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For years, K-pop and Western music rarely crossed paths. K-pop singer Eric Nam has said that growing up in Atlanta, K-pop was not easily accessible, and his early heroes were Korean boy groups he watched on rental tapes. At an age when YouTube did not yet exist, seeing acts like Shinhwa perform on Korean music shows showed him that Asians could be pop stars too. Today, that Atlantic gap is closing fast. With BTS and BLACKPINK now permanent fixtures on the Billboard 200, a whole generation of K-pop artists has crossed over into the Western mainstream on their own terms. Here is our watchlist of the artists who first broke that ground.
Eric Nam, the bilingual host turned global pop singer
Eric Nam grew up between Atlanta and Seoul, and that double identity sits at the center of his career. A viral YouTube cover led to an invitation from MBC and a run on Star Audition: Birth of a Great Star 2, which became his ticket into the Korean music industry. From there, he built a parallel reputation as a host of K-pop Daebak with Eric Nam and the former face of After School Club, interviewing everyone from Emma Stone to Robert Downey Jr. His upbeat electro-pop single "FLOAT" was featured in Sony Pictures' Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, and his first all-English EP, Before We Begin, marked a deliberate pivot toward U.S. listeners. Nam has spoken openly about wanting Asian artists to be signed for their talent, not as a novelty bet, and his own catalog has steadily made that case song by song.
Jackson Wang, the GOT7 rapper building a global solo brand
You probably know Jackson Wang as the Hong Kong-born rapper of JYP Entertainment's GOT7. What you may not know is just how aggressively he has built a parallel life outside the group. Fluent in Korean, Cantonese, Mandarin and English, he splits his year between Seoul and mainland China while releasing solo singles, designing fashion under his Team Wang label, and chasing the global pop charts. Tracks like "Papillon" and the trap-flavored "Oxygen" set up his pivot to an English-language project, Journey to the West, which he positioned as a U.S. crossover album. By the time he covered Vogue Singapore as the magazine's first solo male cover star, Jackson had effectively become the template for K-pop soloists who treat Asia, North America and Europe as a single market rather than separate stops.
Amber Liu, f(x)'s rapper gone full international singer-songwriter
Amber Liu is a Taiwanese-American singer, songwriter, rapper, YouTuber, director and brand ambassador for Nike and L'Oreal's Redken line. There is not much she cannot do. She is best known as the rapper of SM Entertainment's K-pop girl group f(x), but since 2015 she has released solo music on her own terms in both English and Korean. After growing up in Los Angeles, she was cast by SM at sixteen, which left her unusually fluent in both languages and cultures. Her 2018 mixtape Rogue Rouge came with a music video for every track, each song deeply personal and almost all of them in English, giving her international audience, the Embers, a more direct line to her than her f(x) era ever did.
MONSTA X, K-pop's hardest-working U.S. crossover boy group
Starship Entertainment's MONSTA X has been hustling since the day they were assembled on the 2015 reality show No.Mercy. Shownu, Wonho, Minhyuk, Kihyun, Hyungwon, Joohoney and I.M are all comfortable in English, and the group has leaned into that strength to make a meaningful run at the U.S. market. They became the first K-pop group to perform on the Jingle Ball Tour, popped up on Cartoon Network's We Bare Bears, sat down with Good Morning America, and worked with Steve Aoki on "Play It Cool" before pairing with French Montana for the moody dance single "Who Do U Love?" Their Monbebes fanbase is everywhere, and the group has made a habit of livestreaming North American tour stops, including a Staples Center show on the WE ARE HERE World Tour beamed worldwide on Naver V Live.
Tiffany Young, the SNSD member chasing a U.S. solo career
Korean-American Tiffany Young, formerly Tiffany Hwang, was signed to SM Entertainment at fifteen and built her name as a member of the legendary Girls' Generation (SNSD). In 2015 she made her solo debut while still under SM, and then left the company to pursue an English-language career based largely in the United States. Since then she has studied acting, covered "Remember Me" from Pixar's Coco, released her first U.S. single "Over My Skin," fronted H&M's fall 2018 campaign, and became the first female K-pop artist to walk the red carpet at the American Music Awards in 2018. She also took home Best Solo Breakout at the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards. Her EP Lips on Lips and singles like "Born Again" and "Magnetic Moon" lean toward classic pop balladry inspired by Mariah Carey, with lyrics she co-writes herself.
Henry Lau, the violinist-rapper redefining the trilingual album
Henry Lau is a Canadian singer, rapper, beatboxer, dancer, composer and actor most famous for dancing while playing the violin. Pushed into classical music by his parents, he was on the verge of Juilliard when he auditioned for SM Entertainment at seventeen and ended up debuting in 2007 with Super Junior, then with the China-focused subunit Super Junior-M. His 2013 solo single "Trap" made him SM's first solo male artist in over a decade. In 2018 he left SM to open his own studio, Henry Workshop, signing with Monster Entertainment and AXIS so he could chase a truly international career. His Hollywood debut came in 2019 in A Dog's Journey alongside Josh Gad and Dennis Quaid, and he has openly described his music goals as trilingual: English, Korean and Mandarin all on one album.
LAY Zhang, EXO's Chinese member turned global crossover star
LAY Zhang is a Chinese singer-songwriter, producer, dancer, author, philanthropist and actor, best known as a member of SM Entertainment's boy group EXO and its sub-group EXO-M. He has both composed and written for EXO across multiple albums. In 2015 he established his own company to handle his solo activities, then made his solo debut in 2016 with a record that landed in the Top 5 of Billboard's Top World Albums chart. He made his U.S. festival debut at Lollapalooza after a remix with Norwegian DJ Alan Walker, then released the bilingual Namanana, designed so English versions could broaden his reach while Mandarin versions kept building exposure for Mandopop. Collaborations with Far East Movement, Jason Derulo and SM's NCT 127, followed by his Honey EP, have kept his solo project firmly aimed at a global audience.
DEAN, the R&B prince who debuted in the U.S. first
DEAN, sometimes called the "R&B prince of Asia," is a deliberately unusual K-pop figure. Before debuting as an artist he was a songwriter for EXO and other stars under the name "Deanfluenza," a nod to James Dean's understated swagger and to his ambition of going "viral." His sound is moody alternative R&B that often skips the K-pop format entirely. He actually debuted in the United States first, in July 2015, with "I'm Not Sorry" featuring Eric Bellinger, then released "Pour Up" with Block B's Zico in Korea, which won Best R&B and Soul Song at the Korean Music Awards. In 2016 he became the first Asian artist to perform at Spotify House at SXSW, and TIME magazine grouped him with CL and Eric Nam as one of the K-pop names pushing into the U.S. mainstream.
NCT 127, SM's neo-pop subunit conquering U.S. arenas
If you do not know NCT 127, you almost certainly know NCT or one of the other subunits. "NCT" stands for "Neo Culture Technology," the umbrella concept SM Entertainment built so the group could expand without limit, and "127" is the longitude coordinate of Seoul. The Seoul-based subunit debuted in 2016 and has settled around ten members: Taeil, Johnny, Taeyong, Doyoung, Yuta, Jaehyun, WinWin, Jungwoo, Mark and Haechan. Their first full-length album, Regular-Irregular, dropped in 2018 with an English version of the title track and a U.S. TV debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live. They went on to perform alongside Mickey Mouse on Mickey's 90th Spectacular, kick off their Neo City world tour, feature on Jason Derulo's "Let's Shut Up & Dance" with LAY, and appear on Good Morning America and The Late Late Show with James Corden.
What the next wave of K-pop crossover looks like
The artists above share a pattern: they treat language as an entry point rather than a barrier, and they refuse to choose between Asia and the West. That choice is exactly what made BTS and BLACKPINK possible, and it is what makes the next crossover wave so interesting. Whether you favor Eric Nam's pop polish, Jackson Wang's high-fashion swagger, or LAY's bilingual chart play, the takeaway is the same. K-pop is no longer just a Korean phenomenon. It is a global one, and these are some of the artists who built the road.
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