Intro to K-Pop

For those of you who are completely new to K-Pop… Welcome!

First, I will try to clear any misunderstandings that some of you may have about K-Pop. For most of you, when you think K-Pop, you will probably automatically think, “not those crazy Asians.” You might even have an image of a group of badly dressed Asians with heavy makeup, doing those weird dances of theirs. Strike a chord with you?

However, there’s always more than meets the eye, even with K-Pop. If you haven’t guessed already, K-Pop stands for Korean pop, a genre of music that not only includes pop music, but dance, electronic, hip hop, and R&B music from South Korea. In general, K-Pop pertains to Korean contemporary music, mainly from the 21st century.

I think what’s most different about the K-Pop industry, compared to the American music industry, is its whole structure. The majority of K-Pop artists, as you will see, are music groups of 5-10 members (on average), which is very unusual in the music scene here. Most K-Pop bands are created by big music companies that recruit the members through a series of rigorous auditions. For the most part, these companies are in control of everything – the bands’ music, image, etc. Therefore, they usually get most of the profit. However, as the bands span a period of time, and gains enough experience, the companies usually start to let the bands have some control, in terms of the members’ individual images, and sometimes, selection of their music.

One aspect of K-Pop that foreigners (especially Americans) often seem to misunderstand is the general K-Pop culture. Take boy bands, for example. They were all the rage in the U.S. during the late ’90s and early 21st century, as seen with the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync. Since then, the hype has gone down, with mostly solo artists that are famous in the music industry today. Only now have boy bands started to gain attention, like the rising popularity of boy bands such as One Direction and Big Time Rush. It has been the complete opposite for Korea. For most of the history of popular Korean music, solo acts were typically the norm. But ever since the ’90s, big groups (especially boy bands) have taken over the music scene.

SHINee, the epitome of a K-Pop boy band.

I think it’s very interesting how the music industries in both Korea and the U.S. had a surge of boy bands in the ’90s, and while the hype died down in the U.S., it remains all the rage in Korea. Either the Koreans did a better job with the whole concept, or the general Korean audience seems to have a particular liking for boy bands. In my opinion, boy bands have both its pros and cons, where the best thing about it is the classic “No, Minho is the best!” and “My Teukie has the best abs.” However, it does have its cons, as there’s a certain restriction as to what kind of songs the group will perform, and the fact that your bias doesn’t get as much face time as you wish. Only true K-Pop fans will fully understand this dilemma.

But enough joking around, let’s get back to the whole point of this post. Most of you probably still don’t think very highly of K-Pop, or at least don’t like it much. And, I completely understand! Everyone has their own preferences, especially in music, and K-Pop might not be for everyone. But I hope, after reading this post, some misunderstandings about K-Pop have been cleared, or at least you learned a little something about K-Pop. Because that’s mainly the only reason I keep this blog, for you guys! And, my obsession with K-Pop…