K-pop

Entering in the 21st century, K-pop took not only the country, but the world by storm—a phenomenon also known as the “Hallyu Wave”. International success of the industry led to the emergence of giant entertainment corporations. Companies like SM, YG, JYP, Cube are known as entertainment factories that create, perfect, and toss out boy bands and girl groups. But the sudden influx of groups inevitably leads to competition. The industry has turned into an arena that hosts a game of who can whip out the best looking, skinniest, most talented group the fastest. Plastic surgery is a common weapon used by entertainment companies to get a head start on the race. Young boys and girls aspiring to be stars of the Hallyu wave are forced to sign contracts—ultimately binding themselves as mere puppets of these big businesses. Companies direct their every movement, course of action, and even how they look like through strenuous diets and facial operations. As K-pop claimed more prominence on the international stage, the power it had on South Korea’s customs, trends, and thoughts rapidly amplified. Marketing a certain beauty aesthetic, the industry indirectly commands South Korean citizens to fit to the specific mold and tells aspiring artists…

culture “obsession” would be Korean popular culture. K-pop is and abbreviation of Korean pop, which is a music genre, originated from South Korea. K-pop can be a phenomenon, however, it can also be a subculture, where Asian pop would be the phenomenon and k-pop is the subculture. My interest began when I first heard K-pop songs while I was buying milk tea. Korean music is different from the music in America. In my opinion, the Korean artists have unique musical and performances styles, which are…

One can safely say that the Hallyu wave of Korean pop culture, specifically K-pop and K-dramas have taken off throughout Latin America. Scholarship has recently conducted research on different aspects surrounding the landing of the Korean wave in Central and South America, and this paper will attempt to piece them together to create one cohesive narrative of the spread of Korean culture throughout the region. It will also somewhat focus on the countries of Peru and Brazil, where the effects of…

Since the late 1990's, South Korean popular culture entered the global market via its television series better known as K-drama. The export of Korean dramas sparked off a palpable craze for Korean cultural commodities in early 2000. This popular cultural phenomenon known as the Korean Wave or Hallyu has seen a surge in interest in Korean culture especially through the study of the Korean language and understanding of the culture through travel. In this essay I would like to shed light on how…

heading to a dorm room or the stiff back chairs of the study rooms. We share one of the larger coffee tables even though there are enough coffee tables for each of us and start to study quietly. By 1:40 pm, our things are spread across the lobby and till that point we stayed in deep, quiet study, each doing our own thing. Amanda was reading her book; Katherine was writing a paper; I was studying for anatomy. Even with having a ton of work to do, our minds keep losing focus. I got most of my…

As it increasingly becomes more popular in other countries, there seems to be a switch that is different from Westernization. This is defined as “the social process of becoming familiar with or converting to the customs and practices of Western civilization” (LaBellea 70) and normally associated with European being at the top of the list but accompanied in the increase of popularity of South Korean culture outside the country of origin, many people are trying to emulate a non—Western version of…

At the time, she was a fan of kpop, especially the group Girls’ Generation. Listening to that song ended up influencing my undying k-pop obsession. In the end, I became an even more intense kpop fan than she ever was. Besides introducing me to kpop, Keziah introduced me to many things involving music that influenced my love for that it. While attending West Leyden, she was a part of the Leyden Orchesis. Especially during Orchesis season, she’d often come to my house to practice on her own since…

Today, my topic is about Korean drama. Korean drama is very popular in the world, especially in Asia. l am very interested in this phenomenon. According to my research, it can be divided into three types------middle-aged women, teenagers and sociologists. The first type is middle-aged women. Middle-aged women like to watch Korean drama. We should analyze the common characteristics in this age. Middle-aged women’s ages are between 35 to 55, and this type can continue to be divided into two…

for K-Pop began years before Psy ever erupted onto the American pop music scene with his ever so popular song “Gangnam Style”. To be exact, I have been a long time fan of the genre for roughly seven years now and am still to this very day an avid listener and fan of K-Pop. As a young fourteen-year-old at the time, I remember wanting to search for new music to listen to and had discovered K-Pop music videos largely by accident by simply clicking on recommended videos on YouTube. One of the many…

Most of these triggers were boredom, and when I don’t have anything to do, the first option that comes to my mind is watching a Korean show. Another trigger I noticed that lead me to watching Korean media was being constantly reminded that there are new episodes coming out for a show that I had to discontinue for this project through advertisements and friends. I only identified one high risk situation during this experience, which was being aware that one of my friends was watching a Korean…