With the entertainment industry in Korea rubbing its hands watching BTS grow, the Republic government smiles to an also growing economy, with a tourism that intensifies and the figures of exportations rising like the foam in the Korean wave.
At this point, after the Korean wave has flooded every continent on top of the sea, nobody is asking what is that K-pop thing anymore. We all already know, to a greater or lesser extent, that with “K-pop” we mean Korean boybands and girlbands, created “artificially” by entertainment industry.
And when we thought we had it figured out, here comes @spanish_btss and breaks our schemes: she explains to us not only what is K-pop, but also what is is not. This Twitter account dedicated to the well known group BTS dedicated her time and effort to write a thread in which she claimed the band “shouldn’t be considered K-pop, when not even Korean people see it like that”.
This user makes a review on “K-pop History” that looks more like the transcription of the Netflix documentary series Explained dedicated to K-pop. After that, she compiles some online comments posted (in English) by users who say to be Korean. and just this easily she proclaims herself María Korean Public Opinion ((there was no better translation for this pun in Spanish, sorry lol)). Her conclusion is BTS shouldn’t be considered as K-pop because “it is starting its own revolution” and “they were always oursiders in K-pop”.
It is not the first time I read fans making comments of this kind: saying that this idol or this other group is changing the conservative, very closed tradicional Korean society, taking a leading role in social issues such as the vindication of LGBT people rights, the fight against xenophobia or feminism. In my opinion, there is nothing further from reality.
In the case of BTS, I am not by any means trying to deny the talent of the band’s members, but neither the interests many sectors share in them. The group reports not only millions in benefits to its own company, Big Hit Entertainment (specifically $86 millions in 2017), but also its competitors take a pinch. In the 12 countries where they already performed in, and the 4 European countries that will join to the list in 2018, BTS is nailing the K-pop flag: “K-pop was here”. This means that if BTS does well, and the idea of Korean boybands sinks in the national and international audiences, this ultimately leads to the rest of the groups and their companies’ success.
With the entertainment industry in Korea rubbing its hands watching BTS grow, the Republic government smiles to an also growing economy, with a tourism that intensifies and the figures of exportations rising like the foam in the Korean wave.
It does not matter here whether idols write their songs or not. The support of these parts is not free, of course: come to this point, Big Hit and its counterparts can take some licenses (How about making the sweet, innocent female idols look sexy and empowered? How about suggesting or even explicitly showing an homosexual relationship in a video?), but they will never bite the hand that feeds them. And no, ARMY, I am sorry, that is not you. K-pop, and also BTS, will follow the establish plan to annoy as little as possible and keep doing what they are doing, which is doing great.
Personally, this debate makes me think of the Spanish idol C. Tangana, who stated a quick analysis on the urban music industry in Spain in his song dedicated to Yung Beef. It could be adapted to K-pop: “Look at the change you’re making in the industry (…), the system is in love with you, the system is nourished by people like you: those who think they are outsiders, but they are just down in the chain”.
Humanos 