K-pop crisis? Where do these global singers come from? [Oh!Sen Focus]

[OSEN=Reporter Ji Min-kyung] Recently, the theory of K-pop crisis has been emerging among music industry experts. However, despite this, K-pop stars have continued to grow, achieving remarkable results in the global market this year.

Recently, the British Guardian magazine attracted attention by publishing a column stating that the influence of English pop songs in the music market is decreasing due to the advancement of K-pop and Latin music.

As a starting point, the Guardian mentioned PSY’s ‘Gangnam Style’ in 2012 and said that Korean K-pop, among non-English speaking cultures, is enjoying great success around the world.

In this way, following PSY, BTS presented a new path for boy bands and demonstrated a global influence that goes beyond music, raising the status of K-pop. Recently, as several idol groups have gradually revealed their presence in the global music market, K-pop has become unprecedented. We are facing an unprecedented boom.

BTS, which is focusing on individual activities due to the sequential military enlistment of its members, proved its endless popularity by releasing new records with each member’s solo album this year. Jimin, who released his first solo album ‘FACE’ last March, took first place on the US Billboard main single chart ‘Hot 100’. This is the first record for a Korean solo artist, and Jimin has left a new mark in the history of Korean pop music by reaching the top of the ‘Hot 100′ as a solo artist following the group.

Suga solidified his identity by releasing a solo album under the name of Agust D, held his first solo concert after the release of his solo album, and held a world tour ‘SUGA | Through the ‘Agust D-DAY TOUR’, they interacted closely with audiences around the world.

V released his solo album ‘Layover’ and entered Billboard’s ‘Hot 100’ at number 51, and ‘Layover’ ranked 1 on Oricon’s ‘Weekly Digital Album Ranking’ went straight up. Jungkook followed Jimin with her solo song ‘Seven (feat. Latto)’, which ranked first on the Billboard & # 39; Hot 100, and won ‘Song of Summer’ at the ‘2023 MTV Video Music Awards’. It proved its popularity by winning an award.

In addition, Jungkook entered second place on the main album chart ‘Billboard 200′ with his recently released solo album ‘GOLDEN’, tying the record for the highest ranking for a K-pop solo singer. In particular, ‘GOLDEN’ recorded the highest sales volume for a K-pop solo singer’s album in the United States in the first week of release, and became the first album by a K-pop solo singer to sell more than 200,000 copies in the first week, making Jungkook a ‘global pop star’. ‘ has established itself as ‘.

Blackpink, which has been releasing the first and best records since its debut as a girl group, held the ‘BORN PINK’ tour for about a year from October last year to September this year, meeting fans in 34 cities around the world and 66 times.. Through this world tour, Blackpink mobilized a total of 1.8 million audiences, the largest audience for a K-pop girl group, including 55,000 in Seoul, 540,000 in North America, 215,000 in Europe, 900,000 in Asia, 50,000 in Oceania, and 40,000 in the Middle East..

In particular, in North America, Blackpink became the first girl group in the world to enter Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Oracle Park in San Francisco, and Dodger Stadium in LA. Blackpink is the only Korean girl group that performed on stage for two days at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, USA, and Forosol, Mexico City, Mexico. A European stadium became the first K-pop girl group to plant a flag through an encore performance at the Stade de France in Paris.

In addition, this year, Blackpink became the first Asian artist to headline the world’s largest music festivals, the Coachella Festival in the US and Hyde Park in the UK, imprinting their presence as a ‘world class’ In addition, Rose recently attended an event related to mental health at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit hosted by Jill Biden, wife of U.S. President Joe Biden, and expressed her beliefs about the importance of mental health.

Stray Kids topped the U.S. Billboard 200 with their regular album ‘★★★★★ (5-STAR) released in June. Ranked first for three consecutive years, K-pop’s first ‘Lollapalooza Paris’ in July. He appeared as a headliner and gained fame, and in September, he won the ‘Best K’Special’ at the ‘2023 MTV Video Music Awards’ held at the Prudential Center in New Jersey, USA. Pop’ Received the honor of winning the category award.

Following this, Stray Kids recently successfully completed the Stray Kids 5-STAR Dome Tour 2023 (Five Star Dome Tour 2023), the first 4th generation K-pop boy group to hold a 10-session large-scale dome tour in 5 regions of Korea and Japan. did.

Seventeen wrote a new history in K-pop with their 11th mini album ‘SEVENTEENTH HEAVEN’ released last month. With ‘SEVENTEENTH HEAVEN’, they set a milestone as the first artist to sell more than 5 million albums in the first week of release, and ranked first among K-pop artists in all time.

Additionally, Seventeen attended the 13th ‘UNESCO Youth Forum’ held at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France on the 14th (local time) as a representative of the ‘world youth generation’ and held a special session that included speeches and performances for about an hour. Through this speech, Seventeen served as a messenger of hope for the ‘global youth generation’ and received favorable reviews by presenting the role that young people can play for sustainable development based on the experiences of each of her members.

New Jeans created a sensation with just their music without any special global activities. New Jeans has established itself as a global trending artist by successively releasing its single album ‘OMG’ in January of this year and its 2nd mini album ‘Get Up’ in July. New Jeans set a new record of being number one on the main album chart ‘Billboard 200’ in the shortest period since debut among K-pop groups with ‘Get Up’, and has 5 songs on the ‘Hot 100’ (‘OMG’, ‘Ditto’, ‘Super Shy’, ‘ETA’, ‘Cool With You’) entered.

Next, in August, New Jeans became the first K-pop girl group to perform on the stage of Lollapalooza Chicago, a large American music festival headlined by Billie Eilish and others, and proved their explosive popularity by eliciting a chorus of about 70,000 people. Following his performance as a performer at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards (BBMAs), he has been nominated for the most awards among K-pop artists (a total of 5), showing world-class performance.

In addition, Fifty Fifty achieved the feat of entering the ‘Billboard Hot 100’ at number 100 within 130 days of their debut with ‘Cupid’ from their first single ‘The Beginning: Cupid’ released in February, which is unusual for a rookie from a small and medium-sized agency, making them a K-pop idol. It set a record of entering Billboard’s ‘Hot 100′ in the shortest period of time since debut. ‘Cupid’ rose to its highest ranking of 17th on the ‘Hot 100′ chart and achieved the achievement of setting the longest chart entry record for a K-pop girl group, with 25 weeks on the chart.

Although K-pop stars are achieving great results in the global music market this year, many experts point out that they need to have a sense of crisis rather than being satisfied with their achievements.

In a recent entertainment program, JYP Park Jin-young said, “The K-pop market is a market with very high barriers to entry. “I think our task is to find the next step,” he said, and Bang Si-hyuk of Hive said, “We have to think 10 years from now, not tomorrow, so I think the current K-pop market is in crisis.” He expressed his belief that “scalability is necessary to make K-pop sustainable.”

As they pointed out, in order for K-pop to achieve steady, not temporary, growth in the global music market, it is time to keep sustainability in mind and find ways to captivate global listeners while maintaining the color of K-pop in the rapidly changing music market. /mk3244@osen.co.kr

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