The cookie-cutter is hard at work.
It's really amazing to me how K-Pop maintains it's popularity year in year out. It's a given that pop(ular) music will always dominate the charts in it's respective country but K-Pop is a truly special case. Here are a few of the more salient features that led to this post:
1. It is consistently redundant
K-Pop has not evolved AT ALL in the last 10 decades. DBSK are just as fruity and homo as H.O.T. (in the "Outside Castle" phase) was, People Crew suck as much at rapping as Jinusean did, and Wonder Girls are just as corny as S.E.S. was. The only reason people think K-Pop evolves is because the ky00te little boys and girls of the SM and JYP super groups grow older. K-Pop = nonstop trip down memory lane.
Also, the themes are consistent as well. You either have (a) falling in love or (b) falling out of love. K-Pop does a good job of dichotomizing the entire spectrum of human emotions into being happy + in love or being sad + in love. And this is always love in the teenager who just finished watching "A Walk to Remember" sense. It will be the day when I hear a Korean version of "Ain't No Fun" or "Let's Get High".
2. It is consistently unoriginal
There is absolutely NO ORIGINALITY when it comes to K-Pop. It is just a trickle down effect of the table scraps from American chart toppers. Every time I hear the new "it" song of the month, I always hear remnants of whatever was on the Billboard top 100 last year. It is just a repackaging of whatever worked in the American markets with a "^_^" face.
I would say K-Pop is one of the premier showcases of capitalism. You have these big super mega record labels that pick out pretty Korean people or ones with a decent voice and butt heads with each other over who can market their team better. They thrust these pop icons into every talk show and quirky game show out there to give them maximum visibility. It's just a huge puppet show where studio execs have preset tracklists and cute little dances and they are just looking for a face to slap onto them.
Of course, K-Pop is incredibly catchy. That is why it is pop(ular). But I find it hard to be into K-Pop for more than a ~3 month stint. When there's that little substance, the same damn topic gets old really fast.
And NO, this has nothing to do with "hating my identity". If you think Korean culture is defined by the hot steaming cesspool that spews out "Nobody but You", then you probably spend the bulk of your day reading DBSK fanfics and are in line hoping to get tickets for their next sub-par, lip-synced live performance.
On an unrelated note, here is my song of the week.
