Answering Jay Park’s question and the unfairness of Korea’s music industry.
On January 3rd, Korean singer and rapper Jay Park took some time on Twitter to answer a couple of fan questions related to diverse topics such as his upcoming tour, music and projects he might release this year.
But the artist also seized his time on the mentioned social media to ask his fans some questions about how he was perceived as a musician and if they categorized Jay Park as underrated.
His exact words are showed in the tweet below:
This question took me by surprise on the least to say, as I’ve witnessed the artist’s development in the Korean and American music scene for almost 5 years now; as a founder of his own record label and as an active creator of content and music -talking about his own compositions, production of other artists’ songs and collaborations with a numerous of other fellow singers and rappers-, a mentor in the Korean show ‘Show Me the Money’ and a judge in Asia’s Got Talent, it was absurd for me to think of Jay Park as underrated.
But the truth is more cruel that I’d like it to be, and I understood this the moment I stopped to think deeply for an answer to the artist’s question and realized that Jay Park –the one I thought that with a career and background like the one he has couldn’t be considered less than a legend — was, in fact, an underrated artist these days.
It was hard for me to see this all this time, as the circle of people I’m usually surrounded by shares the same interests and taste in music as me, but if I looked outside that circle, the name Jay Park, and any solo artist in general to be honest, was never mentioned, never talked about.
And after some time searching in various groups of people, who liked Korean music and culture of course, I had a long list of idol groups’ names and just a few mentions of solo artists and rappers.
So here’s my answer to Jay Park’s question.
Jay Park is UNFAIRLY underrated. This because most of the focus right now is mostly on idol groups, and those idol groups are defining what Korean music is as a whole. This is wrong and unfair to talented artists like Jay Park or the numerous other artists that alienate themselves from the pop genre, like indie and r&b singers, rappers and rock bands, whose unique sounds and compositions make Korean music industry as rich as it really is.
If people gave a chance to other artists’ music and really search the vastness of the Korean music industry they swear to love, they would understand why this whole situation is unfair to me, and that it is easier to enjoy so many kinds of great Korean music by just trying to look outside of what the media is defining as Korean music.
I hope this situation can change in the future, and that artists like Jay Park can receive the attention and opportunities they deserve to show their talent.
