What’s the deal with KPop?

I was going to post this next week, but after today’s scheduling mishap, I figured I might as well post today. Through someone’s Twitter post, I found this article on the rising popularity of KPop. It’s a good article overall showing how KPop suddenly came into existence less than 20 years ago, and has found news ways to reach audiences through Youtube and such, outside of traditional, mainstream marketing approaches.

I disagree with the author’s choices of favorite videos (I didn’t like 2NE1′s “I am the best” very much), but everyone has their own opinion.¹

Another interesting point is the awkward efforts by KPop groups to collaborate with American artists, and the limited success there. Through my wife, I’ve learned a lot about Japanese music, and JPop, and one trend I’ve noticed there is the same failed efforts to make it big in the US through some kind of collaboration. Utada Hikaru, a famous artist in the early 2000′s had an album in the US that failed pretty big (she’s very talented, but compared to her previous albums, it honestly wasn’t her best), and I remember Kubota Toshi had cameos by the Fugees in some of his music, but it still didn’t really do that well. Both are great artists, but I guess the problem was trying to rely on American star-power to further their image, rather than trying to play to their strengths.

In the same way, the recent release by Girl’s Generation didn’t fare as well as their previous works, because the rapping was ill-fitted and the song was written by an American artists. Again, the problem I think is not one of talent, but trying to do something out of their element.

So, that’s why the article’s comments about Youtube are interesting: KPop groups can still reach many fans around the world, but do it on their own terms. A recent comment left here by a blog visitor noted that in their opinion, KPop has a sound that appeals to Western audiences more than JPop would,² so the only issue is how to get people to notice it. Youtube and word-of-mouth seemed more effective in this case, and reached a fanbase that previous generations of Asian artists would no doubt envy. Compared to the old approach, this seems a lot more effective.

In general, I am glad to see KPop groups getting so popular. It gives the music industry, which has been dull and stale for decades, a good kick in the pants. I am not a purist, nor a die-hard Asian pop fan though. I listen to certain American groups (Alice n’ Chains, Stone Temple Pilots) almost daily, but it’s just that there hasn’t really been that much that’s new and innovative in recent generations.³

Of course, this KPop Hallyu Wave won’t last. I grew up in Seattle during the “Grunge Era”, wore flannel shirts like everyone else, and liked to act snobby because I knew about lesser-known bands (remember the Screaming Trees or Mudhoney?). Most of those groups are gone, overdosed, or just ran out of creativity. It’s the same fate that happens to most music groups, except for a rare few, and it will happen to KPop as well.

At the same time, I am glad to see something new and fresh, and will happily ride the Hallyu Wave as long as I can, until it hits the shore. (yeah, that metaphor was terrible, sorry guys)

¹ Reminds me of that little pearl of Buddhist wisdom in the old Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta (MN 72):

A ‘position,’ Vaccha, is something that a Tathagata [a Buddha] has done away with.

² I agree somewhat, but when I listen to someone like Kanjani8, I think they are a genuinely good rock group that only lacks visibility in Western audiences. 8Uppers was a great album in my opinion.

³ I can tell I am getting older, because I am complaining about how things were better “in the olden days”. :p