In 2019, K-pop saw some of its brightest lights and darkest hours.
There were huge successes in the scene, which shows no signs of slowing in the United States. BTS’ triumph at the Rose Bowl; Blackpink becoming the first major K-pop act to perform at Coachella; groups such as Monsta X signing with U.S. major labels and collaborating across genres. LA’s KCON, once again, helped drive the conversation around the genre in new and inclusive directions.
Yet after both the Burning Sun sexual assault scandal and the suicides of singers Goo Hara and Sulli, K-pop’s global legion of devoted fans had to confront the consequences of a corporate pop scene where stars are driven to exhaustion and policed in their personal lives, and yet its larger systems are rarely scrutinized.
The year 2020 will likely be a hugely consequential one for the genre, in South Korea and elsewhere. Here are a few of the new stars and emerging narratives to watch out for next year in K-pop.
1. Is SuperM the next supergroup?
Collaborations, subgroups and member swaps are as common in K-pop as crossover episodes were in ’90s sitcoms. But SuperM is a novel idea: a boy-band culled from top-tier K-pop acts, created by South Korean leviathan SM Entertainment and Capitol Records pitched largely for English-speaking countries. The group draws from popular acts NCT 127, Shinee, EXO and WayV. Its pedigree was secure enough for a Billboard 200 No. 1 album last year. But the way it was done — a public debut with a show outside the Capitol Records building in Hollywood, Calif., and not in Seoul, and a largely English-language kickoff single “Jopping” — suggests that SM’s Lee Soo-Man and his U.S. counterparts are aiming this at a U.S. audience that doesn’t even see K-pop as especially foreign anymore. It could also make a solo star of singer Taemin, who has a slate of beguiling new music ready while his Shinee bandmates serve in the South Korean military.