What really makes a group or song "kpop"

  • As kpop gets more international every day, I'm starting to wonder what makes a group or song "kpop".


    We have Korean groups releasing songs and even full albums in English and often they're indistinguishable from average music released from a Western artist. Is it still kpop? Should they be up for a kpop category in a western music show?


    We have talk that Kpop companies might be planning groups that will be based in other countries. Are they still kpop then?


    BlackSwan no longer has any Korean or even East Asian members but they are based in SK and sing in Korean. Are they still kpop?


    XG is a Japanese group but they song mostly in English with some Japanese and Korean. They promote in SK. Are they kpop?


    What do you think? What makes a group kpop?

  • it's mostly about whether or not the majority of the lyrics is in korean for me. something about the language that just shines in song form-- more than english, i'd say

  • that's a good question, Idk lol. I'd say it's the language, the music, the lyrics etc. though i don't understand it, a lot of songs are just beautiful to hear and i appreciate it even more if they do an english version. I got into a j-pop group because of the way they sounded so heavily like kpop music to me. I really enjoy them and now i'm obsessed.

  • I consider every artist from Korea as KPop unless they do a different genre than its for me KRock, KMetal, KIndie,... and so on


    Same with other countries and their music


    Chanmina also dosn't just becomes a KPop-artist for me just cause she did 2-3 Korean songs and is half Korean. She is still a JPop-artist to me since she lives in Japan and the majority of her work is in Japanese for Japanese people.


    But than there are former KPop-artists who re-debuted in Japan as for example some of the members f NIK and Orbit. They are JPop for me since their groups mainly sing in Japanese for Japanese fans (even tho NIK also as example also promoted in Korea a bit).


    I wouldn't start to call a for example English album Brit-Pop or an Japanese album JPop just cause a KPop-act decided to make music in different languages. It's still KPop to me because the artists are all from Korea.


    It reminds me a bit of a girl from Malaysia who got famous for covering Japanese songs on YT and all of a suddon everyone started to call her a JPop-artist, but for me she is just a Malaysian girl who covers Japanese songs. This is the same as whenever this one Korean girl posts her JPop-covers but everyone calls her a JPop-artist by now.


    There is only one person where I ever would say he is not a KPop-artist despite being from Korea, wich is a guy called Kang Minsu. He debuted as singer in a JPop-group and even after he came from Japan he still continued to only sing in Japanese, wich is the only reason why I can't see him as KPop. IDK if he still makes music but last time I heard of him he released a Japanese MV some time ago (maybe 2021) and even his social media is mostly in Japanese. The guy really came back to Korea after being in Japan for 4 years but you barly would notice that he is in Korea cause of him using Japanese so much.


    When NiziU makes their "Korean debut" next year I would as in the example of Chanmina not call it KPop, because they are from Japan and mainly do music for Japanese fans and yeah.

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  • 1.) I'd still consider it kpop since the group/artist started off as kpop and are trying to break out into the west


    2.) Yes, most of them still sing in Korean


    3.) Yes, they sing in Korean and promote in Korea


    4.) No they are not, they said they are a global group. They sing and rap in English, Japanese, and Korean. They aren't kpop and they have tried to make that very clear


    5.) What makes a kpop group to me, is just singing/rapping in Korean and maybe the flashy visual aspect of kpop.

  • There's a difference between what makes a group vs a song kpop. A full English song promoted mainly in the US isn't a kpop song according to me. That's a western pop song. Same as kpop groups Japanese comebacks are jpop. Doesn't change the fact that the groups are still kpop groups. As long as a group is stationed in Korea and mainly promote in Korea they're a kpop group.

  • any Kpop group that goes to Japan and release Japanese language song is auto categorized as Jpop is it not?


    same with Cpop?


    in that sense if a Kpop group goes to US/Europe or just release a English language song then it should be auto categorized as Pop


    but that said, there can be sub category in US music platform as Kpop category and this can be separately monitored and tracked to see the consumption volume of Kpop music in the US.


    but a song that's sung in English by a Kpop group should be categorized as Pop not Kpop.


    that's just how I think

  • Moderator

    Moved the thread from forum KPOP to forum KPOP.

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