Rolling Stone lists “The Top 10 K-Pop Groups Most Likely To Break Into America”

With the ever increasing presence of K-pop, popular US based magazine Rolling Stone recently ranked the top 10 K-pop artists that they believe are most likely to break in America.

The 10 artists they selected are: 2NE1, Girls’ Generation, Big Bang, Wonder Girls, After School, B2ST, Ailee, SISTAR, SHINee, and miss A.

YouTube’s most-watched Korean pop music video, Girls’ Generation’s “Gee,” has earned 74,000,000 American views alone, even though most mainstream U.S. music fans have never heard of it. The song and video – a calculated, colorful, choreographed affair that sees the nine-member girl group smiling and winking for the camera in flirty outfits as they change formations and soloists without a hitch – epitomize how Korean pop music (K-Pop for short) has been able to break language barriers and captivate a passionate U.S. audience. More recently, acts have begun turning the interest into profitable American tour stops and announcing plans to officially release music stateside. And as if to officially christen the genre’s U.S. crossover potential as an internet phenomenon, Google will host a multi-act K-Pop concert at their California headquarters on May 21st, which will be livestreamed on their YouTube Presents channel.

In the past, popular Korean acts (like BoA and Se7en) made unsuccessful American debuts likely due to the fact that they were molded by American record labels to be presented in a way they saw best to break into the notoriously difficult market.

Yet K-pop has garnered a strong following without the help of any major American backing. K-Pop is a mixture of trendy Western music and high-energy Japanese pop (J-Pop), which preys on listeners’ heads with repeated hooks, sometimes in English. It embraces genre fusion with both singing and rap, and emphasizes performance and strong visuals.

Never very racy, K-pop could easily slide into America’s Top 40 market if correctly targeted at children and teenagers. The following are the 10 acts most likely to successfully crossover to America – as long as they’re allowed to keep the same sounds and concepts that made them popular in Asia.”

Do you agree with their list, if not, what would be your top 10?

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contessa
#1
Ailee (she has a good voice and breaks language barriers) I think she should have been with YG tbh because Gangnam Style has been getting lots of attention in America and if PSY has a concert there, then she'd be able to perform with him and people would be able to notice her if she had an opening act or whatever.

Big Bang and 2ne1 (both their concepts would make it popular in America) Same with Ailee.

SHINee and SNSD. 50/50. I'm not saying I dislike them (I love SNSD and my bias is Sooyoung), but they don't have the material to break into America. I mean, SNSD's "The Boys" was nice, but it didn't reach out into mainstream of America to give most listeners the "oh I've heard of them." They might have a chance however, if they practice more on their English and a new concept if they want to break into the industry. (to me, this is my opinion only)

Other than those 5, I can't really think of any groups to go on my list.
DesignIsVip #2
me? Bigbang. 2ne1. 2pm. Girls Generation.
E_magine
#3
Err I don't know about some of these groups (though I like them). U-KISS should be on the list and I agree with Ailee :)
seohyun10
#4
I don't think After School either.
seohyun10
#5
I don't think Wonder Girls would do good. What about Super Junior?
aerokinesis #6
I wouldn't even reach top ten.
2NE1, BIG BANG, EXO and Ailee. For me, Wonder Girls already failed. Miss A and SHINee are not America-material on big scale either (to me) and any further there aren't many groups either who would appear in my top ten.