Once again, one of Britain’s most popular news outlets is aiming to predict the potential future success levels of the K-Pop genre in the UK.
And yet again, the recent UK success of PSY‘s summer track ‘Gangnam Style’ was cited as one of the many reasons that the ladies of Girls’ Generation (a.k.a SNSD) would be wise to prepare for a great increase in recognition on Western shores.
Whether you are a Sone or not, most K-Pop fans would be likely to agree that SNSD are currently one of the most powerful acts on the scene.
They have had a great amount of success in their home country and enjoy a huge amount of popularity almost all over the Asian continent. Most notably in Japan, which has been known to have an – arguably – slightly uneasy relationship with K-Pop and other South Korean media exports in the past.
The article shows mixed views on the subject, detailing the group’s past successes on the Western front and also the fact that they are planning to release an album in full English, thus bypassing the language barrier problem that has so often kept the Hallyu Wave at bay
“British listeners are used to genres being full of variety, so in terms of people getting disappointed that other K-pop acts aren’t like Psy, I doubt that’ll be the case,”
– Mio Scobie (Overseas Editor of Us Weekly magazine) [from article].“Psy is by definition a one-off and I’d be surprised if he had another international hit,” said McClure. “But bands like Girls’ Generation have more staying power. The question is: will K-pop become a permanent fixture? I don’t know, but I have a feeling that Girls’ Generation will stick round for a while.”
– Steve McClure (Exec Editor of McClure’s Asia Music News) [from article].
You can read the original article here.
What do you think?
Do SNSD have what it takes to be the next UK Number 1?
And is it all thanks to PSY for breaking down Western walls?
[Sources: Google Images, www.guardian.co.uk ].
