I-LAND poster
One of K-pop’s visionary labels promises to help develop “the next generation K-pop artists” alongside one of Korea’s biggest entertainment conglomerates.
The new singing-competition television show I-Land premiered last week and has all the markings of creating the next sensational K-pop act. The project is being put together by Belift Lab, which is a joint venture between Big Hit Entertainment (the Korean label home to global chart-toppers BTS as well as the quickly rising Tomorrow X Together) and CJ ENM (the Korean entertainment and lifestyle company that produces everything including TV channels, movies, music, festivals, conventions and more). The show looks to create future K-pop superstars and all signs point to them doing just that after a promising premiere episode.
Read on for the five reasons why I-Land is already an exciting, breath of fresh air to the K-pop industry.
1. Big brand and band recognition: The teaming of Big Hit Entertainment and CJ ENM combines the powers two of South Korea’s biggest pop-culture brands for a rather unbeatable product. Big Hit has birthed internationally beloved acts like BTS and TXT, and now have stake in a diverse range of acts like NU’EST, GFriend and Seventeen thanks to recent investments. Meanwhile, CJ ENM’s wide business reach means they work with nearly all aspects of Korean entertainment. Putting their brands together creates a synergy that hasn’t been seen for a moment and creates a global platform for a show like I-Land.
Even just the history and access to talent that both brands have will undoubtedly create large interest for the contestants that viewers will meet on the show.
2. The concept is fresh: I-Land is more than just a TV title. The contestants who voted top performers of the week train in the gorgeous, tech-savvy I-Land space that includes facilities and resources to help them perform their best. The space was developed after three years of architectural planning and construction, according to reports. As contestants battle it out to make it into the ideal I-Land training grounds—as opposed to the more basic “Ground” level—it will create a nice change of both competitive and visual pace.
3. Experts are involved: I-Land promises expert mentoring from a near-perfect range of mentors. Not only will Bang Si-hyuk—the founder and co-CEO of Big Hit Entertainment who continues to play an instrumental part in his artist's success—act as a main producer, but he’ll be joined by one of the K-pop industry’s first international breakout stars Rain, as well as the chart-topping producer-singer Zico. The range of knowledge they bring from business, performance and production viewpoints are already impressive.
Even getting the reliable K-pop superstar IU to sing the program’s theme song “Into the I-Land” shows just how world-class their expectations are for the show.
4. There’s promising diversity: Upon meeting the I-Land competitors, viewers learned of several foreign trainees hoping to make their mark on the K-pop scene. Several of the hopefuls come from outside Korea, including contestants from America, Japan, Australia, Taiwan and Vietnam. Notably, if the 22-year-old Hanbin were to be part of a group it would make him the first K-pop idol to hail from Vietnam to further expand the definition of what it means to be a K-pop star.
Fans have already been impressed by his first performance of the show to SuperM’s “Jopping,” alongside Ni-ki, from Japan, and Nicholas, from Taiwan, making him one to watch.
5. There’s a gap in the market: Following a reckoning in the K-pop industry over scandals involving voter manipulation in popular singing competitions like Produce 101, a fresh show like I-Land gives the survival-show concept another chance to prove itself.
By having the trainees themselves involved in the voting processes, this offers an additional feeling of hopefulness that the band members will do right by one another instead of have their fates possibly at the mercy of merciless editing and production.
I-Land is available on CJ ENM’s Mnet K-Pop YouTube channel as well as Rakuten Viki.
