K-Pop: Halloween Performances

Hi! It’s Annie!

It is officially October which obviously means that it’s Halloween time! This is the month we all wait through September for, though I know many of us already started celebrating in September. My Halloween traditions for the month of October have changed drastically over the years. While some of my movie marathons are the same, I’ve definitely upped my game when it comes to choosing Halloween costumes and especially when it comes to music. I don’t think I ever had any must-listen songs for Halloween before getting into K-Pop, but now there’s a list that will haunt me all month. Literally. October only just started and I already have some of them stuck in my head. So, I’m going to go over some of my favorite Halloween K-Pop songs, their performances, and why they’re so iconic. This list will probably mostly have ATEEZ on it, though there will be a few groups. This is only because ATEEZ is well known for being the K-Pop Kings of Halloween despite the fact that most of them absolutely hate horror, which is relatable. So without further ado, here are my top picks for K-Pop Halloween watching/listening.

‘THE BLACK CAT NERO’-ATEEZ:

This song was originally sung by Kim Jongkook and his K-Pop group ‘Turbo’. Kim Jongkook was one of the judges on a competition show ATEEZ was on, and they covered his song as part of the competition to go with the general “legends of K-Pop” theme. This performance ended up getting a standing ovation from the judges and the watching audience, and the originator’s love for this cover led to a surprise collaboration over this song. Many K-Pop groups release Halloween performance videos around this season, it’s been around for a few years now, but not many of them take it to this level. Most Halloween performance videos depict our favorite K-Pop artists in costumes doing a dance practice; which is always adorable and I absolutely love it every time. But ATEEZ actually went full MV style on this one and the creepy song definitely fits the vibes. The description of the video cleverly hid the involvement of Jongkook by only giving him a special thanks and he actually doesn’t pop up until towards the end of the video. Instead we spend most of the video with a very vampiric looking ATEEZ (red lips, scratch marks, and hauntingly pale eyes) in what appears to be a church. This inter splices with them in a red light bathed graveyard. This song is definitely more hardcore than you usually expect from ATEEZ, with electric guitar being the most heavily utilized instrument in the background and more of an emo-rock feel to it. Just when you think the music video is over, Jongkook claws his way out of a grave to join the last chorus. The absolute Halloween themes along with the electric guitar have made this a Halloween tradition for every Atiny.

‘Wonderland’ (2019)- ATEEZ

This might be one of the most memorable performances that ATEEZ has ever done. If anyone commits to Halloween it’s them. While they have so many Halloween performances to choose from, I think this one might be the most popular. ‘Wonderland’ is quite possibly the most famous ATEEZ song and this features that song inter spliced with really creepy moments for the group who are all dressed as what I can only assume are demons. Hongjoong straight up looks like the Joker with how creepy his smile is throughout this, Seonghwa looks otherworldly with his wide eyes and contacts, Yunho almost looks like a zombie, San reminds me of the Mummy, and the others have pale makeup and almost skull like designs as well. The song is mixed with creepy music breaks for one of the members to do something generally scary. Hongjoong heads the first one where they all tilt their heads menacingly like dolls while Yunho picks it back up with thunder flashes. The second music break features Yunho eating what looks like a human finger before Seonghwa picks everything up again with thunder flashes and doll like movements. The song ends with them falling back on the floor dying, like how they started, though Hongjoong tears out his heart, smiles, and then twitches around a bit before actually joining the others. It is thoroughly creepy and though this was only a few years ago, this was surprising for a K-Pop group’s Halloween performance at the time. This performance alone set standards for future K-Pop Halloween performances and I seriously couldn’t be more proud of them. Also, I want to give Jongho props for sitting down and still looking creepy and belting for this performance through an injury.

‘Deja Vu’ (Vampire Version)- ATEEZ

This is also shot like an MV, because ATEEZ at the point of last year when this was made, had already fully embraced their role as the Kings of Halloween. Here they are more obviously dressed as vampires with pale skin and even black lips for some of them. They all wear puffy shirts and a few of them even don capes to make their more Dracula-esque vampire look complete. The beginning of the music video showcases them all separately in their garb before shooting to the actual dance video. I feel like ‘Deja Vu’, while not creepy in theme, already feels like it could fit in with Halloween very well. The song also has the lyric “I feel an endless thirst” which goes so well with vampires that it isn’t even funny. The song ends with crow sounds and seriously who told Seonghwa he could look that good in a corset??? There’s so much I could have chosen for ATEEZ. Their performance at the 2020 MAMAs felt very Halloween, especially with the mix of classical music and it ending with the very demon looking King Hongjoong sitting atop a throne. But I decided to stick with only direct Halloween performances for this post.

‘GOGO’ Dance Practice -BTS:

There are a couple of really iconic dance practice Halloween videos for BTS. I almost picked ‘War of Hormone’ because their costumes are more creepy overall. Especially Yoongi as Chucky. I swear, I will never get that image out of my head. But for the sake of not being too repetitive I only wanted to choose one dance practice and there’s still some controversy over ‘War of Hormone’ which is rightful. Especially because Namjoon doesn’t even really like the song anymore. This dance practice is my favorite anyways though, because it’s absolutely hilarious. It begins with all the members in a heated game of ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’ where they are all trying desperately not to be the last one standing. When Taehyung loses we finally see what this game was about. Six of them are dressed up as the seven dwarves while Taehyung dances in the middle as Snow White. Though Taehyung dressed up as Snow White is funny, I think the most hilarious part of this dance practice has to be how much each of the other members lose their very large costume slippers dancing to this song. Their reactions to wearing the costumes are also hilarious. Namjoon keeps whipping his head everywhere because of the hat that he’s wearing, Yoongi is laughing almost the entire time, Jin loses his slippers the most because he keeps tripping on them, Hobi looks annoyed at the slippers on several occasions for preventing his regular movement, Jimin has the same issue though he keeps laughing instead, Jungkook is completely unfazed, and Taehyung seems to be enjoying himself with far too serious facial expressions and tossing an apple around. By the end both Hobi and Namjoon have lost shoes, Taehyung bites the apple and falls on the floor causing everyone to fake cry, and Hobi stands over them all grinning maniacally with a money gun. I laugh so hard every time, it’s perfect.

‘GOOD NIGHT’ (Busking)- Dreamcatcher:

Dreamcatcher are certainly the Queens of Halloween and they do Halloween all year round. So when they come out with things specifically for the season, it’s always amazing. When it comes to songs, literally any ‘Dreamcatcher’ song will usually have a Halloween vibe to it and most of them are meant to be creepy. Around this season I find myself listening to ‘Scream’, ‘Red Sun’, ‘BEcause’, and ‘GOOD NIGHT’ especially a lot. While any of these songs or performances would be amazing, I’m sticking to the direct Halloween stuff. Dreamcatcher has had Halloween concerts, my favorite of which featured SUA dressed as Hell Boy and performing a cover of ‘Maria’. But since I’m not recommending entire concerts and it becomes increasingly hard to find videos of that concert specifically, I decided on this one. Dreamcatcher has been known to busk in amazing costumes on Halloween. This performance features Jiu as a bloody Alice, SUA as a scratched Red Riding Hood, Sihyeon as the Joker, Yooheyon as a jester clown, Gaheyon as Snow White, Handong as a Jiangshi or a Chinese hopping vampire, and Dami as a police officer. What really makes this, is that the song already has a creepy sound to it and the doll like choreography fits perfectly with the season. But my favorite part is the end, because our girls prove time and time again that they are professionals. After the sound goes completely out towards the end of the song, Jiu leads the confused others to complete the choreography while watching Insomnias sing the rest of it. I love this fandom! I may do an entirely different post about Dreamcatcher’s songs this month because they have so many and creepy is literally what their group does.

I cannot wait to see what each K-Pop group comes up with for this Halloween. Obviously I’m waiting excitedly for ATEEZ’s usual Halloween spectacular. Hopefully there will be more out this season to add to my growing traditions list!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie