Music shows

So now that my finals are over and I’m on holiday, what better could I come up with than go watch kpop music shows? (Actually, about a thousand, such as starting to prepare my thesis, but let’s not go there.)

There’s a wonderful guide on music shows here, and while it’s from 2012 it has not failed me once. But a few updates are in place, which I’ll come to later.

I’ve attended two stations’ different shows: Inkigayo (SBS, Sundays) and Music Bank (KBS, Fridays). There’s a few others which I haven’t gone to (yet), so this talk concerns only the two; also, I’m only talking about pre-recordings and not live shows. Live shows are generally harder to get in to: you need to buy or otherwise obtain a ticket, or beat all the other people to the queue to get one free if they have extra. Some fan clubs may allow entrance for a few people depending on whether their group is performing. This happens after the prerecording ends.

As a general rule: be early. If your group is popular (Beast, Infinite, EXO to name a few), camp close by to rush out as early as possible. Notice that staying outside the broadcasting station may get you kicked out by guards. Everything you do against the rules puts your group and fan club in a bad light, and may result in the whole fan club getting banned from shows for a set period of time (as happened last summer during EXO’s promotions). Some absolutely forbidden things are taking photos inside the station, filming, and recording. Do as you’re told to, be nice and don’t push, and don’t run.

The easiest thing to do is ask people where to find your group if it’s not obvious. In case of inkigayo, on Sunday you’ll find guidelines taped outside the building, either stating where to find the “fan club unnis” (언니, unni, lit. big sister; if you’re a guy, you’ll say 누나, noona) or telling you to send a photo of yourself to a specified number, etc. The point of finding these people or sending your photo is that you’ll need a queue number to get in – and the people who show up earliest and/or with most of the specified items will get the best ones.

Basically the unnis are the “staff” that will work to get you in once they’ve given you a number. They know the best as they communicate with the station staff, so treat them nicely.

It may sound a bit daunting to start talking to strangers if you’re alone, but I can reassure you, Korean fans tend to be really helpful and nice. I’ve had only good experiences with fans at broadcasting stations – that is, when it comes to asking for help and chatting about our group and the performances. Don’t cut in the line, don’t push, and don’t whine. Don’t get in people’s faces.

Now, the specified items I mentioned – and this touches upon the “updates” as well – depend on your group. For smaller groups, you’ll usually need only their latest CD. For groups like EXO, Beast, Infinite and so on, you’ll need specific items. The list is usually up on their official home page (for EXO, sign in to smtown and access the KOREAN home pages for EXO-K or M, then check “notices”) or official fan cafes. Commonly, you’ll need to bring an ID with a picture as many stations don’t admit under 15-year-olds. The system regarding the items may sound odd, but I’ll try my best to explain.

I’m more familiar with SM artists, so let me use EXO for an example (they’re more complicated than f(x) whom I went to see last summer).

If you look at posts on their website regarding music shows, you’ll see a repetitive list of things numbered 1 to 5 or so. The top one is the longest while the last the simplest. First point states you need the latest album, fan club card IN THE EXO-L APP – screenshots are not applicable -, a printed paper to prove you have bought, downloaded, and supposedly up voted the latest album on a Korean music site (such as Melon, Soribada etc), as well as an official light stick and your ID. Two to four are almost the same with one or two things less: physical album and fan club card and light stick, followed by online purchase proof and fan club number, for example. These are not merely requirements or general guidelines (on Friday, people without the physical album were not admitted at all) but actually constitute to your number in the queue.

I got a sucky number because I only had the CD and my fanclub card: group 5, number 13. The first number thus corresponds with the amount of stuff you bring, and your queue category. Obviously, the higher the number the slimmer your chances are of getting in. Treat your number like gold. They write it on your hand or arm, and if it rubs off, you can’t get in anymore!

Play in mind your CD has to be opened. Last summer, the staff only glanced at my unwrapped f(x) album; today, they actually had people open the boxes and show the CD is inside. Your name on your ID AND FANCLUB CARD MUST MATCH (I suppose first name is enough for foreigners like me with a terribly long name).

With f(x) at inkigayo, all I did was show up with the cd, send my picture to the specified number, and show up again at 9am as told to stand in line for the checkup. After waiting from 4:30 in the morning to 9, and then about an hour to get in, we were done and told to step out in twenty minutes. In summer, keep in mind that the outdoors temperature is mad hot while inside they’re freezing you into a block of ice – I caught the notorious air conditioning flu.

In winter, dress well. Besides waiting for them to start giving numbers, you might have to wait for three to five hours depending on the scale of the show and amount of people. Outdoors. I’m still freezing although I thought I dressed well enough. Both inkigayo and kbs have their waiting areas outside, however for inkigayo you have to line up on the pedestrian walk while kbs has a whole plaza for the purpose. It’s an open area with beating wind. Keep this in mind. Prepare money for snacks at cafes. Kbs has bathrooms available, an indoors cafe, and vending machines on the plaza. SBS requires you borrow toilet paper from a cafe and use a public bathroom shared by all shops in the next building, but there’s a seven-eleven and other convenience stores closeby.

For addresses and how to find the stations, check out the link I posted above!

I can try help you in case you have questions on the topic – just drop me a line.

So today I might not have seen the whole of EXO – but I got to see Taetiseo, Taemin, and Toheart with Xiumin as one of their special guests! Also, if you just want to stalk idols, go to the back door by the parking lot to see them enter the station. Sehun passed me by so incognito that people didn’t recognize him until he was gone (I did, I paid attention, hah).