Community Q&A: Most missed things in lockdown & most attractive K-Pop entertainment companies (July 2020)

Last month, we asked the below questions to our DGC community and here are some of the answers. Enjoy reading and thank you to those who took part! 😀

Q: What do you miss most in lockdown?

“Going to work & to dance class ): Neither are nearly as much fun in my flat!” – Leah

“Friends” – Anon

“the show, rehearsals and dancing with my friends” – Sam A

“Face to face dance classes :(” – Fran

“My friends, going to dance classes and going to eat out with friends🥺” – Sara C

“K-pop dance classes! I can live without everything else ” – Tara

“Dancing in a studio ㅠ ㅠ ” – Saskiana

“I miss dancing in the studio the most. I’ve always wanted to dance but never had the courage to start taking classes and I finally did it this year. It’s really fun and I enjoy it a lot; dancing at home is ok but is not the same as I cannot go full on with the steps and dancing with other people is more fun.” – Anonymous

“Being able to dance in shoes, with space, mirrors, loud music, and most importantly other people. ” – Emelie

“Interaction with people” – Gloria. W

“Our interactions, seeing all of you in person and seeing my performance / dance in front of the studio mirror… It’s really not the same” – Chriszelle

“I really miss dancing in the studio and learning the choreo with my friends! ” – Emma R

“Dancing with my friends” – ED

“Regarding DGC, definitely the great atmosphere of classes in a group, people cheering and clapping, and being able to attend classes with my best friends. If the question is wider then also my social life and my cultural life, I miss going to the movies, theatre, museum, concerts (RIP Ateez and BTS concerts), etc” – Anonymous

“See others lol” – Anonymous

“Being able to see friends & socialise in cafes, restaurants, bars & clubs. But I miss the most being able to dance at DGC.” – AM

“Concerts! I have had so many concerts postponed or cancelled :(” – KCON

“My friends, and K-pop partys” – JT

“The yoga studio in the Tottenham court gym. Hahaha the best dancing venue! ” – Matilda B

“The DGC family and also a proper studio to practice in !!” – Daniel

“Dance classes in a studio, rehearsals, seeing friends, KPOP concerts!!” – Emma Boynton

“Dance classes” – Alicia

“Actual dance classes and iced coffee” – Maria

“the studio!!!” – Sara I

“seeing friends and family, the studio and dancing with friends, restaurants” – Anon

“Normality!” – Georgia

“dancing space. There’s simply not enough room at home unless I move my sofa and TV and break down the walls” – Sarah Y

“kpop concerts” – Dayna F

“Peopleeeeeeeee. It’s much harder to stay focused and hyped up in a tiny room as opposed to surrounded by people doing the same thing :(” – Ruxandra

“Friends, dance studios, restaurants, KPOP concerts” – SN

“Going out to eat. I want to eat dim sum again ” – Lauren

“Playing sports in college (badminton), going out to my favourite places such as restaurants and spending time with family and friends.” – Anonymous

“Being on site, like going to uni (can’t believe I said that) and mainly, attending DGC classes :D” – JG

“Not being scared of people” – Larissa

“Dancing with others, Galleries, travel” – Chloe

“Going to galleries and the cinema, seeing my friends ” – Lauren

“Going to a dance studio!” – Laura

“People” – Anonymous

“my social life! (which includes dance class)” – Becca W

“Dancing in the studio!” – BTS

Q: If you could join a K-Pop entertainment company, which one would it be and why?

This was an interesting question indeed! Before we reveal the individual answers, here are the top 5 K-Pop entertainment companies:

• Big Hit (15 mentions)
• JYP (9 mentions)
• SM (4 mentions)
• RBW (4 mentions)
• Beat Interactive (2 mentions)

Answers

“YG, they do girl groups really well.” – Anon

“Big Hit, so I can bump into Yeonjun in the corridors.” – Sam A

“Big hit, what else?! 😂” – Sara C

“RBW because I’m a huge Moomoo and I love the amount of creative freedom and support they give their artists.” – Tara

“Starship as my favourite groups are under it (Monsta X and Cravity) and overall has many artists I like ^ω^” – Saskiana

“JYP (just look at the individuality of some of their artists!)” – Emelie

“JYP – like the culture better” – Gloria. W

“BIG HIT – BECOZZZZ BTS!” – Chriszelle

“JYP because they have 2 of the BEST groups in Kpop and the choreos are always so good – Emma R

“I won’t name a company, but if I could, I would join one that respects its artists, take care of their physical & mental health and allows them to create and produce the music/choreographies they want” – ED

“I feel like most of them are evil lol… probably BigHit? I have a lot of respect for Bang PD-nim” – Anonymous

“BigHit – they seem to treat their artists a better and fairly; seem to be protective of their artists; artists seem to have some freedom to create; they build an alternative universe something like the Marvel Universe; it’s really cool. – Anonymous

“RBW – for starters there’s Mamamoo who r one’s to look up to (my ult group). CEO is fair and he focuses on individual talent without changing your image. Trainees are well loved by the staff, company and vice versa.
If it was the big 3 or 4, SM as they know how to produce good groups and is a plus being part of the SM family. Even tho it’s competitive, you are bound to meet a lot of people (connections) and learn so many skills as they have good resources (dance, vocal, language, variety show skills).” – AM

“Beat Interactive – they seem like one of the few companies that isn’t a mess and their CEO seems really great. She’s not afraid to call out malicious behaviour, willing to own up to mistakes, and has an interest in educating the idols about important things.” – KCON

“SM, because they never disappoint with comebacks.” – JT

“Big hit, simply because my general impression is that they seem to treat their idols the best and allow them creativity. :)” – Matilda B

“SM because why wouldn’t you want to be part of a company that has EXO, NCT, TVXQ, Super Junior, Red Velvet, SNSD, BoA etc.” – Daniel

“Probably JYPE as there are loads of artists under that label whose choreos and music I really enjoy and suits my style of music and dance more than other companies (and yes totally biased because of Stray Kids)” – Emma Boynton

“Bighit because they made bts haha” – Alicia

“GROOVL1N because Ravi of course – Maria

“Beat Interactive or JYP. They both look like companies that genuinely care about their idols. – Sara I

“BigHit – love the music, music videos the produce. The way they treat their idols. Feel there is more depth and meaning to what they produce.” – Anon

“JYP – greater focus on personality and charisma than skill” – Georgia

“I will create my own, Sayu Entertainment. You are all welcome to audition. I promise creativity freedom, fair wages, proper off-cam vacations and idols are allowed to tell their crazy fans off (I will put the crazy netizens in their places too).” – Sarah Y

“jyp – they seem to be the most open to foreign trainees – Dayna F

“BigHit. Their approach to storytelling via their idols is unique. They chose to create a strong narrative through which BTS and TXT get to showcase their talents and we get to connect on a deeper level with them, both as humans and as characters. I adore the cinematography Lumpens does for them and would love to work on their sets.” – Ruxandra

“BIGHIT for freedom of artists and beautiful practice studios/MV sets/storylines” – SN

“rbw probably. Seems like the best one for girl groups atm out all of all of them. Gives the most freedom to their artists” – Lauren

“JYP, probably because of Twice and Stray Kids.” – Anonymous

“Hahaha! Ummm… [Ngl I’d pass on this but then I remembered] JYP or Bighit?… because for Jyp, it’ll be due to the organic foods xD and for Bighit, so that I could be the advocate for more memeful Bts Run edits. – JG

“Either big hit or rbw but probably big hit.
Bang Si Hyuk seems to have a healthy mindset when creating artists and groups. He cares about how a team works together instead of just individual talent but also he doesn’t mind taking in people who aren’t your average kpop idol (oddballs like me). BH also pays their artists a fair amount and if the stats I read are correct they never take more than the artist, they either take the same amount or less of the percentage of earnings. As seen by the treatment of their existing artists, they care about their artists’ mental health (BTS has mentioned having a psychologist or something like that to talk about their thoughts etc) that makes me trust them more. Bang Si Hyuk is also a pioneer and an innovative person. He and his company are always ahead of the market. Weverse for example is a platform which doesn’t really exist for other companies. They rely on twitter and insta etc whereas on weverse you can talk to the idols themselves, watch their videos and content (e.g. BTS documentaries which they previously had on YouTube and bon voyage on Vlive). They deal with rumours or scandals quickly and effectively and always protect their artists first and foremost. They even encouraged BTS to use their own lawyers to review their contract instead of the company’s lawyers so that they could get an unbiased opinion. That to me speaks volumes.
RBW – tbh I don’t know much about their inner workings but I know they’ve produced the two groups with some of the best vocals and unique concepts in the industry. MAMAMOO and Oneus standout from other groups in the industry for me. They don’t seem to care much about age at debut, Solar for example debuted at an elder age than most idols, and the group average age is higher than other groups. I prefer working with people in their 20s or late teens, I think some companies debut people when they’re too young and they still need to learn more about the world. They also seem to let their idols do more or less what they want, Solar has a YouTube channel, the girls wear stuff that has caused controversy before but the company doesn’t seem to care. They also don’t seem to care much about visuals and care more about actual talent (mamamoo aren’t the typical Koran beauty standard but they are still beautiful to me). They allow for a lot of interaction between the different groups within their company even though they’re different genders which is nice because some companies are funny about that.” – Larissa

“BigHit- Seems to have the best treatment of artists at the moment” – Chloe

“I’d start my own ;D ” – Lauren

“Big hit” – Anonymous

“Big Hit because I think they give their artists the most creative freedom and also I could hang out with Yoongi” – Becca W