K-Pop's Difficult Journey to USA | K-Pop Going Global

[Music] three decades after its Inception K-pop has become one of the leading music genres by slowly building popularity in the last 15 years thanks to YouTube and social media however it's been a long push for K-pop to reach the notoriety of success it has today and even break through the seemingly impenetrable United States there is a lot of competition to break into now worth over 25 billion music Market which is the world's largest and then fnac can make it there the world is theirs eight years ago when I was at Korea University for my Master's Degree I decided to devote my thesis to this topic particularly on the successes and failures of k-pop's attempts in Korea Japan and the United States in last week's video we took a look at the second largest music Market in the world Japan and k-pop's efforts in finding success in that country K-pop needed to export its product abroad to become profitable and the US was seen as the Pinnacle of that success what seemed impossible 15 years ago has occurred many times over and some Korean acts have become household names for this next episode we're going to take a look at this journey into pitfalls that labels and acts experienced on this bumpy road we're picking up after K-pop has succeeded in Japan with numerous acts among them being the trailblazing boa and tbxq for years in K-pop it was a race to see who could be the first to achieve groundbreaking success in the U.S in the American Music Market back in the 2000s boy bands were out and soloists and pop punk bands were leading the charge K-pop had not achieved its first viral sensation and so the genre was very much unknown to most of the Western World this wasn't Japan and the West Was proven to be a very different animal entirely thank you rain was one of the first to make his Mark there did you know that rain was named one of times top 100 most influential people in 2007 well it was based on an online poll well you know fans had something to do with that it was enough to make headlines and have him show up on Stephen Colbert's Colbert Report in 2008 for a dance-off he had already parted ways with jyp entertainment made his Hollywood debut in the film Speed Racer and Then followed that and the starring role in the 2009 movie Ninja Assassin which scored him the biggest badass award on MIM tv's movie awards in 2010. however their efforts were not that golden Speed Racer ended up bombing in the box office a Ninja Assassin received mixed reviews and barely made its budget while these were all notable attempts Reign never attempted a music career in the U.S and his Hollywood movie career never exactly took off it would take some work to create a product that appealed to American taste let you know [Music] after successfully Conquering the Japanese Market through its strict localization strategy in 2008 SM Entertainment tried to debut boa and the U.S using the same tactics she debuted with ichu up and then released her self-titled album following up with look who's talking collaborating with R B singers songwriter and producer Sean Garrett for the two songs I did it for love and energetic her American debut was a popular entertainment news item in Japan in Korea she aspired to be the next world-renowned Entertainer like Janet Jackson however her reception was not as warm as expected the boa album peaked at number 127 on Billboard's top 200 albums chart and only stayed there for one week with sales in the US of around 8 000 copies while she did walk away as the first K-pop artist on Billboard's 200 chart most of her sales came from Korea and Japan several years later she attended her active debut into State star in the dance movie Make Your Move alongside dancing with the star alumnus Derek Hoff but that also ended up bombing and sm's boa American project ended but boom Reign were the only Koreans trying to break into the American Market YG soloist 7 was also making his American debut who had also attempted his own Japanese foray into that market with less than Stellar success in years prior interestingly seven was supposed to release his debut English song this is my year back in 2007 with the rapper fabulous but a YouTube leak and the negative reaction to it led to the single being scrapped in a revision of His official debut seven held a preview parties throughout 2008 and revealed there were 12 songs recorded for his first full-length English album his debut single girls with rapper Lil Kim finally released in March of 2009 around the same time as Boaz debut seven even became the first Asian to have their music video played on the Black Entertainment Network or bet as it's commonly known sadly the song Never charted in Seven's English Album never released in his American promotions ended [Music] [Music] the K-pop as a genre wasn't done social media loved k-pop's catchy beats and by 2009 several songs became viral Sensations the Wonder Girls as nobody was one of those success stories if you recall in a previous Video jyp Entertainment had felt that company's music did not align with the Japanese audience but bet that American audiences would love it with the mindset of wanting to be accepted not attempted in the United States jyp himself invested time and energy in the states prior to the YouTube era to sow the seeds of his later success there in 2009 the Wonder Girls debuted with the English version of their already viral internationally successful Korean hit nobody the girls were repackaged as K-pop Stars where they stayed true to the song's original concept it was chosen out of all the Wonder Girls as past Korean hits for its memorable hook at a time that sm's Bowen yg7 were also making their America debuts jyp's Wonder Girls were the first of the K-pop acts to break in the U.S Billboard's Hot 100 debuting at number 76. the group's promotions included performances on various television shows like so you think you could dance as an opening act for the Jonas Brothers World Tour and starring in the Nickelodeon movie The Wonder Girls produced by Nick Cannon the Wonder Girls followed up nobody with the DJ is mine to coincide with the movie and like money featuring Akon the latter two songs were much more Americanized compared to nobody and that move ended up costing the group the overall result was that the Wonder Girls did not reach the anticipated level of success jyp sought they were still virtually unknown in the US and only found considerable success with nobody with nearly 400 000 in digital and physical sales combined in America while DJ is mine and like money only found their success in Korea with digital sales but the K-pop machine ground on admits that their ongoing lawsuit with their summer entertainment the three former tvsq members formed a new group jyj and made their American debut in late 2010 with the song a girl featuring Kanye West their strong fan base net of about a half a million album sales between Korea and Japan despite SM entertainment's attempt to stop them by filing an injunction unfortunately their American promotions had strings of bad luck but the group's biggest obstacle was administrative the boys didn't secure their performance visas in the US in time for their promotions and so they had to perform their concerts and other promotions at their cost for free for fans jyj's physical English album ended up never materializing in the end [Music] can't be beat but the push across the K-pop Spectrum had had its effect by the 2010s the American audience was the biggest supporter of K-pop in online activities as well as the largest population of Korean Hollywood's fans outside of Asia so in 2011 SM Entertainment tried again this time their vehicle was their very popular girl group Girls Generation and a group song the boys this included appearances of January 2012 on popular shows that late show with David Letterman and Live with Kelly the original Korean album had been quite successful in the South Korean market and for the American version the album retained all of its Korean language songs and added the English version of the boys and four remixes of that one song one of which included a version with rapper Snoop Dogg in November of 2013 Girls Generation beat out America's top acts like Lady Gaga Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus to take home YouTube's video of the Year reward presented by YouTube unfortunately Girls Generation had only sold 21 1000 copies that peaked at number 17 on Billboard's top heat Seekers chart one thing to note was that it was similar to Reigns People Choice voting poll but it did showcase that K-pop did have a growing online presence and the fans were slowly but surely growing in numbers across the world each year as I mentioned previously in 2014 I was working on my Master's thesis and diving into an American Consumer mindsets to understand how the Americans perceived the K-pop act stair as with Japan and Korea I conducted my own research through surveys and in-depth interviews I showed them all of these acts and more to gather their thoughts onto music as well as to understand what they look for when it comes to music the interviewees knew of K-pop and they range from casual fans to Avid listeners but all were open-minded music fans all of the interviewees felt that if the artists were to promote in America it would be beneficial if they were fluid in English they all put Priority on the quality of the music itself and they looked for a catchy and upbeat beat or on the other side an easy listening track some sought a good Melody with clever lyrics with Boaz two songs eat you up an energetic they admired her dancing skills competence and confidence however the lyrics for both songs were viewed as suggestive uninteresting and not deep or meaningful and a bit cheesy to them with the Wonder Girls they all enjoyed the rest retro taking nobody and thought it had class and even though they thought the members all looked alike it worked with the time period they portrayed but felt that they should not do this for every song they generally thought that the lyrics were not deep a little easy and generic their opinions for like money featuring Akon however were vastly different though they considered it a song that objectified women and had very shallow lyrics a clashed with nobody and was not an image that they enjoyed and one felt that the image was done strictly for performance and but did not match the song or the group seven song and music video reviews were mostly negative One reviewer thought there was nothing catchy or special about the song video or lyrics Another considered it their least favorite out of all the songs presented due to what was considered shallow and superficial lyrics their opinions of jyj were also the same one responded even called the lyrics stupid and called it a third grader rhyming scheme coupled with ridiculous outfits overall all of them were turned off by the boy's feminine looks and what they were trying to portray and consider it something that was not appealing to Americans and for Girls Generation and their song the boys one responded found it annoying that they referred to themselves in the song The consistent feedback was that the lyrics were terrible shallow and generic and most importantly did not make any sense at all one Watcher said they hated the song and they tried too hard to appeal to Americans with various stereotypical cultural references another respondent concluded that for a song to be lasting it needed to have a deeper element and this was not one of them and so at this point in history of the Girls Generation no K-Pop group or song had made it and fans were still placing their bets on who could truly succeed in America big bang and his members along with 21 were strong contenders throughout the early 2010s that many fans expected to see try but nothing happened until one artist came out of nowhere Psy Gangnam Style known monomously as Psy has built a reputation in the Korean music scene from his very blunt lyrics peculiar your dance moves and an unconventional stage presence he infused his humor into his songs and performances which earned him the nickname of the bizarre singer he had produced a handful of popular songs that sold well on his 12 years of Performing but it wasn't until he released a sixth album size six in July of 2012 that one track would open the world's eyes to K-pop that song was Gangnam Style within a month this song was a viral sensation and it shot up the YouTube viewers list forcing YouTube to upgrade their view counter to accommodate numbers over 1 billion it's still the most viewed K-pop video on YouTube and was for several years the most viewed video of all time thanks to SAI and Gangnam Style K-pop had become a household term he followed up the hype with gentlemen and while it did Garner new records and success to see what he would do next the overall success of the song while still very respectable did not come anywhere close to gundam style in my interviews a little more than a year later after Gangnam Style was released the respondents in my survey were called how the song made them happy and does a great job on the comedic aspect with an appeal that no one had in K-pop on the other hand in their opinions they felt gentlemen try too hard to appeal to American taste it was a much more dull sequel in my surveys and interviews for my thesis the majority of Americans explained that K-pop was catchy upbeat and happy and had a fresh sound that was absent for popular American Music Americans placed emphasis on Talent personality and then performance in that order westerners favored the hip-hop and strong masculine styles for males and strong feminine and contemporary styles for females one girl in my interview said that if the artist fills a niche people will adore them no matter what while another thought that the nationality makes music more interesting since it creates a new meaning and broadens their perspective on life in the survey asking the American K-pop fans to describe K-pop in one word they thought of K-pop as unique amazing happiness fun life-changing different and awesome the most popular answer was life for Americans referring to how fans devote their lies to the music and find a sense of loyalty to the genre in much the way that a tribe or other close-knit community would they followed many aspects of the culture as indicated in their survey responses I conducted the same quantitative survey on my YouTube channel here in 2019 and 2022 and asked K-pop fans the same questions to see if Americans changed in their responses in the growing K-pop fan base in the 2019 survey when I asked fans to describe K-pop in one word the top five words were diverse different amazing unique and fun while in 2022 the top five responses were fun diverse exciting versatile and variety obviously the genre has grown exponentially in the last decade but the thoughts of how American K-pop fans perceived a genre and why they're in it had mostly remained the same and my 2014 thesis I concluded that American audiences follow the latest trends and phenomenons which are original and derivative but are generally arguably creative and that makes it hard for K-pop X to follow them in style of music I said that K-pop would have to develop its own style and pointed out that the success of Psy with this non-american image song style and theatrics produce an exponential outcome despite very little International promotion consequently it allowed him to have the greatest success out of all the k-pop's attempts in the American Market at that time precisely because he wasn't trying to follow the American trends the Wonder Girls is nobody exuded a similar style to the K-pop Essence and demonstrated a greater success compared to the others previously while their two follow-up singles proved less successful after conforming to more American Styles I used a juxtaposition between the debut and follow-up songs for the Wonder girls's side to demonstrate that Americans do not care if a song is in a foreign language as long as there is a catchy visual or musical element such as a great hook as shown in the survey results American K-pop fans love K-pop for its uniqueness catchy beat and the sound it carries which to some is what's missing in the U.S American Music already has its fair share of suggestive lyrics and shallowness as they were reasons why American K-pop fans made the transition to K-pop therefore putting out songs with negative connotations to English listeners can have backfiring effects one interesting note is that every single K-pop artist who had debuted in America up until 2014 with my thesis research had attached themselves to an African-American musician to feature in their music with the hopes that it would help gain and bolster their appeal even though American fans voted hip-hop Concepts as her favorite the demographics and fans behind the African-American musicians are not what Korean companies should be targeting as the respective fan base's interests are incompatible this is probably a good lesson for any musician who wants to make it an American Market [Music] [Applause] tonight now looking at what happened with K-pop after my thesis you can see that the genre finally made it on a bigger stage BTS undeniably made it in the latter part of the 2010s they became Global Superstars I argue that my thesis findings held up in proving why they were successful the songs that were turning points into careers helped put them on a trajectory to massive record-breaking success why because they stayed true to themselves and their music their songs were in Korean and they provided something new to fans songs that were Timeless coupled with fresh sounds and meanings that resonated with the audience however based on fan feedback I would also argue that their overall reception changed it dipped when they started assimilating to the American style and losing the Korean pop Edge that made them unique a few weeks ago I wanted to prove my theory by asking K-pop and BTS fans on my channel to rate each BTS song on a scale to one to ten one being terrible and 10 being amazing as I suggested in my thesis the songs that Define BTS and put them on a path to where they are today were regarded as their best songs the response average dipped with their English language tracks dynamite and butter had a lower reception comparatively and permission to dance what's widely panned by the fans of my survey while the songs were still quite successful in terms of views and sales keep in mind that the K-pop fandoms will always support their bias and drive up pre-order sales when there's a comeback on the horizon without even knowing what the release will be fans will work together to make it a numbers game with views and streams to hit records across the board it's kind of a K-pop culture thing especially in the last decade therefore I Stripped Away those inflated numbers to show that while BTS definitely had a Monumental and groundbreaking success their success was attributed to what I said in 2014 in my thesis then stay ain't true to yourself I mean it's kind of what BTS has always preached to Unfortunately they admitted that after their last Comeback song that they needed to take a break citing that they felt that they lost themselves musically starting after 2020's on and the numbers show a correlation [Music] hit you with it in addition to BTS there were other K-pop acts that made their attempts to ride the recent Korean wave NCT 127 Mazda x super M and blackpink to name a few the first three had their promotions and attempts using English songs but success mostly relying on their already existing fan bases blackpink most notably operated like BTS where they relied on their music in Korean and staying true to themselves to gain remarkable popularity in the US therefore you don't need to cater to the American audiences to succeed K-pop got to where it is today because it offered something different something special and unique that fans across the world weren't getting in their own countries with the internet and music consumption becoming much more refined and tailored to the individual's personal tastes fans are no longer bound at their country's music thanks to the internet fans all across the world have discovered what else is out there in terms of music and have found an industry that not only technically draws from their own country sound coupled with English hooks oftentimes but also provides a fresh new take on music it took a lot of trial and error over the years but hopefully K-pop has realized that has found the right formula for the global population fans don't even have to understand what they're listening to because when it comes down to it the music has proven that there is no language barrier thank you all for watching everyone that's my look into the Japanese and American analyzes from my thesis research in the next part in the series I want to take a look at the cost and tolls of what it took for these K-pop acts that went through just to promote abroad there's a lot of stories to share and so stay tuned for the next part in this series I do hope this could turn into a full-fledged Series where I dive into other music markets around the world like China let me know your thoughts below until then I really hope you all do me a huge favor of hitting those like And subscribe buttons for me to see more quality K-pop content I appreciate you all for stopping by check out many more of my videos while you're here and I shall see you next time

Channel: DareDB

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Id: UwfrI2JmZ_I

Length: 21min 24sec (1284 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 30 2023