‘s monthly column featuring interviews, features, reviews and explainers dissecting Korea’s pop music scene from an American perspective.in the use of English-language lyrics in the industry.
English is also the most-spoken and de facto national language in the United States, a country that is not only the biggest music market in the world, but also has a dominantsteadily developed and solidified over the last century. “People are thinking , ‘Oh, it’s global,’” says Parham. “Yes. But it’s also: We don’t necessarily have to do the global work because everyone’s going to be looking at America. So, if I make it big there, I make it big anywhere.” It’s why getting a BTS songmight matter.
K-pop fans are not a monolith and many either do not mind or even appreciate a shift to more English-language lyrics. Suok Kwon, a Korean PhD student at Indiana University, studies the fluidity of languages and culture, including in K-pop fan spaces. Many of the U.S.-based fans Kwon has interviewed feel positively about the rise in English-language K-pop songs. “I didn’t really find them pointing out,” says Kwon of her interviewees.