South Korea’s Journey to International Pop Culture
There are two categories of culture: folk and popular. Folk culture is local, and it has anonymous places of origin. On the other hand, popular culture is so large that it can span across many countries, and it often has traceable origins. A prime example of something that has become popular culture over time is South Korean pop, or K-pop.
K-pop originated in 1992 when a three-member electronic hip-hop act, Seo Taiji and Boys, performed on a nationally televised talent show. Although the young men lost the show, their song “I Know” immediately rose to the top of the nation’s charts and stayed there for seventeen weeks, for their new sound captivated Koreans.
By the mid-nineties, South Korea’s entire musical and performance industry had been drastically changed. Other artists were inspired by Seo Taiji’s group to experiment with different sounds and styles. Music studios were also formed and were swept into the scene. Studios assembled “idol groups” and massively promoted them. The first official idol groups were made up of singers and dancers who dressed in trendy clothes and starred in flashy music videos.
Once pop music truly began to flourish in South Korea, it began to diffuse contagiously online. K-pop’s first breakthrough in the U.S. was in 2012 when Psy’s “Gangnam Style” became the first YouTube video to reach a billion streams. The song was largely considered a meme-driven gimmick; nevertheless, it was a milestone in K-pop history.
K-pop’s second breakthrough did not occur until BTS, a boy group consisting of seven members, rose to fame. Previously, no artist from Korea, including Psy, was able to make a dent in American culture. The group was formed in 2013, and by 2017, they were breaking records unheard of for Asian artists. Their music video for their title track “DNA” took just twenty-four days to hit 100 million views. They also became the first Korean act to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Not only did their U.S. fanbase grow immensely during this time, so did other countries. In fact, this year BTS sold out Wembley Stadium in London in 90 minutes, and the arena can hold 90,000 people.
All this goes to show that BTS have become immensely popular, and in the process they have made it easier for other K-pop groups to get more around the world. In conclusion, K-pop demonstrates how something can become popular culture over time because it originated in the small country of South Korea, where it developed and flourished, and then it spread via the internet and celebrity culture to other parts of the world.
