This one has people confused, including us! We even tagged this article both under “Japanese” and “Korean,” to be safe.
XG, short for ‘Xtraordinary Girls’, is one of the girl groups that’s seemingly on everyone’s radar, especially after the recent release of their third single, “Shooting Star,” last January 25, 2023, the song that arguably cemented them on the world stage.
XG is composed of an all-Japanese line-up: Jurin, Chisa, Hinata, Harvey, Juria, Maya, and Cocona. The girl group has already 3 single albums up their sleeve, having debuted just last year with their track, “Tippy Toes”.
With this girl group currently on the rise, XG has got Koreans, as well as international fans thinking: are they a K-Pop group or a J-Pop group?
On their official website, XG does not brand themselves as either one—rather they consider themselves as a “global” girl group that aims to empower young people from all over the world, from all walks of life.
Their profile begins with, “A 7-member HIPHOP/R&B girl group…”, which supports their claim of not wanting to be labeled as either K-Pop or J-Pop. However, K-pop listeners have other opinions on this.
On the one hand, some K-pop enthusiasts consider XG as a J-Pop group for these reasons: one, they’re being handled by Japanese entertainment conglomerate Avex, and two, all of their members are Japanese.
On the other hand, others consider the 7-member girl group as a K-Pop group for these reasons: one, they’re promoting on South Korean music shows; two, they speak Korean to communicate with their fans; and three, their label is XGALX, a subsidiary of Avex and is headed by DMTN’s Simon.
Amidst the debate regarding the “label” to be put on XG, XGALX’s CEO Simon (Jakops) himself put everything to rest in an Instagram post on XG’s official Instagram account.
He had laid out the following points in the Instagram post:
XG’s agency is XGALX
XGALX, according to CEO Simon, is a combination of XX (feminine dyed body) and GAL (cool woman), and is focused on content that respects progressive, cultural diversity and relativity that isn’t tied to a particular nation and culture.
K-Pop or J-Pop?
No, XGALX CEO Simon says (hehe) that despite all of XG’s artists being Japanese, they still want to present their music and performance to the public around the world without any prejudice or regulations surrounding region, language, etc. They have also employed multinational staff to boost their international presence.
Why doesn’t he [Simon] write Korean lyrics when doing activities in South Korea?
To introduce XG into the global market, their singing language and lyrics are delivered in English—the world’s most widely used language. While they do communicate to their fans mostly in Korean, they are currently in the process of creating content that caters to all fans.
XGALX CEO Simon ended the post by saying, “XG is an artist who truly loves music based on cultural diversity and global sensibility,” and asked fans to give lots of love and encouragement to the girl group.
So, in short, regardless of how people want to label XG or their nationality, it should be made clear that they are a “global” girl group. Okay, so technically, it doesn’t answer the question in the headline, but hey–we’re here to see the girls of XG make it big worldwide!
Other POP! stories that you might like:
XG releases first futuristic teaser of the newest single ‘SHOOTING STAR’
BTS Jungkook’s reason for his ‘social media hiatus’ is deeply relatable
Twice snags ‘Breakthrough Artist’ award at the 2023 Billboard Women in Music Festival
