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The rise of k-pop, and what it reveals about society and culture.

Initially a musical subculture popular in South Korea during the 1990s, Korean Pop, or K-pop, has transformed into a global cultural phenomenon.

Characterized by catchy hooks, polished choreography, grandiose live performances, and impeccably produced music videos, K-pop — including music by groups like BTS and BLACKPINK — now frequently tops the Billboard charts, attracts a fiercely dedicated online following, and generates billions of dollars.

Yale sociologist Grace Kao, who became fascinated with the music after watching a 2019 performance by BTS on Saturday Night Live, now studies the subgenres of K-pop and its cultural, sociological, and political effects.

Kao, the IBM Professor of Sociology and professor of ethnicity, race, and migration in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and director of the Center on Empirical Research in Stratification and Inequality (CERSI), recently spoke with Yale News about the kinds of research her interest in K-pop has prompted, why the genre’s rise has been important to so many Asian Americans, and why she urges today’s students to become familiar with various musical genres.

The interview has been edited and condensed.

You have said that watching BTS on Saturday Night Live changed your view of K-pop. How did that performance transform your interest in K-pop from a personal one into an academic one?

Grace Kao: I saw that performance, and it stayed in the back of my mind. Then, when we were on lockdown because of COVID, being stuck at home set the stage for having time to watch more K-pop videos. At first, I was just watching them for fun. I knew K-pop was something important, but I didn’t know anything about it. I thought “I should educate myself on this.” My current research collaborator, Wonseok Lee [an ethnomusicologist and a musician at Washington University], and a Yale graduate student, Meera Choi, who’s Korean, offered guidance.

I’ve always been interested in race and ethnicity and Asian Americans. I knew in my gut that K-pop was important, but it was hard to figure out exactly how I could work on it, since I’m a quantitative sociologist. What's fun about being a researcher and being in academia is that we can learn new things and push ourselves. I think that’s the best part of this job.

Grace Kao recommends this playlist to get started.

When I started working on it, I tried to learn without having a clear research question. Then, along with my collaborator, Lee, we started thinking about papers that we could work on together. I was also able to take first-semester Korean, so now I can read Korean, and Choi and I can begin working on different research papers.

What kinds of research are you doing?

Kao: One paper is about the link between ’80s synth-pop and very current K-pop. Others have argued that K-pop borrows heavily from American Black music — R&B, hip hop, and so forth. And it’s true, but we’re arguing that K-pop has links to all these different genres because the production is much faster. We also finished another paper looking at the links between New Wave synth-pop to Japanese city pop [which was also popular in the 1980s] and a Korean version of city pop. And we’re probably going to start a reggae paper next.

In another project, with two data scientists we’re looking at Twitter data related to a 2021 BTS tweet that happened about a week after a gunman in Atlanta murdered eight women, including six of Asian descent. The tweet, which was about #StopAsianHate, or #StopAAPIHate, was the most retweeted tweet of the year. Everyone in that world knows that K-pop is extremely influential, but there are moments now where it seems like it’s ripe for political action because fans are already really organized. We’re looking at how the conversation about the shootings before and after they tweeted changed. The analysis involves millions of tweets, so it's very data intensive work.

Last March you gave a talk on campus in which you talked about the role of K-pop in “transformative possibilities for Asian Americans.” What is an example of those possibilities?

Kao: Partly it’s just visibility. The SNL performance by BTS was really important for people. Especially people my age, we had never seen a bunch of East Asian people on the stage singing in a non-English, non-Western language. I knew that was an important moment regardless of whether or not you like the music or the performance.

I think during COVID, BTS made Asian faces more visible. They were on the cover of Time magazine, every major publication. They were everywhere. But it also brought up questions of xenophobia. People were making fun of them because of how they looked. At the time there was also the extra baggage that comes with being Asian. But any time BTS were attacked, because their fandom is so big and so passionate, their fans would jump on anyone who did anything to them. Then journalists would cover it, and suddenly there were all these stories about how you shouldn’t be racist against Asians.

Many of us who study Asian Americans have observed over time that it often seems acceptable for people to make fun of Asian things. Just by virtue of the fact that it’s [BTS], that their fans are protecting them, and that that gets elevated to the news is a big deal. President Biden invited them to the White House. These are all things I would have had trouble imagining even just five years ago.

You teach a first-year seminar, “Race and Place in British New Wave, K-pop, and Beyond,” which focuses on the emphasis on aesthetics in both genres’ popularity. What understanding do you hope students walk away with?

Kao: I want students to take pop culture very seriously. Sometimes pop music seems not serious, but so many people consume it that it can have pervasive and serious consequences on how people see folks of different race, ethnic, gender, and national identities.

Another thing I wanted students to learn about is genres of music. Students today like music, but they consume it very differently than people did when in college. We listened to the radio or watched MTV, so we were fed something from a DJ or from actual people who were programming the content. You’d end up listening to a lot of music that you didn’t like, but you’d also have a better sense of genres than students now. Today students consume music through Spotify or YouTube and so forth, which use algorithms to give you songs that are similar to the songs you liked, but not necessarily from the same genre. Students can have diverse and wide-ranging experiences with music, but I found that they have trouble identifying that any particular song is part of a genre. So I feel like it’s important for them to listen to a lot of music.

I want them to consume it because sometimes we think we can comment on things that we don’t know anything about. We don’t actually consume it. I think it’s important for students to walk away knowing something about these genres and to be able to identify them: this is a reggae song, this is a ska song, this is synth-pop, et cetera.

What K-pop groups are you currently into?

Kao: Besides BTS, I enjoy listening to groups such as SEVENTEEN, ENHYPEN, NewJeans, Super Junior, and new group TRENDZ.

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How K-pop became a global phenomenon

No country takes its fluffy pop music more seriously than South Korea.

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They call it Hallyu, the Korean wave: the idea that South Korean pop culture has grown in prominence to become a major driver of global culture, seen in everything from Korean dramas on Netflix to Korean skincare regimens dominating the cosmetics industry to delicious Korean tacos on your favorite local menu. And at the heart of Hallyu is the ever-growing popularity of K-pop — short, of course, for Korean pop music.

K-pop has become a truly global phenomenon thanks to its distinctive blend of addictive melodies, slick choreography and production values, and an endless parade of attractive South Korean performers who spend years in grueling studio systems learning to sing and dance in synchronized perfection.

Hallyu has been building for two decades , but K-pop in particular has become increasingly visible to global audiences in the past five to 10 years. South Korean artists have hit the Billboard Hot 100 chart at least eight times since the Wonder Girls first cracked it in 2009 with their crossover hit “Nobody” — released in four different languages, including English — and the export of K-pop has ballooned South Korea’s music industry to an impressive $5 billion industry .

Now, with South Korea hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang at a moment of extremely heightened geopolitical tensions , K-pop has taken on a whole new kind of sociopolitical significance, as South Korea proudly displays its best-known export before the world.

How did K-pop become a $5 billion global industry?

Vox explore K-pop’s elaborate music videos, adoring fans, and killer choreography for our Netflix series Explained .

Watch now on Netflix.

What the Winter Olympics’ opening and closing ceremonies told us about K-pop (and vice versa)

During the Olympic opening ceremonies on February 9, 2018, athletes marched in the Parade of Nations to the accompaniment of a select group of K-pop hits , each playing into the image South Korea wants to present right now: one of a country that’s a fully integrated part of the global culture.

The Parade of Nations songs all have significant international and digital presences, and each advertises the cross-cultural fluency of K-pop. Twice’s “Likey” is a huge recent hit for the group, and recently made it to 100 million views on YouTube faster than any other song by a K-pop girl group. (The video prominently features the girls on a fun field trip to Vancouver, marketing the idea that they’re at home all over the world.) Big Bang’s “Fantastic Baby” was one of the first K-pop hits to make inroads in American culture and was featured on Glee’ s K-pop episode along with “Gangnam Style,” which also played during the Parade of Nations.

Psy’s ubiquitous 2012 hit is part doofy comedy and part clear-eyed satire, made by a musician who’s part of a wave of South Korean musicians who’ve studied at American music schools. “Gangnam Style” spent five years racking up more than 3 billion views on YouTube, reigning as the most-viewed video in the platform’s history before being dethroned in 2017.

As a whole, these songs and performers show us that K-pop stars can excel at everything from singing to comedy to rap to dance to social commentary. And their fun, singable melodies make it clear that the South Korean music industry has perfected the pop production machine into an effervescent assembly line of ridiculously catchy tunes sung by ridiculously talented people in ridiculously splashy videos. When Red Velvet sing, “Bet you wanna (bet you wanna) dance like this” in their single “Red Flavor,” they’re sending a message to the world that South Korea is modern but wholesome, colorful, inviting, and fun.

And at the Olympics closing ceremonies, we saw live performances from two more K-pop icons: solo artist CL, formerly a member of the powerhouse girl group 2NE1, and multi-national band Exo. CL’s appearance was a testament to her success in achieving one of the holy grails for K-Pop — a crossover into US fame, or at least onto the Billboard Hot 100. CL has landed on the list twice since 2015.

Exo, meanwhile, is arguably one of the two or three biggest K-Pop successes going right now. The band was a perfect fit for the Olympics — they’re multilingual and were formed with the intention of performing in Mandarin and Japanese as well as South Korea. And for several years, Exo was split into two subgroups, one performing mainly in Korea and one mainly in China. All of this made them a great choice to serve as a symbolic transition between nations, as Tokyo gets ready to host the 2020 Summer Olympics, followed by Beijing hosting the Winter Olympics in 2022.

Prominently missing from the live performance roster at the Olympics was the most popular K-pop band in the universe at the moment: BTS. BTS became an uncontested US phenomenon in 2017, with two songs hitting the Billboard Hot 100, a huge performance at the American Music Awards, a New Year’s Eve performance in Times Square, and a remix of their latest single, “Mic Drop,” done by Steve Aoki. If it’s possible to ascribe a tipping point to a “wave” that seems to be endless, BTS might be it; it certainly seems that the all-boy group has gone as far as a South Korean band can go in terms of making inroads into American culture — they recently graced the cover of American Billboard magazine. But while the band was missing from the Olympics, their song “DNA” — the other of their pair of 2017 hits — did at least play during the opening ceremonies, much to the delight of fans.

None of this is accidental. K-pop has become the international face of South Korea thanks to an extremely regimented, coordinated production system. More than any other international music industry, K-pop has been strategically designed to earworm its way into your brain — and to elevate South Korea and its culture onto the world stage.

How did we get here? Through a combination of global political changes, savvy corporatization and media management, and a heck of a lot of raw talent being ground through a very powerful stardom mill.

K-pop began in 1992 with one electric hip-hop performance

K-pop as we know it wouldn’t exist without democracy and television — specifically, South Korea’s reformation of its democratic government in 1987, with its accompanying modernization and lightening of censorship, and the effect this change had on television.

Prior to the establishment of the nation’s Sixth Republic , there were only two broadcast networks in the country, and they largely controlled what music South Koreans listened to; singers and musicians weren’t much more than tools of the networks. Networks introduced the public to musical stars primarily through weekend music talent shows. Radio existed but, like the TV networks, was under tight state control. Independent music production didn’t really exist, and rock music was controversial and subject to banning ; musicians and songs were primarily introduced to the public through the medium of the televised talent show, and radio served as little more than a subsidiary platform for entertainers who succeeded on those weekend TV competitions.

Before the liberalization of South Korean media in the late ‘80s, the music produced by broadcast networks was primarily either slow ballads or “trot,” a Lawrence Welk-ish fusion of traditional music with old pop standards. After 1987, though, the country’s radio broadcasting expanded rapidly, and South Koreans became more regularly exposed to more varieties of music from outside the country, including contemporary American music.

But TV was still the country’s dominant, centralized form of media: As of 1992, national TV networks had penetrated above 99 percent of South Korean homes, and viewership was highest on the weekends, when the talent shows took place. These televised talent shows were crucial in introducing music groups to South Korean audiences; they still have an enormous cultural impact and remain the single biggest factor in a South Korean band’s success.

As Moonrok editor Hannah Waitt points out in her excellent series on the history of K-pop, K-pop is unusual as a genre because it has a definitive start date, thanks to a band called Seo Taiji and Boys. Seo Taiji had previously been a member of the South Korean heavy metal band Sinawe , which was itself a brief but hugely influential part of the development of Korean rock music in the late ‘80s. After the band broke up, he turned to hip-hop and recruited two stellar South Korean dancers, Yang Hyun-suk and Lee Juno, to join him as backups in a group dubbed Seo Taiji and Boys. On April 11, 1992, they performed their single “Nan Arayo (I Know)” on a talent show:

Not only did the Boys not win the talent show, but the judges gave the band the lowest score of the evening. But immediately after the song debuted, “I Know” went on to top South Korea’s singles charts for a record-smashing 17 weeks, which would stand for more than 15 years as the longest No. 1 streak in the country’s history.

“I Know” represented the first time modern American-style pop music had been fused with South Korean culture. Seo Taiji and Boys were innovators who challenged norms around musical styles, song topics, fashion, and censorship. They sang about teen angst and the social pressure to succeed within a grueling education system, and insisted on creating their own music and writing their own songs outside of the manufactured network environment.

By the time Seo Taiji and Boys officially disbanded in 1996, they had changed South Korea’s musical and performance landscape, paving the way for other artists to be even more experimental and break even more boundaries — and for music studios to quickly step in and take over, forming an entire new studio system from the remnants of the broadcast-centered system.

Between 1995 and 1998, three powerhouse music studios appeared: SM Entertainment (often referred to as SM Town) in 1995; JYP Entertainment in 1997; and YG Entertainment in 1998, created by one of the members of Seo Taiji and Boys, Yang Hyun-suk. Together, these studios began deliberately cultivating what would become known as idol groups.

The first idol group in South Korea appeared on the scene in 1996, when SM founder Lee Soo-man created a group called H.O.T. by assembling five singers and dancers who represented what he believed teens wanted to see from a modern pop group.

H.O.T. shared traits with today’s idol groups: a combination of singing, dancing, and rapping, and disparate personalities united through music. In 1999, the band was chosen to perform in a major benefit concert with Michael Jackson, in part because of their potential to become international pop stars — an indication that even in the ’90s, the industry was attuned to K-pop’s potential for global success.

That potential can be seen in the studios’ eager promotion of multilingual artists like BoA , who made her public debut at the age of 13 in 2000 and in the ensuing years has become one of South Korea’s best-known exports thanks to a brand built on raw talent and multicultural positivity.

All the while, K-pop as a whole was building its own brand, one based on flash, style, and a whole lot of quality.

Don’t ask what makes a K-pop song. Ask what makes a K-pop performer.

There are three things that make K-pop such a visible and unique contributor to the realm of pop music: exceptionally high-quality performance (especially dancing), an extremely polished aesthetic, and an “in-house” method of studio production that churns out musical hits the way assembly lines churn out cars.

No song more perfectly embodies these characteristics than Girls’ Generation’s 2009 hit “Gee,” a breakout success that came at a moment when K-pop was starting to turn heads internationally due to a number of recent milestone hits — notably Big Bang’s “Haru, Haru,” Wonder Girls’ “Nobody,” and Brown Eyed Girls’ “Abracadabra.” “Gee” was a viral internet earworm , breaking out of typical K-pop fan spaces and putting Girls’ Generation within striking distance of US fame.

The combination of cheeky, colorful concept, clever choreography, cute girls, and catchy songwriting makes “Gee” the quintessential K-pop song: It’s fun, infectious, and memorable — and it was all but algorithmically produced by a studio machine responsible for delivering perfect singing, perfect dancing, perfect videos, and perfect entertainment. The then-nine members of Girls’ Generation were factory-assembled into the picture-perfect, male-gaze-ready dolls you see in the song’s music video via extreme studio oversight and years of hard work from each woman — a combined 52 years of training in total, beginning in their childhoods.

Through highly competitive auditions, starting around ages 10 to 12, music studios induct talented children into the K-pop regimen. The children attend special schools where they take specialized singing and dancing lessons ; they learn how to moderate their public behavior and prepare for life as a pop star; they spend hours in daily rehearsals and perform in weekend music shows as well as special group performances. Through these performances, lucky kids can gain fan followings before they even officially “debut.” And when they’re old enough, if they’re really one of the lucky few, the studios will place them into an idol group or even, occasionally, launch them as a solo artist.

Once an idol group has been trained to perfection, the studios generate pop songs for them, market them, put them on TV, send them on tour, and determine when they’ll next make their “comeback” — a term that usually signals a band’s latest album release, generally accompanied by huge fanfare, special TV appearances, and a totally new thematic concept.

Because of the control they exert over their artists, South Korean music studios are directly responsible for shaping the global image of K-pop as a genre. But the industry is notoriously exploitative , and studio life is grueling to the point that it can easily cross over to abusive ; performers are regularly signed to long-term contracts, known as “slave contracts,” when they are still children, which closely dictate their private behavior, dating life, and public conduct.

The studios are also a breeding ground for predatory behavior and harassment from studio executives. In recent years, increasing public attention to these problems has given rise to change; in 2017, multiple studios agreed to significant contract reform . Still, as the recent suicide of Shinee artist Kim Jong-hyun revealed, the pressures of studio culture are rarely made public and can take a serious toll on those who grow up within the system.

Despite all this, the cloistered life of a K-pop star is coveted by thousands of South Korean teens and preteens — so much so that walk-in auditions to scout kids for the studio programs are frequently held in South Korea and New York.

In addition to studio auditions, a wave of new TV audition shows have sprung up in the past few years, giving unknowns a chance to be discovered and build a fan base. Often called idol shows or survival shows, these audition shows are comparable to American Idol and X-Factor. Competitors on these shows can make it big on their own or be grouped up — like the recently debuted group JBJ (short for the fan-dubbed moniker “Just Be Joyful”), consisting of boys who competed in the talent show Produce 101 Season 2 last year and then got put in a temporary group after fans started making composite Instagram photos of them all together. The band only has a seven-month contract; enjoy it while it lasts!

These TV-sponsored idol shows have caused pushback from the studios, which see them as producing immature talent — and, of course, cutting into studio profits. That’s because a K-pop group’s success is directly tied to its live TV performances. Today there are numerous talent shows, along with many more variety shows and well-known chart TV countdown shows like Inkigayo and M Countdown, which factor into how successful — and therefore bankable — a K-pop idol or idol group is seen to be. Winning a weekend music show or weekly chart countdown remains one of the highest honors an artist or musical group can attain in the South Korean music industry.

Because of this dependence on live performance shows, a song’s performance elements — how easy it is to sing live, how easy it is for an audience to pick up and sing along with, the impact of its choreography, its costuming — are all crucial to its success. Groups routinely go all-out for their performances: Witness After-School learning to perform an entire drumline sequence for live performances of their single “Bang!” as well as pretty much every live performance mentioned here .

All of this emphasis on live performances make fans an extremely active part of the experience. K-pop fans have perfected the art of the fan chant , in which fans in live studio audiences and live performances will shout alternate fan chants over the musical intros to songs, and sometimes as a counterpoint to choruses, as a show of unity and support.

This collectivity has helped ensure that K-pop fan bases both at home and abroad are absolutely massive, and intense to a degree that’s hard to overstate. Fans intensely support their favorite group members, and many fans go out of their way to make sure their favorite idols look and dress the part of world-class performers . K-Con, the largest US K-pop convention, has grown exponentially over the years and now includes both Los Angeles and New York.

(There are also anti-fans who target band members — most notoriously an anti who attempted to poison a member of DBSK in 2006. But the less said about them, the better.)

You might expect that in the face of all this external pressure, K-pop groups would be largely dysfunctional messes. Instead, modern-day K-pop appears to be a seamless, gorgeous, well-oiled machine — complete with a few glaring contradictions that make it all the more fascinating.

Modern K-pop is a bundle of colorful contradictions

Though government censorship of South Korean music has relaxed over time, it still exists, as does industry self-censorship in response to a range of controversial topics. South Korean social mores stigmatize everything from sexual references and innuendo to references to drugs and alcohol — as well as actual illicit behavior by idols — and addressing any of these subjects can cause a song to be arbitrarily banned from radio play and broadcast. Songs dealing with serious themes or thorny issues are largely off limits, queer identity is generally only addressed as subtext, and lyrics are usually scrubbed down to fluffy platitudes. Thematically, it’s often charming and innocent, bordering on adolescent.

Despite these limitations, K-pop has grown over time in its nuance and sophistication thanks to artists and studios who have often either risked censorship or relied on visual cues and subtext to fill in the gaps.

Case in point: the 2000 hit “Adult Ceremony” from singer and actor Park Ji-yoon, which marked the first time a K-pop hit successfully injected adult sexuality into fairly innocuous lyrics, representing a notable challenge to existing depictions of femininity in South Korean pop culture.

The women of K-pop are typically depicted as traditional versions of femininity. This usually manifests in one of several themes: adorable, shy schoolgirls who sing about giddy crushes; knowing, empowered women who need an “oppa” (a strong older male figure) to fulfill their fantasies; or knowing, empowered women who reject male validation , even as the studio tailors the group’s members for adult male consumption.

An idol group’s image often changes from one album to the next, undergoing a total visual and tonal overhaul to introduce a new concept. However, there are a few girl groups — 2NE1 and f(x) spring most readily to mind — that have been marketed as breaking away from this gender-centric mode of performance; they’re packaged as rebels and mavericks regardless of what their album is about, even while they operate within the studio culture.

Yet the women of K-pop are also increasingly producing self-aware videos that navigate their own relationships to these rigid impositions. Witness Sunmi, a former member of Wonder Girls, tearing down her own carefully cultivated public image in her recent single “Heroine,” a song about a woman surviving a failed relationship. In the video, Sunmi transforms physically , growing more empowered and defiant as she faces the camera and finally confronts a billboard of herself.

If songs for women in K-pop break down along the “virgin/mature woman” divide, songs for men tend to break down along a “bad boy/sophisticated man” line. Occasionally they even break down in the same song — like Block B’s “Jackpot,” the video for which sees the band posing as wildly varied members of a renegade circus, uniting to kidnap actress Kim Sae-ron into a life of cheerful hedonism.

Male performance groups are generally permitted a broader range of topics than K-pop’s women: BTS notably sings about serious issues like teen social pressures, while many other boy bands feature a wide range of narrative concepts. But male entertainers get held to arguably even more exacting physical and technical standards than their female counterparts, with precision choreography — like Speed’s all-Heely dance routine below — being a huge part of the draw for male idol groups:

If you’re wondering whether co-ed bands coexist in these studio cultures, the answer is, not really. Most of the time , co-ed groups tend to be one-off pairings of members from different bands for one or two singles, or novelty acts that are quickly split into gendered subgroups. The most famous actual co-ed band is probably the brother-sister duo Akdong Musician, a pair of cute kids who made it big on an audition show; and even they get split up a lot to pair with other singers. (See the “Hi Suhyun” clip above, which features Lee Hi and the sisterly half of AM, Lee Su-hyun.)

It probably goes without saying that this traditional gender divide isn’t exactly fertile ground for queer idols to thrive. Despite a number of K-pop stars openly supporting LGBTQ rights, the industry aggressively markets homoeroticism in its videos but remains generally homophobic. But progress is happening here, too: South Korea’s first openly gay idol just appeared on the scene in early 2018. His name is Holland, and his first single debuted to a respectable 6.5 million views.

Hip-hop tends to be a dominant part of the K-pop sound, particularly among male groups, a trend that has opened up the genre to criticism for appropriation. South Korea grapples with a high degree of cultural racism, and recent popular groups have come under fire for donning blackface , appropriating Native American iconography , and much more . Still, K-pop has increasingly embraced diversity in recent years, with black members joining K-pop groups and duo Coco Avenue putting out a bilingual single in 2017.

Last but not least, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention South Korea’s emergent indie music scene , which includes a thriving crop of independent rap, hip-hop, and, increasingly, R&B artists , as well as a host of grassroots artists who’ve made waves on SoundCloud .

Taking stock of all these changes and paradoxes, we might be able to extrapolate a bit about what the future of K-pop looks like: even more diverse, with an ever-increasing number of independent artists shaking up the studio scene, even though most of them will still have to play within the system’s rigid standards.

This gradual evolution suggests that part of the reason K-pop has been able to make international inroads in recent years is that it’s been able to push against its own rigid norms, through the use of modern themes and sophisticated subtexts, without sacrificing the incredibly polished packaging that makes it so innately compelling. That would seem to be a formula for continued global success — especially now that South Korea and its culture has the world’s attention. Hallyu may swell or subside, but the K-pop production machine goes ever on. And from here, the future looks fantastic, baby .

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K-Pop: Unveiling Its Discourse Community and Influence

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K-pop as a discourse community, reflection and conclusion.

• everyone in the community shares the same goal of supporting and enjoying the new products of the music groups
• a distinct vocabulary that is unique to its members.
• Anderson, J. (2013). An exploration of K-pop fandom in Mexico City. Kritika Kultura, 20, 49-62.
• Bae, J. S., & Lee, S. J. (2018). “The Power of K-pop”: Examining the Influence of the South Korean Popular Music Industry in East Asia. Asian Journal of Communication, 28(5), 518-532.
• Galbraith, P. W. (2012). ‘Worlds that could not be’: Utopia, allegory, and avatar in contemporary Japanese and Korean pop culture. Asian Studies Review, 36(3), 283-297.
• Jang, Y. J., & Paik, W. K. (2012). Korean wave as tool for Korea’s new cultural diplomacy. Advances in Applied Sociology, 2(4), 306-311.
• Lee, H. Y., & Koo, J. H. (2018). Gangnam Style and Hybridity: The Globalization of K-Pop. The Palgrave Handbook of Popular Culture as Philosophy, 425-444.

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Korean Popular Culture: Attractiveness and Popularity Proposal Essay

Introduction, topic for investigation, research questions, rationale for research, works cited.

Korean popular culture can be discussed as a strong tool of soft power because of the high attractiveness and popularity of this culture in the world. Thus, the topic selected for further close examination and research is Soft Power: Korean Pop Culture. The purpose of this proposal is to introduce the topic of the project, present central questions to research, discuss the reasons for choosing the topic, and describe methods for studying the phenomenon.

Modern Korean popular culture is a product of combining national features and the impacts of other cultures, including both regional and Western ones. As a result of this hybridity, Korean culture is viewed as less nationally specific but more adapted to attract the representatives of other cultures (Jung 3). Therefore, being discussed in the context of soft power, Korean popular culture succeeded in spreading its values regarding music, media, cinema, and food. K-pop was developed as a genre of Korean popular music that became interesting to the world audience because of mixing Asian and Western elements (Shim 40). Thus, transcultural and transnationalization in relation to Korean pop culture became the result of globalization.

Media also played a significant role in spreading Korean popular culture in Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, and Taiwan and then in winning fans in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other Western countries. This sharing of Korean cultural products became possible by means of YouTube and other social media, as well as the spread of television dramas (Jung 3; Shim 26). Food is another cultural aspect that attracted young Westerners because of the active promotion of Korean cuisine abroad (Cwiertka 364). All these points need to be investigated in detail to determine how Korean popular culture is used within the soft power strategy of South Korea.

The following research questions need to be addressed in the context of studying the discussed topic:

• How did globalization and transcultural flows influence the development and spread of Korean music, media, and food in Asian and Western countries?
• What is the role of Korean popular culture in affecting the views of young Asians and Westerns?
• What is the role of modern Korean popular culture as a soft power tool in influencing the global audience’s attitudes toward and perceptions of South Korea?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Korean Wave and the popularity of Korean culture worldwide for social, economic, and international courses of South Korea?

Recently, Korean popular culture has become recognized as a specific sociocultural phenomenon that affected not only Asian countries but also the Western world. The unique spread of values and elements of Korean culture has become known as the Korean Wave (Joo 490). The current popularity of Korean music, television dramas and shows, and food are so high in Asian and Western countries that this phenomenon requires further investigation.

Thus, Korean pop culture seems to have a significant impact on young generations all over the globe (Jung 6). Consequently, there is a need to investigate how this popularity of Korean culture developed and what effects it has on the public attitude toward South Korea in the world. The spread of Asian values mixed with Western ones in the context of Korean culture has positive effects on increasing the country’s status and attracting tourists, but there are also risks associated with this situation. All these aspects need to be studied in detail in the context of this project.

To investigate the topic and answer the research questions, it is necessary to apply for a literature review as a research method in this project. The review, synthesis, analysis, and interpretation of recent studies on the topic of Korean popular culture and the idea of soft power are important steps to examine available data on the problem. Synthesis, analysis, and interpretation of the gathered data allow for responding to the research questions. It is also possible to conclude about the role of Korean popular culture in forming public attitudes toward South Korea in the context of the popularity of its media, food, and music.

Such sources as peer-reviewed articles, scholarly books, and articles representing experts’ opinions will be used for collecting required data for further review and analysis. The example of a source to review includes the work by Kim and Nye, in which they discuss how South Korea can use the Korean Wave to increase the attractiveness of the country (4). One more important article to read is the study by Joo, who examined the concepts of transnationalization and pop nationalism with reference to the culture in South Korea.

Additionally, the study by Yoon and Jin examines how Korean popular culture is perceived in the Western world, referring to the example of Canada. The other works also provide important details regarding the spread of Korean culture globally (Cwiertka 364; Jung 3). The application of a literature review approach allows for investigating the topic with reference to the most credible sources in the field.

Korean popular culture attracting both Asians and Westerners is a phenomenon that requires further investigation. This proposal has represented the topic of the planned research with a focus on its importance. The research questions guiding the investigation of Korean popular culture and the reasons for this study have also been provided. Finally, the discussion of the methods and literature appropriate for analyzing the topic has also been included in this proposal.

Cwiertka, Katarzyna J. “The Global Hansik Campaign and the Commodification of Korean Cuisine.” The Korean Popular Culture Reader , edited by Kyung Hyun Kim and Youngmin Choe, Duke University Press Books, 2014, pp. 363-384.

Joo, Jeongsuk. “Transnationalization of Korean Popular Culture and the Rise of ‘Pop Nationalism’ in Korea.” The Journal of Popular Culture , vol. 44, no. 3, 2011, pp. 489-504.

Jung, Sun. “Korean Popular Culture and Transcultural Consumption: Globalized Desires between ‘Ours and Others’.” Korean Masculinities and Transcultural Consumption: Yonsama, Rain, Oldboy, K-Pop Idols , edited by Sun Jung, Hong Kong University Press, 2010, pp. 1-34.

Kim, Youna, and Joseph Nye. “Soft Power and the Korean Wave.” South Korean Popular Culture and North Korea , edited by Youna Kim, Routledge, 2019, pp. 1-20.

Shim, Doobo. “Hybridity and the Rise of Korean Popular Culture in Asia.” Media, Culture & Society , vol. 28, no. 1, 2006, pp. 25-44.

Yoon, Kyong, and Dal Yong Jin. “The Korean Wave Phenomenon in Asian Diasporas in Canada.” Journal of Intercultural Studies , vol. 37, no. 1, 2016, pp. 69-83.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2022, May 11). Korean Popular Culture: Attractiveness and Popularity. https://ivypanda.com/essays/korean-popular-culture/

"Korean Popular Culture: Attractiveness and Popularity." IvyPanda , 11 May 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/korean-popular-culture/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'Korean Popular Culture: Attractiveness and Popularity'. 11 May.

IvyPanda . 2022. "Korean Popular Culture: Attractiveness and Popularity." May 11, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/korean-popular-culture/.

1. IvyPanda . "Korean Popular Culture: Attractiveness and Popularity." May 11, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/korean-popular-culture/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Korean Popular Culture: Attractiveness and Popularity." May 11, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/korean-popular-culture/.

• Korean Popular Culture: Problem Statement
• Korean Popular Culture and the Selling of Place by Youjeong Oh
• Studying K-Pop: The Cultural Meaning
• The Impact of Korean Popular Music
• Soft Power of South Korean Culture
• Asian Studies: K-Pop in Japan and in the World
• Korean Popular Culture and Western Influences
• Gender Bias in K-Pop: Gender Bias in Korean Society
• Korean Popular Culture and National Identity
• The Future of the Korean Wave Study by Jin & Yoon
• Japanese Society: Factors Affecting the Cultural Development
• Diet and Lifestyle of Italians
• Classical Music: Cultural Consumption and Cultural Diversity
• How Italy Protects Its Identity
• Culture and Self-Expression: Traditional Clothing of Muslims

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KPoP vs American PoP - Compare and Contrast Essay

Comparing korean and american pop in one essay.

With so many writing assignments in college, students have to learn how to write each paper type properly. This article will be helpful for anyone who prefers not to order an essay paper (although it seems too tempting, especially with the speedypaper discount code used), but write it on their own. If you have such an interesting topic as a comparison of Korean and American pop, let's try to do it together.

How to come up with a compare and contrast music essay 

Sometimes you wish you had someone who could do homework for you , but in fact, it is much interesting to come up with a great essay, especially at such great topic as comparing American and Korean pop music. So instead of having to pay for your essay , follow these guidelines and make sure you proofread it before handing in:

1. Understand the topic

After the Korean artist, Psy has released his famous hit, Korean pop music has gained some popularity. Many people explored this genre and often compared it with American alternatives. Thus, the topic of kpop vs American pop comparison becomes pretty relevant. Many listeners are new to the Korean pop music genre, so in your essay, you will have to provide an explanation of this term and give some examples (it would be great to mention something besides Gangham style). Describe the language aspect and name a few famous artists and their compositions from both sides;

2. Understand the purpose

The main goal of this paper is to study and analyze both subjects by constantly comparing and contrasting them. The secret of a great essay of this type lies in not stating the obvious facts but rather find unexpected similarities or subtle differences. Korean and American music perfectly fits here: even being so related, it still has many things to be discussed. Keep the basic structure starting with a thesis, introduce both genres, and then go for the main body giving the main information. Finalize everything with a strong conclusion, but don't repeat the same points;

3. Spot the differences

As this is a compare and contrast music essay, you may base your paper either on similarities or differences. The last one is always more effective, so we suggest starting with it. Be ready to bring the main differences describing Korean music vs American music. For example, you can mention the selection process (when labels choose artists based on their natural talent or nationality), trainee system (how long artists are with the company before they form a group), and the skill sets (personal characteristics). You can also discuss such important topics as career lifespan in Korea and the US, songwriting process, label loyalty and album language choosing (sometimes Korean artists record their songs in Japanese and Chinese as well which is also an interesting aspect);

4. Key takeaways

Don't forget that your essay should seem professional, academic, and logical. Make sure you read all relevant information on both topics to properly compare them, that you don't state obvious things just for word count and that your paper has a proper structure with a clear statement and phrases of comparison. Every paragraph of your essay should contain one idea not to mix readers up; there should be smooth transitions between paragraphs and a solid finishing statement to draw a conclusion. 

We hope that these tips were helpful in writing a comparative essay in Korean and American music.

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Home / Essay Samples / Music / Kpop / The Development And Popularization Of K-pop Internationally

The Development And Popularization Of K-pop Internationally

• Category: Music
• Topic: Kpop , Music Industry

Pages: 3 (1474 words)

• Downloads: -->

References:

• https://sites.psu.edu/alinpassion/2018/09/06/the-beginning-of-kpop/
• Mukasa, Edwina (December 15, 2011). 'Bored by Cowell pop? Try K-pop'. The Guardian. London. Retrieved January 25, 2013. The result, according to a survey conducted by the Korean Culture and Information Service, is that there are an estimated 460,000 Korean-wave fans across Europe, concentrated in Britain and France, with 182 Hallyu fan clubs worldwide boasting a total of 3.3m members.
• 'Winners from the 21st Seoul Music Awards'. Allkpop. January 19, 2012. Retrieved January 1, 2013.
• Mahr, Krista (March 7, 2012). 'K-Pop: How South Korea's Great Export Is Rocking the World'. Time. Retrieved September 17, 2012.
• 'Official Fan Clubs and Fan Colors'. Kpop Lists. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
• Cha, Hyunhee. 'A Study on K-POP Strategy: Focused on Digital Music Environment and Social Media'. International Information Institute. 17: 911–917.

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