The K-Pop/U.S. Music Connections You Never Knew Existed
Grammy snub aside, the staggering success of "Gangnam Style" became the story that nobody expected -- one billion Youtube hits, instant worldwide fame and, perhaps the most important outcome of all, K-pop's long overdue recognition in the States.
K-pop's seemingly overnight introduction to the American music scene is actually far from accurate. While Psy is the first Korean artist to achieve a mainstream hit in the U.S., the rapper is not the first to be associated with an American musician. For example, his labelmates, Big Bang, are buddies with Ludacris and Flo Rida, while K-pop R&B singer Se7en goes way back with Fabolous, Lil Kim and Amerie.
To show just how deep Korea's ties to U.S. artists run, we charted Korean-American collabos that slipped under everyone's radar these past few years.
Did any connections surprise you? Anything we missed? Let us know!
4m
4m
41m
3m
27s
3m
3m
2m
20m
3m
4m
1m
1m
2m
3m
20m
1m
2m
4m
2m
42s
4m
7m
2m
3m
3m
3m
1m
3m
2m
3m
3m
2m
23m
17m
3m
59s
1h 13m
3m
27s
2m
24s
5m
1m
21m
8m
2m
3m
2m
4m
1m
2m
4m
2m
4m
4m
4m
1m
1m
4m
3m
4m
3m
3m
4m
56s
7m
4m
3m
1m
3m
5m
1m
2m
3m
4m
6m
2m
3m
1m
2m
1m
20m
20m
20m
20m
8m
10m
3m
4m
1m
1m
2m
1m
5m
2m
3m
20m
20m
3m