Appearances And Variety Keep “MAISON” Promotions Going For Dreamcatcher In May
K-Pop — Dreamcatcher Recall
Though live stage promotions for Dreamcatcher’s first comeback in 2022 are over, time in other channels kept up the Dreamcatcher content drip into the month of May.
“MAISON” live stages for Dreamcatcher ended a couple weeks ago, but as is the case with every comeback, Dreamcatcher’s content and work continued far beyond the goodbye stage that landed them their second ever music show win on SBS MTV’s The Show. With hybrid fan signs, a couple of nice recognitions, and a bit of variety content, fans got to see that “MAISON” era was not quite over yet this past week. Here’s everything that happened with Dreamcatcher as they headed into what will likely be an eventful May for the group!
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Among the usual fun discussions on the show (this week’s topic was what housework was the most annoying or a hassle — washing dishes, laundry, and trash), everyone celebrated SuA’s one year anniversary on the show, dating back to guest appearances beginning in May of 2021 that eventually turned into a fixed permanent guest gig. The group joked that SuA’s been around longer than anyone, including Red Velvet’s Wendy herself (the show began a transition period between hosts that eventually had Wendy picked) and Dreamcatcher’s loudest member made sure to express her thankfulness for the opportunity (and show off her close friendship with Red Velvet’s Main Vocalist). SuA’s bright, vibrant, and unforgettable personality is one that SBS knows is an asset, and we’ll have to see if this leads to more opportunities in the future for the group’s Main Dancer.
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But SuA wasn’t the only one to appear on a show this week. Chinese member Handong dropped into MBC Every1’s “South Korean Foreigners” show, one that specifically pits South Korean’s against foreigners living in South Korea in contests of quizzes, activities, and more related to South Korean culture. It was nice to see the confidence and comfort Handong has shown in the past year rewarded yet again by sending her to the show, and given her talent for promoting Dreamcatcher’s latest song and her skill at charades, she seemed to make a good impression on watchers. I’m hoping for more appearances as a whole in the future for domestic shows for the group, as every little bit helps when it comes to building their fanbase back on the home front, so to speak.
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That’s not to say Dreamcatcher wasn’t busy with appearances on the variety or show front this past week. A few videos no doubt recorded from during live promotions were released, with Dreamcatcher’s Idol Radio episode (now with English subtitles) being uploaded, a return to TongTong Culture’s “Thrilling Interview” with the group’s favorite nemesis the lie detector, with a repeat performance from JiU, Yoohyeon, and Gahyeon (the last being during BOCA era), a chaos-filled fun time playing games in a relay on M! Countdown’s Game Zone, and a really cool vocal-focused “MAISON” performance backed by a live band on the itsLive channel. While many of these were on channels where they’ve appeared before, it’s nice to know that Dreamcatcher has reliable places that they can appear every comeback in order to promote albums.
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Continuing on the recognition front, several well-known brands gave Dreamcatcher some love this past week as well, with Rolling Stone India putting Dreamcatcher as one of their K-Pop Cover artists for “Rock”, Vanity Teen putting Dreamcatcher’s “MAISON” in the top-3 for April 2022, and Spotify’s EQUAL campaign, highlight women artists and contributors in music, making Dreamcatcher the EQUAL Korea Artist of the Month. Brand recognition by some decently familiar household names is always a good thing, and while the ultimate benefit may turn out to be small-ish, I do think that things like this have helped solidify Dreamcatcher’s place in K-Pop as a sustainable group that can do non-traditional concepts and songs.
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The official Dreamcatcher channel continued to crank out more “MAISON” promotion-related content, dropping in two Dreamcatcher’s Notes to begin the behind-the-scenes live promotion content and putting together a live stream with partner NEOGEN for both some nice conversation about their 1st music show win, some fun games, and, of course, a bit of marketing/signed album giveaway for their collaboration products with the skincare and cosmetics brand. For the latter, it’s nice to see there’s still a bit of mileage from Dreamcatcher’s first collab/commercial film-type arrangement with NEOGEN — and the continuance of those recognizing Dreamcatcher’s long-awaited music show win. For the former, most Dreamcatcher fans are definitely looking forward to the Note or Notes that will hopefully show the group’s reaction and thoughts related to that first win on Show Champion. Until then, getting a couple of nice appetizers for Dreamcatcher’s usual fun shenanigans during promotions, with Siyeon accidentally hitting both Yoohyeon and herself with her own hair accessory and SuA’s impromptu “What’s In My Bag” being just a couple of the humorous highlights from the footage.
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And of course, Dreamcatcher continued onward with their hybrid fan signs, nearing the end of their time with fans and what I consider to be the true end of “MAISON” promotions. A couple of slight (and thankfully only funny) slip-ups happened during both performances, with both Yoohyeon and JiU taking a bit of a stumble, but nobody appeared hurt and the performances continued without further incident. As always, the best part of these coming back are always the pictures, fun little interactions with the various random props, and obviously, Dreamcatcher getting facetime with their fans. It’ll be sad to see these end soon, but I’m nevertheless glad to see that Dreamcatcher finally was able to get back to something normal-ish in terms of fan interactions for this comeback.
The biggest news regarding fan interactions, however, dropped this past week as Anime Matsuri, a yearly anime convention held in Houston, Texas, confirmed that they have secured an appearance by Dreamcatcher that will include a panel, autograph session, and a concert performance. Tickets for Dreamcatcher’s event at Anime Matsuri (which still require attendees to buy Anime Matsuri convention badges) went on sale this past week with the highest level VIP slots going within minutes, a testament to both the growth of the fandom as a whole, and the fact that Texas-based Dreamcatcher fans now had a chance to get to see Dreamcatcher this year in their state. Dreamcatcher’s already-packed July due to their just-announced US leg of their 2022 World Tour just got a little bit busier as a result.
There have been some discussions, aside from the obvious excitement and happiness of another Dreamcatcher appearance, that have come up in response to this announcement. I have over a decade’s worth of experience in the anime convention planning space (a couple of those years in the Convention Chair position, the highest operational position in staff), so I think I can speak with some degree of experience to a couple of them.
- Regarding the event’s 2018 controversy surrounding concerns about the behavior of Anime Matsuri’s ownership , payment of guests, and one Japanese guest’s 2021 account that they weren’t treated well, I only really have second-hand knowledge via the links I just posted, and thus can’t formulate a fully-informed opinion about what apparently occurred. That said, if there had been this public an issue with the way that the event was run, any good anime convention staff, management, and ownership would work doubly hard to button up any issues, respond to concerns directly and honestly, and be mindful of being better for future events from a security, treatment, payment, and behavior standpoint. It’s my hope Anime Matsuri has done this, especially as they have prior experience from a K-Pop artist attending their event via long-lived group APink being there in 2019.
Staff responsible for negotiating and working on the Anime Matsuri side of things for Dreamcatcher’s appearance should hopefully have been vetted and informed on proper treatment of Korean musical artists and know to work professionally and in compliance with their representatives. Those staff should be held to a higher standard of behavior around foreign-based guests, and management of that staff all the way to the top should provide the right and proper example of how to do so, especially if there have been issues in the past. Additionally, Anime Matsuri ownership, if they indeed have had issues with organizing paying their guests to appear, should promptly pay Dreamcatcher Company per the terms of their appearance rider/contract which would no doubt have been part of negotiations. These are obvious things that any professional anime convention planning organization would take care of, so my hope is that Anime Matsuri will do/have done just that, considering Dreamcatcher is, as of this writing, by far their headliner guest for 2022.
Additionally, Dreamcatcher Company had to have done their research beforehand, and they’re likely quite familiar with increasing security to ensure the safety of their members and working with other entities to coordinate appearances. So long as they take the appropriate precautions, are informed about how anime conventions and anime convention concerts/contracts work, and scout the logistics and issues that can sometimes arise from being at such an event, they should be well-prepared. I have every confidence they’ll be ready, ensure Dreamcatcher will have a good appearance to meet and perform for fans in Texas, and if it’s been negotiated, be paid for their time. This isn’t Dreamcatcher Company, nor Dreamcatcher’s, first rodeo. This is an opportunity to add a state that wasn’t announced on their tour list, and I think they’ll be just fine.
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2. Regarding why a K-Pop act is appearing at an anime convention, I don’t find it to be unusual at all. Aside from the obvious fact that Dreamcatcher has a direct relevant tie to the anime world due to their work with the “King’s Raid” anime series for opening “Eclipse”, anime conventions have been reaching into the Asian culture track to support their programming for years. Part of these events, especially as they expand into musical performances and cultural collaborations, is being interested in what surrounds anime and manga and not just the mediums themselves. This can further expand scope to all things Asia, in order to draw interested attendees wanting to know more about the culture, and to pick up an audience that might boost attendance through interest in focused Asian culture-related events. K-Pop, though different in presentation and operations than J-Pop, is a natural extension of this, especially as artists like Dreamcatcher have dipped their toes into the Japanese market.
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Either way, the announcement is an exciting one for Dreamcatcher and their fans, and absent of any of the above should be another feather in their cap and another thing to check off the K-Pop bucket list. Being able to command the clout and interest to sell out your highest tiers right away and to make an appearance at an event of this nature at all is on the whole a good achievement and highly beneficial to the group. But besides this, we’re likely still not done with Dreamcatcher content for “MAISON” era, so be sure to stay tuned to this space every Sunday for more Dreamcatcher news and content, and clap, subscribe, and signal boost if you like what you’re reading! I’ll see you here next week as per usual.
