A style at a crossroads

Billboard just lately launched two new weekly charts monitoring Korean music – Billboard Korea Sizzling 100 and Billboard Korea World Okay-Songs. Whereas the Sizzling 100 ranks songs primarily based on streaming and gross sales numbers inside South Korea, the World Okay-Songs chart focuses on world reputation, rating the highest songs both by Korean artists or within the Korean language primarily based on “streaming and gross sales exercise from over 200 territories around the globe, together with South Korea”. In simply the second week of those charts’ existence (week commencing thirteenth December), evaluating the highest 25 songs on every reveals an rising divergence inside Okay-pop – world reputation now not indicators home reputation within the style. In exporting to a world stage, Okay-pop has developed to swimsuit a global viewers – maybe on the expense of its home one.

The home and world charts have solely six songs in widespread

Solely six tracks seem among the many prime 25 of each Korea’s home Sizzling 100 and the World Okay-Songs chart, and solely three are shared within the prime 10. Unsurprisingly, ‘Golden’ from Netflix’s smash hit Kpop Demon Hunters is among the many crossover successes. Nonetheless, whereas ‘Golden’ tops the worldwide chart and is joined by two different Demon Hunters tracks within the prime 10, ‘Golden’ falls to quantity 10 on the home chart and is the only real Demon Hunters observe listed. ‘Good Goodbye’ by HWASA and ‘SPAGHETTI’ by LE SSERAFIM and J-Hope are the opposite two crossover successes – however they, too, occupy fairly totally different ranks on every chart.

Korean listeners gravitated towards fewer artists, however extra soloists

The Korea Sizzling 100 has a narrower vary of artists than the World Okay-Songs chart, as 14 distinctive artists are chargeable for the highest 25 songs domestically (collaborations are counted as one artist), in comparison with the 18 artists representing the World Okay-Songs’ prime 25 (observe: Kpop Demon Hunters is counted as one artist). Nonetheless, among the many Korean High 25 are six solo artists – three of whom weren’t beforehand a part of a Okay-pop group. Against this, all seven solo artists on the worldwide High 25 have been initially members of Okay-pop teams. Globally, the transition from Okay-pop group member to Western-focused pop artist has confirmed essentially the most profitable technique of launching a solo profession. Domestically, nevertheless, most of the soloists usually are not from a Okay-pop background in any respect – Korea’s rising indie scene and diversifying music style have propelled artists like Hanroro and Lim Younger Woong up the home charts.

Label illustration adjustments because the “Large 4” push globally

The labels represented in every chart’s High 25 spotlight shifting focuses amongst Korea’s largest leisure corporations. Whereas the worldwide chart is dominated by Western main labels and three of Korea’s “Large 4” leisure corporations (HYBE, JYP Leisure, YG Leisure), an extended tail of Korean labels rule the home chart. In the meantime, the “Large 4” signify lower than 1 / 4 of its prime 25 songs. It’s no secret that corporations like HYBE are prioritising world export – not simply of the Okay-pop style, however of the Okay-pop methodology, with new initiatives for artists primarily based in Africa and Latin America. Nonetheless, this has left a vacuum within the home market that small and mid-tier Korean labels are dashing to fill.

“World Okay-pop” usually means “English Okay-pop”

The principle language represented among the many Korea Sizzling 100 prime 10 is – understandably – Korean. Whereas 4 songs combined Korean and English, and ‘Golden’ is primarily sung in English, 5 of the High 10 songs are Korean-language releases. Against this, just one track on the World Okay-Songs chart – ‘Good Goodbye’ – is primarily sung in Korean. The opposite 9 entries are no less than half in English, with English being the first language for eight. This follows the rising pattern of non-Korean-language Okay-pop songs, as artists adapt to higher join with worldwide audiences. This technique isn’t new, as Okay-pop artists have lengthy recorded songs in Japanese and Chinese language to enchantment to these markets, nevertheless it has not often been achieved with this a lot quantity and frequency. The push for extra English Okay-pop releases has confirmed profitable within the US, as three Okay-pop acts have been nominated for main Grammy award classes, together with Greatest New Artist, Track of the 12 months, and Document of the 12 months – all performing in English.

The bifurcation of Okay-pop

Teams like HYBE’s first US-based woman group KATSEYE – who’ve two songs in World Okay-Songs’ High 25 – show that exporting the “Okay-pop framework” to the worldwide market may be profitable. Kpop Demon Hunters is one other instance of the “world Okay-pop” technique at work – whereas the movie is distinctly “Okay-pop” in its aesthetic, its songs are primarily in English, and it has resonated with a world viewers. Situations like these make it troublesome to establish what units Okay-pop aside from Western pop, as its globalisation has eliminated many features that used to outline Okay-pop, such because the language. Nonetheless, the home Okay-pop charts present that these features are nonetheless part of Okay-pop – simply not part of world Okay-pop. Quite the opposite, most of the qualities that catapulted Okay-pop to world fame – robust fandom, meticulous efficiency, rigorous artist improvement – usually are not inherently “Korean”, even when they are usually related to Okay-pop teams.

Within the wake of Okay-pop’s Grammy nominations and the success of acts like KATSEYE, it’s straightforward to make the declare that Okay-pop has formally gone world. Nonetheless, evaluating the 2 new Billboard Korea charts displays that it’s not essentially the Okay-pop style that has been exported, however elements of the Okay-pop major-label methodology – together with features that aren’t particularly Korean in nature. As this pattern continues, the boundaries of what defines “Okay-pop” will solely change into blurrier. Whereas going world offers Okay-pop the chance to entry a a lot bigger market, this success might come on the expense of musical id – resulting in a Okay-pop with out the “Okay”.