By: Natalie Bader, Denise Chan, and Cindy Tobing
If you’ve been confused by the increase of boy and girl groups dancing, singing, and speaking Korean on your social media, let us help catch you up! South Korea’s popular music industry, known worldwide as K-Pop (Korean pop), is breaking records on the Billboard charts.
American fans are listening to K-Pop even though they don’t speak the language.
Not only is the K-Pop industry gaining non-Korean fans, they are also finding new foreign talent. Korean entertainment companies have traveled West to host global auditions.
Alexandra Reid is K-Pop’s first African American idol. Although the 26-year-old is no longer a part of her group, she still has a lot to say about her struggles in the music industry, as well as her life after K-Pop.
When Alexandra Reid arrives at Barrington Recreation Center in Brentwood, she absorbs and bathes in the attention her quirky streetwear style attracts.
Wearing a plaid top and skirt she got from Hongdae (one of Seoul’s fashion-forward district), heart-shaped sunglasses and killer ankle boots, her fashion screams, “All my clothes are from Korea. They have the best pieces—lots of beautiful colors and very whimsical.”
Until last year, Reid was part of the South Korean girl group, BP Rania. She was the main rapper.
Sitting on one of the basketball’s courtside chairs, she takes in the bustling atmosphere of the park as she readies herself. Her textured curls look luscious in the wind, her posture statuesque, her aura carefree.
“I always come here to write songs and practice my Korean,” she says, while latching the mic onto her jacket. “This is my park. I can’t write when I feel like the world’s weight is on me. I can only write when I am totally at my peace.”
Reid only comes to the studio when she has to record her songs or work with her producers. As for the songwriting process, the “magic happens here.”
Even behind her shades, one can see Reid’s exhilaration when the topic of K-Pop is brought up. Recalling the first time she discovered the genre, her pitch goes one octave higher, her gap-toothed smile contagious.
“I was on YouTube all day watching these idols—from Big Bang, Girl’s Generation to Baby Vox and BoA,” she exclaims with expressive eyes, hitting each word like a drum beat. “I was floored. It’s like I found this hidden gem of music. From there, I just went down the rabbit hole.”
The Kansas-born triple threat (singer, rapper and composer) takes pride in being among the first non-Asians to enter the K-Pop industry. But her journey wasn’t always easy.
“It was definitely a work-in-progress for me to fit in. There was so much I didn’t know about the culture,” she recalls, pausing before she continues. “What’s normal here, comes off as rude there, and vice versa. To ask someone how much they weigh or call them fat—in here, you just can’t do that, but there it’s like ‘Hey, you’re a little fat’ and I was like ‘Whoa, did you just say that?’”
Today, she still continues to build her brand as both an American and K-Pop artist. Reid, who amasses over 60k followers on Instagram, has gathered herself a fanbase following her success in South Korea. Her fans call themselves ‘Bunnies’.
Of life after BP Rania, Reid says “I’m in an interesting place right now. I am still booking K-Pop events and shows where I perform some of Rania’s songs. I do have an upcoming album ready to go. It’s straight up American pop.” Then she smiles in excitement, restraining herself as if in fear of revealing too much. “I’ve been working on this fusion project where I’m trying to bring K-Pop a little more West and vice versa.”
With K-Pop’s budding popularity, the South Korean music industry is looking to foreign talents for recruitment, and as a result international auditions are starting to be a common sight.
Auditions are annually held by some of South Korea’s biggest talent agencies, such as YG Entertainment, JYP Entertainment and SM Global Entertainment—known as The Big Three—who trained and debuted K-Pop mainstays such as Girl’s Generation, 2PM, Big Bang, Super Junior and EXO.
Park Jin Young, best known as the founder of the talent agency and record label, JYP Entertainment, told business news channel, CNBC, that he is always on the lookout for foreign talents because the K-Pop genre can “no longer rely on Korean nationals alone” if it wants to “stay globally relevant.”
Non-Koreans including Chinese, Japanese, Thais, Filipinos, Americans, Canadians and Australians currently account for 20 percent of the trainee singers at SM Entertainment, 40 percent at JYP Entertainment and 10 percent at YG Entertainment, as reported by Korean newspaper, The Chosun Ilbo.
However, only a handful of non-Asians are able to debut into K-Pop groups. Reid is so far the best representation of this cultural shift.
“Reid’s case is unique,” says Tamar Hermann, a K-Pop columnist at Billboard. “It’s actually non-Asians who have largely been kept out of the industry. My assumption is that these management companies are primarily looking for Asian-Americans.”
“It will be some time before any major label truly takes it upon itself to come up with a K-Pop star who doesn’t fit in with Korean visuals,” she continues, pointing to the cultural homogeneity of South Korea.
When asked about her opinion on the music industry, Reid pauses. She seems selective in her words but tries to be truthful nevertheless.
“The feeling of being in Korea and in a group was a feeling I’ve never had anywhere before,” she admits “It can be suffocating sometimes. [But] it builds superstars because these companies teach discipline and they build things in a very methodical way. But at the same time, it takes away your personal freedom and sometimes your personal identity.”
Building superstars in South Korea proves to be successful when one looks at Bangtan Boys, famously known as BTS.
This year, the septet’s massive influence takes center stage in the United States, from arenas being sold out within minutes to appearing in talk shows such as Jimmy Fallon, James Corden, and Ellen DeGeneres to Good Morning America.
Last month, BTS addressed the United Nations in New York with an inspiring speech about loving yourself. For its October edition, TIME International magazine named BTS the “next generation leaders”, alongside French World Cup star Kylian Mbappe, Ariana Grande and British model Adowa Aboah.
Reid, who is a big fan of the group, has nothing but praise for them. “BTS show that K-Pop is a real universal contender. They give the genre a real legitimacy. If you’re great, you’re great. What they’re doing is making the world smaller and introducing more people to K-Pop. That’s what I also aspire to do.”
Despite her experience, Reid still wants people to know that for the most part, she felt welcomed in South Korea. “Like any other culture, there’s always going to be prejudice. But I was still getting so much support. Korean fans would hold up signs for me, cheer for me when I perform. I want people to know that my experience with Korean people was positive and they received me very well.”
Text by Cindy Tobing; Audio & Editing by Natalie Bader; Video by Denise Chan