There’s nothing quite like K-pop. It’s a level of polish that’s not seen in Western music —or any other market—and has become a phenomenon in itself, turning Korea into a pop culture juggernaut and one of the country’s biggest cultural export.
South Korea is the world’s seventh-largest music market, according to the trade body International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. The undeniably catchy tunes, well-dressed, coordinated groups, perfectly choreographed dance routines, and photogenic young stars are garnering a mass appeal.
Korean pop music is a mashup of styles and genres adjusted and catered to suit a particular group’s concept, ranging from cute, hip-hop, retro, youth, sexy, and much more. It’s a full entertainment pop package that involves choreographies, music videos, music program performances, comeback trailers, social media interactions, and variety show appearances that all loyal K-pop fans keep track of and follow.
K-pop was noted to have been influenced by Seo Taiji and Boys, a boy group that changed the Korean music industry crediting their sociopolitical and innovative lyrics, experimental genres, dance moves, and trendy styles in 1992.
Now, South Korea’s major entertainment agencies such as HYBE, SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, and YG Entertainment have produced some of the country’s most popular and iconic acts like BIGBANG, Rain, 2pm, 2NE1, TVXQ!, H.O.T, Epik High, ZEROBASEONE, IU, BoA, Red Velvet, and g.o.d.
Popular groups like BTS, BLACKPINK, NewJeans, Stray Kids, TWICE, and SEVENTEEN are taking over the music scene and gaining a global following, with YouTube playing a vital role in the growth of K-pop globally.
Korean pop star Psy drew attention with his 2012 viral hit ‘Gangnam Style,’ which became the first video to surpass two billion views on YouTube with his horse-riding dance.
However, behind the glitzy surface to the road of K-pop stardom isn’t for the faint-hearted. Once idol wannabes successfully pass exhaustive auditions in Korea, they go through daily, robotic training, which includes endless repetition of learning dancing, modeling, language, and singing, for an undetermined amount of time in highly-regulated Korean entertainment agencies.
Before debuting as perfectly-groomed idols, agencies then decide on their acts’ visual concept and music by carefully hand-picking and placing young trainees into groups, consisting of talents specializing in dancing, rapping, and singing in order to appeal to a wide range of audience.
K-pop groups are known to be micro-managed by their companies and refrain from getting involved in any scandals, including romantic relationships, that might tarnish their squeaky-clean image in the tightly-controlled, multi-billion-dollar entertainment industry.
With every group comes a fanbase, who are a major component behind their success and do everything they can to make the public and industry take notice of their favorite idols. K-pop bands each have fanclub names with personalized light sticks and official fandom colors, and not to forget saesangs, referred to as over-obsessive fans known to take their love of idols in a creepy, and often, illegal level.
K-pop acts are also seen making multiple comebacks each year by releasing Korean and Japanese discographies, which are often crafted by international and Korean songwriters aimed at attracting listeners from around the world.
The Korean music industry suffered many slings and arrows from the Western press before record-breaking boy group BTS showed up and paved the way for more K-pop acts to enter the notoriously difficult American market, from winning at prestigious music awards shows in the US to charting high on the Billboard charts.
Although it has been criticized as a manufactured-pop factory, K-pop is still a niche in the music market and the number of listeners is still steadily growing, even regionally.