2 Dance Groups That Will Have You Questioning a Women's Place in the Kpop Industry

aka "The Feminist Moral Dilemma of Dance Groups"
CW: Contains no nudity, but probably NSFW content

Idols trend, but dance groups are forever. Since the dawn of YouTube people have been posting and sharing dance routines and covers on the internet. They are completely performance-based and, usually, self-made. But, it is so intangible; is it a viable career? Or rather, capitalism would ask, is there money in it? Certainly, it can hype an audience up like nothing else:

Idols need their images to stay inoffensive and their fans to be organized. Dance groups have no inhibitions when it comes to provocative routines. Yet, there is a recent trend of dance groups entering into the idol firmament. Here are two of my favorite dance groups that are creating careers out of viral videos.

Learn about some more trending topics from the first quarter of 2018 here.

1. LAYSHA

LAYSHA is probably one of the most well-known dance groups right now because of their active promotions. They cover a variety of songs in live performance and are more known for entertaining than their technique. They are under JS Entertainment, but due to lack of English language information, I do not know if they were formed by the company with the intention of promoting as idols, or if it was a happy accident (if you have more information, please do share with me!!).

Before EXID Hani's famous rise in popularity, fancams were something fans quietly shared amoungst themselves. After all, watching them felt embarrassingly voyeuristic, and the copyright issues were even more questionable. But by 2015, fancams were something the general public accepted and shared. There were many rising fancam stars at this time, and LAYSHA's Goeun was one of them. Additionally, member Hyeri once again brought them attention after videos and gifs were exchanged of one of their choreography highlights.

Find this in 1080p on the deep web (or r/kpop)

In 2016, LAYSHA completely capitalized on their members' growing popularly and shocking image by releasing "Chocolate Cream." "Chocolate Cream" is infamous for its choreography, which includes copious hip thrusting and floor moves. The song, however, is rather grating and is significantly less streamlined than their more recent releases.

"Party Tonight" was absolutely one of my favorite releases of 2017; it is super fun, girly and unexpectedly cute. It was surprising, but not unwelcome, for them to pick a concept that was closer to cute than edgy. And, even more surprisingly, even though the song did significantly less well than "Chocolate Cream," they kept the aesthetics for their next, and more experimental, single, "Pink Label."

Seeing a "Pink Label" performance with two of the four girls in full-length pants, it would be easy for a casual viewer to think they are a typical idol group of less interesting origins. But LAYSHA makes no qualms about being a dance group, they promote not as an idol group, but a dance group turned idol goup. there is a difference, you know

And, of course, the concept of "talent" always comes up: is LAYSHA "talented" enough as singers to be idol? To this I would answer: are any idols "talented" enough to be idols?

Click here to read about some more talentless and useless girl group members.

"Talent" has become a meaningless word when it comes to idols, because there are so many different ways one can be considered talented. Personally, I think of a different question: are they entertaining enough? I would say, yes, they are certainly entertaining someone! (Me.) Enough of my preaching, let's appreciate that LAYSHA has changed the way we look at dance groups and has been bold to go where no other has done before.

2. Waveya

Waveya has been releasing dance covers since 2006, and their first viral video happened in 2012 with a cover of "Gangnam Style," that gained popularity side-by-side with the PSY's music video of the same title. Since then, they have released hundreds of videos including dance tutorials, live shows and videos of their beloved cats. They worked with B-Classic on this official video, which I like in concept but hate in practice.

Waveya was started by real-life sisters Ari and MiU Jang. From my perspective the younger, MiU focuses on smiling while Ari, our leader, is bigger on technical precision. However, there is no doubt they are both incredible dancers. Some of their original videos include girls they were training at the time, but, as of 2015, there were two.

Looking at their channel by view count, Waveya seems to have two markets: the global audience, who will come out to watch over-the-top sexy covers of international hits, such as Beyonce or Britney songs or whatever current dance song is making waves. On the other hand, they have an audience of loyal, Kpop-loving viewers who just want to see covers of popular girl group songs. While both are definitely marketed as sexy by the video cover, the former less overtly.

Waveya is known for their sexy videos, they also occasionally show off their other dancing skills, and my absolute favorite is their cover of EXO's "Growl." The duo is more versatile than their popular videos will lead you to believe. Their cover of BIG BANG's "BANG BANG BANG" also shows their duality.

So,yes, people actually do come to Waveya for choreography. We can see this even more blatantly when we realize that their sassy, hater-response video "Is it Dance? Or showing off?" basically flopped. Or maybe it was just too arthouse for the masses.

Laysha is a professional production, while Waveya takes the DIY approach. It is surprising to me that Waveya has not been wrangled into an exclusive contract by an entertainment company, or even released an original song. I can't be sure, but I think this speaks of their passion and satisfaction for what they are doing on YouTube. For many of their videos their clothes are sponsored, but for a group with over 2.5 million subscribers, they seem particularly lowkey. Their videos are by girls, but are they for girls? Are they for men? Are they for the ubiquitous, man in the street known as "view counts." Hard to say!

I did not make this post to promote Waveya as an alternative to LAYSHA, but I am also not above putting that idea in your mind by typing it here and then denying it. Because I do like Waveya. Overall, however, I encourage you to enjoy what you enjoy because it may be gone soon. (Let us never forget the likes of BP POP, who died too soon because you, yes you, did not support them.) Promote and feed into the aspects you like in the hopes that the things you do not will fall off in the shuffle. Not too difficult right!