A lot of Kpop idols love Tinashe. And while that makes perfect sense, because- what’s not to like
about Tinashe, I want to get into some specific reasons why, and discuss Tinashe’s presence in
kpop. It seems kind of random at first, but really, it’s not as random as you think.
Hopefully, she doesn’t need much of an introduction but For those of you who
don’t know, Tinashe’s an American singer, songwriter, and dancer. She’s been in the
industry for a while now, mostly in the R&B and pop markets. Tinashe has several albums,
from her debut album Aquarius, to her most recent album, 333.
She’s also known for her earlier hits like 2 On and All hands on Deck. Some of my favorite,
more recent songs of hers are Rascal, I can See the Future, Pasadena, and Perfect Crime.
If you want to know more about Tinashe and her career, I talk about it in my RCA Curse video.
Tinashe is named frequently by idols when they’re asked about their favorite Western artists.
It seems to have all started back when Tinashe released her debut single, 2 On, back in 2014. The
song was popular in Korea. So of course, Korean fans, or people who listen to music in general,
which does include idols, caught wind of Tinashe for the first time. Alien, a popular dance
studio in Korea, uploaded a choreography video for tinashe’s 2 On. the video currently has 27 million
views, and it’s their most popular choreography to date. Due to 2 On’s popularity in Korea,
some idols and k-hiphop artists expressed wanting to possibly collab with Tinashe, including Jay
Park. He’s actually mentioned Tinashe in one of his songs. His song, All I Wanna Do, contains
the lyrics, “I want them good vibes only, it’s just me and my homies, and if you don’t know me,
then you better stay out of my section, unless you’re Tinashe. In 2016, she did her first
concert in South Korea, performing in Seoul. That same year, Tinashe featured on Far East
Movement and Marshmello’s song Freal Luv, along with EXO’s Chanyeol. Chanyeol rapped in the song,
and apparently also helped compose and write some of the lyrics. Freal Luvlikely only introduced
Tinashe to an even wider audience of KPop fans, especially those in EXO’s fanbase. Hyolyn also had
a song on that same album with Far East Movement, so it’s possible her fanbase found Tinashe through
the album as well. Another connection between Tinashe and Hyolyn is that Aliya Janell,
the choreographer for Hyolyn’s Dally, has done choreography to Tinashe’s songs. Tinashe
actually appeared in Aliya’s choreography video for Link Up. For years, fans have been asking
for Tinashe and Hyolyn to collab, especially back in 2018 when Dally dropped. I wanna see
Tinashe do the Dally choreo. A lot of people made comparisons to Tinashe when it came out,
which are obviously due in part to Aliya having choreographed it. Dally as a song clearly has R&B,
dancepop and hiphop influences, and the song sounds like one I could picture Tinashe singing at
that point in her career when the song came out. Tinashe’s most infamous connection to Kpop was
made back when girl group DIA allegedly copied her song and video for SuperLove. Tinashe released
SuperLove back in 2016. The majority of the video had a beachy, lifeguard concept, with Tinashe and
her backup dancers dressed in red swimsuits and sun visors. Collin Robinson from stereogum
described the video as "a sun-kissed beach clip with Tinashe and a group of bikini-clad “Bae Watch
lifeguards rescuing hot dudes from drowning before they hit some sultry choreography on
vintage beach towels". The song and video were relatively popular, and made Billboard’s list of
best songs of the year. Billboard and Rolling Stone both praised tSuperLove for its bubbly,
infectious summer vibe. The video of course, was popular on social media, as Tinashe’s fans both
praised and circulated the video for the song. Two years later, in 2018, DIA released their
song WooWoo. Dia is a smaller girlgroup that debuted back in 2015. In August of 2018,
they released their 4th EP, SummerAde, with WooWoo as the title track. The music video obviously had
the same summertime concept as SuperLove, with the beach setting and lifeguard outfits. Of course,
I’m not saying Tinashe owns a summertime concept, or the beach, or lifeguard outfits. However, it
wasn’t just the video concept that was extremely similar to SuperLove, but also the song itself.
If you listen to both SuperLove and WooWoo, it’s obvious the song was bitten off Tinashe. Woo Woo
and SuperLove sound extremely similar in the production, cadence, and the placement of the
bridge and chorus of the song. If you told me that Woo Woo was a Korean cover of SuperLove,
I would believe it. Like truly, this is a complete copy of Tinashe’s entire concept for SuperLove
and to me there’s no way to argue that it isn’t. From the moment the teaser for Woo Woo dropped,
fans were fighting over whether Dia had plagiarized Tinashe. I’m not going to put the
responsibility on the idols, but I think claiming that this was just sampling , as a lot of Dia’s
fans did, is willful ignorance at the least. If it were a sample, one, we would either hear Tinashe’s
vocals or the original SuperLove instrumental in the song in some way, shape, or form. However,
we don’t, and instead we hear a version that’s probably as close as possible
if it were a sample or interpolation, that doesn’t explain why TInashe isn’t
credited at all, or Dia or their team have never mentioned Tinashe as a direct inspiration.
It’s also worth it to mention that Shinsadong Tiger, the producer of Woo Woo,
has been accused of plagiarizing other artists’ songs before. In 2018, the Russian group Serebro
accused Momoland of copying their song mimimi. The song in question, boom boom, was produced
by shinsadong tiger. I’d heard boom boom before, and then listened to mimimi, and again, they sound
nearly identical. Fans of momoland, and kpop fans in general called shinsadong out for his
plagiarism, and how he could talk so casually about creating a song that seems he clearly
copied. There’s also been comparisons between Loca, a song he produced for girl group tribe,
and blackpink’s pretty savage. The similarities between these two songs are lesser than the other
2 examples in my opinion. But, the fact that Shinsadong Tiger has been accused of plagiarism
several times doesn’t help the accusations of him possibly copying Tinashe. And I do want to point
out quickly that Superlove does have obvious 90s inspiration, and for some reason people use that
to justify the similarities between Woo Woo. But, no other artist ever came forward and accused
Tinashe of copying them, nor does it explain the similar song structure and creative direction to
Superlove. In addition, SuperLove came out 6 years ago, which was before 90s and 2000s
inspired music really made its resurgence, so I find it hard to argue this is all coincidence.
Tinashe responded to the situation with a Tweet saying, “Me and the director were tripping when
we saw it. She wanted to sue them. Lmfao." She also confirmed that no one on DIA’s team
had ever contacted her about it. Ironically, WooWoo did get DIA their first music show win.
Tinashe’s really popular with male idols, it seems like a lot of them have a little crush
on her. For example, BTS’ Namjoon was seen with an image of Tinashe as his lockscreen.
J-Hope has also had Tinashe as the screensaver on his computer in the past. He’s said before in
interviews that Tinashe was one of the artists he hoped to collaborate with in the future. Tinashe
said she’d be open to working with J-Hope, and the rest of BTS for that matter. She said that
once the interview dropped, army was tweeting her non-stop to get her to collaborate with
them. BTS has worked with other female western artists like halsey, charli xcx, and nicki minaj,
so it’s not outside the realm of possibility. Maybe now that BTS is working on solo projects, we
might get a Tinashe/ J-Hope collab in the future. To promote the release of 333, the app Stationhead
held an online streaming party. It was organized and hosted by the fanpages Station Kai and Tinashe
Diary. Tinashe herself made an appearance and answered some fan questions. In response to
being asked if she’d want to collab with Kai, she said she’d be down to work with him if
he sent her a song. Soon after, Tinashe x Kai was trending on Twitter in several countries.
I think part of what makes Tinashe a popular Western artist in South Korea is the fact that her
performance style is common to that of a lot of kpop idols. Not only does she sing in her shows,
but she also executes choreography during her routines, similar to a lot of idols.
Tinashes style of performing is probably familiar to a lot of idols, who are in the business of
giving all around dynamic performances every time they get on stage. Their fans as well are used to
watching these sorts of performances, so watching Tinashe is an easy enough transition. Tinashe
also writes and produces a lot of her music, which several idols do as well. If Tinashe was an idol,
she’d definitely be what’s called an ace- someone who excels in several areas of performing. Tinashe
can sing, dance, and has excellent stage presence. I feel like there is a similarity between Tinashe
and a lot of popular female soloists in Kpop. Maybe not exactly in the music itself, but in
how they approach it, perform it, and present it. I think another reason why Tinashe specifically
is so popular, especially as far as Western R&B artists goes, is that she does to a high extent
fit south korean beauty standards. Of course Tinashe doesn’t have pale skin, but otherwise
she has a v shaped face, smaller features, a nice smile, and doe eyes. Obviously, Tinashe’s
probably most people’s idea of attractive, but those are some features that likely make her
attractive to many South Koreans. In addition, Tinashe is also slim and she isn’t too tall.
We do also have to talk about the elephant in the room that for some reason is a sensitive subject
in kpop: a lot of kpop is inspired by Western R&B and hip hop, both of which are genres led by black
artists. Tinashe would obviously be appealing since she herself makes similar music to what many
idols and their producers are influenced by. Kpop, as a genre, holds a deep fascination with a lot
of the music and fashion that is created by black artists, so I feel like Tinashe is just another
case of this. I don’t always think this is a bad thing, and I think a lot of KPop sounding familiar
to me in that way is what made me get into kpop initially and then branch out more into the genre.
However, I genuinely do think the difference between Tinashe’s popularity in South Korea
versus that of other pop and R&B artists like say, Normani, or Summer Walker, isn’t solely based on
Tinashe making music that might be more appealing abroad for whatever reason. Tinashe is biracial
and light skinned, and like I said, her fitting into the beauty standards in South Korea likely
contributes to more people willing to give her music a chance and in turn appreciate it. And
please, if you already know you plan on purposely missing my point, just keep that to yourself.
Tinashe herself seems to be a kpop fan, so I’m sure she appreciates most of the
love she’s gotten from fans and idols over the years. Way Back in 2010, she Tweeted about her
newfound obsession with Boa, who’s the queen of kpop. Recently, she uploaded a tiktok of
herself doing the pink Venom Choreo. She actually thought it was the choreo of another creator,
rather than it being the official blackpink choreography. Also, back when Lisa uploaded a
video of herself dancing to her song Party Favors, Tinashe liked the video and left some flame emojis
for Lisa. Honestly, now I want to see Tinashe and Lisa dance together. Shortly after leaving Cube,
Hyuna and Dawn posted a video of themselves dancing to Throw A Fit. I love watching idols
dance to Tinashe, because it really does take a lot of technical training to dance to her music,
hit the beats, and still make it look effortless. If she’s into it, I’d love to see Tinashe work
with more idols in the future, and hopefully follow up on a lot of these collabs she’s
expressed interest in. Like I said earlier, I could see a collab between her and BTS,
whether it’s with the group or just one of the members. I could also see a Tinashe and Jay Park
collab, and I’m sure he would like that. For some reason, I could also see Tinashe making
something interesting with Aespa. I think it’s because they both lean into that more futuristic,
sci-fi sounding production, and some of Aespa’s slower songs have a sort of R&B vibe to them. I
feel like I could imagine Tinashe on most of the songs on the Savage mini album,
and even in more recent songs like Illusion. I think it’s because both aespa and Tinashe really
shine in songs that have that more experimental production I also think Tinashe’s voice would
really compliment Winter’s especially, and she has a very similar vocal tone and color to NingNing’s.
It probably won’t happen, but I would stream a Tinahse and Aespa collab.
But anyways, that’s it for today’s video. I thought it would be a fun topic to cover,
since Tinashe’s name used to pop up in kpop so much back in the day, especially in the late
2010s, and it still does here and there. I hope in the future we get some Tinashe collabs with
some idols because I feel like both fanbases would eat it up. I mean, she’s met Jay Park,
and knows he’s a fan, so maybe that’ll be another collab we can expect soon.
As always, if you liked the video, be sure to like, comment,
and subscribe. If you’re a kpop fan, let me know what groups or
idols you’d like to see Tinashe collab with. I’ll see you guys very soon! Bye!