When I last broached this subject, there was a minority who didn’t appreciate my argument that the lack of acceptance for K-pop in America was less about America’s racism as a country and more about the inferiority complex of Koreans and Asian Americans.
The primary example that was being argued regarded why K-pop groups had to be compared to American pop groups. While K-pop fans complain that Americans compare K-pop acts to American pop acts, thus inferring that Americans are saying K-pop is a knockoff by default (like what was said in the “Kids React To K-Pop” video), I argued that it’s the Korean media and Asian American media themselves that are actually perpetuating this trend.
Oddly enough, not long after I published the original post, a perfect example was handed to me on a silver platter.
Jay Park is working with producer Rob Knox on his first official album “New Breed” that will be released on February 7. Rob Knox has worked with Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, Chris Brown and Britney Spears.
References to five people in the American pop music industry within a single sentence.
It’s like they did it purposely to prove my point or something.
Thanks Korean media.
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As my luck would have it, the Asian American side did their part as well, with The Wall Street Journal‘s Jeff Yang helping me out.
“Girls’ Generation are easily the biggest girl group in all of Asia,” says Susan Kang, founder and CEO of Soompi.com, the largest English-language K-pop site. “That’s been the case ever since they had their breakout hit “Gee“ in 2009. The video for that song alone has over 64 million views on YouTube, and has been viewed in every country in the world except for a few nations in Africa. Take the Spice Girls in their prime plus Britney in her prime and combine them, and you might get close to how big they are today.”
That’s why Tiffany and Jessica play such a critical role in Girls’ Generation’s quest to crack the U.S. market. According to Soompi’s Kang, “In my opinion, if anyone is going to make it here, it’s going to be Girls’ Generation or 2NE1” — a high-energy quartet currently being mentored by Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am, three of whom speak fluent English.
“Having native English speakers is a huge difference maker in reaching the American audience,” says Kang. “It makes it feel less ‘foreign’ to them. And the upside is that big-name producers like Teddy Riley are writing their songs, they’re backed by Korea’s number-one agency, and frankly, the Girls are nine hot ladies. With nine girls, there’s at least one of them you want to date if you’re a guy, or want to be, if you’re a girl.”
I understand that they’re trying to give a reference point to American audiences, and while it’s well intentioned, I can’t help but think it basically admits that K-pop is a sort of niche derivative product.
As such, you can’t blame Americans for comparing K-pop artists to American pop artists if even K-pop evangelists are telling them to compare the two.
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Until Koreans and Asian Americans stop comparing their own acts to America’s acts with a sense of awe, I would just rather stay away from blaming America for any comparisons or failures that may occur.
After all, how can you expect America to think K-pop’s different if Asians don’t do it themselves?
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Sorry I know this is random but I am wondering whether you could do an article on the “Unnamed Idol Star Blackmailed by former girlfriend”.
Getting there.
“Until Koreans and Asian Americans stop comparing their own acts to America’s acts with a sense of awe, I would just rather stay away from blaming America for any comparisons or failures that may occur.”
Yeah stop blaming us for everything that goes wrong in your american debuts.
They do such dumb stuff too and all I see on forums from Asian Americans is shit about how America is racist.
It’s like…K-pop fans think what you’re doing is stupid, so how is that all America’s fault?
Ugh.
Well, this country is racist.
Nevertheless, I agree with your main argument.
I’m getting more and more put off by kpop these days for so many reasons.
Right, America does have racism problems, which is what all the people who disagreed argued.
Problem is that I’m not arguing that America isn’t racist. I’m arguing that seeing failure in America and then saying willy nilly that it’s because of racism is a simplistic and convenient excuse.
So, is “Nobody” by the Wonder Girls the most successful Korean single on the American charts so far?
If anything, that was probably successful (relatively speaking) because it sounded different from today’s typical American pop. Maybe K-pop companies should take a lesson from that and stop trying to emulate American pop so much.
I almost think some of the weirder K-pop stuff like some of the catchy, nonsensical T-ara dance songs would be a bigger hit here than the stuff that the K-pop companies are trying to push (like ‘The Boys’).
Yup.
People liked “Nobody” because it was throwback pop.
“Take the Spice Girls in their prime plus Britney in her prime and combine them, and you might get close to how big they are today.”
That is a gross exaggeration.She compared SNSD to two of some of the biggest pop stars in the WORLD,granted Spice girls aren’t there anymore SNSD’s prime and Spice girls and Britney prime so vastly different.
I honestly have no clue what would work for Americans.Do they really want something that sounds like the music they already know? Will it be easier for them to accept Kpop if Kpop sounded like American pop.
Or do they want something completely different. Would ‘Gee’ be a better song for SNSD to have used for their debut? Don’t know but ‘Gee’ is fooking catchy and if there’s one thing Kpop knows, it is catchy and repetitive tunes.
Well that’s the song that won over most of their existing American fan base. :o
SNSD as big as Britney and Spice Girls combined? Are you serious? Has she looked at the sales numbers?
I totally agree with your article 110%. They should put more focus on the music, then trying to “conquer” the US. It just makes them look desperate and pretentious when they keep comparing and giving reference to american artists
I only half agree with you IAFTB. Let’s be real: k-pop and j-pop are hugely influenced by Western pop (C-pop less so). However, what makes them stand out is that they offer a very non-Western interpretation of that genre. I think that there’s an expectation that the American audience will react negatively to the non-Western aspects of Asian pop – it’s too different from what they’re used to, it’s not in English or sung by people who are familiar to the mainstream (i.e. white or Beyonce). So the best way they can have people connect with it is to link it up to previous pop stars and pop groups that they “get”. K-pop and J-pop see that that’s how they can get recognized and so they Americanize their music and visuals to get into the mainstream. And the uniqueness of Asian pop music gets left by the wayside.
Asian artists definitely fuel the comparisons to Western pop, and thus make breaking into the super-saturated market really difficult for themselves, but the truth is the American musical landscape leaves little room for people with a different cultural background from what you typically see on TV. Maybe that’s not what you would typically call racism – and I don’t think that music industry execs are all KKK members or something. But media execs have gotten it into their heads that America will only pay attention to people who look or act a certain way, and they’re not willing to take chances and venture outside of the genres and images that they know will sell. And no matter which way you look at it that’s discrimination based on what people look like, a.k.a. racism. It’s the same problem in Hollywood. In your last post you mentioned Kurosawa and Park Chan-wook, but film (not the blockbuster kind) is a very different beast from pop music, with a very different audience. Plus they’re behind the camera, not in front of it, and that makes a huge difference.
To be fair though, I think another huge part of the problem is the type of success that Koreans are looking for in the US. They want radio play, TV appearances, advertising gigs, Billboard Top 10 albums and singles. And the mainstream media just isn’t going to give that to them if they stay “different”. If Koreans were fine with the fact that not everyone is going to like k-pop, then they’d focus on concerts and fan merchandise, make a crap ton of money and have a solid fanbase and be good. That’s how most artists earn their money these days anyway. (And arguably the best way to make money – I hesitate to drop 5 bucks on a digital album, but I’ll shell out up to $100 for a concert ticket, not including merchandise, if I like the music. I doubt I’m the only one who thinks this way.) Indie artists from Korea are also taking this route, and from what I can see, it’s working pretty well.
That’s what pisses me off about when K-pop groups debut in America though. They have a following in America and around the world specifically because they are different, and then when they make their way overseas, they try to change that completely and it ends up getting panned. Whose fault is that? America’s? Meh.
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Fair point about being in front/behind the camera, but I think music/television/movies all represent pop culture in the same vein. Having actors like John Cho and Daniel Dae Kim in normal human being roles as Asians isn’t any less significant than a pop star, with both have wide ranging influence.
I would say that the main difference is that I rarely see such blatant arrogance when Asian films are marketed here, in the sense that they aren’t compared to American movies, they are just presented to the public as works and generally end up being hyped by American critics. In fact, you have tribute movies made to Asian movies, like with “Kill Bill”. There’s rarely this overwhelming sense that the Asian film industry feels it’s inferior.
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I’ve said before that one of the main problems with K-pop coming to America is that they’re trying to force it with these comparisons, with the arrogance, and with the hype. It’s not exactly something that makes the target country welcome them with open arms. You look at these strategies and the Korean media is shocked when people have backlash against it, but I’m not surprised at all.
New member here. Just wanted to say that I agree with the Kpop mainstream media and companies trying to force the issue in America. The Korean music companies should just focus on what makes their Kpop brand unique and popular, instead of having to change everything in order to be competitive. Being an Asian-American Kpop fan here in America, I hate it when they change a Kpop group’s identity in order to cater to the Western pop scene.