K-Pop Collaborations Create a Global Groove
The addictive chorus of “APT.” by BLACKPINK’s Rosé and Bruno Mars has undoubtably been stuck in the heads of thousands since its mid-October release, climbing charts worldwide. The title and lyrics reference a Korean drinking game (called the “apartment game”), which Rosé states as her favorite in the song’s intro.
October saw the release of even more collaborations between Korean and western artists with SEVENTEEN and DJ Khaled on “Love, Money, Fame” and Megan Thee Stallion and TWICE on a remix of “Mamushi.” In September, Megan also released the single “Neva Play” featuring BTS’s RM.
Not just crossovers with American artists happen, however. Norwegian singer Peder Elias has collabed twice with K-Pop artists, most recently with ASTRO’s Cha Eun-Woo on “Hey Hello.” Stray Kids featured on Swedish DJ Alesso’s “Going Dumb,” Tomorrow X Together sang “Back for More” with Brazilian singer-songwriter Anitta, and so on.
These collabs aren’t a completely new phenomenon, nor is K-Pop artists releasing fully English tracks or even albums. Kwon BoA released her eponymous English-language album BoA in 2009 (which includes the bop that is “Eat You Up”), just last year BTS’s Jung Kook released the all-English Golden, and band Monsta X boast two fully English projects (All About Luv and The Dreaming). All this to say, as the English-speaking fanbase for South Korea’s pop projects has increased, so has the number of songs catering to that demographic.
Nowadays, some agencies are taking to debuting bands specifically for this market. Girl group Katseye’s debut this past June spoke to this rising trend, and on the horizon there’s Dear Alice, a boy band to be based in the UK and partially managed by SM Entertainment (home to the aforementioned BoA).
Whether it’s Fifty Fifty and Kaliii on the soundtrack for Barbie (“Barbie Dreams”) or Le Sserafim teaming up with the legendary Nile Rodgers (“Unforgiven”), K-Pop’s large international fandom has a lot to be excited about when it comes to potential crossovers between their favorite eastern and western musicians.
