Today, Korean Pop music has evolved greatly since
the start, which was in the 18th century. Ever since the beginning, K-Pop was
greatly influenced by the Japanese during their rule over Korea. After Korea
was liberated from Japan and divided into two nations: North Korea and South
Korea, the US troops remained in South Korea for protection. With the continued presence of the U.S. military, American and world
culture began to infiltrate South Korea. Many singers also sang for the
troops in Korea at the time. Soon enough, DJs became popular, and Korean music
started adapting to American music such as rock, rap, and techno.
The most popular Korean band at the start of 2012 was Girls’ Generation.
They preformed on American talk shows that included Live! With Kelly, and The
Late Show With David Letterman. Being the first Korean musical act to perform
on each show, Girls’ Generation debut, Twinkle was peaked at #136 on the
Billboard 200, becoming the highest charting K-Pop album on the chart so far.
Thanks to the rise of social media networks today, K-Pop has the ability to not
only extend to the Western world, but to be able to globalize.
| Girls' Generation- GEE |
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US President Barack Obama has noted the rapid surge and spread of Korean pop culture. During an official visit to South Korea in March 2012, he praised South Korea’s youth for their tech-savviness and optimism, and remarked:
"It’s no wonder so many people around the world have caught the Korean Wave -- hallyu" America’s influence on the Korean music industry has also been beneficial for America. In fact, several K-Pop songs contain English snippets in them. Artists in the West also take a few things from K-Pop. For example, listen to Eun Ji Won’s song titled Dangerous.
Sounds familiar? Maybe it reminded you of the song Dangerous by Akon:
Both have been influenced by each other. I personally like the Von’s
version more, mainly because I’m not a big fan of Akon. K-Pop has the ability
to add it’s own characteristics to American songs. That’s the cool part about
it. Korean artists branch off into their own type of pop. The difference
between American artists and Korean artists is that Korean artist’s popularity
is not based so much on charts and album sales, but more on fan enthusiasm and
Internet interest. This helps the artist know what is working for them and what
is not.
In my opinion, I enjoy listening to K-Pop. It brings out my old passion
for N-SYNC and Brittney Spears! America’s influence on K-Pop has helped K-Pop
become more global and has been exposed much more than before. K-Pop has been around
for a while, but the official break out moment was when PSY released his
popular song Gangnam Style, which we all know so well. He has also preformed in
the AMAs, AMERICAN music awards. Pretty cool huh? Americans have also made a Halloween
costume out of PSY, which was really popular this year. I think it’s pretty
cool to see all these cultures interact through music.
Work Cited: Brooks, James. "Hall of Game." Pitchfork. N.p., 2 Nov. 2012. Web. 21 Nov. 2012. <http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/8700-to-anyone-the-rise-of-korean-wave/>. Lee, Youyoung. "Justin Bieber Harem Pants: Singer, Psy, MC Hammer Rock Drop-Crotch Pants At AMAs (PHOTOS)." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 19 Nov. 2012. Web. 21 Nov. 2012. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/19/justin-bieber-harem-pants-psy-mc-hammer-amas_n_2159760.html>. "What Does the United States Think of Girls' Generation?" CNN Travel. N.p., 3 Feb. 2012. Web. 21 Nov. 2012. <http://travel.cnn.com/seoul/play/what-will-us-think-girls-generation-481595>. |
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