For Asian-American Artists, K-pop Is A Homecoming

By T.K. Park and Youngdae Kim


The Kim Sisters were the opening Korean pop music order who noticed success in the U.S. In the aftermath of the Korean War, the “sisters” — Sue, Aija, and Mia, who were actually two sisters along with a cousin — played for the U.S. Troops stationed in Seoul. Each played a dozen different instruments, driven into show company by their mother and manager, Yi Nan-yeong.


The work was arduous at first. In a city reduced to ruins, Yi often had to accept payments for her daughters’ shows in the form of a number of bottles of whiskey, which she then exchanged in the black market for food. However in 1959, the Kim Sisters were recruited to play at a Las Vegas show called "China Doll Revue." (One of their first singles was called “Ching Chang.”) Then, Ed Sullivan called.


The Kim Sisters went on to be the opening commercially successful Asian artists In America, as they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show 22 times (more frequently than the Beatles), landed the cover of Life magazine, and booked a Las Vegas residency that earned them $15,000 a week.


The Kim Sisters on The Hollywood Palace in 1960s


after the Korean War, more than a million Koreans came To America and also the Kim Sisters. For decades, the direction of migration only flowed one way. As with the Kim Sisters, Koreans left Korea in pursuit of the American Dream. Nevertheless today, Korean Residents of the United States with pop-star aspirations are making the journey in the opposite direction, chasing their Korean Dream in the form of K-pop stardom.


The First Korean Residents of the United States in K-pop


The foundations for today’s K-pop as an international pop culture phenomenon were laid in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and Korean Residents of the
U.S. And other diaspora Koreans were there from the begin. In the ’80s, one-off curiosities like Korean-Bolivian singer Im Byeong-su (Hernan Im), who sang translated Latin music, enjoyed a decent quantity of popularity. Although among Korean Residents of the United States, Kang Susie and Lee Hyeon-woo were the initial in Korean pop music to attract meaningful acclaim. Debuting in the early ’90s (Kang in 1990, Lee in 1991), both leveraged their image as trendy Residents of the
U.S. To appeal to the Korean public. They also introduced new musical elements. “Lee’s Dream [꿈],” composed by Korean-American musician Danny Kim, is an early example of rap dance, the prevalent form of hip-hop in Korea in the 1990s.


Solid, the three-man R&B order debuting in 1993, were the opening K-pop artists to give a full presentation of their Korean Americanness in their music, choreography, lyrics, style, and visual aesthetic. All three members of Solid — Kim Johan, Lee Jun, and Jeong Jae-yun — were either place on Earth in the U.S. Or emigrated as young children. True to form, they met and learned to sing with each other at a Korean-American church in the Los Angeles area. Musically, Solid leaned into R&B and hip-hop, the sound that was not however typical in Korea in the early ’90s. They liberally mixed in English into their lyrics, along with discussed Korean with a distinct Korean-American accent. They dressed like the American R&B stars of the time, a Korean variant of Boyz II Men.


Solid's "Holding onto the End of This Night [이 밤의 끝을 잡고]"


With the success of their R&B and hip-hop-inflected numbers like "Holding onto the End of This Night [이 밤의 끝을 잡고]" and "Friend Only to Me [나만의 친구]," Solid played a major role in popularizing Black music in Korea in the early to mid-90s. This flow of Black music allowed more aspiring Korean-American musicians to find success in Korea. The foremost female R&B divas in K-pop, Park Jeong-hyeon (Lena Park) and Ailee, are also Korean Residents of the
U.S. Influenced by the vocal styles of American R&B divas like Mariah Carey and Beyoncé.


even more than was the case with R&B, the development of Korean hip-hop is inextricably intertwined with the presence of Korean Residents of the United States. The success of Solid brought up the K-pop producers recruit more heavily in the U.S., Searching for talents who could project authenticity in a genre where it matters arguably more than in any other fashion of music. The result was a huge influx of Korean Residents of the United States presenting hip-hop music in Korea. The success of Jinusean, a Korean-American duo, was the first point of YG Entertainment, which to this day maintains a strong hip-hop bent. (To get a sense of what Jinusean wrought, watch the music video of “A-Yo” from their 2001 album The Reign. At the 3:23 mark, 12-year-old Taeyang, wearing a Tennessee Titans jersey, hops into YG’s Mercedez.) Hip-hop was also the medium that compiled a semblance of racial diversity in Korea's largely monoethnic pop culture. As an example, Uptown, a popular hip-hop categorize, featured Yoon Mirae and Carlos — half African-American and half Mexican-American, respectively. Mixed ethnicity Koreans could find success in Korea as hip-hop artists tapping into parts of their heritage.


The apotheosis of Korean Residents of the United States leading Korea's hip-hop culture was Tiger JK, leader of the categorize Drunken Tiger. His family member emigrated to Los Angeles in the 1980s, and the relations between Korean Residents of the United States and African Residents of the
U.S. In the L.A. Area at the time left an indelible mark on young Tiger JK. "Black Korea," Ice Cube's 1991 cut from Death Certificate — written in response to the killing of Latasha Harlins — in which he rapped, "Oriental one penny countin’ motherfuckers... So pay respect to the black fist / Or we’ll burn your store right down to a crisp," is however one indication of the strained connection between two communities that were brought with each other by housing segregation. After the 1992 L.A. Riots, 16-year-old Tiger JK started his musical career by composing "Call Me Tiger" in response to "Black Korea."


Tiger JK tried the Korean pop music market for the initial time 1995, only to be met with bewildered confusion by the local gatekeepers. Rap dance, of the kind that Seo Taiji and Males and Deux pioneered, was the only sort of hip-hop in the Korean pop music market — and Tiger JK was anything however a dancer. And he might barely speak Korean, far less rap in it. It was only right after years of languishing while shuttling back from Seoul and Los Angeles that Tiger JK broke through with his sort Drunken Tiger, formed with a fellow Korean American DJ Shine. Their 1999 debut album Year of the Tiger — with a provocative track “You Think You Know Hip Hop [너희가 힙합을 아느냐]” — was one of the most significant moments in the past of Korean hip-hop, as it pushed Korea’s hip-hop behind the rap dance sub-genre and toward a raw and message-driven gangster rap in the mold of U.S. Underground hip-hop of the 1990s.


Tiger JK performs on-stage in South Korea in 2011


Tiger JK did more than leading Drunken Tiger to commercial success; he led an audience that collectively planted the hip-hop subculture firmly in the mainstream pop music in Korea. While the native-born Korean rappers like MC Meta and Verbal Jint were exploring the opportunities of creating Korean language rhymes, the Korean-American rappers imported the complete milieu of American-style hip-hop culture, not only in music however also in the in general beauty including style, fashion, and attitudes. Tiger JK also formed the Movement Crew, the opening modern-style hip-hop crew in Korean pop music that ultimately gave rise to such influential groups like Dynamic Duo, Leessang, and Epik High. This led to a steady stream of Korean-American and diaspora Korean rappers — including SanE, Junoflow, Jessi, Furious Clown, Nafla, Flowsik, and several more — returning to Korea to try their hand at stardom in the K-pop scene.


Korean Residents of the United States in K-pop Today


Historically, Korea Residents of the
U.S. Have entered K-pop with a distinct profile: a measured dose of exoticism as well as a familiar-looking face that delivers the trendiest music from America, the place where pop music comes from. Today, the same dynamics can be noticed in K-pop, particularly in the audition programs like K-pop Star or Superstar K. Korean Residents of the United States like John Park, NakJoon, and Sam Kim were able place high in these programs and find stardom thanks to such characteristics.


In the contemporary K-pop scene, nevertheless, Korean Residents of the United States and other diaspora Koreans play an added role: a specialized piece of a cautiously curated idol categorize, serving as a cultural intermediary for international marketing. Since the dawn of K-pop’s international era in the mid-2000s, it was the common operating procedure to include a English-speaking diaspora Korean in a K-pop idol order who can more needless to say sing English language lyrics and interface more smoothly with non-Korean fans, as a way to help with international marketing. (Also, male Korean American idols would not have to interject their careers because of Korea’s mandatory military draft.) As an example, once Females Generation first ventured into the U.S. Market in 2012, the group’s Korean Residents of the
U.S. Tiffany and Jessica did most of the talking while in interviews.


The members of Women Generation, one of the most successful K-pop girl groups of all time


Today, most popular K-pop idol groups generally include a diaspora Korean, including Krystal (Korean-American) in f(x), Johnny (Korean-American) in NCT, Mark in GOT7 (Taiwanese-American), and Rosé (Korean-New Zealander) in Blackpink. This role as an intermediary eventually enabled Korean Residents of the
U.S. And diaspora Koreans to venture behind the Korean market and stand on their own as a pan-Asian pop star, drawing broad appeal from all corners of the world. K-hip-hop mogul Jay Park became the opening Asian-American artist signed to Jay-Z's label Roc Country in 2017.


However the dual identity that enables Korean Residents of the United States to find stardom in Korea also comes with explosive potential. Unaccustomed to the local sensibilities and the unspoken codes of conduct built around them, Korean-American K-pop stars can some days find themselves in unintended situations. In a society that holds a strong undercurrent of suspicion against outsiders, even a minor faux pas by Korean Residents of the United States can be magnified into a major controversy. Tiffany Young caused a stir while in SMTown’s 2016 Japan tour, once her Instagram displayed a picture of the "Rising Sun" emoji — the symbol of Imperial Japan that colonized Korea. (That the picture happened to appear around August 15, Korea’s Liberation Day, did not help.) This small oversight, made in a unguarded moment, made network news in Korea, and Tiffany had to publicly supply two separate letters of apology. In 2009, Jay Park was ousted from the sort 2PM once it was revealed that three years before he debuted, he wrote "I hate Koreans... I wanna come back" on his MySpace page, while lamenting the difficulty of being an idol trainee.


Hip-hop artist Yoo Seung-joon indisputably experienced the worst version of this. At his peak, which spanned from around 1997 to 2001, Yoo was arguably the most successful Korean-American artist in the K-pop scene thanks to hits like 1998’s "Na Na Na." His fashion of Asian masculinity — unmistakably influenced by American hip-hop culture — would serve as a template for continuous male K-pop stars like Rain, Se7en, and EXO.


However all this success did not protect Yoo Seung-joon, who was place on Earth in Korea and raised in California, from the cardinal sin of Korean males: draft-dodging. In 2002, Yoo formally became a U.S. Citizen and was exempt from the mandatory military service all Korean males must complete. The Korean internet howled with rage, while the Ministry of Justice declared Yoo a draft-dodging criminal who was not eligible for a visa to live in Korea. Yoo was pushed out of the country, and has been allowed back only once since then — for his father-in-law's funeral.


The New Land of Opportunity


Despite the occasional breakthrough by the likes of Far East Movement and rising residence music star Yaeji, Korean Residents of the United States face a high hurdle in making it in the U.S. Pop culture market. Better that they return to their homeland and try their luck in the K-pop industry, which at least carved out a place for them — however restricted that place may be. Indeed, this applies not only to Korean Residents of the
U.S., Although to Asian Residents of the United States usually. The K-pop idol scene has become a beacon of pan-Asian globality, in which diaspora Asians can come and find international stardom by means of the global reach of K-pop. Thai-and-Chinese American Nichkhun and Taiwanese-American Amber Liu became household names through their groups 2PM and f(x), respectively. The fame built through f(x) allowed Amber to debut as a solo artist who can primarily perform in the U.S., Her home.


Amber Liu's latest English language single, "Countdown"


However the question remains, particularly as soon as considering the challenging path that lies before the Korean Residents of the United States who want to be K-pop stars. Why would they come back Korea, a nation that often other-izes them as "black-haired foreigners" (a normal phrase in Korea for Koreans with non-Korean citizenship), to join an industry notorious for years of arduous work, often-abusive treatment, and contracts reminiscent of indentured servitude, just to have a shot at the slim chance of success?


For the same reasons that Kim Sisters left for the United States to play a song called "Ching Chang" on a show called China Doll Revue. Just as much as their parents and grandparents saw U.S. Because the land of possibility, Korean Residents of the United States right now visualize Korea because the land of possibility. So, despite the saying that you could never go residence again, starry-eyed diaspora Koreans continue to prepare their homecoming.