Korean Job Discussion Forums

[yangyams]

I found out that CL from the girl group 2ne1 is supposed to release a new US CD soon and she's' collaborating with some American artists but I'm personally highly skeptical of it's success. People say it's possible since her company YG is the most "americanized" one but their swag-ganster personas seem fake.

Am I alone in this thought?

Alot of people in the US like Kpop but I don't think it's enough to make any singer that wants to come over for a US release successful.

[Scorpion]

[jvalmer]

[Steelrails]

[yangyams]

[nicwr2002]

I think she could do a good job, but I think a lot of people like K-pop because they can't understand what they are saying. When Utada Hikaru, Japanese singer, made an English album it sounded terrible compared to her Japanese stuff. She changed her style and her English pronunciation wasn't clear even though she was born in New York.
CL has to keep her same style and actually throw some Korean words into the song to make it interesting.

[GJoeM]

But WHO is it in Western countries that likes KPop? Is it Kyopos buying it in USA and UK?

Or, are KPop fans a minority interest audience in the West, like those comic book convention crowd who dress up like Manga characters?

Besides the odd article here and there, Kpop is not discussed at all in the main SERIOUS US-UK music magazines, either in papers or online.

And has Kpop improved Korean-Westerners understanding of each other and what we have to offer each other as people and cultures -- or is it just an export consumer product, like a fridge or a car ?

To compare -- When Jamaicans gave the world reggae and dub, when South America and Cuba gave the world its take on afro-jazz, when African Americans gave the world blues music and soul, when US and UK bands gave the world punk rock and 60s r n b -- there was a massive two way cultural sharing and change worldwide, a revolution via these art forms that changed people and society -- deeply.

And, how is Kpop different from similar Western-Euro - US- R n b - pop music that we have heard for years?

What is distinctly different about it ?

[nicwr2002]

[GJoeM]

[nicwr2002]

[GJoeM]

So why would anyone listen to music that is produced like an aircon or sounds like one, or is promoted like one ? What's the point?

[Newbie]

[Steelrails]

[rkc76sf]

No problem with Korean artists being successful in the U.S., actually like it when someone with a new perspective and style breaks into the scene.

The side effect is when Korean media goes overboard (as they always do) when a Korean artist becomes popular, talking about the 'success of K-Pop' if that's what you can call it. Psy became popular with one song and was lumped into one category with the rest of K-Pop, and the "K-Pop success". Psy has as much in common with K-Pop as Metallica.

[schwa]