“Who Gets to Do K-pop?: Z-pop Renegotiates the K-pop Climate”

So-Rim Lee

Korea Foundation Assistant Professor of Korean Studies,

Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations

University of Pennsylvania

The Z-Stars won the first season of a pan-Asian K-pop audition competition, Z-POP Dream Project, held in 2018 across seven countries in Asia (Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, India, and the Philippines). At a press showcase in 2019, the Z-Stars explained that they want to inspire the younger generation of K-Pop lovers all around the world that they, too, can be K-pop idols. As of August 2020, however, K-pop music shows refuse to feature them on their programs since none of the members are Korean, nor do they sing in Korean. In other words, the Z-Stars have yet to convince the K-pop industry gatekeepers that they are indeed K-pop acts.The 2010s saw K-pop’s rapid globalization in the U.S.- dominant international pop music industry, making everyone to ask the ontological question, “what is K-pop?”