I liked J-Rap, K-Rap, & K-Pop when I was a teen because it was like the music I grew up listening to from the 90's & early 2000's. Groups of guys who sing & dance with hip-hop style? Groups of girls who sing and dance with hip-hop style? 1 or 2 members of the group rap while the others sing in a R&B style?
K-Pop is so popular now because it's doing what was good back then, but in a different language & a few additions from another culture. Meanwhile, modern rap & hip-hop ain't like it used to be because the artists do whatever the corporations tell them to do and they lean more towards gangster rap like the companies tell them to do. Artists back then had different styles & sang about a lot of different things. Now they are all mostly the same. Killing, drugs, sex. And that is by design by these music corporations. They are trying to influence certain ppl to behave that way, but their target audience aren't their biggest consumers. These corporations also don't want artists to own their own music & will kill those who almost get their masters (Whitney Houston). But I won't go down that rabbit hole. Cause there is a lot of craziness.
K-Pop also reminds me of 80's City Pop from Japan. I love City Pop! But I also noticed that it was inspired by music from the 70's in the US. So other places see the talent of a certain time period, take that style, & add their own flare to it.
And then there is also a thing I noticed about K-Pop guys. Why do they look the way they do? Most if not all are inspired by the King of Pop; Michael Jackson.
So, K-Pop has inspiration from Michael Jackson & hip-hop/R&B/Rap groups from the 90's & 2000's. That is why they are so popular. They are heavily inspired by the best, but they add their own flare to it.
Is that cultural appropriation? Some may say so, but I am slow to state such. Why? Well is modern country music cultural appropriation? Is older country music cultural appropriation? Is rock music cultural appropriation? If you know the history of those genres & you still do not consider those to be cultural appropriation... then can K-Pop be cultural appropriation? And how can something be cultural appropriation when the people who created it were convinced to deny it and do something else? You cant appropriate from a people who no longer associate themselves as a whole with something. And if you have more financial power and sway over the music industry, you can take from a culture or even promote something else as a ppl's culture and fool those same ppl into believing such. Just like with rock & country music, black people in America have begun to abandon hip-hop & concious rap in favor of the easily profitable and corporation controlled gangster rap. And because we either left it or couldn't keep ownership of what we created due to society at different stages, others will and can make a profit by copying our style. Think about how ppl shave the sides of their heads, get nose rings, & gauges in their ears. Years ago, that was made fun of & looked at negatively when ppl of African, Native American, & other cultures did that for cultural reasons. Now everyone wants to resemble them because its fashionable.
Make them hate themselves if you can.
Cause them to abandon their ways or just ignore where you've taken your inspiration from if they don't abandon their ways.
Take what you have made them disown.
Promote what you "appropriated" as your own to make profit.
You can't claim somebody appropriated something from a culture if the ppl are convinced to abandon it. Cause now it's free game.
