Kaachi – K-pop from Europe

Is it K-pop? Or European-pop? What is it?? Short explanation:

No, Kaachi isn’t from Korea, but they still make K-pop, and for this they got a ridiculous amount of criticism. What is K-pop? “Pop music from Korea”? Way too simple. The Japanese group NiziU is categorized as J-pop but since they draw such clear influences from K-pop they’re much closer to this genre than to J-pop. What makes it K-pop is the music, the dances, the music videos, the culture and the attitude, and not just language and nationality. The critics weirdly agrees with this when they further develop their criticism and say Kaachi isn’t K-pop because they “aren’t signed on a Korean agency” and “just don’t have the talent” required for a K-pop group – a weird point since the worst rock band in the world still plays rock, and this should go for K-pop too. And yes, the genre has high demands, but that doesn’t need to continue. Why not get inspired by the slow pace of Southern Europe to not overload the artists, and get challenged by beauty standards of industries less extreme than K-pop? What if more K-pop artists could date whoever they wanted, and guest a podcast in the same relaxed way Kaachi can? The industry could really use more punk attitude and more unions. The Twitch streamer K-pop group Tier 4 is an independent group that (while obviously relying on their internet fame) could pave the way for a more relaxed and fun-focused way of being a K-pop artist, and in Japan groups like Billie Idle® do coreographed dances and call themselves “idols”, while also being loose, spontaneous and fun, and people love them – despite their lack of perfection, or because of their lack of perfection. I sense a similar spirit in Kaachi. They seem to be more relaxed, more genuine and have more fun than K-pop artists in general.

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