“We had this imaginative and prescient to take the Okay out of Okay-pop and make it world.” That is the gross sales pitch that begins Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE, a documentary concerning 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 Okay-pop coaching practices however “doing it in pop music.” They appear confused. Are they including the “Okay” or eradicating it? Is Okay-pop not “pop music”? Ignore the advertising ways and the music tells all: KATSEYE, incessantly touted as a uniquely world lady group, are awfully atypical.
In some ways KATSEYE are essentially the most unexceptional HYBE group up to now, extremely emblematic of mainstream Okay-pop’s trajectory over the previous decade. The success of the music competitors present Produce 101 ushered in quite a few acts fashioned through actuality tv. KATSEYE originated from one other present, Dream Academy, and the members—as is frequent these days—hail from totally different nations and converse 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 virtually completely in English. With none songs in Korean, they’re presumably not Okay-pop. And because the Korea-based, ethnically Japanese lady group XG proved earlier than them, in the event you’re singing in English, the kind of pop music you make turns into onerous to categorise.
When music followers speak about “pop,” or use the manifestly specious “pure pop,” they’re usually referring to what I name A-pop, or American pop music. Simply as “American” could 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, as an example). If there’s 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 Okay-pop teams have thrived of their willingness to be by-product, discovering success in a home market by trafficking interpretations of the “actual factor.” Okay-pop’s first era was endearingly slapdash of their stylistic homage, with songs incessantly anchored by karaoke–prepared balladry. Style agnosticism and shameless inauthenticity grew to become the prevailing methodologies thereafter, and there’s 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 (Tender Is Sturdy), its sport of “spot the distinction” is commonly a matter of “seems 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 music limps to the end line. If Okay-pop sounds contemporary, it’s as a result of it treats established formulation as options; KATSEYE’s music sounds generic as a result of it treats the well-trod as bullseyes.