Yonsei News

Rewriting the History of K-Pop Performances at the BTS's Wembley Show

It was in June 2019, at 7:30 PM, when Wembley Stadium in London was filled with 60,000 screaming audiences. In the place where only the best artists from around the world stand, the first Korean boy band made the stage. Behind the scenes of the performance where people enjoy and cheer the artist’s music for about two hours, sympathize with the message it portrays, and spend an incredible time, stands a concert director and producer Sangwook Kim (Business Administration major, entering class of ’98) who has accompanied BTS in their concert tour around the world.

Kim provided the best time to both the artist and audience by taking responsibility for BTS’s concerts for 7 years from their debut showcase in 2013 to their first concert in 2014, and the World Stadium Tour in 2018-2019, realizing their music and worldview with the concept, story, stage equipment, design, sound, etc. While BTS are writing a new record for K-pop, Kim has established himself as the only concert director in South Korea capable of realizing a world-class performance that no one has ever imagined in the Korean performance industry.

(Credit: BTS's official Facebook)

Just Doing What I Like

Sangwook Kim enjoyed ‘showing people something he made.’ Since childhood, he has been focusing on the act of ‘creation’ – steadily writing, making and singing his favorite music. He was constantly interested in various performances, including plays, musicals, and popular music concerts, regardless of genre. The only thing he did was just following what he liked, and it made what he currently is as a performance director.

“I wanted to create something and show it to people. When I was in high school, I rented a recording studio with my music club friends to make CDs and give performances. I even sang in live cafes when I was a college student. I wasn’t sure what kind of work to do for my career, but I accidentally came across a performance directing academy. While experiencing performance planning and directing at the academy, I jumped into this field without hesitation because directing a concert that moved people’s minds by presenting my favorite music on stage was the most wonderful thing, the best thing I can do, and most of all, what I want to do.”

Kim did not envy such a life as he saw seniors and classmates who graduated from the Department of Business Administration: joining large companies or entering into specialized fields such as accountants to enjoy a high salary and stable life. He just liked being able to do what his heart told him to do. Although his time as an academy trainee – entering the concert hall early in the morning, staying up all night, and going around the country to watch performances – were difficult, but fun. It served as an opportunity to give direction to his life as a performance director. He started his journey as a performance director in earnest after his internship and career after graduation at the ‘Good Concert’ (current CJ ENM’s Music Performance Division), which was well-known in the performance industry at the time.

“The Good Concert was a young company at the time, but I was achieving results by working with big artists. There was a lot of trust in the company since the CEO was a Yonsei alumnus, but I tried to produce a performance with a brand and not just some singer’s concert. By watching the concerts like ‘Snowing Village in October’ and ‘Psy All Night Stand,’ I was convinced that concerts could become a product and a piece of work as a well-planned brand, rather than simply a singer singing on the stage. I wanted to make a show like that.”

Countless Time of Learning, and Completion of PLAN A

Kim’s life as a director since Good Concert was a continuation of learning at every moment. In the performance industry that is well-known for being difficult with poor salary, there is no such thing as work life balance. He went around the field breathlessly, dividing one minute into 24 hours with constant flocking events. It is remembered as the memories of building basic physical strengths as a performance director.

When it comes to the stage production, Kim had to squeeze out and pour out all the experiences and knowledge in life in imagining in what order the artist will sing songs, what form and color of the stage will be composed, what story will be told, and what video will be displayed. However, it all became part of growth and he developed as a director in charge of the performance from start to finish under his own name since Sung Si Kyung’s Japan Tour Concerts in 2008, where he was soaked in sweat with tension throughout the performance despite it was held in winter. He also cannot forget the memory of giving a performance at the Amphitheater at Yonsei University in the same year.

“Even when I was in college or after graduation, I enjoyed a lot of performances in the Amphitheater, including the Akaraka festival. However, the performances I was directing didn’t have much relationship with the college venues. Then, for the first time, I directed Sung Si Kyung’s concert in 2008 at the Amphitheater on the Sinchon Campus. It was the largest performance on the campus and recorded the highest number of solo concerts since the opening of the Amphitheater at that time, making it more memorable. I was excited all along because I liked the fact that the performance I directed attracted the highest number of audiences at the place where I watched performances.”

Kim, who has built up his prowess by directing numerous domestic and international performances, became independent in 2010 by establishing his own performance production company called PLAN A. He took on a new challenge with ‘PLAN A,’ which entails the meaning of achieving the best project that can fulfill the intended impact of good directing.

After launching PLAN A, Kim directed 2PM Hands Up Asia Tour, Wonder Girls World Tour, and JYJ Concert in Tokyo Dome. His relationship with BTS began by directing their debut showcase in 2013 and it lasted for about 7 years until a world tour, which was unprecedented in the history of K-pop. It took a qualitative and quantitative leap forward, raising K-pop performances to a world-class level. The BTS World Tour, directed by Kim, performed 62 times in 30 cities around the world from August 2018 to October 2019, met more than 2 million spectators, and shared the moment with fans around the world. It achieved a feat of being selected for the 2019 American Music Awards for ‘Tour of the Year.’

(Credit: BTS's official Facebook)

Move People’s Mind with Concert That Tells Story

The performances of BTS’s that directed by Kim is a combination of a lot of imagination, a story that can realize it, a stage composition, an effect device, as well as the know-how of performers around the world. What stands out most is that Kim’s concert has a well-organized narrative structure with one single concept. It is the biggest pillar of his concert. It is also what differentiates Kim’s concert from others the most.

“Pop music concerts are the most difficult genre to put in a narrative. This is because we have to make it based on the music of artists with different lyrics that have already been released. I thought it’d be much easier to move the audience’s hearts if I put a bold narrative on a concert that lasted two hours, arrange the music accordingly, and put a direction that smoothly fills the gap. Putting well-organized 20 scenes that leads to a story definitely gives a different impression than simply putting 20 cool stages one after another.”

A large narrative is created based on the essence of the artist, and various devices such as VCR, stage equipment, and sound are built to make the narrative convincing, and the artist and the music are drawn on top of it. A performance with such a flow brings immersion and emotion to the audience. The artist’s music, worldview, and message are organically connected in the time and space of the concert site, so that they can naturally empathize. Kim actively used this method in BTS’s concerts. In 2014, BTS’s first official concert, inspired by the Star Wars series, he directed a concert trilogy with organic story connections in a series format. It was even more successful since it was an attempt that could not be found anywhere in the world.

Creative ideas are also needed to effectively direct the concept and story of the concert. Sometimes, however, it is the most important task and difficulty to find something new and bolder under the constraints of having to constantly plan for the next concert while leading a large-scale staff to travel around the world. According to Kim, interest about the world and communication are key. It is also a competency that should be possessed by a performance director.

“I keep looking at something with a wide and shallow interest not only in performance-related items, but also everything in the world. Someday it will become an idea. For the opening song of BTS World Stadium Tour, two 12-meter leopard statues were erected on the stage, but the space on the stage was limited. So, a large leopard had to be erected and disappear in an instant. I actually implemented it by contacting the large balloon production team that I’ve been interested in. When deciding on a performance title, I often focus on other fields such as literature and music. Another way is to have good colleagues. There’s a limit to one person’s idea, but if you have a colleague who you can communicate with and understand well, to discuss ideas, you can feel the magical moment when 1+1 turns into 3, 10, 100 instead of 2.”

(Credit: BTS's official Facebook)

Long Journey of the BTS World Stadium Tour, Where No One Has Ever Been

A stadium tour is a stage of international popstars who can gather audiences in a stadium with more than 50,000 seats. Only a few have been possible, including Beyoncé, U2, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift. As such, BTS World Stadium Tour was the biggest challenge for Kim and an opportunity to go on a path where no one has ever been. Starting with the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles in the spring of 2019, Kim has successfully carried out all the performances despite the tight schedule, digesting more than 20 campaigns in six months. Even when entering Wembley, which is called the ‘dream stage,’ he was so immersed in the work itself that he could not feel thrilled.

“In the history of K-pop performances, this was the first and last outdoor world stadium tour with more than 50,000 seats. Besides, it seems unlikely that the stadium tour, led by the Korean directing team, from directing to production, will take place for the time being. Imagining, producing, and operating content that will fill a large concert hall that no one has ever done in South Korea was actually a time of pain to break the glass ceiling of imagination that we have made ourselves. It was also a great experience working as a producer on a huge budget and carrying thousands of equipment around the world to create performances. PLAN A’s greatest achievement was gaining the confidence that we had the imagination to direct the stadium performance and the performance ability to make it happen.”

The role of a producer who leads a production team of up to 80 people and puts on a performance is like running a small business firm. Kim needed a managerial perspective and mind, but said that the business administration courses he took while in university were of great help.

“As I majored in business administration, I could naturally think about solving things in a reasonable way. Performances, like other industries, are about efficiently distributing limited resources to achieve maximum utility. Within a limited budget, it’s necessary to decide how much to spend in which directing elements to bring out the maximum pleasure of the audience. At this point, you need to control whether you want to put a lot of cost on the stage set or focus more on the video, while maintaining the overall balance. The business mindset that I learned at the university was very helpful in creating and running the production of the big tour.”

Preparing for a Great Performance Again Today

Currently, offline performances are almost stopped due to COVID-19. Sangwook Kim has gone through some gloomy time lately, but now, he is preparing for next steps in the post-COVID-19 era. He is sure that there will be a huge wave of offline performances again after the pandemic. He is spending his time studying various materials to make outstanding offline performances that will start again. There are more things he wants to do in the future. He hopes to create a monumental performance like the BTS World Stadium Tour again, and is dreaming of directing a big national event such as the opening ceremony of the Olympics, not limited to pop music performances.

Recently, he published his second book, Record of Concert Director Navigating the K-pop Era, following his first book Producer Kim’s Showtime, for general readers to easily understand about concert production, focusing on the stories of directing BTS’s concerts. In the future, he plans to write a book that can give more professional help to juniors who dream of becoming a performance director. He hopes that the talented juniors will be able to produce more wonderful performances in the future.

“In the performance industry, people often learn through apprenticeship. So it is difficult to learn systematically. There are many departments where you can learn theater directing, musical directing, sound, and lighting, but there are no places where you can study concert directing professionally, both domestically and internationally. That is why I’d like to share my experience so that more juniors can gain a deeper professional knowledge about concert directing.”

Although Kim is in a difficult time due to the pandemic, he still enjoys the opportunity given today as a performance director to listen to his favorite music and put it on the stage he created, meet famous artists, talk about things, and work with talented people in the industry. In that regard, he advises his juniors at Yonsei to also find what they really want to do.

“When you find what you really want to do, you can get a strong drive down the road. It’s very rare to find such a job from birth or to find it easily with an extraordinary talent. That is why I want you to dig into the things you like more and more. In my case, since I like music, I went to concerts, and as a result, I was curious about the person who made the concert, and I was able to meet the opportunity to enter the career in that field. My job, which takes up most of my life, is what I love passionately, and ‘doing a job you like’ is such an incredible thing.”