New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Korea Creative Content Agency) The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism (Minister Jong-deok Kim) and the Korea Creative Contents Agency (KOCCA, President Sung-gak Song) will launch "K-Pop Night Out" during world's premiere festival South by Southwest (SXSW) to raise the status of K-Pop and promote Korean musicians to the global music market.
Taking place on March 16 at "The Belmont" (from 7:30p.m. to 2:00a.m.), "K-Pop Night Out" will feature a slew of top talents, including Zion.T, MAMAMOO, Bye Bye Badman, Haihm, Love X Stereo, Victim Mentality and Dean.
Five teams among the participants, Victim Mentality, MAMAMOO, Haihm, Love X Stereo, and Bye Bye Badman were previously selected for the "Festival Directors' Choice" in which the officials of overseas music festivals such as SXSW, MIDEM, and
Music Matters participated at the "Seoul International
Music Fair (MU:CON)" that KOCCA held last year. KOCCA has reportedly worked closely with the General
Director of
Music for SXSW
James Minor in selecting the musicians for the festival.
Victim Mentality, a heavy metal band that captured the eyes and ears of the General
Director of
Music James Minor with a powerful stage performance at the "MU:CON" showcase last year, will be opening the "K-Pop Night Out" this year. The band made a splendid feat of participating in the showcase for two consecutive years following the SXSW 2015 "KOCCA & Seoul" showcase.
Bye Bye Badman, the pop band that won the Grand Prize at the Hello Rookie Awards 2011 and the New Artist Prize at the Korean
Music Awards 2012, and Love X Stereo, the electronic rock band that won Second Place at "K-Rookies 2014", which was a KOCCA project for discovering and fostering new musicians, were highly praised for their unique dreamy vocals and melodies and invited to SXSW.
Other musicians invited to showcase their music to fans around the world include Haihm, the sound designer who gives a trendy reinterpretation of IDM and house genres of the 1990s and Dean, who won the Best R&B/Soul Singer Award at the 13th Korean
Music Awards in 2016 only two years after his debut, was also invited to the SXSW 2016 Spotify Stage.
Zion.T, who is sweeping digital music charts based on his unique vocal and powerful singing ability and MAMAMOO, the skillful girl group that released their first full-length album in February and gaining tremendous popularity with the title track, "You're The Best", are also expected to heat up the showcase with their music.
For more information about K-Pop Night Out, visit the official Facebook page (www.facebook.com/KPopNightOut).
