(Photo courtesy ADOR, according to New Jeans’ wikipedia) “Digital cover for NewJeans’ single album OMG”
Adiaris Alcala
Connector Contributor
The spring semester kicks off with remarkably cold weather and new faces. UMass Lowell’s various organizations and clubs are hoping to recruit these new students and welcome them into their communities. This week, there is a new club joining campus: the K-pop Club, created by club president Liam Reidy, a student majoring in Computer Science with a concentration in Cybersecurity. Reidy says that he was inspired to create this club because “[I] love listening to K-pop and the choreographies that go along with it.” The purpose of the K-pop Club is to unite fans of Korean pop music through events that engage the UMass Lowell community, such as dance workshops, games and random play dance events.
“Why not create a club to get together people who enjoy both things and enjoy them together [as a community],” says Reidy. This past Friday, in the 2nd floor lounge of the UCrossing building, the K-pop Club held their first general interest meeting, which was attended by 31 students, who were eager to know what awaited them this semester. The club is currently waiting to become an officially recognized UMass Lowell club in a meeting this Tuesday with the Student Government Association (SGA). The K-pop Club aims to create a safe, non-judgmental environment for those who are fans of, or want to learn more about, Korean pop music.
This club is not only focused on the music genre, but also on bringing awareness and support to Korean culture as well as all cultures on campus. In addition to K-pop’s global success as a genre, this underlying, almost “behind the scenes” movement brings people all over the world together through their love of Korean pop music while also introducing the concept of cultural diversity. This is a great way to engage the UMass Lowell community and normalize the fact that K-pop is not bad, as diversity creates a strong community of fans that support each other.
One of the club events discussed in the general meeting was the first dance workshop. The club plans on doing the dance workshop with the song “OMG” by New Jeans, a recently debuted K-pop girl group that has made itself known as one of the most unique K-Pop groups to exist. New Jeans aims to be a K-pop group that breaks stereotypes and the mold presented to them by their predecessors by paving a new way of creating music and music videos. Emulating the message of uniqueness, the K-pop Club wants to bring students together to be themselves. Choreography is a significant element of K-pop, and the popular bands all dance in sync while performing, creating new friendships through games and dance. That is the purpose of this club.
K-pop is unique because the music and groups are particularly different from Western pop music, but it’s easy to see why so many people are now addicted to it. The melodies are catchy, the choreography is memorable, and the group members are beautiful to watch. “We invite anybody,” Reidy said. “No matter if you don’t know anything about Korea or K-pop.”
Follow them in Instagram: beacons.ai/kpc_uml
Discord: https://discord.gg/AVPCgDv9
Contact Liam Reidy
