KMTV goes on the hunt for the next generation of K-pop stars in Maidstone

It follows K-Pop band RIIZE filming a music video in Linton.  Finn Macdiarmid reports.

Transcript

00:00Kent has plenty of musical history, Ozzy Osbourne performing in Folkestone Oasis with an early

00:05gig in Royal Tunbridge Wells, but now a viral K-pop group has joined the band.

00:09Rise are a six-member boy-bound group from South Korea and are one of the rising star

00:13groups of the K-pop genre, with more than 4.5 million Instagram followers.

00:18And for their new single, Fame, they filmed their music video at Linton Park near the

00:22village of Linton by Maidstone.

00:25And with K-pop's popularity growing globally, it's no surprise to stans, which basically

00:29means enthusiastic fans here in the UK that groups have started branching out.

00:34To get more of an idea of the reach of the genre, I spoke to our health expert, Dr. Julian Spinks,

00:39who's also an expert on K-pop.

00:41They're a relatively new K-pop band, they've only been around for a couple of years, but

00:46they're starting to make a name for themselves and they were in one of the big concerts in

00:50the number of bands in June, and I hope they come back to Kent and we become their second

00:56home. And also, maybe it'll start to encourage people in Kent to take more interest in K-pop

01:01and other Asian pop genre.

01:03Now, it's fair to say that K-pop has become a global sensation, with groups like Blackpink,

01:07Twice and Cat's Eye climbing the charts every day, and it's even crossed over into film,

01:12with K-pop Demon Hunters being a huge success.

01:15And now that we can say that K-pop has officially arrived here at Linton Park and in Kent, does

01:20this mean Kent will become a new hub for the genre, or is it too soon to expect everyone

01:25to be a stan?

01:25As I stood there, I considered that if Kent would become the European centre of K-pop,

01:30we should get a head start and make our own Kentpop group.

01:33So I took to Maidstone's High Street to find some rising stars that might rival Rise.

01:38But it didn't get off to a great start.

01:41Can you name any bands? The Smiths? No, as in K-pop bands.

01:46Do you guys know any K-pop artists? No.

01:48Don't know, that's okay, that's okay. Can you guys sing? No.

01:52Okay, can you dance? Yes.

01:53You can dance, okay, brilliant. And can you speak any Korean? No.

01:56Can you guys sing? Yeah.

01:59She can, yeah. You can sing, okay, perfect.

02:01What about dancing, how are we there? Yeah, I'm good at dancing.

02:04So do you think that K-pop could become bigger in England than Kent?

02:07Yeah, I think it already is pretty big, because I know K-pop Demon Hunters, the Netflix show,

02:11their music hit, like, top charts, even in the UK. So I feel like people just need to open up a bit

02:16more about it, because it's in a different language, so people don't really understand it,

02:19don't really want to know it. But I feel like it's just happy. It makes me happy, personally.

02:24And here's our lineup, an all-girl group, except for Connor, and I'm, of course, the manager.

02:28While I had my team assembled, unfortunately, we decided to not go ahead with the band.

02:32But hopefully, Kentish K-pop fans will be happy to see more artists and groups like Rise

02:36doing work here in the county. Finn McDermid for KMTV in Linton.