No.. There are no Alien invades K-Pop. I repeat, there are no Alien invades K-Pop. The term of “alien” in here is referring to foreigners in K-Pop. LOL, sorry it’s a bad joke. It just somehow when I’m writing about this foreigners stuff, I just think about Sting’s song. -_- V
As you can see, the world is getting “smaller” now, while the entertainment world will always be huge. People around the globe can start their career in any entertainment industry, for example getting into the Korean wave. From pure Caucasian, half blood/mixed, or within the same region (for more in-depth reviews: http://asianow.wordpress.com) . If you can find Americans singing in Japanese in J-pop, you might not find it in K-pop. Most of the foreigners that have a career in K-pop are not Caucasian. In fact, they are from the same region or are Koreans who are not born in Korea.
This is not because Korean people hate Westerners (Caucasian) but this is basically because Koreans love their country and culture so much. In good terms, this can bring more loyalty and strengthen the nation’s music industry, but in bad terms..Not much variety and I can say that Caucasian will have more opportunities in other countries across the region. Nevertheless, this won’t stop us from loving K-pop. Even though uniformity girl bands grow like fungus and every male or female singer look quite the same, we really love K-Pop. <3
In K-pop, as far as I know, there are two kinds of foreigners: 1) real foreigners (I mean literally doesn’t have any Korean ethic) and 2) Kyopo: A Korean who was born and raised abroad (further explanation: seoulstyle.com). Kyopos seem to be higher on the social ladder because they are seen as ‘international’. It is considered huge skill to be able to speak English in Korea, thus Kyopos may seem slightly better educated to the average Korean. Even though most kyopos have western mentalities and foreign accents, many still hold Korean values to heart.
Popular foreigners in K-Pop are cute people like:
- Hankyung (Suju). It was so funny when Hankyung can’t speak both Chinese and Korean fluently as he already forgot his Chinese and his Korean is still not good.
- Nichkhun (2PM). He is even more famous in Korea than his fellow Koreans.
- Ariel Lin who is about to start her career in K-Pop (Aren’t you jealous with her new MV where she can play a role with both Suju’s hotties Donghae and Siwon.. T_T)
And for those Kyopos that are popular in K-Pop:
- Kibum (On and Off Super Junior)
- Dara (2NE1)
- Jessica and Tiffany (SNSD)
- Jaebeom (2PM)
- Nicole (Kara). Watching her on Star Golden Bell KBS gives me a headache. But I like her <3
- Tablo (Epik High). In my opinion, I think he’s the coolest Kyopo ever!
To finish up my reviews, I want to end it with some questions and hopefully it can bring loads of discussion among us K-Pop lovers.
- What do you think about K-pop’s “limitation” to foreigners, do you agree with it?
- Which of the foreigners do you like the best?
- Which of the Kyopos do you like the best? Okay, I already got my answer stated above. LOL
Cheers!
- (Asianow) Putri @ kimchilicious
3 Comments
August 28, 2009 at 3:47 am
It’s fun with me. Personally I would like to see a British-Korean over there.
October 12, 2009 at 3:28 pm
hai……..nickhun…..aku cinta kamu…….
November 7, 2009 at 11:48 am
Hankyung and Nichkhun<3
TAECYEON (he's born in Korea but often considers himself from Boston?), and Jaebeom!