Forget BTS and Blackpink, it’s time for Q-pop from Kazakhstan – the new cultural phenomenon to rival K-pop
- Qazaq pop – or Q-pop, as it’s also known – is a pop music genre that has a growing number of male heartthrobs and sultry female singers
- Leading the way is boy band Ninety One, with their 2019 track Men Emes getting more than 12 million views on YouTube
Melodramatic music videos, slick dance routines and edgy street fashion: you’d be forgiven for thinking you’re watching a new K-pop group. Then you notice something is different: that spitfire rap verse and heart-wrenching chorus isn’t being sung in Korean, but Kazakh.
Qazaq pop – or Q-pop, as it’s more commonly known – is a genre that bears striking similarities to K-pop with its heartthrob boy bands, smouldering female soloists and all. It might not yet possess the same cultural cachet as K-pop, but Q-pop is making waves in Kazakhstan.
Leading the charge is boy band Ninety One. Their 2015 debut song, Ayptama, features the five members – all suitably shaggy-haired and chiselled – glowering at the camera as they bemoan a fickle lover over a peppy EDM track.
Later, they bust out a choreographed dance routine in an empty car park. It’s a reliable K-pop formula if there ever was one – member Ace was even a former trainee at K-pop titan SM Entertainment.
But it’s in their recent songs that Ninety One really started fleshing out the Q-pop formula, such as on the lead track from their 2019 album of the same name, Men Emes.