Big Ocean: the first hearing-impaired K-pop group

“We long for a world without barriers, where both people with and without disabilities, the young and the old, Koreans and non-Koreans, can live together in harmony. We also want everyone to express themselves freely and be accepted as they are. These were the words of Big Ocean, South Korea’s first K-pop group made up of people with hearing disabilities, when asked about their expectations ahead of their debut, which took place on April 20 of this year and which It coincided with the Day of People with Disabilities in Korea.
The boy group claims that the main goal of their debut is to challenge misunderstandings and prejudices towards people with disabilities. Despite doubts about how K-pop can be considered if its members cannot hear, they confidently took on the challenge of transcending their disability to become a new type of idols in the industry.

A union that seeks to overcome prejudices

On April 16, at the rehearsal room of his agency, Parastar Entertainment, in Seoul’s Gangnam-gu district, Big Ocean spoke openly about preparing for his debut. Despite the hearing disability of its members, they had no difficulties communicating thanks to the use of hearing aids and lip reading techniques. The group’s name seeks to reflect the stability of a vast ocean full of hope.

For Kim Jiseok, Park Hyunjin, and Lee Chanyeon, forming a K-pop group was not their initial dream, as Kim was an alpine skier, Park was a YouTuber, and Lee worked as an audiologist at Korea University Anam Hospital in Seoul.

However, society’s attitude towards people with disabilities united them. The young people decided to form a K-pop group to combat the lack of understanding and prejudice towards people with hearing disabilities.

The challenges the group faced

In January 2023, the three members of the group began to prepare for their debut and had to face a difficult road despite their determination. The three young people use headphones and each of them has a different hearing level, which makes it difficult to coordinate timing, rhythms, notes and dance movements.

“At first, we found it very difficult to synchronize, as each member recognized the beats at different speeds,” Park explained. “However, the vibrating wristwatch provided by our agency helped us detect the beats easily,” he added.

Singing was also crucial, but at first the group could not distinguish between high and low pitches due to a lack of experience in how their voices would sound to others.

«With practice, we learned to recognize what sounds we should make according to the movement of our abdominal muscles. “Now we can easily distinguish each musical scale,” the group commented on the key of the song.

“We can perform songs not only in Korean sign language, but also in other countries such as the United States or the international standard, thus expanding the scope of linguistic exchange,” the members noted. “Currently, we see a growing interest in learning Korean Sign Language, which leads us to believe that more people will begin to learn it, as well as Korean culture and language.”

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The group attracted worldwide attention months before their debut. Fans abroad, even from further afield such as Brazil, the United States and Indonesia, sent numerous messages of support through Big Ocean’s social media channels.

As the most memorable comment from their followers, all three members mentioned one in particular: “Thank you for reaching the world.” In this regard, Kim said “It seems like we are getting a lot of attention and high expectations.”

Big Ocean announced that it will explore other areas of entertainment after its debut and they mentioned genres such as music broadcasting, television entertainment, dramas and movies.

“We hope that our debut will raise greater awareness about people with disabilities and convey to young people, disabled or not, the message of never giving up on your dreams,” the group expressed about their goals. “In the future, we hope to see more artists showcasing their own unique abilities, not just their hearing limitations.”

Big Ocean’s April 20 debut included “Hope,” a cover of the 1998 hit by first-generation K-pop group HOT, released during the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis. The members stated that they chose this song to convey the message of “uniting to fight.”

“We want Big Ocean to be like a ‘light’ that gives strength to all people, disabled or not,” they stated, inviting us to “build together a world without prejudice.”