History of K-Pop: English Recordings
This year has been a monster of a year in many ways. The world basically crumbled (thanks, COVID), but we also saw K-Pop explode on the world stage. BTS made history not once but twice with their monumental single “Dynamite” becoming the first song released by a Korean artist to top the Billboard Hot 100 Chart and with their fall release “Life Goes On” nabbing No. 1 as the first full Korean song.
BTS isn’t the only artist to make moves this year though. MONSTA X released their fully English album ALL ABOUT LUV while BLACKPINK released “Ice Cream” with Selena Gomez and were featured on Lady Gaga’s B-side track “Sour Candy.” With the English-speaking (read: American) music market showing more and more interest in K-Pop acts, English releases have become more abundant. But where did it all start? Let’s find out.
Though K-Pop started back in the early 1990s, K-Pop’s exposure to the rest of the world only really began after BoA’s debut in 2000. After several years of moderate success in Korea and Japan, BoA’s breakthrough came in 2002 with the release of her Japanese album Listen To My Heart. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Oricon charts and was a million seller, making BoA the first Korean singer with such an achievement in Japan. For the purposes of this piece, the album is notable because it features an English version of “Listen To My Heart,” the first of many English K-Pop releases. The Japanese market was K-Pop’s first stop in dominating the global music market, and BoA was its conductor. Other 1.5 generation groups like g.o.d, Chakra, and SHINHWA could have released English music, but none of them made quite the impression that BoA did on an international stage.
Artists that followed such as TVXQ, KARA, and BIGBANG also saw success in the Japanese market, but not much occurred in terms of English song recordings until 2008 when Se7en and Rain began to dip their toes into the American market. Se7en debuted in March 2003 under YG Entertainment with the album Just Listen. The album initially had a lukewarm response that warmed up as time passed. During that year’s end of year awards, the album earned him the “Best Newcomer” award from Mnet and he became pitted against the already popular Rain. After several years of success in both the Korean and Japanese markets, YG Entertainment made plans for Se7en’s debut in America and he relocated to the US for that in 2008. Prior to this, he was featured on Korean-American rapper Amerie’s 2007 album for a remix of her lead single “Take Control.” After several ups and downs, Se7en finally debuted an original song of his own in 2009 with the single “Girls” featuring Lil’ Kim. The single did not gain much traction nor achieve success, but is a significant moment in K-Pop’s efforts to appeal to American audiences.
Se7en’s natural competition, Rain also made currents in the US. In 2006, Time Magazine listed him in their “100 Most Influential People Who Shape Our World” article and in 2008 he starred in the movie Speed Racer. Rain’s stateside career consisted mostly of acting, but he also managed to squeeze in some time for his music. In 2006 he performed two shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City and The Colosseum in Las Vegas as part of his Rainy Day tour. Rainisim was released in 2008 and spawned the instant classic “Love Story.” As part of this album, Rain released Chinese, Japanese, and English versions of “Love Story” and “Rainism.”
2008 was a busy year of English language K-Pop. During the same time that Rain and Se7en were trying to make it in America, BoA was giving it a go too. She released “Eat You Up” as part of her eponymous 2009 album as an early release single. The song is fully in English and not a remake of a Korean song. The song found moderate success on the Billboard Dance charts and was released around the same time as Se7en released “Girls.” Interestingly, this also may have been when K-Pop artists began to collaborate with western music producers. Although the song didn’t give BoA the big break she was looking for, it is now recognized as a milestone in the Korean Wave.
After BoA, Se7en, and Rain’s lackluster attempts at becoming American pop stars, they went back to Korea and things were quiet for a while. There were not as many English releases and this seemed to be less of a priority. Of course, conquering the American market was still a sought after dream and important moments like “Gangnam Style” happened (2013), but this was all in Korean. Other noteworthy events during the 2008-2010 era of K-Pop was the Wonder Girls finding success with “Nobody,” even going on tour with the Jonas Brothers as their opening act in 2009, and JYJ releasing a fully English album in 2010.
Up until this point, it’s important to note the Korean Music Industry’s activeness in pursuing American success, while also acknowledging that the music released to the American market perhaps wasn’t created by people with good knowledge of American audiences or the understanding that for K-Pop to thrive, it had to find success by playing up its own strengths. Thus, English releases of songs felt like niche releases for international K-Pop fans and original content fell flat. For a while after this, we see that K-Pop companies tried less to appease to ears that didn’t want to listen to them and more to appeal to those that already were in the room waiting for them to perform.
The next time we see a rise in English recordings is in the late 2010s. In 2016, EXO released their annual christmas song “For Life.” The song was released on December 29, 2016 in Korean and Chinese. However, during their 2017-2018 tour Exo Planet #4 - The Elyxion, an English version of this song was performed live by member D.O. and subsequently released in 2019 as a concert album. In July 2017, EXO came back with their album The War, which featured the song “The Eve.” The song was performed at music shows along with their lead single “Ko Ko Bop” and became a silent hit. It was written and produced by EXO’s Canadian label-mate Henry, who released the demo of the song, originally written in English through SMTOWN’s YouTube channel in August of that year. Also in 2017, the unit group ODD EYE CIRCLE of girl group LOONA, known for their highly experimental nature, released “Loonatic” for their international fans, an original English release.
After a whirlwind year in 2017, BTS featured on American DJ Steve Aoki’s fifth studio album Neon Future III in 2018 with track “Waste It On Me.” The song is entirely sung by the BTS members and features fully English lyrics. The previous year, the group had also released a remixed version of their song “Mic Drop” that was heavily English and with an added intro by American rapper Desiigner. JYP Entertainment boy group GOT7 also had a comeback and released English, Chinese, and Spanish versions of the song “Lullaby” along with its original Korean.
Sometime between 2018 and 2019, the metaphorical floodgates opened and we saw a freer exchange of musical ideas between K-Pop and western artists in the form of collaborative English tracks. (G)I-DLE collaborated with Madison Beer and Jaira Burns for the K/DA release “Popstars,” BLACKPINK and Dua Lipa released the song “Kiss and Make Up,” and MONSTA X released their English track “Play It Cool” with Steve Aoki. NCT 127 also had a big year, collaborating with LAY and Jason Derulo for “Let’s Shut Up & Dance” and then again with Ava Max for “So Am I.” They also released English versions of their 2018 single “Regular” and their 2019 single “Highway to Heaven.” At this point, K-Pop musicians were able to release original content to satisfy a demand from not only an American audience but the American music industry. The lines between where the Korean music industry ended and the American one began became blurry and it gave way to these kinds of opportunities.
Finally, the juggernaut that was 2020 arrived. MONSTA X released their fully English album ALL ABOUT LUV and of course, “Dynamite” came, topped the charts, and just didn’t leave. SuperM also released the predominantly English track “One (Monster & Infinity)” and Stray Kids released an English version of their song “Double Knot.”
A lot of factors have contributed to the recent global cultural exchange that has been occuring within the music industry, but using the frequency, success, and variance of English releases is an interesting way to measure how fans have grown and changed and subsequently how the world has too.