Kakao's new music show to make virtual K-pop group
Click to viewVirtual reality under the bigger concept of the metaverse has been the latest trend across industries, making its way into entertainment as well.
Kakao Entertainment's upcoming music survival show "GIRL'S RE:VERSE" is intended to bring together the concept of immersive, virtual reality with K-pop artists.
The new show, set to premiere on Nov. 28, will invite 30 singers from different K-pop girl groups to compete with each other to make it to the top five and debut as a group through virtual reality. The participants will hide their real-life identities throughout the competition and show off their performance skills and talents through virtual avatars.
Singer Bada, choreographer Aiki and TV personalities Boom and Pengsoo will host the show.
The show is co-produced by Cho Wook-hyung, whose previous work includes "Infinite Challenge," and Park Jin-kyung, who led "Dunia: Into a New World" and "My Little Television."
"Virtual avatars have been getting more attention around the world, and in countries like Japan, there are already virtual singers that perform," Park said through the show's production company.
"We wanted to bring out the synergy by integrating the excellent vocal and dance talents of K-pop artists with virtual characters."
Park added that because the show runs on the still-unfamiliar concept of virtual reality, he chose the survival format, which is familiar for music shows.
Cho gave a sneak peek of the show, saying the participants' performances will surprise viewers.
"The girl group singers started out lighthearted to enjoy. But as time passes, their desire to make it into the virtual group becomes stronger," he said. "As they didn't have many chances to show off their individual talents or personalities because of the group activities, the participants are really demonstrating a great talent (through the show)."
The producers shared that the unique character of each participant will be the key factor that will make the show interesting.
"All 30 participants named their characters and created a backstory for themselves. The characters reflect part of their real identity. But they are also enjoying the process as if they are in a role-playing game," Park said. "So it would be interesting for the viewers to follow along these factors in the show."
Cho added, "The characters range from a girl from Busan, another from an iceberg and another coming from another planet to take over the Earth. All of the girls have their own story and characters which are all interesting."
"GIRL'S RE:VERSE" will premiere at 7 p.m. on Nov. 28 through KakaoPage and YouTube, and will release new episodes every Monday at 9 p.m.
the video above features a compilation of the intro videos from the 30 singers. you can check out the full videos (average 3 minutes long) for each singer at this playlist
source: 소녀 리버스 GIRL'S RE:VERSE & The Korea Times