Over 300 times. That’s how many times I, someone who two years ago could not name a single K-pop song other than “Dynamite” and “FAKE LOVE,” listened to “Seven” by Jungkook and Latto last year. 

Somewhat embarrassingly, the actual number is much, much higher than just that. Higher than I ever want to admit on any sort of public platform.

My point in bearing that incriminating information to the world isn’t to ramble about my music tastes —  it’s to talk about the colossal impact that K-pop collaborations with Western artists have had on not just me, but the industry as a whole.

I had always been aware that there was a good chance that I might like some K-pop songs. It wasn’t cool to be a fan in middle and high school, so I never explored my interest in the genre. Admittedly though, I did think that those aforementioned BTS tunes were catchy, even when I pretended not to. 

However, it wasn’t until I came across a TikTok video that included “Seven” that I felt motivated to explore further. To this day I still don’t necessarily know what it was about that song that kept me coming back, but for a good three-month period, it was the main song in my rotation. I hadn’t really heard any songs that were that catchy.

What initially began as a guilty pleasure later turned into a continued interest in the genre, a genre I likely never would’ve explored about the song had Latto, a popular Atlanta rapper, not been involved in it. However, it wasn’t actually her feature on the song that made me a fan — it was Jungkook’s addictive vocals.

From there I would go on to dive deeper into other groups that I had heard of in passing, such as NewJeans, LE SSERAFIM and KISS OF LIFE. Songs like “Sugarcoat (NATTY Solo),” “EASY” and “Supernatural” would go on to become regulars in my playlist. 

I was so surprised about how much inspiration modern K-pop seems to take from 2000s pop, and especially R&B, which is my favorite musical genre of all-time. K-pop has always been something that had the possibility to be marketable to me, and most likely an abundance of other consumers in Western countries, but it just needed the right kind of exposure, which is exactly what these collaborations have provided.

“Seven” has gone on to become Jungkook’s most streamed song on Spotify by a stunning margin of over 1 billion streams, and in just over a year and a half, it has outstreamed every single song by BTS, Jungkook’s original group, over the collective’s entire 12-year history. 

Other K-Pop collaborations, such as “APT.” by Bruno Mars and BLACKPINK’s ROSÉ have also had similar success, not just on the charts, but for exposing K-Pop talents to the world.  Following the release of “APT.,” ROSÉ was able to achieve the highest number of monthly streams for any K-Pop artist ever. “APT.” is also ROSÉ’s most streamed song of all-time on Spotify at 1.4 billion streams. 

These collaborations haven’t just helped the K-pop artists — they’ve also given many Western artists an avenue to tap into what was already a very massive global industry.

Just as “Seven” is Jungkook’s most-streamed song, it is also Latto’s — by an even greater margin of nearly 2 billion streams. “3D” with Jungkook and Jack Harlow is Harlow’s fifth-most streamed song ever. Even for artists such as Bruno Mars and The Weeknd, who are some of the biggest on the planet, their K-pop collabs are among the most streamed in their discography. “APT.” is Mars’ 12th most-streamed song, and “One Of The Girls” with BLACKPINK’s JENNIE, is The Weeknd’s 11th most-streamed. 

K-pop has always been massive, but we’re entering an era where artists are bigger globally than they’ve ever been before and finally receiving the recognition they deserve. Much of this can be attributed to the abundance of collaborations we’ve seen in roughly the past half-decade or so. However, the increased exposure for these artists has also led to more global commentary, and subsequently, more conversations about whether or not some of these acts are respectful imitation or appropriation. 

It’s no secret that K-pop takes a lot of inspiration from a lot of ’90s and 2000s R&B and pop culture, which happens to be something that Black American culture has defined. The world’s  tendency to freely imitate Black culture without actual respect for its people is a very sensitive subject.

Just this Monday, a leaker from YG, one of South Korea’s largest entertainment agencies, released a series of videos that includes three out of the four members of BLACKPINK — one of the most popular K-pop girl groups of the past decade — using the n-word repeatedly while covering a number of songs during some of their pre-debut tryouts. 

There are also many other K-pop artists who have been caught using the word among other incidents, such as accusations of idols intentionally skipping high-fives with Black fans. These events of casual disrespect toward Black culture are worsened when you think about just how much inspiration the genre takes from Black music. 

A lot of modern K-pop songs are produced and written by Black people, sonically contain a lot of R&B and hip- hop influences, and showcase media that mimics fashion styles popularized by Black people. There is no excuse for artists who use so much from Black culture to not know the history of the n-word.

On the flip -side, instances of disrespect admittedly aren’t just exclusive on the side of the K-pop artists. After the release of “Seven,” old tweets of Latto making a number of racist jokes about common Asian stereotypes resurfaced on social media, and she faced backlash from a lot of Korean K-pop fans. 

Jack Harlow also faced criticism for his line, “All my ABGs get cute for me,” in his verse on “3D.” Harlow’s use of ABG, which can stand for “Asian Baby Girl,” led some to accuse him of inappropriately fetishizing Asian women. There have also been a number of notably racist lines in hip-hop about Asian communities over the years from artists such as the Migos and YG.

This kind of racism usually isn’t the result of intentional malice, but ignorance. These instances occur when people consume media from different cultures without properly educating themselves about that culture. However, even though these musicians may not have intended to be racist, they were. 

Music is a reflection of culture, and these collaborations have been some of the most popular songs in the past few years. They also happen to combine musical styles that genuinely mix well together. While many of these incidents have gained a lot of traction in media over the years, most collaborations between Western and K-pop audiences are ultimately respectful, but in order to keep things on an upwards trajectory, Western and K-pop artists need to educate themselves so they don’t alienate the audiences they should be continuing to thrive within. 

Kailen Hicks is a sophomore writing about current trends, conflicts and discourse around music in his column “Noteworthy Noise,” which runs every other Thursday.