https://youtu.be/jBP7wbbedlg
Over the course of the past three years, the K-pop community has seen numerous Korean entertainment agencies debut their newest groups for this current generation of K-pop acts. It is also a very exciting period of time because K-pop is a lot bigger now than it used to be thanks to social media, specifically Facebook and YouTube.
The current generation of K-pop acts has reached a recognizable point when the Big Three — SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment, and JYP Entertainment — all had major girl groups for the generation in Red Velvet , Black Pink , and Twice , respectively.
However, that doesn’t mean smaller Korean entertainment agencies should be ignored. As a matter of fact, well-known K-pop acts such as Astro , GFriend , and Cosmic Girls are K-pop acts not formed under the Big Three within the past three years, and they are getting plenty of recognition.
One such K-pop act is Dia. The girl group, which was formed under MBK Entertainment, made a splash with their debut full-length studio album Do It Amazing (which is the meaning of their abbreviated name), reaching No. 11 on the Korean charts in 2015. One year later, Dia released an EP, a mini-album titled Happy Ending , which peaked at No. 7 on the Korean charts in sales. Summarized, Dia is doing fairly well for a K-pop group made under a smaller entertainment agency.
Now, Dia wants to continue their success with their second EP, a mini-album titled Spell . To really entice the K-pop fans, Dia is channeling their “inner wizard” for their title track “Mr. Potter,” a song that is heavily inspired by J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
Hype for Dia’s comeback started on August 12. According to an article written by Soompi , MBK Entertainment released a teaser photo providing the date of Dia’s comeback along with their title track “Mr. Potter.” As we can see from the teaser picture shown above, the upcoming comeback would be heavily inspired by the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. For starters, the central part of the image recalls Harry Potter himself with his large round-framed glasses and famous lightning bolt scar. If that is not enough of a sign “Mr. Potter” is inspired by Harry Potter , the nail designs of a lightning bolt, Harry’s face, lighting bolt, death eater in the clouds, “HP,” Hogwarts, and the nest of the Augurey (as seen on the cover of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts 1 And 2 ).
Eventually, Dia would release “Mr. Potter,” and just as they teased, they utilized a lot of Harry Potter lore in their music video. For example, the girls are riding on a train to get to the wizard’s school, a clear reference to boarding the Hogwarts Express to get to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Some of the girls are even seen flying on broomsticks that look a lot like designs used in Harry Potter .
Despite its utilization of Harry Potter , Dia and “Mr. Potter” has its fair share of criticisms, especially when it comes to the suspenders dance they perform. According to an article written by Korean news outlet Pann and translated by Koreaboo , Korean netizens are criticizing the suspenders dance Dia does because it seems to plagiarize the suspenders dance Girls’ Day performs for their song “Expectation.” The arguments have since died down, but it still was a noteworthy topic of debate.
“Mr. Potter” just recently released on Monday, September 12. Dia will not concentrate on post-release promotions along with trying to win a first place trophy on one of South Korea’s many music competition variety shows. If Dia is able to get a decent percentage of the Harry Potter fandom to vote for them, they might just win their first trophy.
[Image via MBK Entertainment]