Biccnaneun geosdeureun manha/ Geu ane jinjjareul bwabwa/ Call me baby call me baby

To most, these words seem like gibberish, but K-pop fans, know that these are lyrics to EXO’s song, Call Me Baby. EXO is one of the most popular K-pop groups right now, a genre of music that is quickly growing in popularity in the US.

The interest in Asian music isn’t really anything new. Plenty of Asian musicians have performed and have had great success in the US. But what is so appealing about music with lyrics in a language we don’t understand? Well, there’s a lot more to K-pop than just the lyrics.

Let’s think for a second; why was Psy’s Gangnam Style so popular? The video, of course!The bizarre video went viral and soon the song was being played on every radio station, at every dance party, at any event that had music – one could not escape Gangnam Style.

Most other K-pop music videos are just as interesting, with their boy bands/ girl groups doing impressive synchronized dance moves, on several different sets, and lots of cool costume changes. The music itself isn’t all that different from American pop music – it’s all heavily influenced by Western music with different sub-genres to choose from. Some groups have even gotten into putting in English words or whole verses in English into their songs, sometimes making it difficult to tell if the song is K-pop at all!

And if K-pop just isn’t your thing, then there’s always J-rock.

Japanese rock music isn’t all that different from American rock music, as rock music was practically born in the US, what with the birth of the blues and jazz. The two main differences I have found between the two genres are that there are more popular female J-rock bands than there are American ones, and the Japanese have that crazy vocal range. There’s also the Visual-kei genre, which is basically 80s glam rock gone death metal.

Recently, popular J-rock band One OK Rock came to the US as part of the Back to the Future Hearts tour, where they joined pop-punk bands All-Time Low, Sleeping With Sirens, and Neck Deep. They came to Charlotte and performed a few songs, all in English. They were promoting their US debut album, 35XXXV.  Despite only having time to play 6 songs, they put on a great show.

I was lucky enough to be in the pit, almost within reaching distance of the artists. It seemed to me that not many of the people in the audience knew who One OK Rock was; most were there to see All-Time Low. Even so, the band was able to get a good reaction from the audience; their energy was contagious, getting everyone in the pit to put up their hands and jump to songs most of them had never heard. They all had very good stage presence, taking advantage of the small space. I enjoyed watching the drummer, Tomoya Kanki, the most. He played with the biggest smile on his face and really seemed to be enjoying himself. The audience got really riled up when Kellin Quinn from Sleeping With Sirens  joined the band on stage for a song.
Most people hear about Korean pop or Japanese rock and they think ‘but I don’t know what they’re saying’ and don’t give it a second thought. But it’s not all about the lyrics – and if that’s really so important, there is always someone translating songs somewhere on the internet. We live in a world with so many different languages and cultures; it’s a shame to limit oneself to only music in English when there is so much you could be missing out on.