WHAT IS K-POP?
K-pop (the shortened abbreviation of Korean popular music) is a musical phenomenon that are reminiscent of the girl groups and boy groups that were popular in the 1990s. Typically, k-pop acts consist of catchy songs, choreographed dances, and visually interesting music videos. K-pop groups are usually put together and produced by companies who have complete control over the creative direction.
WHAT IS A ‘COMEBACK’?
When k-pop groups introduce and promote new songs, they will perform the song (by singing and dancing) on a variety of music shows run by the different television channels of South Korea. Typically groups will go through cycles of promoting a single by performing it on stage and other television appearances. Once the promotion of a single is over, the group will typically rest and prepare for their next single. There is a particular naming convention for these cycles of performances. The very first song that a group promotes is their ‘debut’ song. Any subsequent promoted singles are called ‘comebacks’.
Each music show is found on its own YouTube channel. Fans must go to each music channel and sift through all of the uploaded videos to find the performances of their favorite k-pop groups.
A YouTube search may yield some but not all of the performances for a new song.
There is no way to receive updates about new songs for specific k-pop groups in the same channel that the performances are consumed. Fans must keep up in some other way (e.g. social media) to be informed of new songs.
I designed a native mobile application that offers four main features:
FEED
The user can see a feed of the most recent performances by the k-pop groups that they are following.
FOLLOWING
The user can manage the k-pop groups they are following or drill down into a specific group to see the songs that have been promoted and then the performances for each song.
DISCOVER
The user can see a list of the most recent performances across all channels for groups that they are not following. This list can also be filtered down to specific criteria like boy groups or music show.
WATCH
The user can watch the performances within the application without having to navigate away.
