Ask your friends who claim themselves as “avid music lovers”
and see if they can name any K-pop boy band or girl group. Assuming that most
of my readers live in the U.S., I am confident that your friends can’t name any
K-pop group. Despite the fact that K-pop is the symbol of Korean cultural
imperialism in Asia, K-pop has no place in the American music market.
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| K-pop Industry Giant: JYP |
As I mentioned in the previous blog, K-pop is a genre that
has dominated the Asian market. The unique electro-dance genre has been
extremely popular in Japan, China, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand;
however, what is the next step for K-pop? The ultimate dream of Korean music
producers is putting K-pop stars on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart and, maybe,
winning the Grammys. For decades, the K-pop industry moguls, such as JYP, YG,
and SM attempted to make Korean pop-stars famous in North America. Even though the Korean producers have
provided massive funding and put in a lot of time and effort, the result has
been always the same in the U.S. market: failure.
More specifically, yes, some K-pop groups did gain some
popularity among Asian Americans; however, they failed to attract the
mainstream audience. Although the top three Korean talent agencies made some progress
in the past 5 years in the U.S. market, why can’t they appeal to a larger
crowd? The answer is simple: their product is extremely outdated.
Trying to take over the Billboard Chart with a K-pop boy
band is the same as trying to compete against the Apple iOS 5 Macbook Pro with
a Windows 97 Dell laptop. The U.S. music market simply have had no demand for
boy bands – at least not in the past 2 years and at this very moment. Do you
remember the days when Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Hanson, and New Kids on the
Block took over the music chart? Well, the music market has evolved with
different styles, and people’s taste in music has changed since the 90s as
well. The current U.S. music industry is filled with only solo artists, such as
Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swfit, Drake, and Nikki Minaj. The style has
changed too. Instead of having the 90s sound that K-pop follows, the U.S.
market is dominated by progressive and innovative electronic sounds that many
young DJs have developed in the past 2 years. Yet, the Korean producers who are
trying to sell their music in the American market simply do not understand that
the trend and style have changed. Let’s face it, the boy band phenomenon ended
with Jonas Brothers in 2009. According to Morgan Carey, a music consultant
based in Los Angeles, “bringing recycled American producers and guest artists
into the mix long after their relevance in this market” will only push the
K-pop groups to the bottom.
In addition to the lack of up-to-date style and understanding
of the U.S. market, K-pop failed to appeal to the mainstream audience as the
genre lacks 3 important elements of music.
1. Creativity:
K-pop awkwardly borrowed the 1990s sound of American dance music and kept the
same sound for over a decade. The Korean producers neglected developing a
unique sound while the American pop music scene was drastically changing in the
past 10 years. The dance routines are predictable and the lyrics always talk
about the same typical love story. As a result, the lack of creativity
inevitably shaped K-pop to look extremely outdated in the U.S. market.
2. Diversity: People
may have wondered why all the K-pop songs sound the same. K-pop lacks
diversity. I believe it is possible to develop different styles even under the
same genre; however, the Korean producers only focus on one style. If there
were more diverse styles of K-pop, K-pop would have had more chance of
appealing to a wider range of audience.
3. Continuity
(Sustainability): The average lifespan of a K-pop boy band or girl group is
only 2-3 years. The Korean agencies expect their K-pop groups to make it big in
such a short period of time. If they fail, the agencies simply replace the old
groups with the younger groups. It is a waste of time and resources to abandon
a group after harshly training them for 8 to 10 years. The Korean producers
need to be more patient and consistent. The U.S. music market is the most
competitive market in the world, and it takes years of endless effort to become
successful in the American music industry.
So you may be thinking, will K-pop ever gain popularity in
North America? My prediction is positive. The attempt to popularize K-pop in
the U.S. failed miserably in the past, but the future is not too dark. The top
three agencies are learning from their mistakes in the past and developing
stronger strategies to compete in the U.S. In my next blog, I will write about
my thoughts on the future of K-pop in the U.S. market.
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