The K-pop band who wants to change the industry from within

Hong Enchae, the youngest member of K-pop group Le Sserafim, was strutting in the instrument arcade of Seoul’s infamous Music Hall when he suddenly lost his balance.

With a loud bang, her drink flew into the air and the 17-year-old tumbled down the metal stairs, landing with a sickening thud on the subway floor.

There was a pause. Then she shrugged and sat up, completely uninjured, as if that was how she usually walked up the stairs.

The scene instantly became a meme Le Sserafim’s third EP “Easy” trailerwhich was released earlier this year. But Enchae says it has a deeper meaning.

“When I’m following the path I want to take, it doesn’t matter that I’m tumbling and falling,” she told the BBC.

“I always start over like nothing happened. That’s the message I want to convey.”

That defiance and persistence has helped Le Sserafim carve out a niche for itself since being thrust into the spotlight two years ago.

With the quirky energy of Girls Aloud and the impeccable charm of the K-pop machine, they released some grungy club-friendly songs like crazy and antifragilityShe has been nominated for multiple MTV awards and has collaborated with Nile Rodgers and PinkPantheress.

To the casual observer, the quintet might look like the prototype of a girl band: neatly coiffed, carefully choreographed, and brimming with confidence.

But they are unusually outspoken about the unrealistic standards the industry sets for women.

exist Eve, Psyche and Bluebeard’s Wife (a song named after three women who defied society’s expectations), rapper and singer Kim Chaewon talks about the pressure to perform, even when you’re not at your best.

“Smile to the crowd/Shut up, shut up, turn off your feelings now”.

exist good bonesXu Yunzhen fired back at her critics.

“Do you think it’s okay to put someone down/just because they’re true to themselves?” she protested over a screeching rock riff.

“As a group, we always try to express the duality of being strong yet fragile,” Yunjin explains.

“But no matter what happens, we have each other and that gives us resilience.”

Le Sserafim has an unusual origin story, with members of its record label, Source Music, coming from all over the world and at various stages of age and preparation.

Sakura Miyawaki is an entertainment industry veteran with extensive experience in three other bands – KT48, AKB48 and Iz*One.

At 26 years old, she is the eldest Sserafim. Yunjin calls her a “pillar of strength” who “always makes good suggestions” for the industry.

Chaewon is also a member of Iz*One and serves as the leader of Le Sserafim, a role she describes as “a rock” that “makes everything go smoothly” when things go wrong.

Yunjin grew up in New York and studied opera before entering the strict world of K-pop. In contrast, Eunchae only made 15 months of preparations before officially debuting in 2022. significance (막내), Korean, meaning “youngest member”.

The last to join was former ballet dancer Kazuha Nakamura, who was dropped from the Dutch National Ballet Academy five months before the release of Le Sserafim’s first single. To this day, she feels like she’s playing catch-up with the rest of the team.

“It’s been two years, but every day is still a new challenge,” she said.

Originally there was a sixth member. Kim Garam appeared on the band’s debut EP Fearless, but resigned shortly after being accused of bullying students in high school.

That’s not the only obstacle Le Sserafim faces.

Earlier this year, the band apologized for vocal flaws discovered during a performance at California’s Coachella music festival. Chaewon responded to the negative press by saying the band simply “got excited and lost control of the rhythm” while performing at their first outdoor music festival.

A recent behind-the-scenes documentary, make it look easyrevealing more about the pressures the band faced last year while promoting their first album, Unforgiven.

In one scene, Chae-won tearfully admits, “I really don’t know how to be happy.”

“To be honest, there were times when I considered quitting,” she told an off-camera interviewer.

Kazuha also feels insecure about her abilities as a performer.

“Sometimes I get super confident and I’m like, ‘I should try harder. I can do this,'” she said. “But then I lost confidence and I thought, ‘I can’t do anything. I have no charisma’.”

Yunjin is even more popular. Her upbringing in the United States gave her a different perspective on K-pop’s “idol” industry, and she expressed a desire to change the industry from within.

“Idols need to do this, do that. There are all these unspoken rules,” she said in the documentary.

“I felt it when I was a trainee, but at the time I really wanted to [make my] debut, so I just complied. But after I debuted, I thought, ‘Why does it have to be like this?

She channeled these frustrations into a solo song called “I-Doll,” which explicitly criticized the way pop stars were viewed as products.

“They took my body apart and threw away the rest“She sings.”Idol doesn’t mean your doll [expletive] and”.

In the past, the 23-year-old has declared that she wants to “change the idol industry” and break its “strict standards.”

By being transparent about their struggles, Le Sserafim are deliberately challenging the status quo that demands perfection—and their candor comes at a time when K-pop artists are increasingly willing to defy the system.

Earlier this week, a singer from girl group NewJeans Testify to the Korean Congress About the bullying she suffered at work. Last year, 11 members of Omega X were terminated from their contracts after being accused of “unreasonable treatment” by their record companies.

Le Sserafim has the full support of Source Music and their story is even more positive.

“The message we want to convey through this documentary is not that our work is hard and strenuous,” Chaewon said.

“Instead, we want to highlight the fact that we have a lot in common with anyone who has a job.”

“What we’re trying to say is, you don’t have to be perfect all the time,” Yunkin added.

“Everyone faces difficulties,” Chaewon concluded. “So our message is, let’s overcome all these difficulties together.”

In a superficial industry, they take advantage of their imperfections and see them as advantages.

Even the band’s name is an anagram of the phrase “I’m Fearless.”

Their friendship is reflected in songs such as chasing lightning – Yunjin is teased for her obsession with Greek yogurt, Sakura describes her love of crochet – and their latest single, 1-800 Hot Fun.

Powered by a sinuous bass guitar riff, it follows the band on a night out, kissing random strangers, asking the DJ to play Beyoncé, and clinging to the dance floor until dawn.

“I like this song,” Yun Jin said. “It’s almost like a conversation, we’re just talking.”

When in trouble, the band members kept asking: “Where is Saki?”—their nickname for Sakura—before anyone could respond, “She is waiting in the lobby”.

Does this mean Sakura is always ready first?

“Wow! Wow!Yun Jin exclaimed. “That’s it! This is the first time we’ve thought about it this way. It’s genius.

There won’t be much time to party this year, though. Le Sserafim spoke to the BBC during a long day of TV rehearsals, with fans speculating they are working on a new EP, completing a trilogy of releases titled Easy, Crazy and Hot.

The title is hinted at in the lyrics of “Good Bones,” but Yunjin deftly avoids giving away any secrets.

“Is it going to be called ‘Hot’? We don’t know?” she laughed.

“It might be cold, it might be hot. But whatever product we put out, it’s going to be fire.”

Based on the evidence so far, there’s no reason to doubt this… as long as Eunchae avoids the stairs.