Flavor Profile: Dreamcatcher

I’ve been wanting to spotlight groups that I personally like, and talk about them a bit more or share some of my favorite videos of theirs that really got me into them. With it being the spooky month, and the fact that they are currently my top favorite girl group (sorry EXID!), it was only fitting that this month I choose Dreamcatcher.

If you listen to the Certified Noonas Podcast, you’ll know that I already gushed a bit about the group for our music episode this month, but I knew that I would not remember everything I wanted to say about the group and those episodes aren’t meant to be a comprehensive deep dive into the groups. A lot of this is what I gave the other Noonas to look at when they were researching them for the podcast.

While you should listen to the episode, here’s the basic rundown of the group.

Dreamcatcher is a seven member group under Happyface Entertainment. In February 2019, Happyface rebranded and split their company in two, leaving Dreamcatcher now under Dreamcatcher Company (originally it was just a fan incentive, but became permanent).

The members are:

JiU – Leader
SuA – Main Dancer
Siyeon – Main Vocalist
Handong - Vocalist
Yoohyeon- Lead vocalist
Dami - Rapper
Gahyeon- Vocatlist/rapper/maknae

Dreamcatcher’s is very much stylized with a heavy metal/rock influenced pop. They also have a horror/nightmare concept that is carried throughout not their main music videos, but also their lyrics. Their sound mirrors that of jpop/jrock, so they have been compared to that genre or sounding like they came from an Anime opening theme.

Dreamcatcher didn’t actually start off as Dreamcatcher. In 2014 Happyface debuted a five member girl group called MINX. MINX included all of the members of Dreamcatcher, minus Handong and Gahyeon. Their style was very girly in that bridge between bubblegum and girl crush. The videos were very bright and poppy. While the girls did promote for a little bit and had some interest, Happyface decided to pull them out and regroup. They then decided to form Dreamcatcher, adding Handong and Gahyeon, and rebrand the group concept all together.

Dreamcatcher officially debuted on January 13, 2017 (yes, it was a Friday).

Music Videos

Although concepts or worlds are a common thing in kpop, Dreamcatcher does it a bit differently as their nightmare concept is ongoing and consistent within all of their main release music videos and songs. There isn’t a lot of official word on the exact concept of the story arc so most of the theories are fan theories, however Happyface did release an official statement that the girls were supposed to have been using photos to bring nightmare to the people they took a photo of. Yoohyeon takes a photo of the spider queen (in ‘You and I’) which is how the roles are officially reversed.

The main element in all the MVs is that the girls are constantly being tormented and separated from each other, and are always trying to find/help each other. It is really beneficial to watch all of the music videos back to back to see how they flow into each other and create the general story arc.

Here’s a playlist I made with them in order that they were released:

Basic summary on how the MVs tie into each other:

Chase Me – The ghost hunter spends the video trying to catch the girls, but they are messing with him to distract him from being able to take a photo of them. In the end, though, their ‘book of shadows’ is lost while in the woods and the ghost hunter is able to take it.

Goodnight – Follows immediately after ‘Chase Me’, the book is now in the hands of the ghost hunter who uses it to torment the girls. The other girls are constantly trying to get all the members back together and end up finally doing it at the end and getting their book back, trapping the ghost hunter in a mirror

Fly High – This is the prequel of sorts for the all horror involved, and the reason the girls will be tormented by the spider. JiU finds a spider outside and captures it in a jar, but Yoohyeon ends up tormenting the spider bye burning it with a magnifying glass. At the end you see them slashing the picture that was in the ‘Chase Me' video.

You and I – Yoohyeon is officially captured by the spider queen when she takes a picture of it, and with trying to get her back JiU is possessed (you see this more represented in their choreography).

What – Yoohyeon still in the dream, but in different reality (as they are in a urban setting and present day). JiU is able to see Yoohyeon’s spirit, as a possible indication that she’s slowly coming back. References the globe from ‘You and I’ and you see their magic book there.

Piri – Piri (a flute) were used in wartime as an SOS device. The costumes reflect military garb. You again see their alternate universe versions throughout the video, and the many times they keep trying to escape or contact help.

Breaking Out – As this was their Japanese release, the story is a little lighter within the music video, but is still present. The red string represents the spider using the web to trap them all, and at the end they are able to reach each other.

Déjà Vu- This song was created for the mobile game King’s Raid so it follows more with the game’s story than anything, but there are subtle hints that can tie into the main lore. The MVs up until this point have been playing with the double/multiple universes of the girls and plays with the déjà vu in the song. They also use some choreo from previous songs to tie in, as well as the use of blue roses that has already been used in ‘What’. The mini album has a song about the spider.

Dance

I want to talk a bit about their dancing, because one of the major elements of the group is that they are a strong dance group. Even before they redebuted as Dreamcatcher, they were putting out dance cover videos. For their main concept, they play up into the theatricality of it by using not only props, but intricate moves. You don’t see a lot of the dances in the music videos, but they do release dance practices. Here’s some of my favorite ones.

-Cover released before they redebuted

-Dance Practice for ‘Good Night’

-’Taki Taki’ Dance Cover

-Boy Group Medley

-‘You and I’ Dance Practice

Songs

They have a lot of good songs, and a pretty decent sized catalogue of music for only having one full album, which is their Japanese one (which is mostly Japanese versions of their older songs). I have a Spotify playlist of my go to favorites. You’ll see that it’s most of there songs. I can’t help it, their b-sides are great and worth listening to. They also have a decent amount up as special clip music videos.

Since this is getting long, I’m going to stop here by including another YouTube playlist of some of my favorite clips and performances that they’ve done. It’s really worth a watch, especially to get a sense of their live vocals.

I hope that this helps you give a sense of the some of the elements of Dreamcatcher, and why they are one of my top groups or if they are group that you had been interested in but didn’t know much about them past what you’ve seen in their music videos. Their music is great, and they have a lot of theatrical elements that I personally enjoy, and appreciate the way that they are incorporating their world. I also just generally like the group, their music is right up in my preferred type of genre and think that they are really talented. I hope you give them a chance if you’ve never listened to them.