K-Pop: American Parents Just Don’t Understand
For most Americans, K-Pop is more than just foreign music. It’s a genre that’s hard for us to relate to because of the language barrier. Imagine our parents overhearing us listening to Hip-Hop and not being able to understand a word that’s coming out the mouth of the rapper. Or, if you’re born and raised in the suburbs, how can you relate to a person such as Jay Z or Biggie Smalls when you know nothing about bagging up coke or never been involved in a shoot-out?
But K-Pop is different. What was once seen as just music for Koreans, it now has made its way over to the states and has done so at an alarming rate. Kids, no matter their skin color can now be heard or seen in their bedrooms or phones blasting music they just don’t know the words to. So, what’s the point of it all?
In all fairness, does it have to be one?
They like what they like but this is where the parents are having a hard time understanding. We all have gone through our musical phases over time. But for parents trying to understand their kids and their love for K-Pop goes well beyond the music itself.
The parents, myself included, we feel the pain in our wallets. For example. I went into a K-Pop store in Manhattan last Wednesday to buy The Boyz new EP “Chase”. Seemed normal until I hit the cash register and it rang up an astounding $31.95. $32 for a CD? Never heard of that before.
In my heyday of music buying, the most we would spend for an American rapper CD was $14. So, what makes K-Pop so appealing that kids are begging their parents to drop $32 for music?
Inside the packaging, there’s a CD, poster, photobook, ticket photocard, and a postcard. But still, is that all worth $32? For kids, yes. What they see are collector’s items. For parents, it makes no sense because all we see is $32. But let’s break it down a little further.
Let’s say the average K-Pop CD is $14. But what if you want posters of the members? Now, you must search the internet for those and each photobook could easily cost you $20+ dollars and that leaves you hoping you get the updated pictures and not ones from three years ago. So, in essence, parents are coming out cheaper paying the $32 instead of shelling out $100 trying to get the kids every piece of memorabilia from that certain timeframe.
But there was one problem that I did encounter with The Boyz album– the tracklisting. For $32 all my kids received were six songs. Six freaking songs and some photos? That was a rip-off to me.
Now, back to the cash register part. As I paid for the album, I noticed that the top K-Pop Boy Band, BTS is set to drop a new album in November and the shop was now taking pre-orders. Me, looking to be a great parent, did what any parent in that situation would do– I just purchased the album ahead of time. The total for those two albums came to $94. Yes, parents, you read that correctly– 94 freaking dollars.
The reason I made that insane purchase was because I know what it’s like to be a kid. I remember what it’s like to be infatuated with something that you view as bigger than what we know. K-Pop was not meant for us Americans no matter who’s making the music. It’s a different lifestyle, language, and demographic. But in the end, who are we to tell our kids they can’t explore? Isn’t that what we did listening to N. W. A or watching karate flicks and not understanding the dialogue?
I have no real desire to listen to The Boyz, BTS, NCT, or BlackPink, but my kids do. It’s their time, I’ve already had mine. $32 for an album is steep but we’re looking at it wrong. We see the money, they see the art. We used to be them. Our parents didn’t get it either.
Mark has been covering Sports and Entertainment for the past six years. His work has been featured on Bleacher Report, ESPN, Fox Sports, Teen Vogue, and many other websites.
