Will Kpop be able to conquer the western market?
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You have kpop acts outselling western artists.
Kpop has big audience worldwide already
If you go outside KPOP fandoms, there are other people who don't listen to it. Some may casually do, but it doesn't mean it's going to be the norm.
KPop right now fails at being relatable. The images of the artists are controlled and manipulated. They're too perfect and aspirational. Some songs (even ones I enjoyed) are too experimental for the western taste, and the lyrics are just laughable. It's like expecting people to stan the Barbie movie series just because it's earning well (the target market are kids so the parents will really be forced to buy stuff).
The world is bigger than South Korea, China, and Japan. Even the GP from those countries mostly prefer international artists. Big acts like BTS and BP are succeeding mainly because their management is fine-tuning their approach to the west. I can't speak much for BTS because I don't know much about them, but for my ult BP, you've got three English speakers who are relatable internationally. Two members who grew up or lived in New Zealand and Australia, and know plus understand the culture. A best-selling SEA girl who a lot of people like. And let's not forget the Korean member: she's pretty, can sing, has great personality, and the one person who's culture might be different but seeing she's part of a KPop group, it's understandable that there's a Korean member. People love that about BP. There's variety.
But between BTS/BP and Taylor Swift, the West will choose the latter simply because she's one of them so she's relatable, and it doesn't hurt that her songs are written for a wide range of audience. Her songs are timeless, and anyone (including Koreans) can relate.
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No, cause people won't accept it. Even now, people call major kpop acts like BTS gay as an insult. The second any kpop act threatnens major western acts people turn on them. Look what happened to BTS.
Everyone was fine with them until they had Dynamite a break through hit and now western forums will do anything, even make up things to hate on them.
And lets not talk about the record labels, companies and major influencers in the western industry. When SNSD got a youtube award against Justin Bieber and 1D people were attacking them and writing articles callling them sl*ts.
The western companies will do anything to maintain power. The only reason they will tolerate kpop is to use them for their own benefit.
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No, cause people won't accept it. Even now, people call major kpop acts like BTS gay as an insult. The second any kpop act threatnens major western acts people turn on them. Look what happened to BTS.
Everyone was fine with them until they had Dynamite a break through hit and now western forums will do anything, even make up things to hate on them.
And lets not talk about the record labels, companies and major influencers in the western industry. When SNSD got a youtube award against Justin Bieber and 1D people were attacking them and writing articles callling them sl*ts.
The western companies will do anything to maintain power. The only reason they will tolerate kpop is to use them for their own benefit.
You don't need a record company nowadays to have a hit. Its about virality. All a kpop artist need is a viral hit
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Well define Kpop first?
Is it by language, performers nationality, producers, or the registration of the label?
Korean language songs will not succeed, barring an occasional viral hit.
Korean-Americans are not enough of a market, like Latinos.
English language songs - sung by Koreans, produced by Korean owned labels can succeed, but will take time over a trajectory, but will result in Kpop losing most of whatever makes it distinctive.
And it is not to be forgotten, that Kpop is itself of Western origins.
Some what like baseball, while an occasional star baseball player from Korea will be admired and recruited into American teams - MLB, Americans aren't going to follow KBO league games on regular basis.
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if Kpop can have a stable and sustainable bubble market within the Western Market then that's already a tremendous success for Kpop.
Conquer/Overtake the Western Market was never part of the plan I think.
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Conquering the West was never part of the plan. Attracting new fans and being present in different markets though? Yes, since 2nd gen.
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Conquering the West was never part of the plan. Attracting new fans and being present in different markets though? Yes, since 2nd gen.
this is very much true, even major kpop acts in the west such as bts, bp don't really want to "conquer" the west. They just want to please their fans and perhaps gain new ones.
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nope as long as the music remains in korean
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Nope, some random viral hit here and there and that's it
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Perhaps not. K pop seems to be a genre that's particular to a certain group of people and not necessarily accepted as mainstream.
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Not everything that looks like it will go viral will go viral. There are things to consider such as analytics, timing, etc.
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Can Kpop as a genre be more popular than Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Doja Cat, The Weeknd and Justin Bieber?
Lol no. K-pop will likely stay a niche, and that niche will get smaller if BTS stops releasing music.
K-pop acts are making moves for sure, but the only ones that are established are BP and BTS.
Charting on the Hot 100 is a sign that a K-pop act has a stable US fanbase that has the zeal to both stream and buy, not just buy. TXT, TWICE, MX, NCT, SVT, and ITZY are all acts that have sold decently in the past 2 years, but none are getting on the charts for singles.
LOONA and TXT had the best chance with Star and Magic respectively; but their radioplay wasn't enough because their fandoms didn't organize and/or were too small to buy enough digital downloads to affect the charts.
They 
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