What U.S. Record Labels Can Learn From K-Pop’s Successes

SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo-man was arguably the pioneer of the years-long artist development model, now common throughout K-pop, that involves recruiting and training artists through a systematic and highly disciplined process. More recently, Western music companies have begun partnering with K-pop giants to learn the ropes of that model. In 2021, it was announced that Universal Music Group’s Geffen Records was launching a girl group talent search with BTS’ label, HYBE, a partnership that has since led to the six-member, U.S.-based girl pop group KATSEYE, whose development will be the subject of a forthcoming Netflix docuseries. Other examples include a partnership between JYP Entertainment and UMG’s Republic Records, which formed the global girl group America2Korea (A2K), as well as a partnership between Kakao Entertainment’s Starship Entertainment imprint and Sony Music Entertainment’s Columbia Records to co-manage marketing and promotion of the girl group IVE in North America. It remains to be seen whether these experiments will bear fruit, but the model’s successful track record in Korea demonstrates its potential in the West as well. – Chris Eggertsen

According to traditional industry/pundit logic, any given boy band would be lucky to produce one, maybe two solo stars — and those solo career kickoffs better not happen in the same calendar year. In the streaming era, BTS seems to be proving that assumption wrong. Fans of the band have rallied with the same fervor behind solo efforts from all seven members, with each one launching solo material within the same two-year span. All of them have notched at least one Hot 100 entry, with most scoring several entries on the chart. Two members — Jimin and Jung Kook — have topped the Hot 100 thanks to “Like Crazy” and “Seven” featuring Latto, respectively. It’s not unheard of, but it’s elite company: The only other groups in Hot 100 history to boast two or more members with Hot 100 No. 1s are The Beatles, The Black Eyed Peas, Blind Faith, Destiny’s Child, Fugees, Genesis, Hot Boys and One Direction. – Joe Lynch

A record label can become such a trusted arbiter of good taste that consumers will buy an album merely for the imprint’s imprimatur, but K-pop companies have taken brand recognition to levels unseen in the West. Take SM Entertainment, for example. In its home base of Seoul, the K-pop giant created SMTown coexartium, a six-floor shrine to SM and its K-pop stars that includes a theater, museum, gift shop and cafe. JYP Entertainment, meanwhile, created a pop-up store in Japan that ran for two months in 2021. Granted, building name recognition may be easier at a K-pop company than a major label with a diverse roster that spans multiple genres. But maybe it’s time Western labels take a page out of the K-pop book on top-down hierarchy and try building a brand that consumers will follow year after year. – Glenn Peoples

While Western labels and artists leverage platforms like Instagram, X and TikTok to reach fans, many K-pop labels boast in-house engagement platforms that centralize companies’ ability to track and monetize fan data through things like social media, merch stores, email marketing campaigns and livestream concerts. Platforms like HYBE’s Weverse and JYP Entertainment’s JYP Three Sixty not only diversify those labels’ businesses and allow them to exercise more control over artist-to-fan interactions, but they become gathering places where artists’ most highly engaged supporters can better organize campaigns to supercharge new releases, merch drops, ticket sales and more. And the model is catching on in the West: Just last month, Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl announced the company would be building a platform “where artists can connect directly with their superfans.” – Chris Eggertsen

The strategy of releasing multiple variants of an album (clean/dirty, instrumental, remixes, etc.) to goose first-week numbers isn’t exclusive to K-pop acts, but it’s still more widespread among Korean artists than those in the West — particularly when it comes to CD releases. Indeed, K-pop groups like Stray Kids, BTS, BLACKPINK, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, NewJeans, ATEEZ and SuperM have all debuted atop the Billboard 200 by selling sometimes dozens of physical variants of their latest releases. Western artists have gotten into the variant game more and more, but aside from Taylor Swift and a handful of others, few have employed it as successfully. – Chris Eggertsen

It’s not exactly an industry secret that a lot of boy bands and girl groups come together less-than-organically, with industry gurus dictating everything from membership to fashion to musical choices. Most acts have downplayed the heavy hand the label or manager holds, but K-pop groups have been significantly less shy about acknowledging the reality that these groups go through intense training on everything from dancing to singing to public speaking and frequently have limited input on the music they release (at least early in their careers). In the ‘90s, boy band Stans got defensive when critics hurled accusations of inauthenticity at their faves — these days, not so much. Music fans seem to embrace the reality that many boy bands and girl groups are formed by outsiders and tightly coached on their image. – Joe Lynch

Many K-pop shows tend to run past the three-hour mark, and with sold-out tours for acts like BTS and BLACKPINK in North America, it’s clear the fans aren’t complaining. While some American artists — most prominently Taylor Swift on her blockbuster Eras Tour — have begun stretching their shows to the kind of runtimes once associated almost exclusively with jam bands, more of them might want to consider following suit. As ticket prices continue to skyrocket, fans more and more want to feel they got their money’s worth. – Chris Eggertsen

While tight choreography was once the name of the game for pop groups like NSYNC and Backstreet Boys in the United States, synchronized dance moves have become far less common over the last couple of decades. However, judging from the recent success in North America of K-pop touring acts — whose choreography hearkens back to the bubblegum era of the late ’90s and early ’00s Stateside — U.S. labels and artists may do well to party like it’s 1999 by bringing back the ultra-slick choreography that was once the dominant form of expression for U.S. pop stars. – Chris Eggertsen

Anybody who has traveled to other countries knows that locals appreciate tourists who try to speak the language. And with music, speaking the local language can open up new opportunities. Take Jon Bon Jovi, an English-speaking guy from New Jersey who had the idea early on to tap into Spanish-speaking markets. In 1992, “Bed of Roses” was re-done as “Cama de Rosas” for the Latin market. In 1995, the band tried again, recording “Como Yo Nadie Te Ha Amado,” a Spanish-language version of the song “This Ain’t a Love Song,” as a single in Latin America. At least in the latter case, the strategy paid off: “Como Yo Nadie Te Ha Amado” went gold in Mexico and reached No. 4 on Billboard’s Latin Pop Airplay chart.

While few American artists have followed Bon Jovi’s lead since, in K-pop, incorporating English into songs has become fairly standard practice, arguably leading to even greater success for those artists in North America. And in May, HYBE took that a step further by employing the AI technology of Supertone, which it acquired two years earlier, to create six versions of the track “Masquerade” by MIDNATT — in Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and Vietnamese. While recording songs in other languages may not be feasible for most English-speaking acts, as streaming services help develop music markets around the world, AI could come in handy for Western artists looking to reach new fans. – Glenn Peoples