The Sound

K-Pop

Course 1 · Chapter 6 · The Sound

This chapter asks what K-pop sounds like, and how its makers got there. The sources I could check say a good deal about genre mixing, rap and the spread of English, and very little about how songs are put together. The chapter says plainly where that gap is.

How this chapter was checked, and what is missing The facts here come from the Characteristics and History sections of Wikipedia's K-pop article, as I read them. The outline planned to cover song-writing camps and the verse-hook-drop structure. I found nothing on either in the articles I read, and a search for a "Songwriting camp" article returned nothing. I therefore do not describe them, because I would be writing from memory. If you have a source you trust, I can add a section later. I read no musicology, interviews or recordings.

Defining the Sound

The K-pop article quotes the French Institut national de l'audiovisuel, which defines K-pop as a "fusion of synthesized music, sharp dance routines and fashionable, colorful outfits." The article adds that songs "typically consist of one or a mixture of pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B, and electronic music genres" and that the genre is "characterized by its melodic quality and cultural hybridity."

Claim	Owner and wording
A mixture of influences	The article lists "modern Western sounds and African-American influences" including hip-hop, R&B, jazz, soul, funk, techno, disco, house and Afrobeats, combined with "a Korean aspect of performance" (synchronised dance, formation changes, point choreography).
Hybrid or imitation?	The article reports one view that the genre is "a distilled version of Western music", and another, from some authors, that it is a new kind of "transnational culture". It also says "some have argued that K-pop is distinct in mood and energy".
A formulaic product?	The article says K-pop "has at times faced criticisms from journalists who perceive the music to be formulaic and unoriginal", and that some groups "have been accused of plagiarizing Western music acts". It gives no detail and no finding on any particular case.

Opinion, not measurement "Formulaic", "distilled" and "distinct in mood and energy" are judgments. None of them is a measurement, and the article does not attach one to any of them. They are worth reading as the arguments critics make, with their owners.

The Layers Underneath

The K-pop article's History section places the sound on top of earlier layers, which links back to Chapters 2 and 3.

Ballads in the 1980s. The article says the 1980s "saw the rise of ballad singers", naming Lee Gwang-jo (whose 1985 album sold more than 300,000 copies, the article's figure), Lee Moon-se and Byun Jin-sub, "nicknamed the 'Prince of Ballads'".
A singer across styles. The article describes Cho Yong-pil as having a repertoire of "rock, dance, trot and folk-pop", whose initial popularity "came from his trot songs", and who in 1988 sang "Seoul Seoul Seoul" in Korean, English and Japanese for the Seoul Olympics.
The 1990s. Korean pop musicians "incorporated partially Europop and mostly American popular music styles such as hip-hop, rock, jazz, and electronic dance". The success of "I Know" is attributed to "its new jack swing-inspired beats and memorable chorus, as well as innovative lyrics which dealt with the problems of Korean society", and a wave of hip-hop and R&B artists followed, including Yoo Seung-jun, Jinusean, Solid, Deux, 1TYM and Drunken Tiger.
H.O.T.'s "Candy". The article says it "presented a softer and gentler form of pop music with upbeat and cheerful melodies accompanied by energetic dance steps – a formula adopted by many subsequent idol groups."

Songwriters Without Borders

Chapter 1 noted the debate over how "Korean" K-pop is. The sound section of the article gives concrete examples. It says "foreign songwriters and producers" are increasingly employed to work on songs for K-pop idols, "such as will.i.am and Sean Garrett", and that foreign musicians, including the rappers Akon, Kanye West, Ludacris and Snoop Dogg, "have also featured on K-pop songs". The same article calls the share of "Western songwriters, non-Korean artists, songs in English and marketing for a global audience" a reason the "Koreanness" of K-pop "has been debated". I found no figure for how many songs are written abroad, so I do not give one.

English in the Charts

The article says modern K-pop "is marked by its use of English phrases", and it gives figures for the top fifty charts. It does not say which chart or source, so treat them as the article's claim.

Year	Singers with English names (top 50)	Song titles using English
1990	None	Not given
1995	14	8%
2000	17	30%
2005	31	18%
2010	41	44%

Two series, one of them uneven English names rise steadily across the table. English in titles does not: it goes 8%, 30%, 18%, 44%. The article says usage "has grown quickly" since the late 1990s but does not explain the dip in 2005. It may be a real change, a change in which songs charted, or a difference in how the counts were made. Reading the figures as a smooth rise would claim more than the article shows. The 2010 figure also comes with a note that only three or four acts had more than one or two songs on the chart at once, which shows the counts are of singers, not songs.

The article also gives reasons, with owners, for the shift:

Policy and economy. "After the 1997 financial crisis, the government stopped censoring English lyrics and Korea started to have a boom in English."
Background of the performers. Jin Dal Yong is quoted that the use may be influenced by Korean-Americans, or Koreans who studied in the US, who "take full advantage of their English fluency". Chapter 1 noted this list: Fly to the Sky, g.o.d, Rich, Yoo Seung-jun and Drunken Tiger.
Markets. The article says "singers need to use English since the companies want to occupy markets in the other parts of Asia, which enables them to open the Western market", and that bands increasingly use English names "to be marketed to a wider audience". It then says English "has not guaranteed" popularity in North America, since Western audiences "place emphasis on authenticity and individual expression".
Language attitudes. Elaine W. Chun's research is cited for the point that, although hybrid language appears more often and fans may admire it as "fresh, new and interesting", "ideals of linguistic purity are still difficult to alter".
Criticism. The article says critics have called the use of English in titles "meaningless". The example it gives of a song with a large share of English is Kara's "Jumping", released in Korea and Japan together.

Rap

Rap is a thread across several chapters. Chapter 3 gave the article's claim that Seo Taiji and Boys "popularized" rap dance. This article adds that "Nan Arayo" ("I Know") is credited with "innovative lyrics which dealt with the problems of Korean society" and with starting a wave of hip-hop and R&B artists. The articles I read give no detail on the structure of Korean rap or on how rappers are placed within groups, so I do not describe either.

Reading Claims About the Sound

Ask who is judging. "Formulaic" or "authentic" is a critic's view, not a fact about the music.
Ask what is counted. "More English" can mean names, titles or lyrics, and the three move differently.
Ask about the gap. If a source describes how songs are written and gives no reference, treat it as the author's account.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Give the INA definition of K-pop and name five genres or influences the article lists. Then explain why "formulaic" and "distilled version of Western music" are opinions and not facts.

→ Solution

Exercise 2

Using the table, describe how English names and English titles changed between 1995 and 2010. Then explain why the title figures should not be read as a smooth rise, and name two reasons the article gives for the growth of English.

→ Solution

Exercise 3

Name two earlier layers of Korean pop that the article says sit under K-pop (from the 1980s or 1990s), and give one example of the use of foreign songwriters or performers. Then list two topics from the original outline that this chapter leaves out, and say why.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

INA definition: "fusion of synthesized music, sharp dance routines and fashionable, colorful outfits"
Mixture: pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B, electronic; plus jazz, soul, funk, techno, disco, house, Afrobeats
Earlier layers: 1980s ballads (Lee Gwang-jo, Byun Jin-sub); Cho Yong-pil's trot and rock; 1990s hip-hop and R&B
"Candy" (H.O.T.): a soft, cheerful pop formula many groups followed (as the article says)
Foreign help: will.i.am and Sean Garrett as writers/producers; Akon, Kanye West, Ludacris and Snoop Dogg as guests
English: names 0 → 41 of the top 50 (1990 to 2010); titles 8%, 30%, 18%, 44% (1995, 2000, 2005, 2010)
Reasons given: end of censoring English lyrics after 1997, performers' backgrounds, regional marketing
Not covered: song-writing camps, verse-hook-drop structure (no source found)

Next chapter: Fandom and Business, which covers fan clubs, chants and voting, albums as merchandise, concerts and the chart system.