“We had this imaginative and prescient to take the Ok out of Ok-pop and make it international.” That is the gross sales pitch that begins Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE, a documentary in regards to the titular lady group, who’re signed to Korea’s HYBE (BTS) and America’s Geffen (Olivia Rodrigo). Later within the movie, the CEO of Interscope Geffen A&M proclaims their endeavor unprecedented, explaining that the labels are making use of Ok-pop coaching practices however “doing it in pop music.” They appear confused. Are they including the “Ok” or eradicating it? Is Ok-pop not “pop music”? Ignore the advertising and marketing techniques and the music tells all: KATSEYE, regularly touted as a uniquely international lady group, are awfully extraordinary.
In some ways KATSEYE are essentially the most unexceptional HYBE group to this point, extremely emblematic of mainstream Ok-pop’s trajectory over the previous decade. The success of the music competitors present Produce 101 ushered in quite a few acts shaped by way of actuality tv. KATSEYE originated from one other present, Dream Academy, and the members—as is frequent these days—hail from totally different nations and communicate a number of languages. Sophia is from the Philippines; Manon is from Switzerland; Yoonchae is from Korea; and Daniela, Lara, and Megan are from the U.S. Even so, their songs are nearly completely in English. With none songs in Korean, they’re presumably not Ok-pop. And because the Korea-based, ethnically Japanese lady group XG proved earlier than them, if you happen to’re singing in English, the kind of pop music you make turns into exhausting to categorise.
When music followers discuss “pop,” or use the obviously specious “pure pop,” they’re usually referring to what I name A-pop, or American pop music. Simply as “American” might be wielded as a nebulous time period that ignores minority teams, so too is A-pop outlined by its nonspecificity and de facto whiteness (“pure pop” hardly ever describes R&B, for example). If there may be rapping, it’s stripped of regional signifiers. If there’s a dembow riddim, it’s not Jamaican or Latin a lot as within the lineage of Justin Bieber’s “Sorry.” KATSEYE’s second EP, BEAUTIFUL CHAOS, usually falls into this horrible A-pop pitfall: pan-global mush. The bilingual “Gabriela” is the worst offender; it has a reggae bassline and Spanish guitar, however they’re in service of one thing nondescript—inoffensive music for the incurious listener. (It was beforehand supplied to Rita Ora.)
For many years Ok-pop teams have thrived of their willingness to be by-product, discovering success in a home market by trafficking interpretations of the “actual factor.” Ok-pop’s first technology was endearingly slapdash of their stylistic homage, with songs regularly anchored by karaoke–prepared balladry. Style agnosticism and shameless inauthenticity grew to become the prevailing methodologies thereafter, and there may be all the time one thing fascinating within the hole between unique copy and ostensible ripoff. Although BEAUTIFUL CHAOS is a extra mature providing than the mawkish teen pop of KATSEYE’s debut EP, SIS (Delicate Is Sturdy), its recreation of “spot the distinction” is commonly a matter of “appears like X however worse.” “M.I.A,” for instance, imagines essentially the most sedate model of “like JENNIE,” itself a level of separation faraway from the Brazilian phonk it’s indebted to. KATSEYE’s chanting can’t masks the anodyne spirit, and the track limps to the end line. If Ok-pop sounds contemporary, it’s as a result of it treats established formulation as solutions; KATSEYE’s music sounds generic as a result of it treats the well-trod as bullseyes.
