According to Melon, any K-Pop artist with a history of activity or promotion in Japan will be labeled a J-Pop on Melon Music even if the group or artist is a K-Pop singer.
Recently, Melon, South Korea's biggest music streaming platform, has come under fire for labeling a K-Pop group as "J-Pop." Currently Melon is showing the J-Pop genre with K-Pop artists such as BTS (Bangtan Boys), BLACKPINK (Black Pink), TWICE, and Seventeen (II).
According to the online platform on Sunday (29/11), any K-Pop artist with a history of activity or promotion in Japan will be labeled J-Pop on Melon music even if the group or artist is a K-pop singer.
BTS's own profile shows genres listed as "Group | Rap / Hip-Hop, J-POP, Dance" which are displayed on the first page of the "artist" menu. This also applies to BLACKPINK, TWICE, Seventeen, TXT, and more. K-Pop groups are listed as J-POP only on Melon music. Genie Music, Bugs Music, FLO, and Vibe do not list these artists in this genre. Google's YouTube also doesn't classify these artists as J-Pop.
Melon explained that the label doesn't differentiate between genres but is used to mark which artists have been active in Japan and sold albums in Japan. They explained, "The label is not a difference between genres but to mark artists who have released albums in Japan. The artist's detailed information shows that they are from Korea."
Even so, there are still many who claim that registering K-pop groups with global popularity such as BTS, BLACKPINK, and TWICE as J-pop is outrageous. Many are worried that these Korean singers promoting K-Pop will be recognized and only focus on the Japanese activities they have been doing.
Source: Allkpop
Many in the music industry say that it is difficult to classify Japanese albums released by K-Pop groups as J-Pop even though they have released albums in Japan and performed in Japan. If the artist only releases an album in Japan exclusively, it can be labeled as J-Pop but may cause confusion and misunderstanding if the genre is prominently displayed on the front page of artist information. This is especially so for Melon because Melon also marks Japanese artists with the J-Pop label. For this reason, other music streaming sites do not mark "J-Pop" for Korean artists.
Upon hearing the news that "J-Pop" was included in the information list of K-Pop artists, it turned out that many fans expressed their anger. Fans protested on Twitter and other social networking sites and online communities. A BTS fan wrote on Twitter, "Just because a foreign song is popular in Korea doesn't make it a K-Pop song. We don't even need an explanation from Melon, we just need their correction."
Another netizen wrote, "So Melon puts J-Pop on the front profile for artists. Isn't it wrong to write in the artist profile category that they are J-Pop just because they released an album in Japan? They are Korean artists."
Netizens are more sensitive to this issue because of China's "Northeast Project" and Google's "Sea of Japan" problem. Recently, there was controversy when Chinese netizens started claiming Korean Hanbok as Chinese Hanbok. This caused Chinese mobile game Shining Nikki to discontinue their service in Korea.
Experts also warn that the controversy over labeling K-Pop artists as J-Pop can have an unexpectedly strong impact. For example, there is a possibility that Korean artists participating in the 2020 Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) which will be held on December 6 may mistakenly represent the J-Pop genre. Some have said that the performance of BTS, which was nominated for "Best POP Duo and Group Performance" at the 63rd Grammy Awards, could also be underestimated due to related issues.
An official from the pop culture community stated, "It is surprising that Melon, which is a service that represents the domestic Korean music streaming platform, has labeled K-Pop artists as J-Pop. In particular, Melon is preparing for the Melon Music Awards so they need to consider carefully. serious problem related. "
(wk / dewi)
