English Pop Songs Turned Into K-Pop (ft. WAY Too Many SM Songs)

Ready to have your mind blown? From Bruno Mars to Taemin, and Katy Perry to BTS, there are a TON of K-Pop songs that came from English Pop samples, demos and more.

[HallyUKPop]

*Do you know any other K-Pop songs that sample English songs?*

[Miomena]

I have to correct at least two: Kesha only sang the Demo, it was never released but sold to SM. Sarah Connor's Under my Skin and Mirotic came out at the same time, they both bought the rights and agreed that Connor would perform it in the western side of the world and TVXQ in Asia. Some of the other songs were Demos, too, I think. Saara - You Think and maybe 4 Walls (but I am not sure). Call me Daddy was a Demo, too.
Anyway, this is not meant as hate but only as additional info! I know that this videos are a lot of work!

[thatannegirl]

Ngl, when I heard "Under my Skin"/"Mirotic" my jaw dropped.
Frankly, as long as SM payed for these songs fairly and included the proper credits in liner notes, their investment has paid off in spades. So many of these songs went from obscurity to iconic.

[cinnamorolllover]

SM be like: Let's buy demos from American artists cause we're rich.

[karinaspak]

Taemin and key both recently said that SM buys and collect songs. They have a lot to choose from when making an album, but the problem is that they lack lyricists to rewrite the song in korean. So, what they buy are english songs.

[NimoXhan]

BTS Outro Wings came out before Katy Perry Swish Swish. BTS Outro Wings was released February 13, 2017 while Katy Perry’s swish swish was released May 19, 2017.

[DREAM_TGTHER]

I guess to SM's defense, they picked a lot of unknown songs (essentially demos) to buy the rights to and made them more famous so it is a win-win all the way around.

[BrandyKpop]

I think SM just goes online to see what songs are for sale, buys the rights to what they like and has their producers make it an SM song....

[Darkangelike]

I just want to point out that buying rights for a song or using samples that are already famous is not a bad thing. If someone buys, then it means the other person agreed to sell. Also, if two artists buy the rights for the same song, in the end they will sound different. Same as when people do covers, you will just like one version better than the other (or maybe both).

Plagiarism is the only thing that is very bad.

[DiHiong]

11:19 Hold on. For Nathalie Makoma, it is the other way around. Girls’ Generation released tell me your wish (genie) in 2009. She bought the rights and released her version called I just wanna dance in 2010.

[TuffyGamingIsTheBest]

Here are the list of Kpop Songs
1:08 Into the New World
1:25 Love Train
1:42 Run Devil Run
2:00 Bbiriboom Bbaeriboom
2:19 One For me
2:38 Time Machine
2:57 Venus
3:16 Love is Energy
3:34 Daddy
3:52 Mirotic
4:11 Baby Maybe
4:31 Cherry Pop
4:50 Adrenaline
5:08 Bboom Bboom
5:27 Volume Up
5:45 Starry Night
6:03 Hot Summer
6:20 Dancing Queen
6:39 Juliette
6:59 Sober
7:18 Rock N Hiphop
7:36 They Never Know
7:45 Autumn Leaves
8:04 Forever or Never
8:23 How Great is your Love
8:41 Outro: Wings
8:59 Big Baby Baby
9:18 I’m so Hot
9:36 Someone Like Me
9:55 Echo
10:14 Ready or Not
10:33 This Love
10:51 Play
11:08 Do you Feel Me
11:27 Tell me your Wish
11:45 Hit Me
12:06 Beginning
12:25 4 Walls
12:44 Show Show Show
13:03 Ayo
13:22 Let it Rain
13:41 Baby Steps
14:00 No More
14:19 Scream
14:38 Your Name
14:57 Look Who’s Talking
15:15 Heroine
15:34 Sinner
15:54 Chain Reaction
16:13 Hello
16:32 Mr. Boogie
16:51 Dont Start Now
17:10 Virgin
17:29 Just Like That
17:48 I Got A Boy
18:07 Pinnochio
18:25 Spark
18:44 The Day You Went Away
19:03 Love Like Oxygen
19:22 Holler
19:41 Nothing Lasts Forever
20:01 You Think
20:20 Red Light
20:39 Lucifer
20:58 Mr Taxi
21:17 Knockout
21:37 Mistake
21:55 Call Me Baby
22:14 Sea of Moonlight
22:34 Oomm
22:56 All Night Long
23:14 Press your Number

[redshoesmatcha]

A lot of Songs sold to SM have English demos. SNSD has a lot of repurposed/remade songs SM bought. I love SNSD’s discography. Imo SM picked great songs and made most of them more iconic. SM bought Press It Demo by Bruno Mars and released Press Your Number for Taemin…it’s so good.

[janainaria]

Just wanna point out that for Mirotic / Under My Skin - they sold the rights for one to promote in the Asian market, the other European, so both are originals and neither is a remake. ✌️

[JulesM]

As a German Hot Summer always has me cracking up when I hear it because the original was SO BIG here 🤣🤣🤣
Funny that there were several other Monrose songs though. And Sarah Connor and even Cinema Bizarre. Very interesting lol

[danimarch]

When you realise half of Girl's Gen's discography is just remade western songs XD

[defscanvas]

Theres a lot of these that arent remakes perse, but samples or interpolations. Others just so happen to use the same splice sample sounds as the aformentioned “original”, where both songs purchased the rights to the splice sound (if it wasnt royalty-free)

[iCarma]

I actually love that SM does this, it's truly amazing to hear the demo and the finish product with all SM inputs on the songs! Their producers, lyrics and arrangers are talented af.

[BrandyKpop]

Run Devil Run was my introduction to Kpop! Saw the Kesha version first then GG and I was hooked!

[martincanga]

This just shows how western music and it's industry has such a huge influence in kpop and it's industry and some kpop fans just don't want to admit that, but it's just the truth.

[siyoungrho]

There is obviously a ton of context behind each song, but yeah, this is basically how the k-pop industry grew during this era. Either buying rights to obscure songs that went underneath everyone's radar or blatantly stealing thinking they could get away with it. Now with Youtube and many other outlets it has become more easier to catch up. It just comes to prove that K-pop has never been truly "Korean".
Though I am happy as a Korean for the amount of recognition that Korea has received due to K-pop, this is a harsh reality that Korea has to face. Even looking at the music producers in the modern age, most songs are composed by foreign artists. Korea really has to be honest and evaluate what truly constitutes "K-pop". Is it Korean composers writing their own songs, is it the pretty girls/boys performing, or is it just anything that came from a Korean label? Only when Korea is able to identify this issue is when we can truly market this genre with our heads held high.
The glitz and the glam is all good and I appreciate K-pop for elevating the Korean brand to be recognizable to the global audience, but now is the time where the industry re-evaluate where it started in or else it well fall into another wave of obscurity as the genre that just copied or relied on foreign artists to create a brand that was never truly earned.