"What Is K-Pop?!" Blog Series- Part 2: What’s Up with the English words? I’m Confused Now

This is part two of the "What Is K-Pop?!" Blog series. If you haven't read the previous part, the following article might not make sense. If you missed the last part and would like to catch up, click HERE. Thank you and happy readings!

Remember when I said that K-Pop was “mostly sang in Korean?” Well, that’s because, in almost all K-pop songs, English words and phrases are also part of the lyrics. When I let others know that I will be playing K-Pop music, those who hadn’t been exposed to it before will eventually become confused after catching snippets of English words and phrases throughout the songs.

There isn’t an official reason for it, but here is my understanding as to why English is heavily incorporated into K-Pop lyrics:

• American Influence

Since the Korean War (1950 - 1953), in which the United States and South-Korea were allies, the country has been largely influenced by American culture. So much so, that the English language has been vastly assimilated into Korean. Words such as bus, ice-cream, juice, coffee and many others, are Koreans’ word of choice when referring to those items. These words, which are obviously being pronounced with a Korean accent, are used in their everyday lives. The United State's influence on Korean music also started during the war, when various American artists visited the country to entertain the troops, including the famous American bombshell, Marilyn Monroe.

• People Think English Words Sound Cool and are Catchy

It’s not only the K-Pop genre which incorporates English into its songs, in fact, this is practiced by songwriters from all over the world. For non-English speakers, the language simply sounds cool and can be very catchy. That certain part in English will stand out, and people will feel "cool" when having the chance to pronounce English words while singing along. I’m not inferring this, I know this for a fact. Being Latin American, it isn’t shocking for us to hear several English words when listening to our favorite reggaeton (Latin music genre) songs.

• Appealing to the Foreign Masses

As an English-speaker, I live for the five words or so I actually get to sing when listening to my favorite K-pop songs. I mean, imagine being obsessed with a song, and not being able to sing it in the shower. Why? Because you can’t learn the lyrics since you don’t speak the language! It’s a #firstworldproblem I have to endure every, single, day. One of the joys of pop music is being able to belt along to the lyrics and, when that’s taken away, a little bit of the fun is lost in translation. Nevertheless, K-pop does give us foreigners fans phrases and words that we get to correctly pronounce, and we’ll forever be grateful for it!

Click here for Part 3.