An insight into Dream Perfect Regime
Who are all these people with DPR in their name and why should you care?
Have you ever tried to clean up your instagram follow list? Sometimes I do this in order to make sure my followers:follow ratio never gets too skewed and I find myself trying to remember why I followed certain people in the first place. This is what happened to me with DPR Ian…I have no idea when I started following him and why.
And then you start bumping into other artists with DPR in their name…DPR Live, DPR Cream…they must all be related but how?
If you have found yourself with the same confusion, I’m here today to try to provide an intro to DPR, which stands for Dream Perfect Regime. DPR is a collective of musicians and visual artists, and any artists who officially debut add DPR to their name. Think ASAP Mob and how all of their artists have ASAP in their name (ASAP Rocky, ASAP Ferg, etc.).
DPR was founded by three men in 2014 - Korean Hong Dabin (DPR Live), Korean-Australian Christian Yu (DPR Ian) and Korean-American Scott Kim (DPR REM). I think part of the appeal of DPR to international fans, and why you might see a lot of DPR on your instagram feed as an international fan, is that it feels more democratic, less corporate, and more international than a lot of traditional Korean entertainment agencies.
DPR Ian started off as the visual director of DPR, and he directs all of the in house DPR music videos and is responsible for the striking visual consistency across the DPR visual products. He has also directed videos for other artists, such as Bobby, Mino, and Taeyang. Later on, he made his debut as a musician - you can check out some of his music, like Nerves or the most recent single Don’t Go Insane. My personal favorite is No Blueberries because CL is my queen. DPR Ian is really honest about his bipolar disorder diagnosis and his music talks a lot about mental health.
While DPR Ian was working for other artists as a director, DPR REM was working as a commercial producer, becoming DPR’s business manager. DPR Live was working to become the first official DPR artist to debut in 2015 with Till I Die. Other members have joined the collective, and other artists with “DPR” in their name include DPR Cream, DPR Cline, and DPR Artic.
OK so now that you have a bit of background (dig around on the DPR record for more insight if you are so inclined), I want to talk about why you might have been hearing a LOT about DPR on your timeline for the last couple weeks.
Most recently, DPR Ian directed, narrated, and co-starred in IU’s new music video for Shopper.
DPR Artic debuted in February 2024 with what is (I know we’re only two months in, but…) my favorite album of the year so far, KINEMA.
The lead single features DPR Ian. If you are in the mood for a house/techno journey, give this album a spin. He says he’s going for a cold and apocalyptic vibe and it really translates. I would highly recommend listening to this album on a cold and rainy afternoon to power you through the day.In October last year, DPR Live announced a hiatus from DPR and that he was going to start his own label and release music under his name Hong Dabin. At the time it all seemed very amicable, but a few weeks ago, he launched a legal action alleging, among other things, unfair distribution of profits and non-payment of world tour appearance fees. Whatever the legal behind the scenes action is, Dabin did indeed release an album under his new agency, and the lead single Shower Song is one of my favorites of the year so far!
So there you have it - a little insight into the background of all those DPR names and a little catch up on the latest drama and the latest musical releases. Have you been following DPR?