K-pop idol group without Koreans is no longer an impossible thing.
K-pop is growing its influence worldwide to the extent that it is not difficult to find the names of Korean idols on the Billboard chart. Now that K-pop groups without Koreans are also announcing their debut one by one, JYP Entertainment and HYPE have headed to the U.S.
This trend started with JYP, which announced the birth of its new group “VCHA” on September 22nd through its global girl group launch project “A2K (America2Korea)” in July. It is a super-large project jointly conducted by Republic Records, a label under Universal Music.
Global girl group VCHA, which debuted through this program, was produced based on North America’s first K-pop training system. VCHA consists of a total of six multinational members. However, they are following the K-pop idol’s system, such as living together, losing weight, and prohibiting dating, which is unique to Korean idols.
However, there are concerns about those who understand the K-pop system, whether they can adapt to the somewhat conservative Korean idol system, as there are cultural differences between the East and the West. Although they have not even made their official debut yet, their pre-debut song “Y O Universe” has already recorded more than 8.2 million views on YouTube.
HYPE also announced the production of a localized K-pop group in the U.S. The company is currently hosting a global audition project called “The Debut: Dream Academy.”
The project, which had auditions in 12 cities around the world and selected 20 finalists, will debut a K-pop group with participants from various countries, including Korea, the United States, Switzerland, Japan, Brazil and Thailand. Like VCHA, they were also active before their official debut. They even held a fan meeting in Korea to meet fans from 150 countries.
These two groups have something in common. They are both K-pop groups operating in the U.S., not in Korea. In the first half of this year, JYP Entertainment recorded overseas sales taking up 52.2% of its total sales, while HYPE’s overseas sales accounted for a whopping 63.3%, the highest in the industry.
As overseas sales account for more than half of total sales, it is probably a natural step for JYP Entertainment and HYPE to produce K-pop local groups mainly based overseas. The two groups targeting the U.S. have not made a formal debut, so the domestic response is still insufficient, but it is no exaggeration to say that the future of K-pop depends on the performance of the two groups.
The know-how of producers who created numerous K-pop groups is now an export. Will the globalization of K-pop, a dream that has never been fulfilled before, succeed?
