K-Pop: Making the World Sing to Its Tune!
The Koreans with their music have proved that everything global doesn’t have to be English.
Blackpink, the most popular girl band in the world, smashed the stage at Coachella in 2019 when their half-Korean and half-English verse passed through the audience like a massive wave passing through a group of swarms. That day Blackpink made history by becoming the first Korean girl band to play at Coachella, the biggest music festival in the world. However, it wasn’t the first time the world saw Korean pop stars receiving such global recognition as several Korean bands paved the way for them.
At this point in time there are basically two big names in K-Pop that the Gen-Z practically worships; the boy band BTS and the female quartet Blackpink among the other fairly popular ones like EXO, Seventeen, Stray kids and Bigbang. The influence of these groups can be easily confirmed by looking at their back to back top ratings at the billboard and the massive viewership on YouTube which is hardly ever less than millions and very frequently reaching billions. So, what is so great about the music they make? In simple words, it is perfect and diverse.
In the 21st century, the music world is hardly just about lyrics. While some may argue that it makes our generation shallow in terms of taste, others are pretty confident that the new music is not just about getting its meaning right but also has a lot to do with the idea behind and the mood of the artist. Korean music with its watertight themes and crisp choreography has given the audience an adequate dose of entertainment. The lyrics in most albums are a combination of catchy hook lines, which get stuck with the listeners. Be it Korean, English, Spanish or Japanese, the lyrics are not limited to one language. This is one of the many reasons behind the global popularity of K-pop bands, they sing what the world understands. One can’t help but notice the commercial nature of K-pop songs. Like a perfect concoction made for the masses, Korean music has everything; performance, character, skill and most importantly, the craft of music. Apart from all that what really acts as a catalyst is the style with which Korean pop stars carry themselves. If one goes the rabbit hole of fanpages made in the name of BTS, one would mostly find thirst comments. In 2020, thirst comments is the new poetry written in the name of love (or something less philosophical like passion?)
Although, it is important to note that the usage of word ‘K-pop’ is mostly done to put the wide variety of Korean music in a box. Whether its hip-hop, country music, rap, EDM, for some reason the world finds it easy to just drag all of it under one label. We are all guilty of understating cultures just because we do not understand it. Whether its Blackpink, BTS, IU, FT Island or any other Korean band or individual artists, there is hardly anything common about the school of music they come from. They are Koreans and they sing popular music of Korea. Another great thing about most Korean bands is that they start young at training schools and are nurtured to become performers at a very young age. Blackpink: Light up the Sky, is an elaborate documentary shedding light on how the girl band came together at a YG Entertainment training school.
When these bands showed promise in their early years, many music critics predicted that over the years American pop-stars will want to get a share of the K-pop popularity and so it happened. In the last few years, big names such as Nicki Minaj, Halsey, Charlie Puth, Cardi B, boy band The Chainsmokers have collaborated with the Korean bands to make chartbusting songs and the list is only getting longer. Can we say that the global reach of English language is being effectively challenged? Maybe. Moreover it was high time the Americans recognised the significance of Asian culture without mocking it.
Looking back, it was this mocking that introduced the American market to K-pop. In 2012, the famous music video “Gangnam style” broke all records on streaming sites and since the sharing, tagging and forwarding culture had already picked up, this quirky music video reached surprisingly huge number of people around the world. Only a chunk of informed people admired the catchy music, vibrant fashion sense and skillful choreography used in the video while most just found it too hilarious to not share with friends.
The real origin story of Korean popular music dates back to 90s when the American soldiers found themselves fraternizing with Koreans after the war ended. What came out was called gayo—popular Korean music with a touch of western. Many Korean artists shot to fame as they started performing for the American soldiers and later saw their music become rage, not only in Korea but across the globe too!
From the November 2020 issue of FHM India.
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