English lyrics bolster K-pop's global appeal

By Kwak Yeon-soo

In recent years, K-pop has become increasingly visible globally. Foreign-language music has never had an easy time climbing the charts in the U.S., but K-pop was able to have a stronger presence, thanks to its devoted fandom. Now, K-pop has found a better strategy to break through and sustain success in the West: composing songs with English lyrics.

BTS wrote history again this month by becoming the first K-pop act to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart with its first English language song "Dynamite." The group's four albums have topped the Billboard 200 Albums chart and the group has achieved top 10 successes on the Hot 100 with "Fake Love," "On" and "Boy With Luv"; but the group had faced the final hurdle of the radio component on the charts as U.S. radio generally doesn't play much non-English language pop.

In addition to BTS, Monsta X, BLACKPINK and Super M have taken measures to find success in the U.S. market with "English-heavy" songs. This year, BLACKPINK collaborated with Lady Gaga on the latter's "Sour Candy," which has a mix of Korean and English lyrics, and teamed up with Selena Gomez on the girl group's new single "Ice Cream," which is mostly sung in English.

For the first time, Monsta X reached No.5 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart in February with its all-English album "All About Luv." Super M's pre-release track "100," from its upcoming full-length album "Super One," is a track that is also mostly in English.

"I think English language releases come after a long history of K-pop localizing in different markets, like BoA in Japan or Super Junior-M and EXO-M, and later EXO, in China," said Tamar Herman, the K-pop correspondent for Billboard and author of "BTS: Blood, Sweat & Tears."

"I think this recent wave of English-language songs and releases from K-pop acts is a good opportunity for them to gain more recognition. It's unfortunate, but Anglo-oriented countries are really not open to non-English music, so even though there are pockets of audiences that are open to non-English content, this is a good way to open more doors and make more non-English-averse audiences familiar with K-pop and Korea's music industry in general."

The history of K-pop acts making attempts to step out of their comfort zones to sing in English dates back to the early 1990s.

In 1992, Seo Tae-ji, who was a K-pop icon before K-pop was even a thing, released an English version of "Blind Love." In 2009, soloist BoA entered the Billboard 200 Albums chart at 127th with her self-titled U.S. debut album "BoA" fronted by the all-English song "Eat You Up."

The same year, K-pop girl group Wonder Girls put out English version of "Nobody," which ranked 76th on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Girls' Generation released both Korean and English versions of "The Boys" in 2012 and performed on a variety of American TV shows to make inroads into the U.S.

So how come English lyrics failed to impress American audiences a decade ago, but now successfully appeal to them?

"In the past, coming-to-America K-pop artists tried to stifle their individuality and assimilate to Western culture," said Lee Gyu-tag, an assistant professor of cultural studies at George Mason University Korea. "Nowadays, however, they strongly embrace their identity and feel comfortable about bringing something fresh to American pop culture."

Lee added that K-pop's identity is all about its unique features such as well-produced music, crisp choreography, colorful fashion and a specialized "training" system.

"K-pop, and English-language K-pop, is pretty interesting from the perspective of what is a cultural product in this day and age when we're all so connected? I rethink these ideas all the time, and sometimes change my mind, so I think that fluidity is really representative of this question," Herman commented.

Park Hee-a, the author of "Interviews with K-Pop Stars," explained that foreign songwriters have enabled the creation of K-pop songs that have near-universal appeal.

"Lyrics are a significant part of K-pop. Compared with a decade ago when K-pop artists simply translated Korean lyrics into English without paying much attention to cultural sentiment, they now conduct in-depth market research to pen lyrics that may resonate with global fans, such as youth issues," Park said.

She said BTS' latest move to release a song in English appears commercially planned to target the Billboard charts. "BTS releasing a new single in English doesn't mean they're no longer K-pop. K-pop's fundamental identity lies in the specialized training and production system," she added.

Experts expect that K-pop groups will continue to release English songs or albums in the future due to increasing demand from international fans.

"Global K-pop fans are generally satisfied with Korean lyrics, but they can have feel a sense of familiarity when K-pop stars sing in English," Park said. "Also business-wise, K-pop stars seem likely to achieve more commercial success in North America."

Lee agreed, saying that fans would have more opportunities to hear K-pop acts sing in more languages in addition to Korean.

"I think K-pop acts will carry out a two-track strategy in the future ― focus on domestic fans and attract more global fans," he said.