The K-Pop Group BTS visits The Empire State Building on May 21, 2019
Steven Ferdman/Getty Images for ESB
hide caption
toggle caption
Steven Ferdman/Getty Images for ESB
Over the past decade, the borders between different music worlds have fallen. Producers, singers, songwriters and other artists from around the globe are collaborating in new ways, while genres have blended together so completely and seamlessly it’s almost impossible to label a lot of popular music as any one thing. These cross-cultural, and cross-border alliances – along with streaming and social media – have also been a pipeline for delivering global artists to new audiences on a scale never seen before. Think of the juggernaut K-pop band BTS and how thoroughly the group has dominated U.S. pop charts, or the rise of Latinx artists like Rosalía, Bad Bunny and J Balvin.
On this episode of All Songs Considered, host Robin Hilton is joined by NPR Music’s Anastasia Tsioulcas and Stephen Thompson, along with reporter, host of NPR’s Future You and founding bureau chief for NPR in Seoul, South Korea Elise Hu as they talk about the ways we’re hearing globalization in music, why it’s happening and some of the complications and questions around this evolution.
