K-pop dance covers and the story behind them

Written by Rahma Yulita & Olivia Nabila | Read in Indonesian

How often do you come across various dance challenges on TikTok every time an idol makes a comeback? Or dance cover videos on YouTube with millions of views that even the idols themselves watched them?

Those are only a fraction of the blossoming world of K-pop dance covers. Unlike before, now K-pop entertainment also provides opportunities for dancers who want to try their hand at covering their artists’ songs by holding dance cover competitions.

One of them is the BLACKPINK dance cover group from Indonesia, Pink Panda, who won 2nd place in a dance competition held by YG Entertainment for BLACKPINK's single "Kill This Love".

The increasingly appreciated achievements are driving the growth and popularity of dance covers. The increasing acceptance of K-pop as a music genre also becomes the key to the improvement of standards and quality of dance cover content.

From a small community to huge popularity

Communities are built to gather people who share the same interests and hobbies. This is also the reason behind the presence of various communities within the K-pop sphere, one of which is the dance cover community.

Changing times, technological advancement and the COVID-19 pandemic are what propelled the rapid development of the dance cover community. According to Chandra, the founder of the K-pop dance cover community Invasion DC, the early 2009s generation was the generation where the bond between community members was still strong.

2011-2013, when Indonesian boy and girl groups popped out one after another, was the period when the K-pop genre gained popularity. This led to the emergence of new teams whose orientation was no longer to the community, but to commercial value or fame.

2015 can be said to be the point where the community and the new teams reached an equilibrium, where they began to unite and have higher benchmarks than just dancing.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many K-pop events were cancelled and the community shifted its focus from competition to creating content on TikTok and YouTube. "The phenomenon could be seen in 2022 and 2023, now events are coming back, more videos are uploaded on social media and starting to be dominated by young children," Chandra explained.

Regeneration also occurs behind the K-pop dance covers scene. The huge number of people who seek to be part of the community prompts the community to open its door.

Chandra shared the enthusiasm of those who wanted to join his community. 900 people registered for an audition. Around 300 attended the live audition and only 30 people were accepted as new members.

Starting from dancing, cosplaying, to making music video covers

Natya Shina, a dancer who has been active in the K-pop dance cover scene since 2010, said that the most noticeable difference between the past and present dance cover content is the output. In the past, dance covers started as a hobby, which was done casually. Now, the output has higher quality.

Not only the dance, now groups and communities are demanded to produce covers that have higher quality. One of them is making a music video parody as identical to the original as possible.

"In terms of content, maybe the difference is now because it's been made into something that can be considered like a business, so everything is more thorough. When making a cover, we look for a place that is really identical, the outfit is the same, be as thorough as possible. It's different from the past where everything was casual since it's just a hobby," she explained.

Dera, a member of the dance cover community White Family, said that before, wearing a T-shirt was enough, but now it can be considered very ordinary. “We are now demanded to look as identical as possible to the idol, whether the costumes, hairstyles, or the looks; become a cosplayer but the K-pop version,” she added.

Talking about the budget, Natya said that one music video project can cost up to Rp.30 million. She said, "The budget is for making the outfit, renting sites, shooting equipment (camera, lightning, etc.), property and food for everyone involved in the project."

From hobby to hobby, millions of views not for "money"

More thorough efforts with better execution often provide gratifying rewards, such as millions of views on YouTube with positive comments.

However, this often creates a misconception that dance cover is a hobby that can bring in a lot of profit, for example through adsense on YouTube for videos with millions of views.

Especially with the various properties needed for a project, as mentioned above. A project is usually funded using personal money or the community’s fund. Once the community gains fame, sponsors will slowly come.

Then, is it true that dance covers make you rich?

"Dance covers, MV reactions, K-pop song covers; they don't make money. Even though millions of people watch our videos, we still won't earn a single penny," Natya explained.

Caca, head of the K-pop dance cover community White Family, said monetisation is not the goal of creating dance cover content. According to her, "There is monetisation, but not for all videos because dance covers are copyrighted. What is usually monetised is other videos like vlogs. So, monetisation on YouTube is not that significant for the community.”

What about the copyright?

Just like paintings and songs, choreography is an object of copyright protection (a part of the large group of Intellectual Property Rights). This protection is clearly stated in Article 40 paragraph (1) letter e of Law Number 28 of 2014 concerning Copyright.

Even so, not all choreography works can be protected. Remember Beyoncé's “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)”? The choreography in the music video has in 2020 obtained the copyright. How did JaQuel Knight as the choreographer register it? Basically, every choreography that is performed fulfils one of the requirements for copyright protection, namely fixation, which means an idea put into a concrete form.

In addition, uploading the music video to YouTube also complies with the declaration principle, which helps record the first date of publication of the choreography, which will later help claim the originality of a choreography. If the choreography is proven to be original, it will automatically obtain copyright protection without having to be registered. Thus, copyright protection provides economic and moral rights to the creator.

Like an item, copyright protection can shift and be transferred. That’s why it's not uncommon for a music video to have several copyright protections, such as for the song and the choreography. The meaning of be transferred is related to the economic rights of the owner. Economic rights in copyright vary, from the rights to trade to the rights to perform, and so on.

Then, what about the people who do dance covers? Do they own the copyright to the moves they perform? The answer is no. This is because the choreography is owned by the choreographer and could be copyrighted if the above conditions are met.

So, do they commit copyright infringement? As long as the dance cover is not intended to make profit, then there are no violations. However, nowadays many artists invite fans or the general public to participate in their music dance challenges. Of course this is considered a token of appreciation for their work.