SXSW Music: Korean Pop With Its Own Special f(x)

Josh Haner/The New York Times F(x) at South by Southwest.

Mystique does not thrive at South by Southwest. It is very rarely a festival where the polished pop star bestows a slick, remote performance on distant fans and then disappears back behind the veil of celebrity. The clubs where most gigs take place are too small and the stages are too low for that; audience members are close enough to see musicians eye to eye. They can probably run into them backstage, too, loading their own equipment into the van. Even at larger places, the stars don’t get to bring their custom-built stages, lights and sound systems; they play in the existing setups, like the big bumpy back yard of a barbecue place or a generic temporary stage in a warehouse or a vcant lot. Performers also experience the same Texas weather â€" summery even in March â€" that audiences do. It’s a kind of leveler; who are you without your gimmicks, and how do your songs really hold up

But along came f(x), a five-woman group from South Korea â€" four of them under 21 â€" that is a female “idol band” from the artificial world of K-pop. On the model of American boy bands like ‘N Sync, idol bands are assembled, trained, choreographed and supplied with material by their management companies.

F(x) is reportedly one of the more daring idol bands; one of the five women’s costumes was a modified T-shirt from the horror-punk band the Misfits. They have song titles like “Hot Summer,” “Danger” and “Electric Shock,” which were all part of the group’s brief set, sung (in Korean, with English refrains) to prerecorded tracks that closely fo! llow American and European electropop. The group didn’t have its lasers, but it did have video screens. The set was all catchiness and choreography, with lots of angular elbow and shoulder action, like Janet Jackson above the waist; hip motion, not so much. ”Hot Summer” included one move like wiping sweat off the girl’s forehead. The group was impeccable, twitching and twirling and hitting its marks with smiles while an audience full of Korean girls squealed and took photos. SXSW or not, this was pop, and no one wanted idols brought down to earth.