Posts by Lost_in_Paradise

  • Who is the biggest K-Pop group to come out of YG?

    I wonder why everyone's metric for success is always Eurocentric. Some might think Blackpink are bigger because they have an audience among "Western", American or European countries but that doesn't necessarily constitute a global audience.


    Kpop spread across Asia before it could reach the West and the Hallyu wave has been a slow-moving soft power process since the 90s (arguably). Arguing that Big Bang is the biggest because they're probably more well-known across Asia is not the far reach people think it is, especially when you add the element of their longevity and the fact they were able to access a wider audience (across genders and ages etc).


    When people select highest-grossing movies of all time, people tend to adjust for inflation. It makes perfect sense why some would apply a similar way of thinking when discussing who's the "biggest" as all groups listed are from different generations so to make a direct comparison becomes rather difficult. If this question had the option for PSY, he would also be a strong contender for being the biggest in this line of argument.


    Really the question should have been framed better- does biggest really mean a group with a Western audience? Are we referring to groups biggest within Korea? Or who has the biggest audience across all age groups? Or does it mean biggest in terms of revenue and income generated? Does it mean who is the biggest in 2024 or who is the biggest with adjustments to the limitations of their respective (Kpop) generation?

  • Is this a hard pill to swallow?

    I've commented this before but I just think the term 'paving the way' is problematic in itself. I and many others associate it with laying foundations and building something up. Whereas others see it as more of a proliferating gateway?


    Yes, although BTS have managed to massively popularise Korean culture into Western arenas, they are simply not the sole reason. They're the result of the increasingly influential 'Hallyu Wave' catalysed by the presence of our growing digital age and mass consumerist tendencies. Nothing happens in a vacuum. South Korea was becoming popular in a slow and steady process. BTS are the hugely successful result of this growing momentum. Seo Taiji and Boys, Rain, BoA, Big Bang, TVXQ are just some of the artists that have been contributing to this from the very beginning; TV shows and dramas such as Family Outing or Infinite Challenge; Korean cuisine becoming more popular amongst restaurant options in capital cities (I speak for London when I say Korean BBQ and Bibimbap places). This soft-power process, in many ways a diplomatic instrument, has taken years, even decades. (There's even talk of Kpop being created by the South Korean government as an extra exportable industry to fix its payments).


    BTS also massively benefited from the streaming revolution which allowed them to propel to such stardom. By crediting BTS as the sole success of Kpop, a dangerous case is made whereby US and European markets become the measure of success: a Eurocentric approach that is reductive to the years Kpop spent spreading beyond Korea and throughout East Asia for example.


    The only case you could make for BTS is the HUGE proliferation of Kpop music, and Korean culture as a byproduct of that, into the Western sphere allowing for further global recognition. The operative word being 'further’ because I don't see it as 'paving the way' if we were to take the meaning as laying the foundations. Rain was performing concerts in the US as early as 2006 which sold out in days. Who can forget the explosive entry on the international scene that Gangnam Style made? I’m extremely grateful for the breakdown of language imperialism, the new appreciation for cultures and the platform this gives to South Koreans (and absolutely not the whole of Asia, which cannot be treated as a monolith) but to pin the success of everything on one group and 7 people is fairly minimising and ahistorical.

  • Did people try to erase Rain from kpop history?

    Quote from onlyfacts

    I can understand this though. It's because he doesn't have certificates yet.

    But yeah I agree that people tend to undermine Rain's contributions to the kpop. He is probably the originator of spread of kpop outside Asia alongside Wonder Girls. I have always felt that these are the only two kpop artists who made noise *even though a little* till BTS. Others just went and came back. Sorry not sorry.


    PS : Don't like his music tbh but not gonna question his legacy and I hope no one does.

    I agree with this comment (although I do like Rain's music). People tend to look at kpop ahistorically and discredit massively the first (and second) generation. Rain sold out a concert in the US back in 2006 in a matter of days. A lot of oversight is also made on how the Hallyu wave was actually a soft-power process that took decades and was slowly being popularised. BTS marks a huge proliferation of kpop music (and Korean culture as a byproduct of that) into the Western sphere, not necessarily being the first to pave the way.