R – a K-pop idol’s return to her Aussie roots

An all-English album from a K-pop idol? Trinity Kim looks at the growth of K-pop outside of Asia.

The Melbourne native turned K-pop superstar Rosé from BLACKPINK released her first solo just over a week ago and it is currently making waves across the internet and music streaming platforms. Album R is breaking records domestically – being the only female artist to surpass 200 000 sales in South Korea – and internationally with the first single On the Ground reaching No.1 on iTunes in more than 51 regions.

This solo debut has been long-awaited by fans after the group’s label YG Entertainment announced during member Jennie’s SOLO promotions that each of the four members would have a solo debut. More than two years later, we have finally received the second of four solo debuts.

R should be labelled more as an EP with only two songs alongside respective instrumentals increasing the whole track-list to technically four songs. Yet these two songs alone manage to show Rosé’s range as a vocalist beyond the Pop/Dance styles of BLACKPINK discography.

Breaking away from her group has meant title track On the Ground shows Rosé’s strengths – we are met with acoustic guitar which she has played in BLACKPINK M/Vs in the past, and her voice shows off a softer, more emotional side that is true to her.

Mega-hits by BLACKPINK such as DDU-DU-DDU-DU and How You Like That, often discuss the issues of intense relationships and preach the idea of female empowerment. Her title track, on the other hand, comes as an emotional letter to herself about the materialistic value of success to explore the balancing act of staying ‘down to earth’ verse measuring success through numbers and business deals.

The second single Gone is the emotional ballad that every soloist must have in their discography. The melody is simply too generic for it to stand out – however, the lyrics are the one thing that carries this song forward. There is a vulnerability here that is hard to find in the EDM heavy group catalogue. The lyrics are not complicated and in one listen it can seem too generic of a ballad. Yet it is this simplicity and Rosé’s unique, emotional voice that acts as a fist up to the sky about all our past lovers and simply moving on.

Perhaps why R has received so much international praise has been the accessibility of the lyrics. In a press conference before the release of the album, the soloist explained that she “wrote the songs in English as [she] thought it was the most fitting language for them”. 

Credited as a lyricist in both songs, this decision to produce an English led album alludes to her roots overseas. Born in New Zealand and moving to Melbourne seven years later, the K-pop phenomenon’s strong Aussie accent is still evident in all her interview. And as a native speaker, she provides another layer of emotions that makes R undoubtedly a unique listening experience for the everyday K-pop fan.

Rosé is not only a successful artist but as received numerous brand deals. Her most notable one being for luxury fashion house Yves Saint Laurent – a partnership that meant Rosé was on posters all around Australia.

In the K-pop industry today, more idols than ever before are being recruited from overseas in efforts to expand to artists and audiences on an international level. Labels like YG Entertainment who manage BLACKPINK, highlight the rapidly growing popularity of Korean culture around the world and evident demand for more accessibility to Korean Music.

There is an increasingly big push to collaborate with Western producers and songwriters – as seen by BLACKPINK’s collaboration with Cardi B and Selena Gomez for their full-length album last year - and lyrics rarely reference things that are only understood to the Korean audience. Just last year the biggest K-Pop boy band BTS made waves online after releasing Dynamite – the first all English song by a major group that was not released as an English version to an originally Korean song. Releases like Dynamite and R only raise questions about how K-pop will further dominate the music industry.