BTS’s incorporation of Korean culture comes in a different context: They are a hugely popular international band facing a global audience.

Yet all of these attempts (except perhaps VIXX’s) were not widely heard outside of the Korean domestic market. His song, “ Bulhandangga ,” a 2014 Korean Music Awards winner that was created with Naachal, P-Type, and MC Meta, was a brilliant modern take on jeokbyeokga, one of the classic numbers in pansori, a form of narrative singing. The rapper Nuck explored the marriage between Korean culture and hip-hop. In “ Shangri-La ,” the idol group VIXX utilized the instrument gayageum for its music, and included Korean outfits and accessories for its music video. Yet even they made sporadic attempts to introduce traditional culture into the music. Nevertheless, Korea’s idol groups and hip-hop artists have been reluctant to incorporate their Korean heritage into their music, the former because of the concerns over international marketability, the latter because of the concerns of presenting “authentic” hip-hop that hewed closer to what American audiences recognize. The trend continues to this day with Korea’s indie bands like the Second Moon and Jambinai, whose rollicking, modernized rendition of Korean traditional music was featured in the closing ceremony for the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. Famed guitarist Kim Su-cheol was the first artist who consistently and systematically pursued the fusion between Korean music and Western pop, to a point that he became popular enough outside of Korea to to showcase his music in the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the 2002 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by South Korea and Japan. In 1974, Shin Jung-hyeon, Korea’s “Godfather of Rock,” composed his iconic “ Beauty ” in the Korean pentatonic scale. The effort to infuse Korean cultural and musical traditions to Western pop music traces all the way back to the origin of pop music in Korea. The title track from their next album, “ Dreaming of Balhae ,” was a song calling for unification of the Korean Peninsula, with the music video shot at the former Communist Party headquarters near the demilitarized zone. “ Hayeoga ,” the title song of their second album in 1993, was a mixture of Jamaican rap, heavy metal, and Korean traditional music. This was a marked shift from the methods of Seo Taiji and Boys - the group widely regarded as the fountainhead of modern K-pop, who made a point of incorporating aspects of Korean culture in their music. In the international market, K-pop acts would release songs in English, Chinese, or Japanese, and speak the local language in the interviews, and they would source their music from leading Swedish composers. To that end, the first generation of international K-pop acts made no particular effort to appeal their Korean-ness, in an effort to expand their reach. Since K-pop began its expansion in the early 2000s, it has attempted to blend into the local market. (Some examples are the lines of “얼쑤 좋다” and 지화자 좋다” in “Idol”’s chorus.) Additionally, the music video for “Idol” features a traditional Korean building, in which the boys of BTS dance in the traditional Korean silk coats.īTS’s use of the traditional Korean elements, both in its music and in its visual presentation, is actually a rare quality. Although calling “Idol” traditional Korean music would be a stretch, it amply uses chuimsae, which means using an extra exclamation between lyrics to draw out audience reaction. K-pop is K-pop because it is music performed by (mostly) Korean artists, but what about beyond that? With “Idol,” the title track from BTS’s LOVE YOURSELF: 結 ‘Answer,’ BTS gives an answer of sorts. It’s difficult to resolve because it is not always entirely clear what is so Korean about K-pop.

Photo: CBS Photo Archive/CBS via Getty ImagesĪlthough K-pop has been an international phenomenon for two decades, debates about the precise definition of the term “K-pop” are still raging.

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