”Peanut butter jelly time”: Non-standard English Features in 4th Generation K-pop Bands’ English Lyrics

Abstract

As Korean popular music (K-pop) continues to grow its global popularity, the use of English in the lyrics of K-pop bands increases. This study investigates the phenomenon of the use of non-standard English in K-pop lyrics and simultaneously, aims to explore whether the presence or absence of L1 English speakers in self-produced K-pop groups influence the use of non-standard English in lyrics production. The theoretical framework of the study draws on the definitions of standard and non-standard English as well as the structure of English used by Korean EFL speakers.

Twenty K-pop songs released between 2024–2025 by the 4th generation K-pop groups Stray Kids and I-dle were used as data for this study, and both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis were utilized in the examination of the data. The English lyrics in each song were examined qualitatively and all identified tokens of non-standard English quantified and classified into various types of non-standard English. The distribution of the results was then compared between Stray Kids and I-dle, and the possible influence of the presence and absence of L1 English speakers in each group’s lyricism considered.

The study found a total of 376 tokens of non-standard English that were classified into 16 different categories with ambiguous instances grouped separately. At least two types and four instances of non-standard English were found in each song, showcasing the prominence of non-standard English in K-pop lyrics. Out of the 376 tokens, 58,5% appeared in I-dle’s lyrics while 41,5% appeared in Stray Kids’ lyrics, and differences in the types of non-standard features between the groups were detectable. The study concluded that lyrics written by EFL speakers in K-pop often featured characteristics of Koreanized English while lyrics produced by L1 English speakers were little to not at all influenced by the linguistic differences between Korean and English.