Wrote this extremely late last night:

After the day I had today, I should be sleeping, but something is irritating me.

Somehow before bed, I found myself watching the Girls’ Generation performances on American TV for “The Boys”. I’m not a Sone, but I’m always so proud when I watch those performances. To me, they did such an amazing job with the short amount of time and small stage room they were given.

I was reading the comments because every time I return to watch those videos, there’s always a new argument. Usually something pointless.

This time around, people were talking about American standards, saying that if GG wanted to make it, they would have to perform better and sing better. And that’s when I started feeling angry. This is not the first time I’ve seen, heard, and have even read these arguments against not only GG but for many other Kpop groups. This idea of them having to “step it up” to make it in the US.

I’m American, and I’m proud to be. I love Kpop, but I also listen to American pop as well, just not as much as I used to for reasons I’m about to explain. But I’m going to be honest when I say that in terms of effort and talent, many Kpop stars are currently kicking many American artists’ asses. It’s not even a matter of Kpop idols being trained and American artists coming in raw. In my opinion, the training doesn’t give you talent, only enhances it. You had to have already had some of it to stand out against the rest. There was an American magazine article that I read called “Factory Girls” about GG and watched a news report, basically saying that no one in Kpop has talent, but large companies create the talent to earn money. The money part is probably true, but can these people honestly say that before training at SM, Taeyeon and Luna couldn’t sing and Hyoyeon and Taemin couldn’t dance? It’s an unfair accusation.   

There was a time where American pop stars did intricate dance moves and sang live. But no one really dances anymore, they are too concerned with the politics of the music and their personal lives than the passion, and how crazy and wild they can be to draw in attention, good or bad, and although they typically do sing live, their performances typically fall flat. When they lipsync, they fall even flatter because they don’t even try. (the Britney and Rihanna performance…)

These days, songs only become popular because they are gimmicky and give people things to parody (Call Me Maybe). Indie band music and English singers (One Direction, Adele) are taking over the pop radio station. Everyone’s creating quite literally the SAME dance music with the SAME beat (ALL usually with Pit Bull delivering a terrible rap), adding repeated mediocre lyrics and putting it on the radio. The only “new and different” thing I’ve heard in the past few months is Justin Timberlake’s “Suit and Tie” and Alicia Keys’ “Girl on Fire”. Bruno Mars is also pretty talented and brings a new style. American pop music right now is infused with girls and guys who are truly mediocre in talent. Even the rappers have become less creative and more repetitive. How high they get, what they do to women, what they want women to do to them, how much money they can spend, how awesome they are… always the same formula.

I’m always surprised when I hear a new Kpop song. Maybe it’s who I choose to listen to, but I feel like it’s never the same from so-and-sos song, etc. Can I pinpoint earlier American pop groups, artists, and songs that taught Kpop artists all they know? Definitely. But the recent quality isn’t like that at all, and I hate this “thought” that GG’s vocals and dance aren’t good enough for Americans. Because that’s crap. If American artists knew, really knew, what was going on in Korea, they’d wouldn’t know what to do with themselves.

I’ll agree though, Americans are pretty serious about American English pronunciation. You will not be taken seriously by Americans as a whole (not individually) if you can’t speak/sing the language almost perfectly. Kpop groups in general need to start hiring English speaking consultants because if they bring some of their songs to the masses here, they will be laughed at. I swear CNBlue could make it in America if they not only used correct grammar but got the grammar to flow naturally. They are getting closer and closer with each try, and I’m crossing my fingers. There’s also the matter of the appearance of many male Kpop idol groups who wear make-up, are short in height, and tend to look “pretty” rather than manly and handsome. Another thing for Americans to laugh at. These things are the true boundaries of Kpop, other than Psy, making it in America, but these things have nothing to do with talent, right?

I think so many Americans, me included, were drawn to Kpop because it was so different than what we were used to seeing. There seemed to be more effort put forward, and I liked it. The only artist I can even say shows me the same amount of passion I see in certain Kpop groups is Beyoncé. There are many, many things I like better about the American pop industry than the Korean pop industry, but at the same time, I think the American pop industry needs to take some note from the kpop industry and see what it looks like when performing with passion and ethic, with a continuous dream in mind. Because I’ve grown tired of the same mediocrity these people are claiming Kpop artists have.

I guess the whole point of this was to say that people need to stop with nonsense about Americans having such incredibly high standards in terms of pop music. Because it’s just not true right now. If it was, Carly Rae Jepsen, Miley Cyrus, and Pitbull on the radio would’ve never, ever happened. Just saying.