Posts by Lost_in_Paradise

  • 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.

  • Recommend me Kpop/Korean R&B Songs

    Zion. T is really really great. I would try both his OO and ZZZ album or just his well-known songs like Eat, Just or Two Melodies. Jay Park's 'Everything you wanted' is brilliant (I would do my favourites but they're all good). You could also try out 2PM's No.5 album and All Night Long if you fancy something a little sexier haha.


    Let me know if you like any of them (or if not- we all have our own tastes)! :):)