An ominous trend - The rise of all-Korean, or mostly-Korean, songs

Until last year, songs which were mostly or entirely in English were the trend in Korea.

To signify KPop's integration with global pop.

Even "Korean" songs had more than half of their lyrics in English.the

But then now Melon is coming back from dead to haunt KPop.

The #1s from Melon are all or mostly Korean songs

Love wins all - some English words, Korean composer/lyricist

Bam Yanggang - no English words, Korean composer/lyricist

Fate - some English words, namely "Iced americano" and the rap of Minnie, mostly Korean composer/lyricist with some foreign input

And, NWS' fate is also mostly Korean with some English words thrown in healbere and there.

And that is a Hybe act, although Pledis does have some independence.

Although Lee Jieun is no longer dominant digitally, her dream of undermining KPop seems to be finally bearing a toxic fruit after 14 years of struggle.

The drift of Koreans from global Kpop was only suppressed by BTS' foreign conquests, and without that, and with a singer who has been hostile to Kpop for her entire career now ruling as a Senior Singer and holding a veto power over Kpop, the Great Regression of KPop is now at full speed.

I personally think at this rate even if BTS returns in probably early 2026 there would be no ground to start anew as most music would be like only-for-Korea.

I feared this for a long time. And it is hitting KPop quite hard.

Only one kind of genre can survive, those songs which are palatable to the world or those who are only going to be relevant in Korea, and the wrong kind of music is winning.

Quote from ellenote

This is a good thing to me.

It distances KPop from the rest of world, so not good overall

Quote from ava-beatrix

4th/5th gen stans are so weird with this stuff. There's a K in K-pop for a reason. It means Korean. If "kpop" groups want to make english songs entirely then they can call themselves an international group. Plus, majority of kpop stans from earlier gens (stans before 2016ish) stanned K-pop because of the good music. Language didn't matter. Its literally a non issue KOREAN artists are singing songs in KOREAN in KOREA...

The irony is Gidle is 60% Chinese (of various nationalities but all Chinese speaking) for them Korean is another foreign language

Quote from emanresu

I welcome it. Bring the Korean back into K-pop.

It's been absent for too long.

Which means KPop now returns to a local fad, something I feared for years

Quote from selfmate

the senior singer putting the K back in kpop

Yes

She offered an alternative to the globally focused KPop

Opening that leeway proved to be fatal for the future of KPop expansion as her style of Korean Pop wins Korea back

Quote from ava-beatrix

i assume chinese as a second/third language besides yuqi and shuhua? and by korean i was referring to the area where the group is based and their main market.

Minnie's first language is also Chinese since although she is a Thai citizen they only speak Chinese among their own circle.

Quote from BlackpinkHouse

Perfect Night was the biggest hit since November until Bibi came out with her viral smash. Perfect Night was also an all English song based on a game no one plays anymore.

And it might be the last of such songs for quite a while

Quote from Fluffers

Minnie is quite literally not fluent in chinese.

What kinda dumbass shit is this. Like trying to say my puerto rican friend can speak a lick of spanish just cause her grandma is fluent

She does say that to not to alienate the Thai fans, but her family is ethnic chinese and upper class ethnic Chinese in SE Asia tend not to speak the local language among their own circle

Quote from Chocolate-cheeks

good music is good music regardless of the language it's sung in

But a Korean only song tends to do less well in spotify