The recent success of BTS prompted this thread. It seems one of the sort of always out of reach goals for many kpop acts is breaking that glass ceiling of mainstream Western success. CL has tried it and failed. SNSD tried it and failed. Wonder Girls flirted with it. BTS may gain some ground. Others have tried. Others will try. It's this just out of reach goal that many seem to always be looking toward. Our international fan community in particular seems to be cheering them on hoping and waiting for that magic act and magic moment. But..... Call me selfish, but if I'm honest I don't want k-pop to go mainstream. Of course I wish all the best for my favs as well as all other groups. I want them to succeed and prosper. However... I sort of like that they aren't mainstream in the West. I like that I'm sort of the odd man out among my friends listening and paying attention to this whole other world of Korean music and entertainment. I like being apart of this "other" community online where it feels like we all share this secret passion that is ours and ours alone. If I'm entirely honest one of the things that makes kpop so special to me is that it isn't mainstream where I'm from. It somehow makes it that much greater that it's this own set apart community that you get to be apart of that not everyone and their dog is into. Am I crazy? Way too selfish? An asshole? Do any of you feel this way or am I alone? Thoughts??? P.S. Of course if any of my favs or any other artists were to actually succeed in the West I'd truly be happy for them. I'm truly not saying I would hate on them or something. The success would just be tinged with a certain amount of melancholy for me personally.
Same, I honestly want Kpop to have nothing to do with the west mainstream, I can't stand ignorant racist idiocy
I don't think they're trying to go mainstream here, i think bts were given this opportunity so they grabed that chance to get more exposure here.
The reason I listen to K-pop is because it's not mainstream. The moment it becomes one, it loses its whole flavour and uniqueness it has. I don't think you're selfish, I've always loved being part of this community because it made me feel special. I pretty much stopped listening to music outside K-pop as well with few rare exceptions.
This is how I feel-I also just don't want Kpop being popular over here in general. I grew up when one Direction & Big Time Rush were all the rage as well as the Jonas Brothers. The girls I would have to deal with because of those groups was irritating enough it would be about a thousand times worse if Kpop made it big over here. I honestly don't want to have to deal with that shit again. On top of that I don't want Kpop changing just to fit western standards and don't bring any of that: But Kpop is literally just Western music but sung in Korean-like bitch no stop saying that because it ain't true.
I kind of agree with you, but more because I don't want Kpop to lose it's uniqueness. Kpop can be so corny and cringey in wonderful ways, and I don't want it to begin conforming TOO much to meet Western standards. They already emulate the west, but they still keep it their own. But, I think if they go completely mainstream, their going to lose a lot of that. I don't think it's going to go mainstream/mainstream though. It may go the way of Latin music though. Where some artists breakout, and you still hear Latin music around, but most of it is confined to South America.
Well......I don't see Kpop turning into a household name worldwide bcoz every country has it's own culture and many countries are kinda not exactly open to artists from other countries. BUT the way Kpop is progressing rn, I don't really see any particular problem with it , it is just exploding like anime, gaming and all other internet cultures but that doesn't really make it THAT much mainstream tbh. At the end of the day, people will still favor the artists from the culture they understand more than cultures they don't know much about so it's definitely gonna take aeons for Kpop to be a household name if it ever does.
I couldn't care less about k-pop going mainstream or remaining the way it is now Mainstream or non-mainstream, idc As long as groups keep releasing music that suits my tastes then it's all good
Idk, I think it's kinda hard to say how mainstream K-pop has become now a days. I don't think any idol/group will bridge completely into the Western music scene, but it's very clear that K-pop is much more of a "thing"in Western music than it was 5 or 6 years ago. Before, most people wouldn't know the word "K-pop" but as it grew in America (and especially blew up with Gangnam Style), I'm pretty sure "K-pop" is a word even your grandma might know xD. People may still think they're all Chinese and there's 500 members per group, but I think K-pop has honestly become its own sort of... genre? with Western music. It's never going to be as popular as Beyonce or Justin Bieber or Drake or whoever, but it's going to influence Western pop as much as any other smaller genre does. Kinda interesting imo! Western music influenced K-pop and now K-pop is influencing Western music! Idk, just my thoughts. tldr; I'm pretty sure K-pop won't become mainstream mainstream but it will still become somewhat mainstream. Okie doke, back to work lol~
But its already mainstream. I've been trying to tell people as much as they dont like to jear it. Kpop is already mainstream. Its one of the most listened to genres. Even in the west its gaining so much popularity. In most asian countries people know what kpop is and you can usually here kpop songs frequently. Kpop usually does well on itunes charts all over tge world. Sorry guys, but kpop aint that niche anymore.
Same, I'm not going to go into too much detail though, as I've already made a thread about how I feel about this BTS x BBMAs, mainstream stuff.
op i agree agree with this too. but one more reason i dont approve is because Asians arent really respected in the west and they are constant hypocrites "ching chong" jokes everywhere(with no problems) but they(asians) cant do anything without being called racist
Kpop is mainstream just not in our hometown, lol. But I agree, I don't want kpop to equal manistream music in my hometown. I know they heavily copy Western music but the minute they try to be Western music, they are done.
honestly i start listening to KPOP because i got sick of the mainstream music , songs with the same beat and sometimes same music videos .. i got into kpop because everything about it was different , and unique .. and i want it to stay that way
But it IS mainstream. That's what Pop music is. It's just not mainstream in the West. The companies that own these acts want a piece of the largest market on the planet, so yes, they're going to aim for it. Why? They can make 10X what they make from the Korean market alone by just being a moderate success in the West.
Lol Kpop will never be mainstream. Why? Because, think as you might, most people in America, Canada, Australia, NZ and the UK (basically, the Western market) don't really want to listen to a song that's not in English. BTS didn't win an award for their music, they won it because of their dedicated, loving fans and their strong presence in Social media. ^This is a core factor too.
