Picture Credit score: https://dbkpop.com
Giselle, Karina, Ningning, and Winter must be drained. They only arrived in California after a long-haul flight from Seoul, in spite of everything. However the 4 stars of the Ok-pop woman group aespa have an vital job to do—they usually know the stakes. For one of many first occasions of their quick profession, they’re performing for a dwell viewers. And never simply on any stage: the a lot hyped Coachella. Having launched within the thick of the pandemic in November 2020, aespa has solely existed in a world in disaster. However there’s one thing that units them aside: aespa additionally exists as 4 digital avatars, every fastidiously crafted to match their human counterpart, in a fantastical metaverse, Now, they’re able to show they’re extra than simply what followers have seen on screens.
Quiet and targeted, the 4 ladies of aespa sit lined up on a sofa in a small lodge room the place they’ve congregated for a pre-Coachella picture shoot. It may be disconcerting to see them with out their avatars, which seem in images and movies alongside their real-life inspirations. The uninitiated viewer would possibly do a double take. Aespa is an experiment, however it might even be the inevitable subsequent step for the music trade: a recent solution to bridge the digital and the true. To date, aespa has launched just a few singles and one six-song EP—however that EP broke information, debuting on the Billboard 200 album chart greater than any earlier Ok-pop woman group. Their first music video, “Black Mamba,” had YouTube’s quickest climb to 100 million views for a Ok-pop debut.
