There is a lot of truth to the bit that Chris and Hannah did to introduce the KPOP act for CultureFest. What is the first thing people associate with KPOP other than the fact that it isn’t in English? Globally revered boy group BTS or 방탄소년단 who have risen to the tops of the charts since their debut in 2013 are widely recognised as the standard of KPOP in most of the western world.
This is seen as a good thing by some and a not so good thing by others; a lot of people think it’s enough to simply judge an entire realm of music based on this one popular group, either dismissing KPOP entirely because they don’t like BTS for whatever reason or saying they’re a KPOP fan when they really only know BTS’ English songs. This isn’t to say that you can’t be a fan of only BTS but if you only listen to Despacito or telepatia, would you describe yourself as a Latin pop fan?
So what is KPOP really?
KPOP is the umbrella term used to describe what is actually multiple genres of music including rock, indie, rnb, etc although some people do use terms like K-rock and K-hiphop to differentiate. There are currently approximately 543 debuted and active KPOP acts right now including boy groups, girl groups, and co-ed acts of varying genres such as rock, trot, indie, dance, and pop making BTS less than .002% of all current KPOP.
This is what we sought to portray in our Culture Fest KPOP act this year, because at least the last four years prior have included one or more BTS songs with last year’s being only BTS. With a fun medley organized by our talented leader Kaitlyn Watkins [class of ‘25], we used songs by YG’s star girl group Blackpink, JYP’s 4th generation powerhouse groups ITZY and Stray Kids, Pledis’ synchronizing kings Seventeen, and RBW’s vocal queens Mamamoo to create a powerful performance that would showcase how unique KPOP can be.
Two things that especially set KPOP apart from other cultures’ music are the amount of comebacks groups have and concepts which are different from genres. What is defined as a comeback? In its simplest form, a comeback is when an artist releases new music that is separate from the last set of music they released.
Western artists generally don’t “come back” more than once a year. For example, Top 100 Billboard artist Justin Bieber released one album per year three years in a row, one album three years later, and finally two more albums five years after that, one year after the other. During the inactive time periods, he did work on some collaborations and went on four tours but did not release any of his own music. This is a common occurrence for Western artists.
Most KPOP groups and artists go through at least three comebacks every 12-18 months, sometimes more, all with different concepts and accompanied by several live performances and events. A comeback’s concept is the theme of the album; different concepts would include girl/boy crush, summer, horror, pirates, dystopia, cute, retro, fantasy, school/high school, military, supernatural, sexy, traditional, badass, emo and more. Some groups adopt an overall storyline concept and have sub-concepts underneath that like ATEEZ who have an umbrella pirate concept but have comebacks with different sub-concepts within that storyline or Dreamcatcher who have a horror base concept and elaborate on that in different ways for each comeback.
Right now, the world is going loco for KPOP (while not giving artists the recognition they deserve which is a topic for another time), and it’s really beautiful to see how people come together from left and right to dwell with each other through music. Those who want to be hip and in with the new trends can come together beyond language barriers, beyond turbulence in life, with those who have been fans for years and have watched the music industry topple like dominos to the oncoming storm that is KPOP. That’s what Culture Fest is all about, sharing in each other’s cultures and appreciating the differences that make us all unique and beautiful under God. And to those who hate, to those who underestimate, to MNET and MAMA and the Grammys, to everyone in Las Vegas right now who, whether or not they like BTS, are forcibly surrounded by their influence, I just have four words as KPOP continues to grow worldwide: how you like that?