It’s been a good number of years since K-Pop, or Korean Pop, has enjoyed a massive following in India, a lot of which is seen on Twitter through the stan culture of fandom. A good experiment at any given point is to tweet about discovering one of several globally renowned Korean pop artists–BTS, EXO, Blackpink, G-Dragon, 2NE1, NCT 127, SHINee, Tomorrow X Together–and use a relevant hashtag or mention. You’ll likely invite a surprising number of interactions, all because the global community of listeners of Korean pop music has way too many opinions.
Out in India, the existence of K-Pop fans has been acknowledged right from the time PSY released “Gangnam Style,” a decade ago. But the newer crop of boy bands really gave rise to a hardcore following that, we daresay, no other pop artists in the world have enjoyed yet. It’s even surpassing Beatlemania. At the centre of this fandom, however, is a lot more discernment, demand as well as patience from listeners.
From what we’ve seen with K-Pop fans in India, everyone from Tony Kakkar to Raftaar to Tiger Shroff have come under fire online for blatantly copying K-Pop music and their super-finessed visual aesthetic seen in music videos. Raftaar went on to apologise, contending that the music video director was to blame for copying BTS member Rap Monster aka RM’s video for the song Do You, showing just how vigilant and protective fans were of their favoruite artists’ craft.
It's not all brickbats, of course. The few times that India and South Korea’s artists have done a sonic handshake, it’s led to some interesting collaborations. Fans in India have reacted, and we thought we’d offer our own verdict on a handful of releases featuring Indian and Korean pop artists, from original songs to covers and a lot more.
Armaan Malik is among the few Indian artists who’s leapt from Bollywood music to making a name as a global pop singer and composer. So when he linked up with Korean-American singer Eric Nam, there was one more name in the mix–Indian-origin EDM producer KSHMR. Together, they created Echo, a collaboration that may not have any overt Indian or Korean pop influences but offers a refreshing electronic-pop song ready for stadiums. Created entirely remotely, it lives up to the hype that comes with the stature of KSHMR, Malik and Nam’s individual projects.
"THE FEW TIMES THAT INDIA AND SOUTH KOREA'S ARTISTS HAVE DONE A SONIC HANDSHAKE, IT'S LED TO SOME INTERESTING COLLABORATIONS"Anurag Tagat
Although Wengie is a Chinese-Australian artist, Indian label Big Bang Music did tout Thing You Want–her collaboration with Mumbai-based singer-composer Shalmali and hip-hop artist Ikka–as a K-Pop-meets-India project. The surprising part about Thing You Want is Wengie also taking over with Hindi lyrics in addition to Shalmali’s distinct vocals. While Ikka comes in with his slick rap, this is Wengie and Shalmali’s song, as they add up to make for a fun, fusion-informed track.
Although this is a cover and rework of sorts, the collaboration between Kerala singer-producer Ashwin Bhaskar and Korean-origin American artist AleXa made the latter’s single Tattoo a tad more dynamic. Bhaskar is an out and out YouTube-popular artist known for his covers and remakes of pop hits and Malayalam music alike, so it’s likely that this project came about more for reach than anything else for both artists. Nevertheless, Bhaskar and AleXa’s remote jam gives Tattoo intimacy and would likely help AleXa gain newer fans in India.
In 2019, a nationwide talent hunt for “India’s first all-girl K-Pop band” was launched with the country’s Top K-Pop Stars. By May 2020, 5 High was formed and they released a music video for a cover of PIRI by Korean group Dreamcatcher. If that doesn’t make you feel skeptical enough, a quick look at the video shows us why this is an idea gone haywire. Where K-Pop videos and songwriting is all about reaching a certain finessed packaging, 5 High and their big bucks production were initially highly ambitious with this video. The result isn’t exactly forgettable but not really memorable either. At best, it was a marketing campaign that misunderstood that K-Pop isn’t really a genre but is more of a culture machine.