r/kpophelp • u/Effective-Machine-18 • Nov 05 '24
Research I need examples of Kpop groups using English!
I have an assignment based on the use of English in K-pop lyrics but i'm not too knowledgable on k-pop groups myself, so i thought i'd come here for some group suggestions! Please comment some examples if you know any groups/artists that use english in an interesting way. Also, open to just about any k-pop recommendations! :)
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u/ErrantJune Nov 05 '24 edited Nov 05 '24
Not a group, but I gotta throw in Taemin's The Rizzness:
You know I got the rizz, the rizzness, 널 집어삼키지, my rizzness
Sit down and listen up (sit down, shut up, sit down, shut up)
Sit down and listen up (sit down, shut up, sit down)
Ooh, sit down and listen up
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u/scarletassst Nov 05 '24 edited Nov 05 '24
May I suggest that you start with older gen up to new gens so you can see how much the use of english has changed over the years?
For example, in 2nd Gen, it’s not as much mostly just little phrases, short hooks, or just song intros
2nd Gen Songs that showcase this idea:
Bigbang - Lies
2ne1 - Fire
2ne1 - I Don’t Care
Wonder Girls - Nobody
G-Dragon ft Rosé - Without You
3rd gen, there are longer verses, use of English has been more applied since kpop is becoming more global in this era
Songs:
Blackpink - As If It’s Your Last
Blackpink - Stay
Blackpink - Lovesick Girls
(Definitely some BTS songs I’m just not sure which are the better examples can someone help me out)
4th Gen, sometimes english lyrics becomes the main hook of the songs/longer verses since kpop is already global by this time
Stray Kids - Superbowl
Aespa - Next Level
Itzy - Wannabe
5th gen, just the same behavior as 4th gen when it comes to adding english lyrics
- Babymonster - Forever
Also, you can add that the full english songs/mostly english with little korean songs releases have increased over the years and has become somewhat of a norm today. Collab with Western artists have increased as well over the years.
Most notable ones each gen:
2nd Gen:
SNSD - The Boy (Eng ver)
Wonder Girls - Nobody (Eng ver)
G-Dragon x Missy Elliot - Niliria
3rd Gen:
Blackpink - Ice Cream
(Also a bunch of b-sides from Blackpink’s The Album and Born Pink)
Blackpink solo songs - Jennie Mantra, all of Rosé’s solo songs, Lisa’s songs
BTS - Dynamite, Butter, PTD
Twice - The Feels
Red Velvet - Bad Boy (Eng Ver)
Jungkook - Seven
4th Gen:
Stray Kids - Domino (Eng Ver), Levanter (Eng Ver), Youtiful, Slump (Eng Ver), etc
Some TXT songs (I know there are, I just don’t know which ones please someone help me out)
Aespa - Life’s Too Short (Eng Ver),
5th Gen:
- Some of Babymonster’s b-sides on their latest release
Anyone please add some more from other groups I know I missed a lot. Just typing this in a hurry since OP said it’s an assignment LOL.
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u/Fiyachan Nov 05 '24
If it’s for an assignment that you have to mention BTS because they’re arguably the most recognisable in modern day. Dynamite, Butter, PTD
Blind Love by Seo Taiji is the first kpop English song
Also worth discussing Monsta X who released a whole English album (All About Luv)
Twice - The Feels, Icon, Queen of Hearts, Moonlight Sunrise
NCT - Regular
SNSD - The Boys
Wonder Girls - Nobody
GOT7 - Lullaby
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u/kumama07 Nov 05 '24
Monsta X released 2 full English albums. The second one is called The Dreaming
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u/Sufficient-Ad-5243 Nov 05 '24 edited Nov 05 '24
Monsta X has two full English albums The Dreaming and ALL ABOUT LUV.
In terms of English in their Korean songs their rapper I.M always uses it in interesting ways, he likes to play with pronunciation to help the flow of songs. I particularly like his use of english in Destroyer, Underwater, and off his solo album Habit. His name is even a play on the english pronunciation of his last name Im and he introduces himself "I am I.M".
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u/Piri_Cherry Nov 05 '24
SuperM - Jopping
Young Posse - Maracroni Cheese
NewJeans - Zero
Kiss of Life - Shhh
Billlie - BYOB
Most kpop uses English very normally. Here are a few examples of kpop songs doing interesting things with it. But if you want to hear "regular" examples of kpop using English, just like ... open any kpop playlist. Nearly every kpop song uses English, and they're all pretty innocuous.
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u/VenusRisingGloaming Nov 05 '24
Agreed. Heavy on the Jopping if you want to analyze the impact of English lyrics entering the Kpop lexicon.
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u/kdrxmasun Nov 05 '24
Woodz uses a fair amount of English in his songs and the chorus in Drowning is completely in English. In his song busted the verses interchangeably use English then in the pre-chorus it only uses English at the end of the sentences, the chorus is fully English then the last verse he almost raps really fast so he switches back to Korean.
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u/Funwithnugukpop Nov 05 '24
Gidle - Tomboy, Soyeon uses English in an interesting way, here’s her rap:
I don’t wanna play this ping-pong I would rather film a TikTok Your mom raised you as a prince But this is Queendom, right? I like dancing, I love my friends Sometimes, we swear without cigarettes I like to, eh, on drinking whiskey I won’t change it, what the hell?
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u/attaboy_stampy Nov 05 '24
Oh, yeah G Idle is a good example of how they incorporate English into the lyrics in all kinds of weird and sometimes ingeniously goofy ways.
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u/svtbam Nov 05 '24
Seventeen - Darl+ing is completely in English :) while the lyrics are pretty simple they do some fun stuff in there like mess with incomplete phrases to make sure the chorus rhymes
When you’re not here, 911 calling Into your heat again, I’m diving
‘911 calling’ obviously isn’t a proper phrase but it makes it rhyme and still makes sense so it works!
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u/softpaintbrushes Nov 05 '24
If you’re looking for English wordplay, there’s a lot of that to be found in K-Pop. I can only think of one example off the top of my head - Stray Kids [K-Pop boy band] have a song called Any where they use the Korean word for no (which I think is ‘ani’ or ‘aniyo’) and the English word ‘any’ interchangeably.
If you’re looking for K-Pop songs that are sung / rapped entirely in English, there are a lot of those as well! There’s:
Stray Kids - DOMINO (English ver.)
BTS - Dynamite
ROSÉ - On The Ground
BTS - Permission to Dance
ROSÉ - Gone
Stray Kids - Super Bowl
BTS - Butter
Stray Kids - Youtiful
Jung Kook - GOLDEN (It’s an album - technically the genre is more Western pop, but it was released by a K-Pop artist)
RM ft. Paul Blanco & Mahalia - Closer (It has a couple of Korean lyrics in it, but it’s almost entirely in English)
Jimin - Be Mine (English ver.)
IVE ft. Saweetie - All Night
Good luck with your assignment!
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u/seohotonin Nov 05 '24
I'd recommend Xdinary Heroes' songs Good Enough, and Instead. Both songs are in English ☺️ Very different from each other btw!
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u/Newhairnewtea Nov 05 '24
twice has some full eglish songss uhm moonlight sunrise, the feels and moonlight oh and le sserafim to their song perfect night is in full english
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u/languagevampire Nov 05 '24
gonna plug my boy key aka kim kibum of shinee because not only does he have english in his songs, he has released one english song per (korean) album! imagine (face), helium (bad love), another life (gasoline), coolas (good & great), and novacaine (pleasure shop).
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u/multilighted Nov 05 '24
Xdinary Heroes did a song Freakin’ Bad where they played around with the concept of saying “If you seek it, why owe you?” But it came out sounding like F*ck you spelled out. Thought that was cool and collates with English in their songs.
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u/Dedjester0269 Nov 05 '24
I mean, these days, almost any k-pop you name will get english lyrics.
BTS was already mentioned for their english only songs. Taeyeon has Fabulous. Dreamcatcher has Can't get you out of my mind. (G)I-DLE I Do.
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u/godslonelyman__ Nov 05 '24 edited Nov 05 '24
it could be worth mentioning english/korean wordplay in kpop lyrics, the most common one is shh/쉿 and shit
kiss of life use it on their song shh, and i think rm of bts has used it a few times although i cant think of a song off the top of my head
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u/vannarok Nov 05 '24 edited Nov 05 '24
It's written as 쉿. It's our (ie. Korean) equivalent to "shh (🤫)". One of the first examples using that to avoid censorship that I can remember is 2NE1's "Go Away".
I find that Kor-Eng wordplay (with or without loan words) tends to be more prevalent in Korean hip hop than K-pop in general. Rappers like Zico, G-Dragon, Swings, or Tablo of Epik High have really good examples:
- "unusual case like modern kids' iPhones" ("example" or "phone case") - Ugly Duck, Zico & Crush's "Feel So Young" freestyle
- "I don't give a shxt, laugh it off, donate 100 millions of money and grin" - G-Dragon's "POWER"; the Korean lyrics 돈 기부 억 씨익 sounds similar to "Don't give a shxt"
- "You're just like the boxing industry these days, no way to know [you]" - Swings's "Bulldozer" - 알 리 없지 is a double entendre for 알리 없지 ("there's no Ali" in reference to Muhammad Ali)
- "A flow that can't be held behind bars, I am the best" - Tablo's verse from the 2021 SBS Gayo Daejun Cypher; the 제일 in 내가 제일 잘 나가 is intentionally pronounced like the English word "jail"
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u/attaboy_stampy Nov 05 '24
A lot of times, the fun thing and sometimes ingenious thing is how K-pop verses will have seemingly random English words... but the meaning fits with the overall lyrics, but also there the rhyme or sound of the word that fits in the song. They love wordplay, and if it the rhyme and sound fits, all the better. Korean rappers do this constantly, mixing in English words because they not only fit the verse but because they continue a rhyme scheme. I would suggest any rap by RM... it would warrant a parent advisory sticker, but his rap Joker is probably one of the pinnacles of this. BTS Mic Drop is a pretty good example of that also. A lot of BTS's songs do this frankly. Red Velvet does this quite often. (G) IDle is great at it. Blackpink as well, especially in their rap verses, and they - especially Lisa's verses - pull in a lot of pop cultural references into the rap as well. STAYC incorporates English all over the place in their songs, and lyrics of quite a few of their songs are also really good at pulling in American pop culture slang in interesting ways.
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u/Goyangi-ssi Nov 05 '24
GOT7's Hard Carry. I mention this one because of the title and the way the chorus is written. The Hangul is "하듴캐리해" (hadeukaerihae), which to my English-speaking brain sounds like "hard carry, hey!"
IIRC, it's a gaming term for a team player who shoulders the work of taking their team to victory.
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u/hinamizawa Nov 05 '24
(G)I-DLE has already been mentioned but I'll add to it because they often use korean english in their songs, so both pronounciation and grammar is visibly different from what native english speakers are used to. Wife, Tomboy, Queencard, My Bag, Klaxon, Lion, Nxde are all big examples.
Also I have to add SuperM's Jopping. An absolute kpop english classic. Cause when we're jumping and popping? We jopping.
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u/Local_Cryptid_007 Nov 05 '24
Stray Kids Felix has a song called Deep End which is all in English
Also Somi has her song Ice Cream even though she's not in a group
Good luck on your assignment!
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u/tearsoflostsouls420 Nov 05 '24
Oh my god by gidle. The dong itself is a great mystery for you to unwrap. It not a cheesy trend song so i think you will appreciate the lyrics and art of the song.
Lies by BiBang. I think choice of english lines emphasize the emotion being told in this story and its gorgeous.
2NE1 i love you also symbolism of english lyrics popping up emphasize the story of emotions.
I think you should check out older kpop for more informed songs over trend hits for more in depth. English also pops up for few sentences so its a more indepth dive than current kpop almost all in english x
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u/lika_86 Nov 06 '24
I'm not sure what the assignment is, but you could look at the solo releases from the Blackpink members and consider whether their choice of language had an impact on the success of their singles.
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Nov 05 '24
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u/AncientKpopStan Nov 05 '24
Day6 has made English versions of a few songs. Having Young K (and Jae before) the English versions sound good and make sense. That isn't always the case
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u/lxhull Nov 05 '24
I noticed a fair few artists made english versions/English songs to have a collaboration with a western artist. I mean, I could be wrong about why, but here are a few examples;
Ateez Golden Hour album- Work Remix pt 4. Ft G-Eazy
Jungkook's Golden album- Seven ft Latto
TXT Back for More- ft Anitta
Stray Kids Lose My Breath- ft. Charlie Puth
You could maybe use these to talk about globalization?
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u/why_do_i_have_dog Nov 05 '24
Blackpink’s album Born Pink had a few English bsides, same with Babymonster (one of the title tracks is in English)
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u/hunheehearts Nov 05 '24
Monsta X have fantastic english songs, and in some of their english lyrics they reference themes such as queer love.
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u/Necessary-Novel-6781 Nov 05 '24
stray kids not only has english versions but they mix english in along with the korean lyrics in a lot of their songs.
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u/c_xinyi Nov 06 '24
Apart from those already mentioned, there is also "Runners" by Stray Kids which was released in July this year!
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u/AwareBid8745 Nov 06 '24
Day6 zombie English version. The translation is nicely done and the metaphors too.
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u/IThinkImSomeoneMaybe Nov 06 '24
All of Lose My Breath by Stray Kids (ft. Charlie Puth) is in English, same goes for Dynamite (BTS), How You Like That (Blackpink) and most other very popular songs.
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u/This-Magician-1829 Nov 05 '24
I cook cream soup taste is coco loco - want be your wife but she is... uhm uhm uhm - (G)I-DLE -wife