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Superband
Hangul	슈퍼밴드
Genre	talent show reality television
Presented by	Jun Hyun-moo
Judges	Yoon Jong-shin Yoon Sang Kim Jong-wan (Nell) Joe Hahn Lee Su-hyun
Country of origin	South Korea
Original language	Korean
No. of episodes	14
Production
Executive producer	Kim Hyeong-jung (김형중)
Running time	80 mins
Original release
Network	JTBC
Release	April 12 (2019-04-12) – July 12, 2019 (2019-07-12)

Superband (Korean: 슈퍼밴드) is a South Korean talent show produced by JTBC in 2019, where indie musicians were invited to perform and eventually create a "superband", competing against each other.

The average viewership rating was around 3%, and the show received positive and negative feedback, as well. The concept and its genre diversity was praised, while the media heavily criticised the lack of female participants. Only involving the viewers in the decision process at the end of the show drew criticism, as well.

Besides the winning band, the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th place bands also signed with different production companies after the show.

The winner was Hoppipolla. The show was produced by the same production team of Phantom Singer and Hidden Singer.

Concept

The show invited 121 indie musicians, from street performers to classical musicians, representing a variety of genres. The judges pre-selected a handful of participants, whose task was to create ad-hoc bands during the show and compete against each other. The main prize was a hundred million KRW, a recording contract, a world tour, and an SUV.

Out of the 121 participants, 53 were selected for the show, the pre-selection process was not aired. The selected musicians staged introductory performances during the first two episodes, during which some performances were only uploaded to an online platform. During the first two rounds, each stage consisted of one battle of two ad-hoc bands. 16 frontmen for these bands were picked by the judges (named 'Producers' in the show), the frontmen then picked their desired team members. A musician could only be picked for one team. Stages were evaluated by judges, who gave points for each performance. At the end of the rounds, weakest musicians from the losing teams of the battles were eliminated.

The show was mainly pre-produced and recorded, and broadcast heavily edited. The finals were aired live. During the finals, points from the first and second semi-finals (35%), online pre-voting (5%) and text message voting from viewers during the live broadcast (60%) decided final ranking.

Judges

The judges, named "Producers" in the show:

• Yoon Jong-shin singer-songwriter, producer
• Yoon Sang (member of the OnePiece production team)
• Kim Jong-wan (Nell)
• Joe Hahn (Linkin Park)
• Lee Su-hyun (Akdong Musician)

Participants

Performances

Episodes 3–5: 1st round

Episodes 5–7: 2nd round

Episodes 8–9: 3rd round

Episodes 10–11: 4th round

Episode 12: 1st semi-final

Episode 13: 2nd semi-final

Episode 14: Final

Finals were broadcast live and viewers could vote for each team via text message.

Reception

The program was generally well-received by viewers, it got positive notes for not limiting genres, thus enabling the creation of a variety of ad-hoc bands. It was also highlighted that the show gave indie musicians a chance to shine, as they generally get less opportunities on television than popular Korean idols or trot singers. The show had an average viewership of around 3%, which is considered good for pay cable channels in South Korea.

On the other hand, the show received criticism that the production team decided to only accept male musicians and this was also a criterion in the call for participation. The background of this decision may have been the assumption that most viewers (and thus consumers) are women, and therefore the production aimed to create a male "superband". During the marketing, however, there was no mention of the show being male-only, only the creation of a band was highlighted, thus the original intention could be misinterpreted as if a band naturally could only be made up of men. The show enlisted only one woman, Lee Su-hyun of duo Akdong Musician, who was a member of the jury. Her role, however, was not well-perceived. Money Today noted that the very young singer (20 years old at the time) was much younger than other members of the jury, and had much less experience as an artist, as well. She was criticized for failing to judge participants' musicality or talent and rather show cutesy moves and praise their external appearances, as if representing female fans. The author of the article suggested that a more experienced female musician like Kim Yoon-ah of Jaurim fame could have been a better choice.

The show was also criticized for heavily relying on judges' decisions and only allowing viewers to choose at the end of the run.

Viewership ratings

Aftermath

The winner of the show, Hoppipolla signed with Dreamus Company and their first single was released in November 2019, titled "About Time". Second-place Lucy signed with Mystic Story of Yoon Jong-shin and released a single titled "Flowering" (Gaehwa, 개화) in May 2020. The original singer during the show re-joined his previous band Gift, and Lucy chose a new singer, Choi Sang-yeop (who was eliminated during the first round). Third-place finalist Purple Rain signed a contract with JTBC Studio and their single "The King Must Die" came out in February 2020.

References

1. ^ "Superband". JTBC. Archived from the original on 2022-06-27. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
2. ^ "Hoppipolla found their voice by being different: 'SuperBand' winners are now ready to make music of their own". Korea JoongAng Daily. 2019-07-17. Archived from the original on 2023-06-18. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
3. "'슈퍼밴드' 김형중 PD "입소문에 감동, '슈퍼밴드'엔 모든 취향이 공존"" (in Korean). Star Today. Archived from the original on 2023-08-18. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
4. "슈퍼밴드 3회" (in Korean). Naver. Archived from the original on 2023-08-18. Retrieved 2020-05-18.
5. ^ "'남성밴드' 비판받았지만, 그래도 '슈퍼밴드'가 좋았던 이유" (in Korean). Oh My News. 2019-07-13. Archived from the original on 2023-08-18. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
6. "Finding 'Super Band'". The Korea Herald. Archived from the original on 2020-05-21. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
7. "New audition show aims to nurture band music in Korea". The Korea Times. 2019-04-14. Archived from the original on 2023-08-18. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
8. "Linkin Park's Joe Hahn talks band, K-pop, future plans". The Korea Herald. Archived from the original on 2023-08-18. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
9. The original band name was Oyster, but the band name was changed to 9001 in 2020
10. The original band name was Oyster, but the band name was changed to 9001 in 2020
11. now disbanded
12. ^ "잘 만든 JTBC '슈퍼밴드', 하지만 보이지 않는 여성 참가자" (in Korean). Yonhap News. 2019-04-20. Archived from the original on 2024-09-27. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
13. ^ "'슈퍼밴드'는 남자에게만 자격을 준다" (in Korean). Money Today. 2019-05-08. Archived from the original on 2021-01-04. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
14. "AGB Nielsen" (in Korean). Archived from the original on 2020-10-31. Retrieved 2020-10-27 – via AGB Nielsen Korea.
15. 김샛별 (November 15, 2019). "호피폴라, 16일 첫 앨범 공개…독보적 음악적 컬러 담아 [공식입장]" (in Korean). 스포츠투데이.
16. 김수경 (April 9, 2020). "호피폴라, 드림어스컴퍼니·모스뮤직과 손잡고 컴백" (in Korean). 한국경제. Archived from the original on April 12, 2020. Retrieved May 31, 2020.
17. "기억을 소환하는 음악…밴드 '루시'가 데려가는 시공간" (in Korean). Yonhap News. Archived from the original on 2024-09-27. Retrieved 2020-05-25.
18. 황지영 (2019-10-24). "'슈퍼밴드' 퍼플레인, 완전체 활동 돌입…JTBC콘텐트허브와 계약" (in Korean). 중앙일보. Archived from the original on 2020-06-05. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
19. 홍세영 (2020-03-12). "'아이돌 라디오' 퍼플레인 "우린 'A급 중고', 죽을 때까지 함께할 것"" (in Korean). 스포츠동아. Archived from the original on 2020-03-12. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
20. "퍼플레인, '불후의 명곡' 우승 트로피 인증샷 "절로 어깨가 들썩"" (in Korean). Korea JoongAng Ilbo. 2020-04-18. Archived from the original on 2020-06-05. Retrieved 2020-05-12.

External links

• Media related to Superband at Wikimedia Commons

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