The Evolution of Global Mainstream Genre: How Non-K Pop Nurtured K-Pop to Thrive

Twenty contestants from around the world will compete for a spot in the first-ever HYBE x Geffen Records global girl group. Bang Si-hyuk, the founder and chairman of HYBE Co., has been leading this audition program in collaboration with Geffen Records for over a year. This joint project between a K-pop entertainment company and a major US record label reflects Bang’s anticipation for the future of K-pop after BTS. In a forum last March, Bang emphasized the need to continue striving for success and not become complacent. Now, he is looking to transplant the K-pop idol system to the US mainland and create an international group based on K-pop methodology. Last year, seven K-pop groups, including BTS and Twice, dominated the US album charts, leading to a record-high of $233.1 million in music exports for South Korea. However, K-pop’s presence on the global stage is still not mainstream, with fewer entries on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Moreover, music exports to Southeast Asian countries, previously strongholds of the Korean Wave, have decreased due to the imitation of the K-pop training system by other countries. K-pop companies’ share of the global music album and streaming markets is less than 2%, while Universal Music, Sony Music, and Warner Music control over 67% of the market. To ensure the sustainability of K-pop, localization is crucial. This involves exporting Korean singers and albums overseas, recruiting overseas members and nurturing them as a multinational team, and discovering and fostering local artists in collaboration with local companies. Therefore, the debate on whether a song sung by local members in the local language can still be considered K-pop is pointless. If K-pop does not evolve into a sustainable genre and industry, it may suffer the same fate as Japanese J-pop in the 1990s.