Rise of K-pop - comparable to 1960s 'British Invasion'?

Girl band 2NE1's lead rapper CL gained U.S. media attention in 2014 after her album "Crush" ranked 61st on Billboards. She was portrayed by CNN as a potential mega star. / Korea Times file

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Korean boy band BTS is breaking through the glass ceiling of Asian pop in the U.S. mainstream market. Before them, K-pop was depicted as a phenomenon only sometimes going viral on the internet and enjoying popularity only outside the United States, as its actual presence in the United States lagged far behind.

Such a skeptical view is poised to change. BTS is reaping the fruit of the "Big 3" Korean entertainment companies' decade of investment to make the cut in the U.S. mainstream market. The Big 3 are S.M., JYP and YG.

Some experts view the phenomenal success of BTS as a harbinger of the revolutionary cultural change that can be comparable to the "British Invasion" of the 1960s. The British Invasion refers to the phenomenal success of several British rock and roll groups in the U.S. British bands dominated U.S. charts in the mid-1960s. The Beatles, the Dave Clark Five, the Kinks and the Rolling Stones were at the forefront of the British domination of American pop music.

Oh In-gyu, a professor of the Research Institute of Korean Studies at Korea University, said there's a parallel between the British Invasion and the "BTS phenomenon." "Rock is a genre that initially began in the United States. British groups replicated it and the Beatles and other British groups had dominated the American market in the 1960s," he said. "What we're seeing now is that the Korean boy band BTS is popular among U.S. teens because of their fascinating hip-hop music. Hip-hop is the brainchild of black American culture but Korean singer Rap Monster, the frontman of BTS, does hip-hop as great as American musicians."

He said other K-pop groups will benefit from the popularity of BTS and the golden days for K-pop music will unfold in the United States.

American talk show host Ellen DeGeneres likened her audiences' enthusiastic reactions to BTS during her show on Nov. 27 to the "Beatlemania" of the 1960s.

Stephanie Choi, an ethnomusicologist and doctoral student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who specializes in global circulation of K-pop, said technology was the key factor behind BTS's global success. "The internet has changed the media flow from unidirectional to multidirectional between the West and non-West," Choi said. "The Beatles had easier access to American audiences primarily because they were non-exotic, non-threatening white male singers who were first sanctioned by the American mainstream media. It is still difficult even for Asian-American singers to get attention from their own domestic mass media."

Choi said the influence of U.S. mainstream media has declined today after the rise of social media, particularly YouTube. BTS, for example, was able to build a solid fanbase all over the world after its music videos and performances went viral on YouTube.

Oh, also director of general affairs at the World Association for Hallyu Studies, said BTS is an upgraded version of K-pop. "North American and European fans were sick and tired of K-pop bands because all of them were identical because the Big 3 entertainment companies manufactured similar groups," he said. "BTS was initially a hip-hop group and enjoyed a strong reputation among hip-hop fans in North America and Europe. They became a global phenomenon after they embraced some K-pop elements, such as synchronized dance moves, in their performances."

K-pop fans all around the globe have more than doubled in the past five years. According to experts, the figure hovered around 30 million in 2013. It surged to 70 million in 2017. Such K-pop fan tallies were collected from K-pop fan sites such as Soompi, the longest-running K-pop website founded in 1998.

The talent search show, "Show Me the Money," has served as the springboard for global fame. Oh said some underground Korean rappers rose to stardom overseas, thanks to the show airing on music cable channel Mnet since 2012. Each episode of the show was broadcast the next day through YouTube.

G-Dragon, Dok2 and CL, the lead rapper of the girl band 2NE1, were the main beneficiaries of the show.

In 2016, Big Bang's G-Dragon, for instance, earned $44 million, more than the $33.5 million of American rock band Maroon 5, one of the highest-paid bands in the United States. CL became the first Korean singer to crack the top 61 on the Billboard chart in 2014 for her album "Crush." She was featured on CNN and was described as a singer poised to be a mega star.

Their gaining attention in the U.S. mainstream market was the result of Korea's Big 3 entertainment companies' years-long endeavor to crack the U.S. market.

Among the top 3 entertainment companies, JYP was most active. Founder Park Jin-young, a singer-songwriter and producer, initially went to the United States back in 2003 to pave the way for K-pop. In an interview, he said his goal was to write songs that could make the top 10 on Billboard within a year.

There was some progress, but his first attempt to place K-pop in the U.S. mainstream market failed. He tried again in 2009, taking four-member girl group Wonder Girls to the United States. Back then, Wonder Girls were one of the most popular K-pop acts in Korea. Park reportedly insisted they leave Korea to join his experimental tour to the United States to sow seeds for K-pop music there. Wonder Girls served as the opening act for Jonas Brothers' U.S. tour.

The Korean girl group traveled with the American pop group to 50 cities for concerts. But the tour did little for their popularity in the United States. Their song ranked 76th on Billboard but their album merely sold around 20,000. Disappointed, Park and Wonder Girls returned to Korea in 2012.

While JYP went through repeated failures, fellow major entertainment company S.M. Entertainment chose to take the road less taken ? founder Lee Soo-man teamed up with YouTube to broadcast streaming of K-pop groups. Prior to this, Lee also tried to expand K-pop's territory into the United States, an endeavor that also failed.

His experimental YouTube partnership, however, turned out to be a game changer. S.M. girl group Girls' Generation became a sensation and pushed the K-pop fanbase beyond Asia.

"In retrospect, SM's Lee was right. YouTube helped K-pop groups go viral on the internet and his business partnership with the social media helped increase fanbases all across the globe," Oh said. "Girls' Generation was a milestone K-pop group because they have the most accumulated YouTube views among K-pop groups."

Psy set another milestone in K-pop. His "Gangnam Style" music video has over 3 billion YouTube views so far since it was first posted on YouTube in 2012. He is the first Korean singer to achieve global fame. His horse-riding dance became globally popular. His popularity, however, ran short as his follow-ups didn't get much attention.

"Gangnam Style was phenomenal, but Psy's persona was consumed as a character, not as an artist," Choi said. "He didn't have a strong fanbase like other idol groups but Scooter Braun found him marketable and introduced him to the American mass media. Despite his long career and musical talent, Psy was depicted in the United States as a hilarious, thus non-threatening, Asian male stereotype."

Although his global popularity was one-off, Psy has led people involved in the American entertainment industry to realize Korean music and singers can be a cash cow.