It’s Time to Start Paying Attention to K-pop

How BTS is taking the world by storm from performing on Saturday Night Live to closing out the Billboard Music Awards.

K-pop has been around for a long time, but recently has gained more attention in the recent years from the general population. People often times dismiss it because they cannot speak the language therefore, they automatically think they’re too good for it. It’s time to get over that. It’s 2019, many K-pop groups and the K-pop genre in general have been taking the world by storm. One group in particular, BTS, have become world wide known and are even being compared to The Beatles. So why aren’t more people paying attention? Why do people automatically dismiss their success because they don’t speak the same language? It’s time to welcome BTS and K-pop as a whole because they are not going away any time soon.

BTS is a South Korean pop group that was formed in 2013 under the agency called Big Hit Entertainment. They consist of Namjoon (RM) who is the leader, Seokjin (Jin), Yoongi (Suga), Hoseok (J-Hope), Jimin (who just goes by Jimin), Taehyung (V) and Jungkook (who goes by Jungkook). They have started to gain more popularity within the United States in the past couple of years but as of now, they are the biggest group in the world.

This past weekend they were the special guest performers on Saturday Night Live, which yes, is a huge deal. They took the prize of being the first South Korean act on the show, and their fans made that known. Their fans, who go by the name Army, lined up a week in advance for a chance to get tickets to see the group perform. And the SNL cast knew that, and everytime BTS was mentioned during the show, the fans were definitely heard. They performed their newly released single, “Boy With Luv” that features Halsey and their popular hit “Mic Drop” which was produced by Steve Aoki. Which fans adored, they loved every minute of it (me included) but there were people that were still skeptical. For what reason?

Just because they speak a different language that you are not used to, that doesn’t make them any less credible. So many American artists are trying to get in touch with them to collab, all these people want to interview them, so why are people still dismissing them? It feels like a slap in the face when people say, you can’t even understand what they’re saying, how can you enjoy this music. There are so many easy ways to solve this “issue” one being, Google the lyrics.

But what about the craze with Despacito last summer? Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee are two latin artists who are speaking Spanish throughout the entire song. What makes that so different? Why was that so popular… Could you understand them? It’s a double edge sword, you cannot discredit one group singing in a different language and go and listen to another artist singing in a different language as well. You can’t just pick and choose, it just doesn’t work like that.

Another reason people seem to discredit them so often is because they’re so young. BTS’s ages range from 22-26 and for their age, they look young. And it’s just a fact that younger people are often times pushed aside for their hard work and are sometimes looked down upon.

I do understand that K-pop just might not be someone’s cup of tea. It’s not for everyone and that’s understandable, I know many people who don’t like it. However, completely disregarding the artists just because of the language they speak is unacceptable. We need to be more appreciative that more people are representing and being proud of their culture and where they come from. They shouldn’t have to drop everything to learn English, we need to open our minds and be more accepting of their native language and other people in general.

Moving on, BTS is so popular they have even been invited to perform at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards. They are performing their song “Boy With Luv” with Halsey to a worldwide audience because we all know all their fans around the world will be tuning in (again, me included). They are also nominated for two awards as well, Top Social Artist and Best Duo/Group. If BTS were so unworthy of attention, big name companies and music award shows wouldn’t be paying attention to them like they are. They were also name dropped by TIME Magazine by being in the top 100 most influential people list.

BTS strives to make everyone feel good about themselves, their whole outlook on life is it’s better when you’re loving yourself and who you are. It’s no surprise that they are such a big influence and inspiration to younger people when they have a positive message they want to spread. Their past album series was even called “Love Yourself” which were full of songs with deep lyrics (again, it’s not hard to Google translations), and a personal favorite of mine would be “Answer: Love Myself”. I loved the song so much, the next day after I heard it, I went and got a tattoo of a lyric.

The main point is, K-pop is not going away. It’s a fighting force and steadily on the rise and have a huge fan base surrounding it. Even though I focused on BTS throughout this article, so many other groups are becoming more popular and well known in the United States and just around the world. It’s time to stop being so close-minded about how you can’t speak their language. Rather, educate yourself, learn more about them and what the messages they want to spread.