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Watch your favorite K-pop acts perform live — as holograms

June 2, 2014
The star lounge at the hologram concert hall Klive offers visitors a chance to take photos of their favorite K-pop bands. (Courtesy of KT)

The star lounge at the hologram concert hall Klive offers visitors a chance to take photos of their favorite K-pop bands. (Courtesy of KT)

By Kwon Mee-yoo

K-pop is gaining popularity across the globe. But as not every fan can see their idol stars in person, hologram concerts are emerging as a new, accessible way to enjoy K-pop.

Klive, located on the ninth floor of Lotte FITIN in the heart of Dongdaemun, offers a hologram concert featuring K-pop singers Big Bang, 2NE1 and Psy six days a week.

The concert kicks off with a live performance of masked dancers introducing Big Bang. The K-pop boy-band sings two songs — “Bad Boy” and “Fantastic Baby” — and are followed by girl group 2NE1′s “Fire” and “I am the Best. ” Psy’s performance is the finale of the concert, leading audiences to move with the singer’s signature horse-riding dance for “Gangnam Style” and hip-swinging dance for “Gentleman.”

After the concert, visitors can take elaborate composite photos with their favorite stars and purchase various K-pop related products at a souvenir shop.

A group of Chinese students from a high school affiliated to Beijing International Studies University visiting Korea on a cultural exchange trip attended a performance Wednesday with Incheon Foreign Language High School students.

Geny Shuo, 17, said it was the highlight of their 10-day visit to Korea. “The holograms were very realistic and it was really cool to see my favorite K-pop singer Big Bang’s T.O. P,” he said.

Lee Jeong-ah, a Korean student who accompanied the visiting students, liked the interactive feature of the concert. “We took photos when we entered the theater and were surprised to see our faces floating on the screen with the singers,” Lee said. “I wish I could see more K-pop singers in hologram concerts.”

Despite expensive admission, tourists and young K-pop fans are satisfied with this pseudo-K-pop concert. Everyone knows it is not real — just a hologram — but it did not undermine their excitement.

Nico, a Japanese tourist came to see the hologram concert with her eight-year-old daughter, and said she found out about Klive on the Internet. “My daughter likes Big Bang and I came here because it is difficult to see them in person. She danced to Big Bang’s music and really enjoyed herself.”

The first kind of virtual K-pop concert was attempted in January 2013, when SM Entertainment held a “V-Concert” by Girls’ Generation in front of Gangnam Station. Life-sized holographic images of the nine-member girl band were screened and fans raved at the concert even though it was not real life.

Klive, the first company of its kind to offer hologram concerts regularly in Korea, opened in March after a trial-run from January. Klive’s current hologram concert is a joint effort with telecommunications company KT, art technology company D’strict and YG Entertainment.

According to KT, about 15,000 people have visited Klive since March and the majority of them were foreigners, mainly from Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Currently the venue only offers performances by singers of YG Entertainment, but other entertainment companies are looking at the commercial possibilities of holographic concerts. Klive plans to expand their repertoire to CNBLUE, FT Island and Rainbow, while SM Entertainment, which purchased a theater at the COEX in southern Seoul last year, aims to turn it into a hologram theater later this year.