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David D. Lee

From sold-out stadium tours in the US, Europe and Asia to history-making Grammy nominations, K-pop has never stood taller on the global stage.
Yet within South Korea, many say the music they once called their own now feels made for someone else.
For fans like 21-year-old university student Lee Ye-jin, that shift hits every time she turns on the radio or scrolls through new releases on her phone.
Lee has been a member of “Light” – the official fan club of popular boy band Highlight – since 2016. Formerly known as Beast, the chart-topping four-member group was part of K-pop’s so-called second generation, sharing the spotlight with icons such as Big Bang, Girls’ Generation and Wonder Girls: all products of the 2000s golden era.
While countless new acts have debuted since, Lee says she has yet to discover any worthy of her adulation.
“It’s a bit tricky to still call these groups K-pop,” she told This Week in Asia. “If you listen to their lyrics or look at their names, it’s all in English now.”

Like many long-time fans, Lee misses the “K-pop formula”: songs with a distinct bridge that built tension before launching into a catchy chorus. “All the songs are so short nowadays,” she said.
Her nostalgia is shared by other domestic K-pop fans who feel increasingly sidelined as agencies chase bigger profits overseas. Industry watchers say that this global focus is altering not just K-pop’s sound, but also the way its idols are marketed.
“BTS was the case that proved K-pop could blow up globally in major markets like the US,” pop music critic Kim Sung-hwan, a member of the Korean Music Awards’ selection committee, told This Week in Asia.
Hybe, the entertainment conglomerate behind BTS, now carries a market value of about US$8.45 billion. Other labels watched BTS’ success and adopted Hybe’s system, Kim said.
“Even if groups do well in raising profits within the domestic market, it just doesn’t compare to the amount of profits that bigger global markets offer,” he said.

The result is that K-pop has secured a permanent place in global pop culture. BTS has six No 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, Blackpink’s Rose is a Grammy nominee for “APT”, and Stray Kids’ latest world tour grossed an estimated US$260 million from 56 shows across 35 regions. These acts now headline festivals such as Coachella and Lollapalooza, and appear regularly on US television.
But back home, global fame does not shine as bright. Despite international acclaim, Stray Kids have been criticised for lacking a domestic hit, while K-pop tracks appear less frequently at the top of local charts than during the genre’s heyday.
In the latest Circle Chart digital rankings, only four K-pop songs were in the top 10. Among them was NMIXX’s “Blue Valentine”: the group’s first No 1 since their 2022 debut. Not long ago, groups under top agencies such as NMIXX’s JYP Entertainment were virtually guaranteed chart-toppers with every release; today, even highly anticipated singles may linger on the charts for just weeks or days – if they chart at all.
As global streaming platforms such as Spotify and YouTube grow in influence, domestic charts have lost some weight as measures of success. Kim argues that what he calls “national groups” – acts with truly widespread appeal across generations of Koreans – have largely disappeared.
“With the age of smartphones and the diversification of music tastes, there really aren’t groups that have as much widespread popularity as in the past,” he said. “In recent memory, NewJeans was the exception.”

The five-member girl group became a national phenomenon in 2022 with their debut single “Attention”, which topped multiple domestic charts. NewJeans maintained a string of No 1 hits and its members became the faces of major household brands, until legal disputes last year with their label, Ador, brought their activities to an abrupt halt.
That hiatus left room for new acts to rise. Solo artists such as WOODZ and Zo Zazz, who both topped charts this year, have signalled a growing appetite for more diverse sounds in South Korea’s music scene. Kim also pointed to the resurgence of band music, led by groups like Day6 and Wave to Earth.
Jo Hye-lim, a music content producer and fellow member of the Korean Music Awards selection committee, said the rise of social media had changed what people listen to.
“Groups are increasingly incorporating what is trending abroad, like pop and indie, into their music,” Jo said. “So we can expect K-pop to develop into a more diverse music genre in the future.”
Still, a solid fan base at home was critical, she stressed. “The identity of a K-pop group is rooted in South Korea,” Jo said, adding that an act’s overseas growth depended on it having a “united fan base” at home.

Lee, meanwhile, says she recently bought a K-pop album for the first time in years. Her latest obsession: the five-member mixed-sex group Allday Project, which debuted earlier this year.
“They made me like this new style of K-pop,” she said. “When it’s getting harder to differentiate K-pop from other genres like Western pop or hip-hop, I think groups that can maintain a fine balance between keeping their K-pop identity and trying new things will become the next sensation.”


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NewJeans pose for a photo at Seoul Fashion Week in 2023. Photo: Getty Images

Mixed-sex K-pop group Allday Project launched its debut single in June. Photo: Instagram/theblacklabel

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K-pop girl group NewJeans perform live in concert last year in Japan. Photo: X/newjeanscloset_

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Long-time listeners say the genre has lost its identity, with English lyrics and shorter tracks alienating the local fan base


Long-time listeners say the genre has lost its identity, with English lyrics and shorter tracks alienating the local fan base.


Why South Koreans are falling out of love with K-pop: ‘it’s all in English now’

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Long-time listeners say the genre has lost its identity, with English lyrics and shorter tracks alienating the local fan base

Long-time listeners say the genre has lost its identity, with English lyrics and shorter tracks alienating the local fan base