Koffee & Kpop

Kwangya Club was a short-lived (2022-2023) mobile app for getting information about SM Entertainment artists. 광야 translates into something like “wilderness” and has been mentioned by several SM artists in their songs, like Aespa in “Black Mamba” and NCT U in “90’s Love.” It’s really confusing, even for a kpop fan, to try to describe what SM was going for by creating this kind of metaverse where all the SM artists live. Suffice to say, you can visit the Kwangya store close to Seoul Forest and it’s kind of like a cross between a SM gift shop as well as mini exhibition hall.

Almost immediately as we entered, Taemin’s “Guilty” started playing on the large screens that wrap around the store, and my friend went to stare–I mean watch. The video I took is below:

There are shelves of things you can buy like lightsticks, photocards, keychains, t-shirts, as well as mini-exhibits of the artists’ work that have been curated to feature albums, photocards, lightsticks, and more.

You can gauge an artist’s popularity based on their cases, which I find a little sad. Key’s case is full of the various versions of his latest mini-album, as well as Taemin’s, but Onew’s case is rather sparse even though he recently released his first full album (which Billboard named the best Kpop album of 2023). Minho only recently released his first mini-album so it makes sense that his box is a little emptier, but I also think that SM knows who their favorite artists are and will release more versions of those artists’ albums compared to other artists.

My favorite part was probably the floor on the left side of the store. It’s composed of glass cases filled with sand and they’ve placed albums and memorabilia in the sand that they presumably change up every so often when an artist releases a new album. I want that job.

Both Onew and Taemin recently signed with different companies for their solo work, so I’m unsure what SM will do with their work once they start producing new music under their new companies. For now, their solo work is displayed in Kwangya as it was produced under SM, and they are still part of Shinee and will continue activities as part of the group.

In addition to buying goods, there is also a photobooth where you can take photos with a frame based on your favorite artist, as well as a photo customizer where you can select an artist photo to be printed and customize it with various digital stickers and have it printed. I chose an Atlantis-era group shot and added their signatures to it.

Before we left, Key’s “Good and Great” came on so I took some more video footage of Kwangya, as seen below:

I’m really happy my friend took me to Kwangya to look around even though I didn’t buy anything other than the customized photo and a photo of the two of us. My problem is always: who? Sure, I could buy a cute plushie lightstick cover, but whose would I choose? Same with keychains–I want all of them, especially since Key’s and Taemin’s are faces of their dogs and cats, respectively.

You can find Kwangya on their instagram here. The store is open 10:30am to 8pm everyday.