Korean Hip-Hop: K-Hop Goes Global
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omonatheydidSouth Korea’s music industry gave the world ‘K-Pop’ with its peppy girl and boy bands. Now it’s taking on hip-hop’s swag.
Last October, the four-piece girl group 2NE1 debuted in Japan with six live shows in front of 70,000 fans—the latest product of a South Korean music machine that has already surged past the point of being just another East Asian fad. While “K-pop” has gained popularity as the catch-all term for a host of glossy boy and girl bands, 2NE1—with its signature tune, “Ugly”—represents K-hop, a budding movement that backs up its slick pop sheen with true R&B talent.
East Asia’s music industry is being astutely tailored for a global audience in the digital age. “There is no line between Korean, Japanese, or international music since YouTube,” explains 2NE1’s lead rapper, CL. “It’s just the whole world through the Internet.”
K-pop groups have certainly found success abroad: bands like Girls’ Generation and TVXQ draw impressive crowds at shows in New York and L.A. Now K-hop is getting in on the act: Internet exposure helped boy band Big Bang win the World Wide Act award at the MTV Europe Music Awards last June, and MTV Iggy just crowned 2NE1 the Best New Band in the World.
While some critics still question whether K-hop will ever make waves on mainstream U.S. radio, Korean-American producers such as Teddy Park (of 2NE1) and Jae Chong (of Aziatix) are hoping that the genre will be the true crossover hit, with its ties to hip-hop, soul, and electronica. Park grew up in New Jersey and California on a diet of Queen and the Wu-Tang Clan. The 33-year-old, who has overseen 2NE1’s career from its inception, always wondered why the world music scene was missing a big global Asian act. Meanwhile, Chong was among the first producers to bring soul and R&B to Korea, in the early 1990s. For Chong, raised in Los Angeles, it was a challenging time. “Seoul’s hip-hop community was tiny,” he says.
By the turn of the millennium, star acts started to emerge from Korea, including the hip-hop group Drunken Tiger, led by L.A.-raised Tiger JK, and his wife, solo hip-hop artist Tasha Reid (née Yoon Mi-rae). The Texas-born Reid ended up in Korea as a child during her father’s Army posting, and she explored the country’s nascent hip-hop scene in underground clubs. Now, she says, “if I were to check the singles chart, at least 90 percent of [Korean] songs are R&B-influenced.”
Many of the rising stars of the genre have spent ample time abroad. 2NE1’s singer Park Bom studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston; lead rapper CL lived in France and Japan before returning to her homeland. The 2NE1 gals feel they’ve found a kindred spirit in their producer Park. “He is a musician who knows how girls feel,” says CL, who adds that “Ugly,” which confronts insecurities about beauty, emerged from a conversation with Park. For his part, Park admits he gets flak for penning lyrics to inspire independent women but says, “Especially for this country, we needed women to stand up.” It’s an attitude that may translate well overseas, where outspoken female artists such as Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry are wildly successful.
The ultimate validation for K-hop would be lifting Asian music out of its tacky stereotype and bringing it to the same level as Latin and European music on the global music scene. The early signs are promising: will.i.am has already begun working on tracks for 2NE1.
Chong’s latest project is the Korean-American K-hop guy band Aziatix. The group’s eponymous mini-album placed at No. 4 on the U.S. iTunes Top Soul Albums last May. “I want to introduce the next phase [of K-hop],” says Chong, who feels that the classic ’80s and ’90s formula of rhythm, melody, and lyrics is what U.S. hip-hop lacks today. The integrity of K-hop may be at stake, though, if it becomes overly tailored for a U.S. audience, something that concerns Tasha Reid. “I’d hate to see the soul of Korean music lose itself in the process,” she says.
Source: thedailybeast
I sort of hate that this article is mainly talking about 2NE1. Couldn't the find BETTER K-hop
Last October, the four-piece girl group 2NE1 debuted in Japan with six live shows in front of 70,000 fans—the latest product of a South Korean music machine that has already surged past the point of being just another East Asian fad. While “K-pop” has gained popularity as the catch-all term for a host of glossy boy and girl bands, 2NE1—with its signature tune, “Ugly”—represents K-hop, a budding movement that backs up its slick pop sheen with true R&B talent.
East Asia’s music industry is being astutely tailored for a global audience in the digital age. “There is no line between Korean, Japanese, or international music since YouTube,” explains 2NE1’s lead rapper, CL. “It’s just the whole world through the Internet.”
K-pop groups have certainly found success abroad: bands like Girls’ Generation and TVXQ draw impressive crowds at shows in New York and L.A. Now K-hop is getting in on the act: Internet exposure helped boy band Big Bang win the World Wide Act award at the MTV Europe Music Awards last June, and MTV Iggy just crowned 2NE1 the Best New Band in the World.
While some critics still question whether K-hop will ever make waves on mainstream U.S. radio, Korean-American producers such as Teddy Park (of 2NE1) and Jae Chong (of Aziatix) are hoping that the genre will be the true crossover hit, with its ties to hip-hop, soul, and electronica. Park grew up in New Jersey and California on a diet of Queen and the Wu-Tang Clan. The 33-year-old, who has overseen 2NE1’s career from its inception, always wondered why the world music scene was missing a big global Asian act. Meanwhile, Chong was among the first producers to bring soul and R&B to Korea, in the early 1990s. For Chong, raised in Los Angeles, it was a challenging time. “Seoul’s hip-hop community was tiny,” he says.
By the turn of the millennium, star acts started to emerge from Korea, including the hip-hop group Drunken Tiger, led by L.A.-raised Tiger JK, and his wife, solo hip-hop artist Tasha Reid (née Yoon Mi-rae). The Texas-born Reid ended up in Korea as a child during her father’s Army posting, and she explored the country’s nascent hip-hop scene in underground clubs. Now, she says, “if I were to check the singles chart, at least 90 percent of [Korean] songs are R&B-influenced.”
Many of the rising stars of the genre have spent ample time abroad. 2NE1’s singer Park Bom studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston; lead rapper CL lived in France and Japan before returning to her homeland. The 2NE1 gals feel they’ve found a kindred spirit in their producer Park. “He is a musician who knows how girls feel,” says CL, who adds that “Ugly,” which confronts insecurities about beauty, emerged from a conversation with Park. For his part, Park admits he gets flak for penning lyrics to inspire independent women but says, “Especially for this country, we needed women to stand up.” It’s an attitude that may translate well overseas, where outspoken female artists such as Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry are wildly successful.
The ultimate validation for K-hop would be lifting Asian music out of its tacky stereotype and bringing it to the same level as Latin and European music on the global music scene. The early signs are promising: will.i.am has already begun working on tracks for 2NE1.
Chong’s latest project is the Korean-American K-hop guy band Aziatix. The group’s eponymous mini-album placed at No. 4 on the U.S. iTunes Top Soul Albums last May. “I want to introduce the next phase [of K-hop],” says Chong, who feels that the classic ’80s and ’90s formula of rhythm, melody, and lyrics is what U.S. hip-hop lacks today. The integrity of K-hop may be at stake, though, if it becomes overly tailored for a U.S. audience, something that concerns Tasha Reid. “I’d hate to see the soul of Korean music lose itself in the process,” she says.
Source: thedailybeast
I sort of hate that this article is mainly talking about 2NE1. Couldn't the find BETTER K-hop
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Date: 2012-01-24 11:38 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2012-01-24 11:41 am (UTC)This article really doesn't tell me anything I didn't already know.
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Date: 2012-01-24 12:00 pm (UTC)There must be some confusion here.
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Date: 2012-01-24 12:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-24 12:05 pm (UTC)what no
2ne1 is at best hip-hop influenced pop, and ugly is one of their least hip-hop songs
fuck no one in the group can even rap passably (and I say this as a 2ne1 fan, CL talking/shouting amelodically is not rapping by any standards other than kpop. I think she probably could if she had someone to tell her that so she could actually improve)
"The early signs are promising: will.i.am has already begun working on tracks for 2NE1."
you and I have different ideas of "promising", author.
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Date: 2012-01-24 12:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-24 12:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-24 12:44 pm (UTC)And I say this as a 2NE1 fan
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Date: 2012-01-24 12:47 pm (UTC)what the heeeellll.
omg smdh This is a slap in the face to those that really merge the two, pop/hiphop and 2ne1 ISN'T it.
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Date: 2012-01-24 12:56 pm (UTC)the lack of queen Tasha is appalling.
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Date: 2012-01-24 08:13 pm (UTC)The wiki info is right to my knowledge.
Teddy Park was born in South Korea, but quickly moved to New York City after as a young child. Park was heavily bullied there, but his father got a transfer to the city of Diamond Bar, California, where he attended Diamond Bar High School. There, he met Im Taebin, and together they bonded over a love of rap music. They auditioned together at Brothers Entertainment, and got accepted. There, they learned about YG Entertainment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Park
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Date: 2012-01-24 04:25 pm (UTC)that's cute
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Date: 2012-01-24 05:39 pm (UTC)I get the 2ne1/Teddy coverage then, but I think Epik high/Dynamic Duo are the better musical representatives of the genre
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Date: 2012-01-24 06:20 pm (UTC)I hate the name k-hop. it just sounds weird to me. k-hip hop sounds much better, but whatever.
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Date: 2012-01-24 10:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-25 12:52 am (UTC)& omg! Gwangsoooooo <3~~
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Date: 2012-01-25 01:45 am (UTC)WITHOUT EPIK HIGH/TABLO KOREAN HIP HOP IS NOT COMPLETE/SHIT.
or myk!!
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Date: 2012-01-25 02:00 am (UTC)no epik high? i crey.