Genre faces challenge of becoming accepted by other cultures
Singers perform during the K-pop Super Live concert after the 2023 World Scout Jamboree closing ceremony at Sangam World Cup Stadium in Seoul last month. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
In summer 2012, Korean pop music, or K-pop, took a huge leap forward in the global music industry.
Rapper and television personality Psy set several records on music charts and gained international stardom with his megahit Gangnam Style. Later, the term "K-pop" was included in the vocabulary list of the Oxford English Dictionary.
K-pop’s true value is that it can provide a shared experience for so many people around the world at the same time.
Lee Hye-jin, a professor at Semyung University
A decade on, K-pop is no longer considered solely a regional music genre that temporarily attracted a global audience. It has firmly set down roots as a major subcultural genre, and is gaining prominence on the international scene as a new standard for the industry, not only in terms of its artistic value, but for the system under which musicians are trained.
K-pop has spread around the world since the early 2000s, starting with its domination of the Japanese music market — the world's second-largest. K-pop then spread to other East Asian countries until the mid-2010s.
One of the key factors defining this music — and one that continues to demonstrate the genre's potential for growth — is its sensitivity to the changing environment and readiness to accept new sources.
Girl group IVE performs in Seoul. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Pop music critic Jung Min-jae told The Korea Herald: "K-pop has its roots in the early gayo songs (a Korean term for popular music that people sing along to). Its key distinction is the unique melodies formed through the melding of various global music trends, such as Western pop and J-pop (Japanese pop), into an original yet contemporary sound."
The band Seo Taiji and Boys, which is considered to have set the foundations for the K-pop music industry, debuted in 1992 with a completely new sound — combining hip-hop, rhythm and blues and dance pop.
The K-pop industry also showed exceptional vigilance in adapting and using technological advances to develop a highly lucrative business model.
In 2009, multinational entertainment company and record label JYP Entertainment, which is based in Seoul, failed in an all-out attempt to make a breakthrough in the mainstream music market in the United States. However, K-pop was already extending its reach beyond Asian countries to Europe and even parts of the US through the internet.
Pop music critic Kim Do-heon said such media friendliness is an innate trait of K-pop that has seen the genre go global.
"K-pop adapted fast to the evolution of digital technology, and actively promoted music with a variety of self-produced video content to extend its fan base in the global market," Kim said.
K-Pop group NewJeans members pose during the Seoul Fashion Week at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul, Sept 5, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)
Global craze
Gradually, K-pop gained recognition around the world as a genre. The first K-pop concert in Europe, staged by Republic of Korea record label and entertainment agency SM Entertainment in Paris in 2011, attracted some 14,000 fans for two days of sold-out shows. The following year, Psy started a global Gangnam Style craze, setting several records in global music charts and rankings.
Over the past decade, K-pop has evolved and expanded in different respects. With sensational boy band BTS leading the way, the genre overcame the seemingly unbreakable walls of the mainstream US music industry. The septet made history and paved the way for fellow K-pop musicians in the US.
Experts pointed out that the next step for K-pop's globalization is to seek sustainability, while Kim said the key to this is for the genre to lose its "Korean-ness".
"K-pop is not just a music genre, but an entire production system in which pop idols and their music are carefully planned out and released into the market," Kim said.
"This is something that can be adapted to any part of the world. It's now meaningless to talk about how K-pop could be used as a means to spread Korean culture and is at a stage for discussions about how the genre and the system can be applied to the unique environments of different regions."
In recent years, K-pop labels have increasingly conducted global auditions, in which they seek trainees regardless of their racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Many major K-pop labels, including SM Entertainment, Hybe and CJ Entertainment, have announced plans to train and debut groups in the US this year.
Statements released by these companies said that while multinational acts continue to be based in the Republic of Korea and use Korean as their main language, they will now be trained in the US to debut as global groups.
While the K-pop system is an established business model, there is still room for improvement, with the issue of its openness to different cultures being a starting point.
Lee Gyu-tag, a cultural studies professor at George Mason University Korea, said: "The key to K-pop's success was its ability to mix and mingle to form a new harmony. However, issues of cultural appropriation and exclusiveness persist even now.
"We're already witnessing K-pop's influence as a form of soft power that can bring together people of different backgrounds. To make K-pop a truly global music genre, it needs to become more accepting and understanding of other cultures. Hence, the less Korean K-pop becomes, the more successful it will be in settling into the global landscape."
K-pop singers receive the MTV music award in New Jersey, United States, Sept 12, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)
Unique ability
Lee Hye-jin, a professor of East Asian literature and pop culture at Semyung University, said that rather than seeking its way to the top, as K-pop has done up to now in its quest for globalization, the genre's power may lie in its unique ability to spread outward and interweave with the transnational environment.
"K-pop's true value is that it can provide a shared experience for so many people around the world at the same time," Lee Hye-jin said.
Moreover, there is the direction in which K-pop must head in order for a system to be established in which artists can prosper as musicians, not as mere components of the industry.
In June, BTS announced a temporary break from group activities for its members to focus on their lives and solo careers. They spoke of their mental and physical fatigue from the K-pop system. RM, the band's leader, said, "The system gives no room for people's growth, and constantly forces us to make music."
While commercialization is an essence of all popular music genres, Jung, the critic, said K-pop is undeniably becoming increasingly competitive.
"These days, pop idol groups make two to three singles or extended play discs a year, but many Western pop musicians or established Kpop groups, such as Blackpink, release one album every one or two years," Jung said, adding that such an environment allows no time for the artists to mature as musicians.
Fellow critic Kim suggested that in the long term, record labels and their training systems must first transform for there to be fundamental progress. To make more room for artists' creativity, Kim said the training system should not only focus on honing stars on stage, but on their maturity as individuals.
The members of BTS, who have continued to push their boundaries not just as musicians but as influential individuals with powerful voices, have set an example for groups that will emerge in the future, Kim added.
"I believe the members of BTS have set a fair example for younger generation idols. They haven't stopped at writing lyrics and composing, but have grown to become artists who can spread messages," Kim said.
"K-pop now has to carry such messages. There has to be a philosophy, and rather than injecting certain ideas into trainees, companies must develop a system in which the trainees can develop their own perspectives as individuals."
Asia News Network / The Korea Herald
