Dreamcatcher Ping Pongs Into December With Content And Achievements
K-Pop — Dreamcatcher Recall
The group continues its end-of-year work behind the scenes, but a Special Clip and appearances ensure they’re still front-and-center with fans.
The first week of December remained a mostly quiet one for Dreamcatcher, with behind-the-scenes work continuing for whatever might be in store for the last month of the year. But despite the group continuing to take a bit of time off in front of camera, there was no doubt still a bit of news that came out this past week, including a couple of interesting achievements and a cover by two Dreamcatcher members who have proved over the past few months or so that they’ve got great presence as a duo. Without further ado, let’s check out that and more of what we heard about from the group this past week!
The gang was all back together this past week on SBS Wendy’s Youngstreet as Taehyun re-joined SuA and Wendy for yet another fun radio broadcast. This week’s topic was favorite things to do when it’s snowing out, with snowman construction/snowball fights, stepping onto new snow, and staying in being the options in question. SuA’s preference for summer over winter isn’t surprising, given how much more outdoors you can be during that part of the season, but even she’d agree that SBS playing Dreamcatcher’s “In The Frozen” was a nice winter-themed tune. Wendy came out victorious this week and only very slightly avoided spinning SuA and Taehyun’s punishment for losing into being cosplay. You know SuA would definitely go all-out if she had to show up in costume the following week — but I’m sure there will be plenty of other opportunities.
JiU, SuA, and Gahyeon had a great, long interview appearance on YouTube channel show The Man Who Grills Meat a while back, and it seems even though they had an episode with just about an hour’s worth of fun moments, there was still more to drop. In this “behind-the-scenes” clip in which Dreamcatcher appeared for the first half, the group talked pajama wear, with a reveal among other things that Handong got SuA’s pajamas as a gift, which makes the fact that a slightly-tipsy SuA spilled ice cream on it even funnier. This was a nice appearance for Dreamcatcher, and it was good to see that the show and host valued their time.
[embed]https://twitter.com/KCON_official/status/1468441236717862918[/embed]
KCON has become a regular stop for Dreamcatcher over the past two years or so, and the event’s official Twitter reports that in December they’ll be having “special weeks” where they upload some of the official content normally pay-walled to their YouTube channel. Dreamcatcher content from Meet and Greets, Spaces, and Live Premiere KCON events appears to be included, and will be on the KCON YouTube channel on the 16th, 19th, 23rd, and 25th. If you didn’t get a chance to see Dreamcatcher be their usual fun selves off-stage at KCON, you’ll get another opportunity here, so be sure to check out the highlights on the channel for the appropriate days!
Speaking of performances/appearances, we saw a few stage and soundboard pics from Dreamcatcher’s Halloween Midnight Circus concert, per the MyMusicTaste instagram. As someone who’s been involved in event planning with concerts, I always appreciate posts like this because of the glimpse it gives you into just how much and what type of equipment is needed to run an entire show like the one Dreamcatcher did. It seems pretty clear that MyMusicTaste was proud of their setup for this particular concert and it shows just how far Dreamcatcher has come as far as budget and stage presentation for shows. The concert’s merchandise, if you purchased it, has begun shipping as of last week, so we’ll likely see a bunch of images as fans get their swag.
[embed]https://twitter.com/uplusidollive/status/1467755667847249920[/embed]
Dreamcatcher managed to get onto a year-end voting award nominations list from the Annual Seoul Music Awards, for the U+IDOLLIVE “Best Artist Award”. The winning artist will be decided entirely by fan voting, and performed in two rounds, with the first round picking up the top 25 vote-getters and second round deciding the winner from those. There’s a bit of stiff competition out there with some pretty popular groups, but fans (and the Dreamcatcher official Twitter account) have signal-boosted the voting poll to make a good attempt of it. Be sure to vote if you’re so inclined to do so!
[embed]https://twitter.com/SonyMusic_Kpop/status/1466275085489111043[/embed]
Another bit of news that surfaced was that via both Sony Music and Spotify was that Dreamcatcher was the 34th most streamed K-Pop artist in 2021. 34 may seem a pretty long ways away from the top, and by many objective measures, it is. But for a platform that is only just now getting into South Korea and for one of the most well-known international streaming platforms for music, that’s not terrible, either. Fans know that Dreamcatcher has a non-traditional concept with representation from a company that doesn't carry as much clout or resources as some larger ones out there, so to be at least in the top 50 is respectable. We’ll have to see what another year of work at the further penetration of Spotify into the South Korean market will bring us, but for now, this is an interesting information tidbit that places the group squarely in the mid-to-high tier of known (and listened-to) K-Pop groups out there.
The crown jewel of all of this past week’s Dreamcatcher content, however, was a brand new Special Clip from the Dreamcatcher official YouTube channel, featuring Siyeon and Dami covering HyunA and DAWN’s “Ping Pong”. Part of the reason why I’ve continued to follow Dreamcatcher is because their Special Clips can sometimes come out of nowhere, and it’s probably safe to say that nobody expected a HyunA and DAWN cover to drop onto the channel. Siyeon and Dami, who’ve already proved they have a decent amount of chemistry through their joint OST work for song “Shadow”, are becoming an interesting duo to watch for new content. Dreamcatcher’s main vocal and main rapper blended a lot of fun shots, even funnier styling and costuming, and of course, singing and rapping talent into covering one of the K-Pop couple’s most-viewed songs from late in the year.
“Ping Pong” has always struck me as a fun song with an unapologetic attitude to it, and especially in an industry where the confirmation of idols dating seems to run antithetical to the presentation of an idol as “available” to fans, is frankly refreshing. The song is filled with bright, loud colors and even brighter, louder declaration that it’s not only OK for idols to date but also to perform together as a subunit, pretty much unheard-of in K-Pop.
The message of the song aside, it’s no surprise that Dreamcatcher picked this to cover. They’ve always been drawn to songs that are interesting and different (though they are plenty capable of covering popular), and more importantly, individualistic. Siyeon and Dami take that same freedom of expression that HyunA and DAWN brought to the original to this Special Clip — the loud and colorful dress, the bright pink setting with all manner of fun little furnishings that likely also served as the setting for Special Clip “Seventeen” from “Yaja Time” subunit Yoohyeon/Siyeon/SuA, and most of all, the uncompromising, fun vibe all contributed to this. There’s a very big “embrace yourself, warts and all” idea with the cover and it sends that message loud and clear — emphasis on the loud, if the colors are any indication. Either way, a fun and talented Special Clip — and hopefully, not the last one we will see this year from the group.
Dreamcatcher just got started in December and we’re hopefully going to see more content ping-pong’ing into our social media feeds before the end of the year. Regardless of what happens, I’ll be here to recap all of it, so be sure to clap, follow, and signal boost these if you like what you’re reading! See you next week at this time!
