I have a bit of a theory! During third gen, most songs had majority Korean lyrics, but the songs that blew up were the ones that were majority English, like Butter, Dynamite, How you like that, etc. As such, I think something that retroactively defines 4th gen is how heavily 4th gen leaned into English lyrics to compete on the global stage. Korean Lyrics in 4th gen felt more like a token addition rather than important to the songs.
Now though that Kpop has successfully broken further into the global market, we seem to be seeing more rookie groups debuting with songs containing majority Korean (possibly fueled by the fact 5th gen is largely Nostalgia-based anyways?). It’s not to say that the industry has transitioned fully back, but it seems that (aside from older groups continuing with majority english songs,) in 5th gen there’s a more equal mix of majority Korean and majority english songs. 🙂 (Exceptions like Babymonster exist, but YG have always been stuck in their ways)
I think two things also help here: Firstly, that a distinction is being drawn atm between Kpop groups and Global groups, and Secondly there are a lot more groups breaking into the Japanese market, which in turn inspires labels to retain Korean songs in their artists’ discographies.
Lmk your thoughts!
submitted by /u/liliuaena
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