.
In the movie, the group prepares for their North American tour. When they arrive in New York, they enter the legendary talent competition, Amateur Night Auditions at the Apollo. The movie was produced by JYP Entertainment and American actor, comedian, rapper, and television host Nick Cannon’s N’Credible Entertainment.
The result was a feel-good movie that gave fans the fun song “DJ is Mine.”
2. Usher performing on SBS’s Inkigayo
In 2004, 10 years after releasing his debut album, American artist Usher performed for his Korean fans for the first time on SBS‘s Inkigayo.
Usher performed his hit song “Yeah!” for enthusiastic fans. Before his performance, he even prepared a greeting in Korean for his fans.
3. T-ARA N4’s mistreatment at Chris Brown’s pool party
In 2013, Chris Brown invited T-ARA‘s subunit T-ARA N4 to open for his Las Vegas concert.
While the girls were in Las Vegas, they performed at a pool party hosted by American artist Chris Brown. While singing, they were interrupted by Chris Brown mid-performance when he started to introduce his latest song. When he realized he cut off their performance, he clarified his new music would play after T-ARA N4 was done performing, and they were forced to restart awkwardly.
After they started again, the DJ played a remixed version of their song, which the group didn’t seem to be made aware of as they momentarily looked confused and tried to cover the gap in their planned choreography.
4. Red Velvet performing in North Korea
In 2018, Red Velvet was selected to perform in North Korea in an effort “to continue the goodwill between the nations established during the Pyeongchang Olympics.”
At the time, Joy could not join the group due to scheduling conflicts with filming her drama, The Great Seducer.
The group performed their upbeat summer song “Red Flavor” and their popular song “Bad Boy.”
5. 2AM and 2PM’s “Abracadabra” Parody
While we often see K-Pop idols covering dances or songs from other idols, we don’t often see parodies. In 2009, 2AM‘s Seulong and Jo Kwon joined 2PM‘s Taecyeon, Wooyoung, and Chansung for a parody performance of Brown Eyed Girls‘ hit song, “Abracadabra.”
The parody took place for 2PM’s variety show, Wild Bunny, which showed the idol group doing ten challenges that idols wouldn’t typically do.
It became a mission from the show: they had to record their own music video entirely and it would be posted on youtube, the mission would only be a success if it got 100,000 views in a month (it got around 700,000). 2 AM member Jo Kwon came up with the idea not of re-doing Abracadabra, but of re-writing the lyrics as well. They changed the name to “Dirty Eyed Girls” and proceeded.
— Reviews by Kristen
Brown Eyed Girls seemingly gave their seal of approval as they joined the 2AM and 2PM members at the end of the hilarious music video.
6. SHINee’s Minho being mistaken as TVXQ Changmin’s “date”
After the release of American artist Michael Jackson‘s This Is It documentary, TVXQ‘s Yunho performed in a 2010 tribute concert with the band from the documentary. Fellow TVXQ member, Changmin, showed up for support and was falsely reported by a Japanese newspaper to be on a “date” with a “mystery woman.”
The “mystery woman” was none other than SHINee‘s Minho, who was sporting long hair at the time.
7. 2PM and Girls’ Generation’s collaboration
It’s hard to imagine a K-Pop boy group and girl group today being able to do a steamy collaboration like this one. In 2010, 2PM and Girls’ Generation members released a promotional song for the Korean waterpark, Caribbean Bay.
In the promotional music video, 2PM’s Chansung, Taecyeon, and Nichkhun, along with Girls’ Generation‘s Seohyun, Yoona, and Yuri, train to become lifeguards at Caribbean Bay. While training, the two group’s members develop feelings for each other, which plays out throughout the video.
8. Ylvis performing “What Does The Fox Say?” at the 2013 MAMAs
Norweigan comedy duo Ylvis performed their viral song, “The Fox (What Does The Fox Say)” at the 2013 MAMAs. They then joined K-Pop group Crayon Pop for their performance of “Bar Bar Bar.”
9. f(x) teaching Anna Kendrick how to be a K-Pop idol
In 2013, f(x) teamed up with American actress Anna Kendrick to film a comedy video.
In the video, Anna Kendrick is sent to Korea to learn how to be a K-Pop idol. There, f(x) gives her a crash course that doesn’t go so smoothly.
10. Rain and Stephen Colbert’s “rivalry”
In 2007, soloist Rain was named Time Magazine‘s most influential person in the world through an online poll. In second place was American television host, writer, producer, and comedian Stephen Colbert.
This led Stephen Colbert jokingly to name Rain his “personal nemesis.” After Stephen Colbert filmed a parody music video of Rain’s “How to Avoid the Sun” and received a response from the Korean idol, the two met up for an epic dance battle.
11. Shinhwa’s semi-nude photoshoot
First generation idol group Shinhwa became the first K-Pop group to release a semi-nude photo book in 2001.
The group quickly sold out all 15,000 copies, and K-Pop hasn’t seen anything quite like it since.
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