Is BLACKPINK Lisa’s ‘Rockstar’ K-pop or T-pop?

If a Thai member of a K-pop group produces a music video with Thai creators and films it in the capital of her home country, can we still say she is doing K-pop? Or should we characterize this as Thai pop, or T-pop?

This question arose Friday after Lisa, a Thai member of K-pop act BLACKPINK, unveiled her upbeat solo track, “Rockstar” — the 27-year-old’s first single since she established her own label, LLOUD, in February.

The song’s visually-compelling music video has been going strong, amassing 60 million views on YouTube as of Tuesday afternoon. At the same time, however, it has stirred a debate among online users about whether it should be categorized as K-pop or T-pop.

Shot in Bangkok, the video features many Thai creators, including art directors, set managers and videographers, as well as Thai dancers who add a local touch to Lisa’s performance. For this reason, some fans said Lisa is promoting T-pop by bringing the talent of her country to the fore while solidifying her Thai identity.

“Lisa can be herself, show her beautiful skin color, and strongly display her country’s culture and characteristics in her works,” a fan commented on YouTube. “It means that she is breaking away from K-pop culture and showing her true self — Lalisa from Thailand.”

But not everyone thinks Lisa has stepped out of the K-pop zone.

“What a legend you are,” another YouTube user said. “A truly perfect K-pop idol.”

Lee Gyu-tag, a professor of cultural studies at George Mason University Korea, also believes that “Rockstar” is quite far from being T-pop.

“Lisa is from Thailand, but she is predominantly recognized as a K-pop singer on the global stage,” Lee told The Korea Times, stressing that K-pop is not just about the nationalities of the singers.

K-pop girl group BLACKPINK / Courtesy of YG Entertainment

“K-pop tunes also involve creators from different countries, but we still regard them as K-pop because it has other noteworthy characteristics such as business models, emphasis on music videos and the singers’ close interactions with their followers. In Lisa’s case, she neither announced she would give up her identity as a K-pop star nor changed the way of promoting her new offering.”

“Rockstar” does not seem to contain the elements of Thai music, he added.

“It is a hip-hop track, so musically speaking, it does not appear to be Thai style,” he explained. “Its lyrics are mostly written in English as well … If Lisa, who already has an identity as a K-pop singer, craves a change in her career, I think she should come up with completely different music with more Thai elements, such as Thai lyrics.”

The professor also referred to the case of SB19 — an all-Filipino boy band created by the Korean entertainment company ShowBT — to explain how challenging it is to ditch the association with K-pop. SB19 is “influenced by K-pop, but the members write their lyrics in Tagalog, a dialect widely spoken in the Philippines.”

“SB19 defines itself as a Philippine pop (P-pop) group and sings a lot in its language,” he said. “But on a global scale, even a group like this often falls into the category of K-pop. This shows that it is not a walk in the park to build a new identity.”