K-Pop, Indian music not far apart, say Chennai girls out to bridge the gap

K-Pop and Indian music are similar in many ways, said Sruthi Ram, a postgraduate student at Ethiraj College and member of the five-person team, along with Rhea Rajkumar, Sindhoo Dhana, and Subiksha Priyal. Certain tonal and musical patterns are similar, added Sruthi.

“I am a Carnatic singer, and my mother was my first guru. Interestingly, I noticed some Indian ragas that were followed even in K-Pop. Using certain notations from Carnatic music to understand the words of various songs, I was able to cross the language barrier, as we sing in multiple languages in Carnatic music too,” said the 24-year-old.

The visual drama of K-Pop music videos and catchy choreography, coupled with modern fashion, are all things that are familiar and appealing to Indian audiences and act as a perfect introduction to the genre, said Subiksha. “However, there are a lot of people who make fun of K-Pop fans. These are the people we are trying to appeal to through our virtual lessons. They think that since it’s a different culture and language, they don’t want to get involved. But language is an easily conquerable barrier,” said the 19-year-old.

Through these girls’ unique takes on K-Pop, they hope to bring the genre of music to larger Indian audiences through not only music and dance but also a little bit of history. “At the music classes, we will discuss the musicians, their songs and the impact that they had in the industry. We will also discuss ways to learn the musicality and pick up the words. When people watch the video, we want them to leave learning something new, be it in music or even a little bit on K-Pop history,” said Sruthi.

The five-woman team will be posting videos for the next five weeks on their YouTube channel, Dream Kpop 2020. Through their Instagram page, @dream___kpop, they hope to connect more with the local audience and promote their virtual classes.