by K-pop idols are based on ‘dance music.’ In particular, the representative song called ‘active song’ is composed to perform a choreography performance by adding various elements to the beat suitable for dancing, such as hip-hop and electronic. The world-renowned genre name ‘dance’ is a bit far from K-pop, but pragmatically, we primarily classify K-pop as ‘dance music.
A slight change is taking place here. BTS is classified as ‘hip-hop’ in music service, except for recent songs with a strong ‘teen pop’ tone. The same goes for many of Blackpink’s representative songs. SPA and NCT Dream are the same. The music of idols who have used metal sound is labeled ‘rock’ rather than ‘dance.’ Aside from the accuracy of classification, an attempt to classify in detail according to sound or inclination deserves a favorable opinion.
Paying attention to the genre name, I looked around the music service and found a strange point. There is always a gray area in the genre, but there are cases where ‘ballad’ or ‘dance’ is attached to it, even though it is not comparable to being called ‘rock’ or ‘hip-hop.’ Why aren’t these songs called rock or hip-hop? Because it sounds like a drum machine, there is no distortion guitar, because there is no guitar solo, because the voice is pretty (?), and because there are many melodies, I can use the same excuses.
Sometimes gender seems to be a criterion for classification. Jang Beom-jun, who sings romantic and friendly songs well, is a ‘rock/metal artist, but the rooftop moonlight that takes the band format and emphasizes the groove is ‘indie/ballad.’ Jo Yuri (one)’s recently released ‘STORY OF US’ has a typical rock structure led by electric guitar melodies, but is marked as ‘ballad.’ When the same song is recorded with only the vocals and released separately by a male singer and a female singer, the male version may be described as hip-hop or rock, and the female version as dance or ballad.
It is not a story that a specific person who writes the genre name will drop women from ‘Rock’ or ‘Hip-Hop’ due to great prejudice. Of course, there will be other reasons as well. These are why dance listeners seek out more music than hip-hop or that the label or artist wants to be recognized as a ballad rather than a rock. However, this also converges in the same context. It is doubtful whether there is a perception that men expect serious genres such as rock and hip-hop, and women expect softer music such as ballads and dances. Rock and hip-hop take pride in being severe music and are also genres that men dominate.
JTBC’s recently started audition for performers, ‘Super Band 2’, was criticized for targeting only men. Eventually, they turned to recruit women as well. It’s a good thing, but it’s still a case of showing the attitude that women take music less seriously. The fact that excluding women in the first place is to ‘discover artists like Maroon 5’ is a surprise that it is impossible to imagine women as members of such a great band.
As ’emo hip-hop,’ which borrows rock sound, is popular worldwide, hip-hop artists are also rising proudly on the rock charts. Neither the genre name nor its walls are that great. Aunt Hip-hop resembles a rock, so if a piece of music resembles a rock, it can be called rock. It’s the same for any artist. Gender is not a genre factor.
