So after all the hype, two videos, media interviews in English and performances in smaller venues as an iterative experiment on how to properly market a Korean pop star in the United States, BoA has finally released her self-titled English album this week on Amazon
Somewhere in South Korea, a bunch of executives had just finished going through a PowerPoint presentation where a marketer just explained in his politest Korean possible that to dominate the US music market you have to use S&M costumes, a vocoder Auto Tune, a token black guy and a lot of pouting.
But here’s the thing — the album is really good. Other Asian pop stars trying to conquer the US market had image problems; Coco Lee’s 1991 Just No Other Way was too adult contemporary, Utada’s 2004 Exodus was deemed too experimental. BoA management team seems to have a better idea of the image she’s trying to convey; the fact that she’s a spokesperson for Forever 21 – a store marketed for 15-30 year old women — gives you an idea of BoA’s marketing team. Singles like I Did it For Love are clearly meant to be for the R&B crossover market, while other singles like Did Ya and Touched is Brittneyesque in both its production and PG-13 sexiness. (And I’ll just come out and say it: the high production value and the use of Auto Tune plays down any concerns that people may have with her accent.) The only clear miss on her album is her English cover of Girls on Top; the clumsy lyrics translate poorly and lacks the intensity of her previous Korean hit.
All of that said, BoA’s latest album is a carefully constructed piece of American pop machinery full of heavy beats and synth tracks; hardcore BoA fans are going to love this album no matter what, and fans of pop music (Teenage girls! Gay men!) will find something to like as well. Whether BoA really becomes the first solidified Asian-born US popstar remains to be seen.
