"Lights" by BTS, Sunday, September 19, 2021

I regret to admit that a few years ago I told my students that BTS probably would never enjoy mainstream success in America. Sure, the signs were all there: the Spotify numbers, the growing fervor for diverse cultures in the pop scene, a growing media interest in Korean culture--movies were featuring more scenes in Seoul, and Asian actors were getting more and more leading roles. "However," I assured my middle school students, "American radio listeners aren't very tolerant of foreign languages." A song like "Despacito" got huge because of its featuring Justin Bieber on the remix. However, when I made those regrettable comments, I was thinking about the America that I knew. I was thinking about the time in college I was a faithful reader of Billboard's charts, before you had to pay a monthly fee to read them. I was thinking of a time when radio airplay was the majority of an artist's success. And with BTS's Billboard success--two #1 Hot 100 hits in a row--American radio stations are still reluctant to play the boyband from South Korea. I am truly happy for BTS's success with their English, Korean, and Japanese hits' success. I am also glad that more democratic systems like Spotify streams and YouTube views help to propel an artist to their true potential, rather than relying on the gatekeepers of the FM airwaves. 

WHEN I CLOSE MY EYES IN THE DARKNESS...Maybe you're out late, coming home from the nightlife in Seoul. Maybe you've just come from the train and public transportation has stopped and the only way to get home is by taxi. If the taxi driver isn't watching tv--which was a little terrifying when I first came to Korea--he's probably listening to the radio. Late at night, you might hear some old Bruce Springsteen song or maybe some Korean 트롯(throat) music, a kind of popular music with the older people. Sometimes you might hear newer K-pop or Taylor Swift from the 2010s. Most of the songs are interrupted by the DJ in the middle of the song. I've heard a French song or two. But one thing you'll never hear is a Japanese song on Korean broadcasting. It's illegal. Even if it's an original by mega Korean superstars BTS, you might hear the Japanese song streaming at the gym, but it cannot be played on the radio due to a censorship law of Japanese media. China, Japan, and Korea have or have had bans on each respective country's music at one time or another. Since 2016, China has placed a ban on South Korean culture because of Korea and America's installation of THAAD, a defense initiative aimed to protect the nation from North Korean missile attacks, but argued by the Chinese Government as an intelligence- grabbing opportunity for the United States on the Asian continent. The ban made it harder for Korean artists to perform in China, thus many Korean artists set their sights on the Japanese market. However, the conservatives in Japan, too, worry about Korean cultural infiltration. The two countries run hot with disputes. When former President Trump declared, "Trade wars are good, and easy to win," Asia had been proving the business tycoon-turned president's statement false since the end of World War II. From the most recent "White List" trade battle that reached into trade at every level, banning imports/exports between the two countries for a time, making goods in both countries more expensive and electronics impossible to produce.  

FLYING ON DAMAGED WINGS THROUGH THE NIGHT. So how does this crash course on East Asian economics relate to South Korea's best selling musical act? How do the American pop charts connect? Just as some groups in American pop music don't translate to an international market, not all Korean music is bound to go abroad. However, the highest success relies on transnational crossover appeal. Before BTS, or any major K-pop group for that matter, tackled the English pop charts, they rode the K-Wave to Japan. The Korean Wave first crashed on the shores of China, despite a highly censored media, in the early 2000s. The boy band H.O.T preformed a sold-out concert in Shanghai in the year 2000. Two years later, BoA became the first Korean artist to sell a million copies in Japan. By the end of the '00s, K-pop groups would record in both Chinese and Japanese for their fans in both countries. Sometimes, they would just record the Japanese or Chinese versions of their Korean hits. But other times, like today's song, "Lights," the artist would debut an original song in the language of the country of primary release. This came at a time when, because of a nationalist Korean drama, Mr. Sunshine--a drama set during the Japanese annexation of Korea--, and because of the sanctions raised between the two governments' tourist industries, Koreans canceled their travel plans to Japan. BTS isn't the first Korean group to sing or create music in Japanese, but they are the first Korean group that wrote music in Japanese and spoke at the UN. Perhaps the economical and cultural divide between Japan and Korea will never be solved. But perhaps music can be a source of peace. Perhaps this generation can cut a new path of reconciliation. 

P.S. Much of what I said in this post are based on conversations I have had with Korean people and some Wikipedia searching. I believe I need to take the time to rewrite and better research this topic. I hope that I covered this topic with sensitivity, and I hope to improve how I approach sensitive topics like this one.

Original (Japanese)  English Translation