K-Pop, A Personal View

K-pop: the answer to the question no one asked in the 2010s.

In the last few years Korea has become a worldwide fascination, with its food, music, fashion and celebrities being put at the forefront of the media.

What used to be everyone’s niece and nephew’s Japanese anime phase has now been replaced by girls with straight drawn eyebrows crying for their Oppas and fantasizing about the day they finally hop on a plane to the motherland.

And I suppose I am one of them.

I discovered K-pop about 5 years ago when it came up randomly on my recommended page on YouTube. I didn’t know anything about it except that people were talking about it, so out of curiosity I clicked. And clicked. And clicked.

Red Velvet (레드벨벳) is a five-member girl group under SM Entertainment. They debuted as four on August 1, 2014 with the single “Happiness“. Yeri was added on the group in March 2015.

GOT7 (갓세븐) is a 7-member boy group. They
debuted on January 16, 2014 with their first mini
album Got It?.Members from South Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United States.

BLACKPINK (블랙핑크; stylized as BLΛƆKPIИK) is a four-member girl group. They debuted on August 8, 2016 with their digital single album “Square One“

One undeniable thing is its power to suck you in. Before I knew it, I was drawn in to an exclusive community of interactive Idol (=K-pop artists) videos and internet fan culture.

And personally, I think that’s the reason behind its success; yes, the music is silly and fun and the dances are cool, but the world that surrounds it has a way of making everything more personal.

The relationship between fans and stars feel more like partners working as a team; the idols will release songs and music videos, and in exchange the fans follow their comeback schedule and stream their songs for the goal of getting music show wins.

Now make of that what you will, I’m sure a lot of people might –reasonably so- feel uncomfortable with this hyper-manipulated formula and blind support system. It is one of the reasons K-pop is so frowned upon, being called over produced, over manufactured plastic music. And while that is not NOT true, I would like to point out something I think vital to understanding the genre. K-pop artists are not Korea’s answer to musicians. They are considered to be performers and influencers, in a completely different category to actual singers.

And although the line is blurring as more and more idols gain control over their music, producing and writing the majority of their songs, the music industry in Korea is diverse with genre bending singers and song writers.

And while you may show disdain for the robotic world of Korean pop music, there is something quite satisfying about it. The manipulated and calculated presentation of it all is very transparent. There is no illusion to its perfection, which gives permission to indulge all the more. When watching a stage performance, everyone is so tight, so in sync with each other that you know that they have choreographed every turn wink and smile, and they never miss.

Now you may be thinking, well if they all are equally good and well trained, surely there is no distinction between groups?

But they all seem to manage to be every bit manufactured as they have their own unique sound and authenticity. Which brings me to my next point:

The TALENT.

Call it taught skills all you want, but if you’re willing to look out for it the number of people coming out of the genre with impressive lyrical creativity, stage presence, high notes surpass I think a lot of the artists overseas.

Now I know that K-pop isn’t perfect, it’s full of toxicity and injustice towards its idols and especially in the last few years its fair share of scandals, however looking past that I think it’s worth having a look at.

And while I understand it is not everyone’s cup of tea, I still believe that it is more than the over-the-top, strange Asian fantasy world that it gets pinned as being. More than you realise there is something there for everyone to enjoy. Maybe this will inspire you to look for some, or maybe it hasn’t changed your mind at all and you still hate it and think it’s tacky 80’s music revisited.

Whatever the case, I hope the music you listen to brings you joy and happiness, because that’s ultimately what it’s all about.