By: Christa Bandoni
Are SuperM the future? The short answer is yes. I personally do believe that SuperM’s claims of being the future of K-pop are well deserved. Super M is a newly debuted group created by SM Entertainment comprised of seven members that originated from three different groups brought together to create one super group.
On October 5th I had the privilege to attend SuperM’s debut showcase at the Capitol Records building in Los Angeles, California. While the show started at 7pm, there were fans who had lined up from hours to a day in advance to show their support for the new group.
Before the show even began, the anticipation from the fans was palpable. There was a loop of music videos playing to hype up the crowd and if a SuperM member was on the screen, the screams from fans was near deafening. It wasn’t just the screaming at music videos that showed the anticipation. The fanlights that were speckling the crowd was like a multicoloured night sky, with speckles of SuperM’s pink, SHINee’s teal, EXO’s white and NCT’s green lights were waving furiously, with some people having anywhere between two and five fanlights in their hands to show their support for multiple groups at once.
When the lights finally dimmed and the screens shut off, the screams were incredibly loud. It was finally time for the group to be on stage and you could tell the fans were beyond excited. The screams from the fans as the rising screen raised, slowly revealing the members. The first song they performed was I Can’t Stand the Rain a song with a drum based instrumental that perfectly demonstrated the strengths of each member. Starting off with a vocal and dance solo by SHINee member, Lee Taemin, and the chorus being led by EXO member Byun Baekhyun’s powerful vocals, the song about not being able to handle the loss of a loved one really hyped up the crowd.
The second song performed was Super Car, a more lyrically positive but still equally upbeat. A more rap heavy song performed by the subunit of the group that included Taemin, Baekkhyun, NCT 127’s Mark Lee and Lee Taeyong, as well as WayV’s Ten. No member had any specific role in this song, with Taeyong, who’s normally a rapper singing in the second verse and having a dance solo as well as Ten taking both rapping and sung lines. The end of the song hosted a surprise for fans when the remaining two members (WayV’s Lucas and EXO’s Kai) joined the subunit on stage for the last verse.
The third song was the group’s title track Jopping, an upbeat party anthem that’s loved by the fans, as proven by them barking with excitement before the group was revealed for the final song. The staging for it was reminiscent of the music video, having started with a projection of the Coliseum which they had referenced in the video. In my personal opinion, I would’ve switched Jopping and I Can’t Stand the Rain in the set list, but with Jopping being the title track it makes sense. The crowd was so excited, yelling the lyrics that were both Korean and English back to the group, a feat that was impressive given that the album had been out for less than a week.
At the hour long performance, there were a lot of unhappy fans, not understanding why it was only an hour long show, but in my opinion it makes sense. It wasn’t a full concert, it was a debut showcase emulating the ones that groups have in Korea. The three songs were an excellent insight to what SuperM has in store for the future and showing to spectators that they are most definitely a force to be reckoned with. While the hour long showcase flew by, it did its job of making me and the hundreds of people around me get excited for the future of SuperM as well as get fans excited for the tour, whose West Coast tickets had gone on sale the same day.
I look forward to see what’s in store for the super group and I feel just with those three songs they demonstrated all of their multitude of strengths and how they plan on making waves for K-pop as well as K-pop in the United States.
You can follow SuperM’s journey on Instagram and Twitter. A photo gallery from the event as well as their music can be found below!
Photos by Getty Images for Capital Hill Music.
FEMME RIOT 