Indonesians are used to seeing ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers zipping through traffic or hanging out on the street waiting for their next customer, but the image of a group of them performing K-pop choreography would be strange to say the least, which is why this particular music video has gone viral in Indonesia recently.
The video, which was uploaded by a K-pop dance cover group called Silverteam on Sunday, quickly went viral and gained thousands of retweets after being posted to Twitter.
The 12 dancers in the video play members of the K-pop boyband SEVENTEEN and cover their dance to the group’s hit single titled Thanks. They shot the video in front of Titik Nol Km (Kilometer Zero Monument) in the heart of Yogyakarta as part of global K-pop in Public Challenge.
Many of the comments saluted the ‘ojek drivers’ for nailing the dance.
https://twitter.com/sclfportrait/status/1107490152446717952
https://twitter.com/ettedaanreb/status/1107640110709760002
“Successfully covering a choreo [sic] from one of the most synchronized boygroup in K-pop industry is one heck of a bold move, I salute the online ojek drivers, I can’t keep [the video] out of my mind since this morning”
https://twitter.com/ailuaulia/status/1107330204941180928
”Maybe this is why my Go-Food order took so long to arrive”
But, despite the outfits they used in the video, none of the dancers in the video are actual ojeks (although one used to be). Silverteam’s manager, April, said the group chose to use them to stand out from other K-pop cover groups.
“The idea came from the group’s leader, who wanted to create something new for Silverteam. He got an idea for the dancers to wear the ojek jackets, because other [K-pop] dance cover groups usually wear nice costumes for their public challenge [videos]. Go-Jek and Grab are two of the dominating online ojek [platforms] in Jogja, that’s why we chose to wear their uniforms,” April told Coconuts.
According to April, the Yogyakarta-based dance group obtained the twelve Go-Jek and Grab jackets from their friends who work as ojek drivers. The video’s popularity reached the online ojek driver communities too and she said their responses are mainly positive because it helped to “unite the drivers from the two biggest platforms in Indonesia”.
We have reached both Go-Jek and Grab Indonesia, but, as of the time of writing, neither has responded to our queries.
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