- K-pop has been increasing in popularity in the West
for several years now
and it's quickly becoming hugely respected
as a genre in its own right.
What's the history of the genre?
And how Korean does it actually have to be,
to be considered K-pop?
K-pop is based on a multitude of genres,
absorbed, combined and built up upon
by artists of the 1940s
when Western culture was truly introduced into South Korea.
During the US occupation of Korea in the 40s,
US Army military governments in Korea
sponsored music programs
and some people argue
this is the experience which created
a foundation of US musical propaganda in Korea.
Then when the US troops were sent to assist
what is now South Korea in the Korean War,
they helped to popularise American music
among the Korean soldiers.
However, modern K-pop
didn't actually emerge until the 1990s.
At this time, Korean artists
were taking inspiration from Euro pop
and mixing it with American popular styles like EDM,
jazz, rock, and most prevalently, hip hop.
In 1992, a group emerged called Seo Taiji and Boys
who were the first to be considered K-pop,
though it's unclear
who first used this term to describe them.
They were one of the first groups to combine
rap verses with a vocal chorus,
a stylistic aspect which defines the genre today.
From there, K-pop started to grow
and the patterns and formulas
which many fans recognised as defining the genre
began to develop.
The term K-pop was popularised in the early noughties,
with one of the first uses of it in Western media
by Cho Hyun-jin for Billboard.
K-pop is more multimedia-based than most genres of music
with tracks often being accompanied and enhanced
by music videos and stage performances.
Title tracks and singles almost always have
a choreographed dance as do many other songs on the album.
Fashion and photo shoots are also now
a huge part of K-pop too,
with albums including photo books,
which are exactly as they sound, booklets full of photos.
K-pop history is generally split up into generations.
A generation that an artist is in
has nothing to do with the artists themselves.
It's simply a language
that's developed within fans of K-pop
to indicate the period in time when the artist debuted.
It can also be a soft indicator of sound of the artist
as trends change throughout time
and artists within generations will often share traits
based on those trends.
We are generally considered to be
in the fourth generation of K-pop now
with the aforementioned Seo Taiji and Boys
signalling the beginning of the first generation
back in 1992.
However, the first group to actually embody
K-pop and idol culture as we now know it were H.O.T in 1996.
After the first generation,
the popularity of K-pop began to decline
in the early 2000s
when groups like H.O.T, g.o.d, and Shinhwa disbanded.
The second generation of K-pop started around 2003
with TVXQ who became incredibly popular
and paved the way for even more successful
second generation groups, like BIGBANG, 2NE1,
Girls' Generation, Wonder Girls,
Super Junior, SHINee and more.
The third generation includes groups like BTS and BLACKPINK.
While they certainly weren't the first K-pop groups
to have success in the Western music industry,
they have arguably had the most success.
The third generation of K-pop
took the Western music industry by storm.
And though a number of third generation groups
are still active, like BTS and BLACKPINK,
we are generally considered
to now be in the fourth generation of K-pop,
made up of groups like ITZY and TXT,
whose popularity is also beginning to take
an even more global turn.
K-pop today has a very distinct formula
and despite there being some artists who,
for better or worse have bucked the trend,
for the most part, they tend to stick to this method.
Either way, all K-pop artists start out in a similar way,
whether they end up debuting as a solo act or as a group.
Either through scouting or an audition,
artists are discovered and signed on as original trainees.
What this means is that a record label will sign
an often very young artist on
and then pay for them to be trained in vocals, dance and rap
so they can be debuted as a musician
through that record label.
It's generally a longterm investment by these labels
and a very different approach from how
record labels tend to work in the West
where fully formed and already semi-successful
artists and groups are signed for on promotion
and music distribution.
For some, like TWICE's leader Jihyo,
trainees can be signed on as young as eight
and are trained for as long as is deemed necessary
before they are debuted.
Some will even train for years without debuting
like solo artist G.soul
who's a trainee under JYP Entertainment for 15 years
without ever actually beginning a debuted career.
Often, record labels will come up with a concept for a group
and have the trainees compete for places
as with the case with BLACKPINK.
Accordingly, the record label an artist is signed to
has far more bearing on the artist that even in the West,
as they have the opportunity to control
everything about the artists,
from the music release to the names and personalities
the idols show to the world.
Once debuted, K-pop artists generally follow the formula
of releasing an EP once every three months
and occasionally a full length album.
Sometimes, the full length album
is simply a rerelease of the last few comebacks
now all on the same record with a few new songs sprinkled in
like BTS's "Love Yourself: Answer".
The release of a new EP or album
is referred to as a comeback
and comes with a music video and choreography for the single
and promotion activities, including multiple performances
on the weekly music shows.
Again, this is very different
from the process within Western music,
where we might expect an artist to take a year or more
to work on a full length album
and only perform at large award shows
or festivals outside of their own concerts.
The degree to which a K-pop group has to be Korean
to be considered K-pop has been a debate for many years.
In many K-pop groups,
there are members who are from other Asian countries
or are Asian American or Asian Australian.
In TWICE, three members are Japanese,
one is Taiwanese and the remaining five are South Korean.
Many K-pop stars were raised in countries
other than South Korea,
like BLACKPINK's Rosie and Jennie
who were born in South Korea,
but raised in Australia and New Zealand respectively.
So what makes something K-pop?
Does the group have to be owned by a South Korean label?
Does there have to be one South Korean member?
Must they be East Asian?
The group, 5 High who are still awaiting debut
is made up of entirely Indian girls
who aim to put K-pop on the map in India.
KAACHI are London's first K-pop group,
though only one of them, Coco, is Korean.
Of the other three, Nicole is Spanish,
Dani is British mixed-race,
and Chunseo is Spanish Filipino.
Even Cruz Beckham reportedly auditioned for a K-pop label
back in 2018.
Where are the lines drawn, if they are at all?
Should there even be lines drawn
on excluding particular nationalities or even races
from performing all genres of music?
The first K-pop group to involve exactly zero Koreans,
EXP EDITION is a four member group,
"Born in New York, made in Seoul".
They were originally created as a student project,
that not unlike Frankenstein's monster
gained life and spiralled out of control.
Three of the four members are white
and the fourth is Japanese German.
They received a lot of backlash,
not only for not being Korean
but for taking a very Western approach to K-pop
as none of the group members received training
in the way that K-pop idols do.
K-pop has come a long way since the term was first used,
and that includes musicians from other East Asian countries
becoming K-pop stars.
As music genres often do,
K-pop is going to keep changing and evolving.
But at a certain point, we have to wonder
what really makes K-pop K-pop?
Does an artist have to go through the training process?
Do they have to be signed to a South Korean label?
Do they have to speak Korean?
Do they have to be Asian or a majority Asian group?
Or is it the formula of the music itself
that makes it K-pop,
the signature rap verse and vocal chorus?
Personally, I do think it's dubious to say the least
that three white guys found a way to hack
the biggest Asian music market in the world
to use it for their own success.
Perhaps it's not a question of
is K-pop still K-pop if the group members aren't Korean,
but do we need white K-pop artists?
K-pop is something that is uniquely Asian
if no longer entirely Korean
and is giving a hugely global platform to Asian artists
and that's something they sorely needed.
For me, the fact that there is
such a blatant blend of cultures of musical genres
is what makes K-pop so interesting.
It's so easy to completely change the sound of the group,
just by leaning a little further into the EDM influence
or the Korean folk influence.
As the genre moves and evolves into its future generations,
things will become even less clear.
I predict soon we will look back and realise
there is a divide between what we might call more
traditional K-pop, i.e K-pop as it stands now,
where it revolves around Korean culture,
people and businesses, though not exclusively,
and the future K-pop,
where the music is distinctly reminiscent of K-pop,
but the artists and businesses behind it
are far more global.
We can see this happening already
with the merger between BTS's record label HYBE
and Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings.
Either way, only time will tell,
but the one thing we can be sure of,
is that K-pop is a genre
that's not planning to leave anytime soon.