Note: If you do not read the post, do not comment. I want this to form a discussion and that can't be done if your disagreeing with arguments you have not read. Third times the charm lol. Hopefully this does not get removed. Sorry for the long read. Obviously this can still be debated lol, just didn't want to make the title "Why Katseye may, arguably, depending on who you ask, in my opinion, be K-Pop" lol and plus I think my reasoning is pretty solid! Also, this is not that serious. (Ik my post is long yes im aware) I think we can all agree how to determine if Katseye is K-Pop or not. We must first define what K-Pop is, and then, we must determine if Katseye fits that definition. I think I am fair in making that claim. Unfortunately, this is where things already get hard as we run into our first problem. Before we can define K-Pop, we must first ask ourselves if K-Pop is even something that can be defined. What category of word is K-Pop? English words and terms all fall into one of two categories (I mean, this is an oversimplification, there are more categories but these are the main ones and the ones relevant to this conversation). The first categories are words whose definition has potential to be everchanging, not set in stone, and determined by us in every given moment. (Before you say isn't the definition of every word determined by us in every given moment, yes it is, but just bare with me for a second). The second category of words and terms are words whose strict definition represents a specific thing, and thus can't be changed, as they are directly tied to that one thing. An example would be a chair. Yes, tomorrow we can all decide that the word "chair" means something else now, but in that case, "chair" would essentially become a new word rather than the same word with a changed strict definition. Hope that kind of explains what I mean when I say the second category of words and terms can't have their definitions be changed really. (Again, gross oversimplification, the meaning of the word "chair' can technically evolve and change overtime while remaining the same word, but you get what I mean. We can say "except for when" for every single thing in the English language for infinity due to how it works. My point does serve its purpose though for this discussion.) So... which category is K-Pop? What each category tells us? If K-Pop falls under the first category, then we can never undeniably say that Katseye is K-Pop, as K-Pop would lack a strict definition and it's definition would never be set in stone. If K-Pop falls under the second category, however, we can confirm whether or not Katseye is K-Pop. The Genre Argument One may think K-Pop falls into the first category because it is a genre, and all genres definitions can and do constantly expand, evolve and change even if they also keep the core part of their definition the same. The thing is... K-Pop is NOT a genre. The definition of a genre (a word that falls into the second category as it is all-encompassing and represents a specific thing, and thus has no room to really evolve or change) is: a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter. Can you honestly tell me there are no two K-Pop songs that are both clearly K-Pop that have all different composition, form, style, and subject matter? Of course you can't. You can argue there are genres within K-Pop, that have formed through industry trends, but K-Pop itself is in no way a genre. The Grey Area Argument Another reason people may argue K-Pop would fall into the first category of words is that there is many things that nobody can agree on whether or not it's K-Pop, therefore meaning that K-Pop can't fall into the second category, as there is no clear definition set in stone. While the premise is true, the conclusion follows some faulty logic. Every word in the English language, regardless of what category it falls into, can have exceptions to their definitions, and grey areas. Let's look back at the chair example. The word "chair" 100% falls into the second category, yet there is so much you can debate about over what is and what isn't a chair. If I sit on a table, is that table a chair? No, it is still a table. If we said everything you can sit on is a chair, then basically everything would be a chair, and thus the word "chair''s existence would become essentially pointless. But, a table technically can be a chair. No matter your opinion on this example, that isn't the point, the point is that even words with clear and set in stone definitions can still have "grey areas" and their definitions can still be challenged. IMPORTANT NOTE: I am talking only about the STRICT definition of a "chair", not any contextual definitions. Contextual definitions are used to help classify what is what, avoid confusion, and make our lives easier by saying for example "this {insert word} is whatever looks like this" instead of "this word means". These are not the actual definitions of words in the second category. All words in the second category have a strict definition. Chairs have contextual definitions that make it obvious a table is not a chair, I am talking about the strict definition of a chair. This applies to this entire post too pretty much. (This example is not textbook accurate but just used to sum up what I mean, obviously this issue can be a bit more complex. Chairs can actually be quite complex lol. This is just for the point of showing what I mean though.) So, to sum up, just because there are stuff that is really hard to determine if they are K-Pop or not, does not mean K-Pop does not have a strict definition. Why does K-Pop fall into the second category? K-Pop has many contextual definitions, yet we can so confidently say that two seemingly opposite K-Pop songs are both K-Pop. Why is that? How can we all agree that "Magnetic" by Illit and "Chk Chk Boom" by Stray Kids are both K-Pop when the songs are nothing alike? Well first, the fact that we can agree that two songs with no actual related similarities are both K-Pop, that confirms that the songs have nothing to do with determining if something is K-Pop or not. This also applies to the language of lyrics. When your favourite group releases an all-English single, is that not K-Pop? of course it is. Why? because the group is K-Pop. It is music made by a K-Pop group. So that tells us whether something is K-Pop or not has to do with the group. But wait a second? Solo artists can be K-Pop too. So what makes something K-Pop? Also, not all Korean artists are K-Pop, and many non-Koreans are considered K-Pop, so that means you don't have to be Korean to be K-Pop. So what do K-Pop groups and K-Pop solo artists have in common? They are all idols. That is as far back as we can pull back the curtain... almost. You see, I, a Canadian with no Korean DNA or relations to Korea could become an idol... technically speaking. I can do everything an idol does if I want by myself. Me not being Korean or anything else does not stop me from doing this. Yet, if I started to do everything an idol does, nobody would consider me K-Pop. Why? We already established you don't need to be Korean to be an idol. This means that we CAN pull the curtains back even more on determining what K-Pop is. Well, what is the difference between me being and acting like a K-Pop idol and actual K-Pop idols? The only difference is that actual K-Pop idols are formed by K-Pop companies, part of the Korean music industry. And there we have it!! Our STRICT definition for K-Pop: Music that is a product of the Korean music industry. There are obviously contextual definitions for K-Pop still, but we have pulled the curtain all the way back and found out that there is a set in stone STRICT definition of what makes something K-Pop. There can and is still grey areas as we said before, but we can confirm that K-Pop does indeed have a strict definition and thus falls into the second category of words. Why this interpretation of the strict definition of K-Pop over the other one? If you noticed, you can actually derive two definitions for what K-Pop is, even when we pulled the curtains all the way back and found the one thing connecting all K-Pop. These are: K-Pop is music that is a product of the Korean music industry. K-Pop is music made by the Korean music industry. These may seem like the same things, but they are actually very different, and only one of them can be correct. When TWICE or any other of the many artists releases their Japanese album fully produced, distributed, and made by Warner Music Japan for example, a company not in the Korean music industry (I mean they do business with companies in the Korean music industry and follow some of their methods but you get what I mean), those are still K-pop. This means that K-Pop is any music that is a product of the Korean music industry (just like TWICE is a product of the Korean music industry), the music does not have to be MADE by the Korean music industry. Now with that cleared up... Why is Katseye K-Pop? Simple. Katseye is a product of the Korean music industry. That is undeniable. They were created to be idols and through the Korean idol method, the exact same one used to make other K-Pop groups, specific to Korea. It does not matter what they market themselves as, they are, in every stretch of the imagination, undeniably a product of the Korean music industry, even if you argue they may have left the Korean music industry. Now that is another fun debate, but the answer to it will not change that fact. Why it may be okay to not call Katseye K-Pop. This is also okay. If you want to use a contextual definition of K-pop, or a sub-definition of K-Pop, instead of the strict definition of K-Pop, that is perfectly okay, and may even be better. Contextual definitions are often more serviceable and useful than strict definitions, and under most contextual definitions, Katseye is not K-Pop. However, since the strict definition is the ACTUAL definition of any word that has one, as long as you meet the requirements to fit the strict definition, you are that thing. Even if you do not fit any contextual definitions. Therefore, since Katseye fits the strict definition of K-Pop, Katseye is indeed... K-Pop!! Thanks for reading! submitted by /u/SnooOranges829 [link] [comments]