With BTS and Blackpink, can K-pop finally break into the US market?
- The South Korean cultural export has come a long way since BoA became the first artist of the genre to chart on the Billboard 200 in 2009
- Record-breaking performances from the two biggest names in K-pop – and recent political activism – have it well on its way to household recognition
“It’s not the strangest thing to hear a K-pop song on an Uber ride or on the radio, but it’s also not common at the same time,” says Smith, 29, who has 2.4 million followers on YouTube.
“BTS is pretty well-known. You’ll almost always have a friend or a daughter who is a fan of the band,” says Smith, though he says the boy band faces a challenge in appealing to the general American public due to differing cultural perspectives.
“Like most skinny and pretty-looking K-pop boy bands, they can be classified as looking too feminine here,” says Smith, mentioning that some of the people he talked to asked if members of the band were women. “However, the quality of Korean music videos is so high and have a standard of their own that I am 1,000 per cent sure that K-pop will become mainstream in the US.”
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A fan appearing in one of Smith’s videos says she likes the group Seventeen because “the members produce their own songs and choreography”, while another says BTS and their music “cheer her up” when she’s down.
“I can really relate to their music and lyrics,” says the fan, who doesn’t speak Korean.
Ju Sung-ho is the director of KOCCA USA, the Los Angeles-based office of the Korea Creative Content Agency, which assists South Korean entertainment companies trying to set up businesses in the US. While he says “independent artistry” is more important in the US than in South Korea, Ju points out there are factors that can propel K-pop to “succeed in the US, meaning success in the global market”.
“The cultural barriers have become lower with the advent of popular Asian content found on YouTube and Netflix,” Ju says. “Major American companies are buying television-programme formats from South Korean shows that have received a lot of respect internationally. People are saying Korean content is fun and creative!”
Examples include the South Korean drama series Good Doctor, which was remade for American television in 2017 and this February was renewed for a fourth season. Likewise, Masked Singer, an adaptation of a Korean singing-contest show, premiered in the US last year and has versions in countries as far afield as Australia and Mexico.
“The meteoric impact of groups like Blackpink is also tearing down the walls for K-pop to officially make a statement in the US,” Ju says.
The quartet released their latest single How You Like That on June 26, breaking the Guinness World Record for the most YouTube views in a 24-hour period with 86.3 million in its first day. The video it dethroned was also from South Korea – BTS’ Boy with Luv, released last year.
Blackpink’s single also broke the record for most viewers for the premiere of a video on YouTube, and had a record 1.66 million concurrent viewers for its live premiere on the video-sharing platform. The girl group is the most-subscribed band on YouTube, coming in at No 8 on the list of artists with the most subscribers – ahead of the likes of Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Rihanna – while BTS is No 11.
While Ju from KOCCA USA admits there are big challenges in the form of the Covid-19 pandemic – which has been especially hard for the American entertainment industry, and for the US branches of Korean firms, due to the absence of live performances – he is confident about K-pop’s chances in the US.
“The overwhelming and almost flawless quality attached to these K-pop acts will continue to be the reason far more groups from Korea will enter the US market,” he says.
More recently, BTS made headlines all over the world when the boy band’s fan base, the BTS Army, matched their idols’ US$1 million donation to the Black Lives Matter movement within 24 hours.
Nola Valente, a 24-year-old reporter in Houston, says there’s no language barrier for the songs of BTS, her favourite group, as she knows the band is singing about love.
“I find comfort in the fact that I’m listening to something beautiful, whether I understand it or not,” she says.
