About a unique girl group: Dreamcatcher

Every year, new girl and boy groups debut in the K-pop scene, on average as many as there are weeks in the year, per gender. At the beginning, each of these groups defines a concept - for example cute or sexy - that they use as a guide. Especially when making their debut, the majority of girl groups opt for a sweet, innocent and happy image, perhaps because the members are still relatively young at the beginning. Quite a few groups maintain this concept as it is also very popular. This could be one reason why girl groups like MINX - a group that consisted of five members of Dreamcatcher - quickly go under the radar and struggle to stand out from the crowd.

MINX

The five-member girl group made their debut under Happyface Entertainment in September 2014 with the digital single “ Why Did You Come To My Home? ” In December, MINX recorded the holiday single “ Rockin` Around The Christmas Tree ” with Dal Shabet, another girl group under Happyface. The first mini album with the title track “Love Shake” followed in July 2015.

The first album was also the last.
After MINX failed to release new music for over a year, Happyface Entertainment announced in November 2016 that JiU, SuA, Siyeon, Yoohyeon and Dami would debut again, this time under the name Dreamcatcher, along with two new members: Handong and Gahyeon .

It's not entirely unique for multiple members of a group to debut together for a second time. For example, the agency of the ten-member girl group Good Day announced in 2019 that five of the ten members would debut in the new seven-member group “Cignature”. Four of the remaining members left the agency and debuted with another member as “Red Square”. Four former members of Pristin debuted in the five-member group “Hinapia”.

Dreamcatcher

MINX never officially disbanded before the group reformed. It's fair to say that the cute girl group has redefined itself and adopted a new name. One of the reasons was that the CEO of Happyface Entertainment hoped a new concept would help the group get attention. Furthermore, the members themselves probably didn't like Minx's music and cute concept too much and were happy about the opportunity to try something different. The now seven-member group debuted on January 13, 2017 with the single album “Nightmare” and the title track “Chase Me”. The members of MINX are no longer recognizable, because the concept and music of Dreamcatcher are miles away from the old image!

Dreamcatcher's music contains influences from rock and metal, making it almost unique compared to the sound of other idol groups. The unusual sound, which has been well received by fans from the start, runs through the group's entire discography. Dreamcatcher is also visually striking, as the members appear very charismatic in often dark, sometimes even scary music videos. Anyone with arachnophobia should be careful, as the animals can be seen in the music video for the debut single " Chase Me ", as well as in the videos for " Fly High " and " You and I ". Dance videos and live performances of the songs can be viewed without any risk. ;)

In the four and a half years since their debut, Dreamcatcher has released 11 Korean albums, two of which are single albums and the rest are mini albums, which in most cases contain six tracks, one of which is a one-minute intro and one of which is the instrumental version of the title song. They also have a Japanese album, whose 12-track tracklist includes the Japanese version of some of the title songs such as “ What ” and “ You and I ”. Most recently, “Summer Holiday” was released at the end of July, with the title song “ Because ”.

Achievements

Two single albums - Nightmare and Fall Asleep in the Mirror - were followed in July 2017 by the first extended play “Prequel”, which debuted at number five on the Billboard World Album Charts and took first place on the “US iTunes K-pop Top 100 Charts”. reached. The three releases gave the group enough fans that tickets for a fan meeting in January 2018, where Dreamcatcher celebrated their first anniversary, sold in under a minute. One day before the fan meeting, the single “Full Moon”, dedicated to the fans, was released, which reached number 16 on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales charts and was performed for the first time at the fan meeting.

In February 2018, the seven singers went on a world tour. “Dreamcatcher 1st Tour 'Fly High'" included eight concerts in European cities, including Berlin!

In March, Dreamcatcher announced the name of their fan base: "InSomnia." Somnia is the plural of the Latin word for dream/fantasy.
The second mini-album "Escape The Are", released in May, entered the Billboard World Album Charts at number 7. A tour of Latin America followed, which ended in August. The third mini-album "Alone in the City" was released in September, and its title song " What " was also released in Japanese in November, marking Dreamcatcher's Japanese debut.

On February 13, 2019, Dreamcatcher released their fourth mini album “The End of Nightmare” with the title song “ PIRI ”. On the same day, Happyface Entertainment announced that the agency had changed its name to “DreamCatcher Company”. Dreamcatcher Company, as the name suggests, is only responsible for the management of Dreamcatcher. Other artists are managed by sublabels: the boy group “D1CE” by “D1CE Company” and the trio “Classmate” as well as the solo singer “Lee Si Eun” by “HF Music Company”.

After Dreamcatcher was on the road for the Asia tour “Inivitation from Nightmare City” from March to May, the first Japanese album “The Beginning of The End” was released on September 11th, which, in addition to the Japanese versions of some of their title songs, also included two new Japanese songs contains.

On September 18th, the group released their first special album “Raid of Dream” in collaboration with the mobile game “King's Raid”. The limited version not only came with a photo book of the seven members of Dreamcatcher, but also with an illustrated book of the mobile game.

From October to December, Dreamcatcher performed in five American cities, among others, as part of their second European tour. Handong was not there because she was taking part in the Chinese survival show “Youth With You”.
The album “Dystopia: The Tree of Language” was also released in February 2020 without Handong. Nevertheless, the choreography for the title song “Scream” was worked out for seven dancers and in the music video for “ Scream ” Handong’s part is danced by a masked dancer. Among the 13 tracks on the album is “ Paradise ”; Siyeon’s first solo song.

As part of the Millenasia Project, Dreamcatcher, boy band “In2it” and solo singer “AleXa” jointly released the song “Be The Future” in May in collaboration with the UNESCO Global Education Coalition to educate students about hygiene measures during the Corona pandemic.

It was only after a year, in October 2020, that Handong rejoined Dreamcatcher. After her participation in “Youth With You”, she was unable to return to Korea due to the pandemic. Her hometown is Wuhan, the place where Corona was first detected, and Dreamcatcher Company explained that she was unable to get a plane ticket for a long time with her Wuhan passport. Fans were able to really celebrate her return, as Handong made her solo debut on October 19 with the Chinese single “ First Light of Dawn ”.

In December, Dreamcatcher recorded the opening theme “ Eclipse ” for the anime adaptation of the mobile game “King’s Raid”. In 2021, the group released two more albums: “ Dystopia: Road to Utopia ” in January and “ Summer Holiday ” in July.

"Youth With You" und "MixNine"

As already mentioned, Handong took part in the survival show "Youth With You - Idol Producer" in 2019/2020. She was eliminated in episode 16, finishing in 56th place out of 109 contestants.

But this wasn't Dreamcatcher's first participation in a survival show. Back in October 2017, JiU, Siyeon, Yoohyeon and Dami joined YG Entertainment's “MixNine”. However, they left the show in December to go on tour in Brazil.


If you don't have a Dreamcatcher album in your collection yet and would like to get one, feel free to take a look around our shop . =)