When KCON USAs official Instagram account posted the groups name without any periods, somecommenterscracked religious jokes.
Is he bringing the 12 disciples?
The rapture is at KCON read another.
(L-r) Kim Tae-woo, Yoon Kye-sang, Joon Park, Danny Ahn and Son Ho-youngGEMSTONE E&M*
Between 2002 and 2003, they played 100 concerts in South Korea andsold out every singleone.
We really have no filter, says Joon Park, the groups founder and leader.
And I go, No, I dont wanna do that.
I wanna make a boy group like New Edition or NSync, Park says.
So he recruited his cousin Danny Ahn, who in turn introduced him to his friend Son Ho-young.
Kim Tae-woo chimes in with a laugh.
Next came the difficult task of choosing a name for the group.
So lets do small-case letters and say we all have god in our hearts.
But we werent referring to any particular religion.
However, there was one small problem.
People in Korea cant pronounce god, Park notes.
It could look weird, right?
And so the group decided to turn god into an acronym.
We made it Groove Over Dose because we all like groove and funky music.
But our real name is just godno periods, notes Park.
We were just active in Korea.
Now that K-pop is globally popular, weve been able to go overseas, Ahn adds, laughing.
But back then, we had no idea any of this would ever happen.
We named our group g.o.d, but I guess foreigners might be surprised when they see our name.
Extremely surprised, Id bet!
But K-pop wasnt always like that.
It took pioneering artists like g.o.d to help raise the bar for the industry.
Have the feel, but send a message thats positive.
And I met the perfect guys.
The perfect guys were K-pop moguls and powerhouse producers Park Jin-young (a.k.a.
Both cut their teeth working on music for g.o.d in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Music is something that has to move you when you dont even listen to the lyrics, says Park.
So it doesnt matter if theres English or Korean lyrics I think music in itself is universal.
Ahn mentions seeing areaction videoposted by a Black YouTuber who cried after listening to To My Mother.
he adds with a grin.
But Kim decided to give it a shot.
At the time, there wasnt global interest in K-pop, so we were super active in Korea.
We took R&B and hip-hop from the U.S. and reinterpreted it in a Korean way.
I think it just happened naturally, Kim says.
Their music still feels very much old-school, yet theres also a certain universal and timeless quality to it.
Park explains that the group doesnt chase after trends.
We dont change our style; theres no real trend in our music.
The stories that were telling in our songs anyone can relate to [them].
There is no trend in a relationship between a mother and a son or daughter.
There is no trend in Road everyone walks that road.
I think thats why our songs last a long time.
For g.o.d, this years KCON LA must seem like a full-circle moment.
Its g.o.ds first time attending KCON.
Were truly thankful to the K-pop artists that came after us.
And just like that, the nonbelievers have been converted.
But well keep doing this as long as our fans want us to.
