A Blackjack, who goes by the YouTube username Azarathsflamee, was caught off-guard recently when she heard her jam 2NE1's "I Am the Best" blasting on a US radio station. She wasn't caught off-guard because of the novelty of hearing 2NE1 on an American radio station but because the song was censored.
As hardcore and intense as 2NE1's electro tune "I Am the Best" is, K-Pop fans know that it's not a song that has a reason to be censored. In the clip above, Azarathsflamee explains, however, that the radio station bleeps out the song's "nae-ga"s and "nee-ga"s in some places, while in other places it weirdly leaves the "nae-ga"s and "nee-ga"s alone.
I guess censoring the "nae-ga"s and "nee-ga"s--which mean "I" and "you" respectively in Korean--kind of makes sense, since these words can sound like a very provocative term to unfamiliar ears . But hey, at least keep the editing consistent!
2NE1's "I Am the Best" was heard playing on a Boston radio station called AMP Radio 103.3. Although the video states that the song was heard on the 28th, AMP Radio only lists 2NE1's song on their October 27th playlist as shown below.
User Azarathsflamee ends the video by asking her viewers in subtitles, "Should or shouldn't they have edited it?" As great as it is to hear K-Pop on foreign radio, some radio stations might feel that some K-Pop songs need to be edited for those unfamiliar with the Korean language. At the same time, "naega" and "nega" are actually harmless words in Korean, and treating them as if they're provocative terms might be misrepresenting the language and the songs themselves.
K-Pop fans, what do you think?