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Sorry BoA, But Yes, This Means Epic Failure

by David Yi 25 March 2009 2 Comments E-mail David Yi

If you haven’t heard of BoA, no, not Bank of America (which we won’t blame you if you thought that–we did too) that’s probably because no one’s really heard of her outside of her home in South Korea and Japan.
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The 22-year-old pop star debuted her American self-titled album last week and attempted to become a globalized star.

But things are looking very shaky.

It’s very probable that SM, South Korean/Japanese pop princess, BoA‘s record label, will never see the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent toward the young starlet’s American debut ever again.

Her album has yet to make a big climb on any record chart, making the effort a considerable failure. The most recent chart she has been on is on Amazon where she currently sits idly at #112 and #69 on the rock charts despite the fact that her music is has nothing to do with the genre.

Image via THE POP FIX, 2009

Image via THE POP FIX, 2009

“I believe that Boa has a better chance of selling in the U.S. [long term], but I do not think she will ultimately be very successful,” Joey Carbone said via email to the LA Times. “The field of female solo artists doing that exact same type of track is so saturated, there’s no room for someone like Boa, a virtual unknown in the U.S. It’s just too difficult for her to distinguish herself against everyone else that do similar tracks.”

With marketing campaigns with mega clothing store, Forever 21, and ads all over Nylon’s website, well-known producers like Bloodshy and Avant (hitmakers for Britney Spears’ Blackout album) and collaborations with American artists like Flo Rida and Sean Garrett, the effort has proved to be, as far as record sales are concerned, a failure. Which is a shame, because BoA’s album is not half bad at all.

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Other Asian pop stars set to debut are Se7en later this month, and Utada Hikaru, who had her album listening party yesterday at Sephora in Los Angeles, in May.

Is America ready for Asian pop stars? If BoA’s any indication or foreshadowing, then Asians and Asian Americans have far ways to go.

2 Comments »

  • Denise said:

    Sad. Ayumi is the smart one for not trying to break into the market.

  • dk said:

    her album isn’t bad. but its missing BoA’s true essential voice.

    too much of the same ‘hypnotic’ beats are on her album and too much of the vocoder doesn’t help unless you’re selling like tpain or kanye.

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