South Korean lyricist and producer Bang Shi Hyuk reveals why K-pop group BTS has not been making more English songs.
He held a press conference in honor of the last day of his concert 2017 BTS Live Trilogy Episode III The Wings Tour The Final. He was asked what makes BTS’ music so distinct to which he replied:
“In terms of music, Black music is the base. Even when doing many genres like house, urban, and PBR&B; there’s no change to the fact that it is Black music. The boundaries of music genres are being broken globally. We are also embracing this and making it BTS style.”
Speaking to their success, he added: “We never targeted the overseas market consciously. A variety of causes gathered. It might be tiring for analysts but I can’t say there is one success strategy.”
He added: “We set out to protect the value of K-pop’s distinctness that was made in the 90s. Visually beautiful, creating music as a package, and a group that is cool on stage. This surpasses language. Upon this we added BTS’s unique value along with hip hop and Black music. The members like hip hop and Black music. These two things lowered the entry barrier to Western markets. K-pop is unfamiliar to Westerns but they are familiar with hip hop and Black music.”