Earlier this week, K-pop group Blackpink made history as the first Korean girl group to headline London’s iconic Wembley Stadium for concerts over two nights. This feat has been previously accomplished by the likes of Michael Jackson, Taylor Swift, and Blackpink’s fellow K-pop stars, BTS.
But, as someone aware of K-pop for roughly a decade, and who took a deep dive into it during the Covid lockdown, I wonder whether playing up such milestones is still warranted. And it’s not Blackpink or BTS alone; almost all K-pop groups and artists see their fans highlight everything from an award nomination to daily Spotify streaming numbers.
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Part of this has to do with the way the industry ecosystem has made true success contingent on vocal fan support. After all, K-pop permeated the internet with (or infected it, if you prefer) terms such as “stan” (meaning a fervent fan) and “delulu” or being delusional about the artists one admires. The latter was recently added to the Cambridge Dictionary, proving that the genre is already impacting culture, including the English language itself.
There is also the fact that is the unusual makes the news, and a girl group from a small East Asian country, often singing in their native language and conquering a supposedly masK-psive milestone in London, fits the bill. The group itself described it as “a dream come true”, but anyone even vaguely aware of global and cultural news knows it’s just another item in what is already a pretty well-feathered cap.
Nine years after their debut, Blackpink has an audience spanning continents. This won’t come as a surprise to anyone who has seen either young children hooked on member Rosé’s viral hit ‘APT’, or spotted Lisa in the third season of HBO’s The White Lotus. At this stage, success and megahits are the norm for them, not the exception.
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It’s also part of the larger story of globalisation and the growth of K-pop. Since it began as a genre in the ’90s, countless artists — singer-dancers, rappers, songwriters and producers — have helped propel it forward through relentless hard work and dedication to perfecting their craft. Government policies also supported such cultural exports along the way, as they recognised the limited room for domestic consumption in their own, 50 million-strong nation.
Beginning with success in the East and Southeast Asian markets, particularly the neighbouring, lucrative Japanese market, the doors to the seemingly impermeable Western audience have now been blown open. Back in 2021, Blackpink’s label revealed that an online paid concert saw the biggest audience, in descending order, in the US, Thailand, the Philippines, Japan, Brazil, Canada and the UK.
That is not to say that some in the West, especially established music critics, are still on the fence about the musical merits of K-pop. Such criticisms can be fair at times. Many will also resort to lazy racist or sexist descriptions, but that battle is a larger one, and not exclusive to music.
With the sheer scale of K-pop groups’ successes, it’s time to stop treating their artists as outliers. Everyone loves a good underdog story, especially fans, and that will still hold in a world that judges success in terms of age-old norms. However, one stadium in London, granted that it’s an iconic one, is likely to be a footnote in the Blackpink story.
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K-pop itself could also do with a deeper, more substantial and critical lens in terms of the discourse around it, rather than stereotypes or exaggerated praise for everything put out to fans. Take the fact that Blackpink is not just the biggest K-pop girl group at the moment, but also the biggest girl group globally. It is worth examining why the group has succeeded even in the English-speaking markets, when previous pop girl groups have largely faded away within a much shorter duration.
Or, the fact that the group, and many others, is enjoying the fruits of global popularity, but is often unlikely to respond to fan demands for a clearer articulation of their political stand. This is not just a theoretical concern. A section of BTS fans recently expressed disappointment after an official McDonald’s collaboration was announced for multiple countries, including Israel. A sizable group of fans has earlier demanded that the artists boycott pro-Israel brands, given the attacks on Gaza, and has frequently voiced frustrations over labels’ lack of interest in engaging with such questions.
A better quality of conversation on K-pop could also ultimately improve how artists and audiences see each other, and introduce more accountability on the part of the notoriously rigid music labels. Hoping for that is anything but delulu.
Read more on The Indian Express
