[Anchor]

Recently, the "Brazilian funk" genre has been taking the K-Pop market by storm. Songs featuring intense and exotic rhythms are being released back-to-back. Let us take a listen to why rhythms from Brazil, on the other side of the globe, are so popular.

Reporter Kim Gyeong-hui has the details.

[Reporter]

Released in July, the new album by the group ATEEZ topped the Billboard 200, marking their third number-one album overall.

The title track "BAD" sparked a dance challenge craze and received an enthusiastic response domestically as well. It is classified as a dance track based on Brazilian funk.

Starting with NMIXX's "O.O" in 2022, the title track of ENHYPEN, who made a comeback on August 20 of last month, also incorporates the distinctive rhythm of Brazilian funk.

[Kim Do-heon / Music Critic: (Among popular music from Brazilian slums,) there are very wild and aggressive rhythmic patterns, such as beating on cans or stomping feet. These have combined with American hip-hop and electronic music to establish themselves as music with a very unique rhythm.]

Entering the 2020s, the genre became known to the public as it was used as background music for overseas short-form content. It gained widespread attention in the global pop market following global pop star The Weeknd's 2024 release, "São Paulo."

For K-Pop, which looks toward the global market, this is a trend that cannot be ignored.

[Kim Do-heon / Music Critic: I think the Brazilian funk music currently heard in K-Pop is refining that wild rhythm originating from the Brazilian slums into a very sophisticated form of idol pop.]

In K-Pop, where performance is one of the key elements, exotic rhythms have high utility, and various variations based on this genre are expected to continue being attempted.

(Video Editing: Yoon Tae-ho, Video Sources: KQ ENTERTAINMENT, THEBLACKLABEL, JYP ENTERTAINMENT, HYBE LABELS, YouTube The Weeknd, TikTok@ATEEZ, TikTok@Leejung Lee)