Western artists vie with BTS, Aespa for fans in Korea as music markets go global
- Justin Bieber and The Kid Laroi are examples of the rising popularity of Western artists in South Korea
- These artists were recently knocked off top spot on the Korean music chart Melon by K-pop girl group Aespa with their song Savage
While K-pop acts like BTS and Blackpink may be getting more popular in English-language music markets, music in English is also gaining a larger foothold in South Korea, a sign of the increasing connectivity of global music industries.
Across most South Korean music charts, Savage, Stay, and BTS and Coldplay’s My Universe have spent the past few days hopping between the top three spots.
While English hitmakers have regularly found love from local music listeners and occasionally chart high, the South Korean charts & streaming platforms are mostly dominated with releases from K-pop stars and Korean ballad, R&B, and hip-hop acts.
Occasionally, there are successes aside from one-off non-Korean songs, such as Anne Marie’s 2018 song 2002, which became a big hit in the country but didn’t gain the same fame internationally, and Bieber is a regular favourite of charts, but those one-offs are becoming increasingly more common in recent years.