Music Transmissive of Culture
November 2, 2021
By Amanda Bang
Music is something most people have part of their life. Spotify, one of the largest streaming platforms, has 365 million active users. Many can be seen with earphones listening to music on the street. It’s present in the background of cafes, restaurants, Netflix shows and even in the advertisements we see everyday. Its presence on special media has become very prevalent especially after the rise of short video platforms such as Tik Tok and the concept of “viral” sounds.
Much of the popular music or what is referred to as pop music as a genre, are mostly in the English language, as the basis of pop genre is from the U.S. and the U.K. However, in the last decade, more and more non-English spoken songs have made it into the Billboard Hot 100 charts showing new breakthrough trends for international artists.
The Billboard Hot 100 renders a representation of popular songs in the American industry as it is based on the sales, radio play, and online streaming in the U.S. Few notable non-English songs making into the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in the last few years are “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber, “Mi Gente” by J Balvin and Willy William featuring Beyoncé, and “Life Goes On” by BTS. It is surprising to see songs sung almost fully in another language, and even some without any western artist featuring, have a large popularity on this chart. With the American industry known for less representation in radio play and English-speaking artists being the standard of popular music for a long time, international artists charting might show a change in the music trends and industry.
This might also show that American people are starting to appreciate music in languages they are not accustomed to. Additionally, with the recent attention and acceptance in consuming entertainment in different languages such as Netflix shows Squid Game or Money Heist, or even movies like Parasite, a shift in media and entertainment enjoyed by the general American audience is more apparent.
The popularization of international music in the U.S. seems to have done a little more than just bring the music. The music seems to have also helped bring in the bigger picture of the specific cultures itself. For example, K-pop, referring to South Korean popular music, has gained popularity in the last few decades with artists such as Psy, BTS and BLACKPINK. The increase of consumption of this genre in the US and other western media seems to correlate with the demand of other cultural elements such as the language. According to Statista, there has been a 95% increase of college students enrolled in a Korean language class between 2006 and 2016.
Personally, as someone from South Korea and from the U.S. and have lived in both cultures, I was surprised to see the increase in Asian representation both in music and outside of music. Recently, there have been more Asian faces in the entertainment industry such as “Crazy Rich Asians” or “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” These not only brought aesthetics from other countries but representation of these cultures from people considered “American.” It is great to see the change in trend, and I hope the multicultural representation will benefit the younger generation by seeing faces similar to theirs present in popular culture.