Sam Lyn
After our group’s presentation in class many of you asked me about Korean pop music (K-pop) and its translanguaging trend, so I decided to gather some thoughts on this subject and put it in this month’s blog.
Trudgill (1997) posits that “Anyone with an interest in… rock and pop songs will have observed that there are ‘rules’ concerning the way in which the words of these songs are pronounced. The label ‘tendencies’ might be more appropriate than ‘rules’…, but… it is clear that singers… employ different accents when singing from when they are speaking, and that deviations from their spoken accents are of a particular and relatively constrained type” (p. 251). Although Trudgill is talking about British pop, the same observation applies to K-pop. Not only do K-pop singers alter their accents, the secret formula of recent success of Korean pop music is in the translanguaging we find in K-pop lyrics.
The formula is simply as follows: English words at key positions inside mostly Korean lyrics. The “key” positions are the first few words, repeating portions of the chorus, beginning and the ends or rap interludes, and the song endings. What this does is it creates a communicative link with the audiences which may or may not speak Korean, and especially non-Korean listeners can hum in at the key sections of the song without needing to understand the rest of the lyrics which are in Korean.
Consider the following lyrics by Aespa for their recent hit, “Girls:”
Oh my gosh!
Don’t you know I’m a savage?
I’m a killa 너를 깰, æ
아직도 가리고 환각을 펼친 너
팰라, we holler
두렵지 않아 너, 너, hit you harder
날 밀어 넣어, deep fake on me
준비가 안된 무대로, 몰아넣어, fake on me
Got everybody mock up to me
수치를 느끼게 멘탈을 흔들어놔
싸늘한 관중 무너져, æ (ooh)
더는 널 못 참아, say no (yeah, yeah)
두고 봐, 난 좀 savage
너의 dirty 한 play, 더는 두고 볼 수 없어
나를 무너뜨리고 싶은
네 환각들이 점점 너를 구축할 이유가 돼
I’m a savage, 널 부셔 깨 줄게, oh
I’m a savage, 널 짓밟아 줄게, oh
Get me, get me now, get me, get me now (zu, zu, zu, zu)
지금 나를 잡아 아님 난 더 savage (zu, zu, zu, zu)
Get me, get me now, get me, get me now (zu, zu, zu, zu)
이젠 내가 너를 잡아, now I’m a savage
(Complete lyrics for the song are found here: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/aespa/savage.html )
The video is highly recommended as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPdWvnAAurg
As you can see, the “formula of success” is fully implemented: first words, chorus, sentence endings, repetitions, etc. are all in English.
Of course, there is more than the language formula to Aespa’s success. The band championed the story – a narrative running through all the texts of their songs – about a parallel world found on the Internet, where all our personal activities create our AI avatars. These avatars gain consciousness of their own as a result of our virtual activities, and they try to communicate with us from their world. However, our negative actions also produce an evil AI called Black Mamba – the nemesis of our avatars who wants to thwart them away from a relationship with us… What a story! You can watch the video introducing this metanarrative here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbH4Lk5wYWg
Another important fact is that one of the band members is Chinese, and another one a Korean raised in Japan. This openness of K-pop bands to international members provides the fans around the world a new incentive: when I was in Korea as an exchange student, it was not uncommon to meet international students who aspired to stardom in K-pop industry.
But let’s return back to the lyrics. Upon careful observation one can discover that the English parts are far from being grammatically perfect. Consider, for example, a refrain from another Aespa’s hit, “Dreams Come True:”
You make it feel me good
Do you wanna upside down?
You make it feel me good
Don’t you wanna up and down?
I’m in twilight zone
(Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H69tJmsgd9I)
Hah? You make it feel me good? I know… I had the same reaction! Hahaha
Despite the flops in grammaticality the songs are immensely popular among East Asian audiences, and now in the West, too. Perhaps, the pidgin-like quality adds a special charm to the songs?
The sociolinguistic effects extend from simple appreciation into the classrooms: Korean classes are immensely popular these days. Before the Korean Wave, university Korean programs struggled to match the popularity of Chinese and Japanese programs. Not anymore! For instance, Korean courses at McGill are full. Certainly, popularity of Korean pop culture extends beyond music into TV series, movies, fashion, etc. But in my opinion, it is this translanguaging quality of K-pop that draws new fans in by feeding them its welcoming lingua franca chunks. The next stage of fandom then becomes the motivation to learn Korean and to dive deeper into the story. What do you think? Did you recently have an aesthetic experience with Korean music? Did it draw you in? Are you on your way to your next Korean class? Or applying for an exchange at a Korean university?
Finally, consider doing the following exercise: watch this new Aespa’s videoclip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYRITmpFbJ4
Do you feel the success formula working its magic inside your mind? Do grammatical mistakes turn you off? What else do you notice?
References
Trudgill, P. (1997). Acts of Conflicting Identity: The Sociolinguistics of British Pop-song Pronunciation. In: Coupland, N., Jaworski, A. (eds). Sociolinguistics. Modern Linguistics Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25582-5_21
