With many K-Pop stars, Coachella is another big dream stage besides the Grammy.
If they get invited to perform at this music festival, that essentially means their career
in the States has been to the next level.
But have you ever wondered why among many talented groups in kpop, so far only 4 groups
have been invited to Coachella?
Who are they and why did they get such privilege?
Let’s find out with us right now.
1.
aespa
Despite being a rookie who’s just debuted for less than 2 years, aespa still made it
to Coachella, being the youngest Kpop act to perform at this music festival, and unfortunately
also the most controversial one.
Even before their flight to California, accusations saying aespa lacked talents but still stubbornly
using media play to polish the unripe reputation have already spread all over the internet.
While no one denied that aespa has proven their huge influence with the megahit Next
Level, many netizens still believed aespa wasn’t competent and influential enough
to perform at the main stage of Coachella.
Especially since BLACKPINK was the very first Kpop girl group to perform at this festival,
netizens have taken them as the standard and formed some solid criteria for other groups
to check.
That’s why after aespa was officially announced to be at Coachella, many heated discussions
were ignited because based on netizens’ standards, from the live singing capabilities
to the stage presence, aespa is believed to fall short of everything.
However, because the ticket for aespa at Coachella was fixed, some immediately moved on to accuse
SM Entertainment of using their power and buy back-door tickets for the girls.
However, the most annoying thing ticking off netizens was still how SM Entertainment blatantly
called aespa the “first kpop girl group to perform at the main stage of Coachella”,
indirectly downgrading the facts that BLACKPINK was the pioneer of all girl groups, and 2NE1
also made headlines on the Rolling Stone for the reunion on the same main stage three days
prior.
As the outrage grew bigger, netizens also dug deeper to find out evidence helping prove
the media play of SM.
As you can expect, with the detective nature embedded in the DNA, it didn’t take them
long to find out that aespa weren’t invited by the organizers of Coachella, but were invited
by another guest of the festival: 88Rising.
On the announcement letter, aespa’s name was even sorted after Rico Nasty, a C-ranked
American artist with about 598.0000 subscribers on Youtube, and on the official poster of
Coachella, aespa’s name was nowhere to be seen in the lineup for April 24.
That's why many netizens immediately criticized SM for literally clowning their own artists,
who have no idea about all these tricks, and being so in their head.
The criticism quickly moved to the alleged lacking capabilities of aespa, saying that
the girls didn’t work hard to polish their skills enough despite the heavy investment
of SM.
As many also set BLACKPINK as the standard for girl groups performing at Coachella, lots
of criticism was thrown at aespa regarding their performances.
Dancing-wise, aespa is believed to lack even more energy than usual because different from
other times, they had to split the effort between live singing and dancing.
Their dance moves were said to be too gentle and incapable of rocking the stage like BlackPink’s.
Besides, their vocals were also said to be way off the par because there are lots of
moments where the girls sang off-pitch for being unable to catch up with their own song.
Stage-presence-wise, aepsa also fell short of netizens’ expectations as according to
them, while the girls could have been okay with the soulless, robotic stage presence
when performing on domestic stages, the fact that they kept the same energy to perform
in front of the Western audience, especially at one of the biggest music festivals in the
world, was also another huge minus point.
The members' costumes were also said to be copied versions of BLACKPINK’s because three
out of four members wore black and only one wore white, plus the gemstones, form, and
patterns all bore great similarities to BLACKPINK’s outfits.
As aespa has been embroiled in various copycat scandals in the past and the Coachella stage
was another reason consolidating the belief of netizens, some said that aespa would have
been better off had the group’s coordi stopped chasing BLACKPINK’s style and dressed them
in the AI-inspired costumes of the initial eras instead.
However, there were also defending opinions, saying that aespa was quite stable throughout
their performances despite having to focus on the strong choreography.
Not only that, people also seemed to forget how aespa had performed 5 songs in a row despite
being a rookie, the fact that they lost a bit of energy toward the end of the performance
should have never been that big of a deal.
2.
2NE1
Suddenly appearing at Coachella as a whole group, 2NE1 had taken not only the stage that
night but also the Internet by storm because of the iconic reunion after over 7 years.
Also because 2NE1 was a special guest and that meant their appearance would be kept
secret until the very last minutes, no one was prepared for their legendary union with
I Am The Best, which apparently made the whole thing even more legendary than their surprise
reunion at MAMA 2015.
Similar to aespa, 2NE1 was invited by 88Rising rather than by the organization board of Coachella,
but very different from aespa, their performance made headlines everywhere: from the Rolling
Stone, The Korean Herald to even billboard.
In fact, many had already heard on the grapevine that 2NE1 would appear at Coachella 2022 because
several days prior to the show, 88rising added CL to their Head In The Cloud showcase, suddenly
edited 2NE1 into the post two minutes later and then edited the group out once again.
To be honest, since some Blackjacks recalled that Dara once hinted at a no-hope scenario
for the group’s union, saying she would need to release a solo album first before
doing any events or performances, CL only had 15 mins for her stage, and 88rising also
ended up deleting the whole tweet, no one actually hoped for anything.
However, the most surprising thing about 2NE1’s reunion didn’t stop there because according
to an exclusive sit down with CL, billboard reported that the whole performance was pretty
much a last-minute thing.
Especially as there was one moment where CL was asked “When you’re one of the artists
in a set with a partner like 88rising, is a big guest appearance like this something
you need to get approved?,” and she replied that the founder and CEO of 88rising was very
supportive and flexible, many had even more reasons to believe CL should have been the
only one to perform, but then she changed her mind and got other members on board.
Still, as every high has come down, CL seemingly also signaled this was the very last performance
of 2NE1 as an OT4, because when being asked: “Is more coming from 2NE1,” she just wisely
avoided the direct answer.
Then, on her Instagram, CL also wrote that “ I wanted to gather them with my own strength
and power before it’s too late,” consolidating the gloomy prospect about another reunion
of the group.
3.
BLACKPINK
Talking of Coachella, apparently no one can miss out on BLACKPINK because they are the
very first Kpop girl group to honorably perform at this world-class festival.
In fact, their influences at that time were so big that the founder of Coachella, Paul
Tollet, reportedly traveled to South Korea one year before to personally invite BLACKPINK
to participate in the 2019 festival.
Maybe you won’t notice but this rumor means Tollet had already seen the power BLACKPINK
held even before the mega hit Ddu-ddu-ddu-ddu making the name of them was released.
As soon as their appearance was confirmed by the organizers, it literally took one second
for all domestic and international outlets to write about how BLACKPINK once again proved
why they were the revolution of Kpop.
Though the girls only performed at the side stage of Sahara Tent, Coachella let them perform
for about half an hour straight and even set up two nights for their performances.
Actually, their stage wasn’t even a “side” one because at Coachella 2019, lots of famous
artists were also performing there throughout the day, and the main one at Sahara Tent was
for headliners.
After that historical performance, every time someone mentions Coachella, Kpop fans just
immediately think of Blackpink.
A fun fact is, though having been on hiatus for quite some time, when Coachella 2022 ended,
Jennie just casually became the most mentioned Kpop artist despite not being a performer.
That to say, the abroad reputation of Blackpink is really no joke.
4.
Epik High
Surprisingly, the history of Kpop groups performing at Coachella didn’t begin with BLACKPINK
because back in 2016, Epik High was the very first big-influence Korean act to be invited
to the festival.
In South Korea, they were also known as the most famous hip hop group.
Thanks to the earworm music, their songs have always entered domestic charts at top ranks
though that might be the time where other big idol groups were also promoting.
Gradually, their addictive music broke the boundary and garnered tons of attention in
the States, which eventually also got them the attention of Coachella’s organizers
followed by a ticket to perform here in 2016.
For the overwhelmingly good reactions from the audience and the impressive capabilities
to hype up the festival atmosphere, Epik High was then invited once again in 2020.
Unfortunately, this plan was canceled due to the terrible condition of COVID-19 and
so in 2022, the Coachella invitation was sent to them for the third time, making Epik High
the very first act of South Korea to be invited BACK to this world-class festival.
So, are you proud of what the Kpop industry has made so far?
Why do you think Coachella is such a big deal with Kpop acts?
And why out of the 4 Kpop groups that performed at this music festival, only aespa was criticized?