South Korea K-Pop
Abby Fleming
What is K-pop?
K-pop (abbreviation of Korean pop; Hangul: 케이팝) is a genre of popular music originating in South Korea. While the modern form of K-pop can be traced back to the early 90s, the term itself has been popularized since the 2000s, replacing the term Gayo (가요), which also refers to domestic pop music in South Korea. This generally indicates "popular music" within South Korea, the term is often used in a narrower sense to describe a modern form of South Korean pop that is influenced by styles and genres from around the world, with influences for genres like rock, jazz, gospel, hip hop, R&B, reggae, electronic dance, folk, country, and classical on top of its traditional Korean music roots. The more modern version you’d hear all originated with the formation of one of the earliest K-pop groups, Seo Taiji and Boys, in 1992. Their experimentation with different styles and genres of music and integration of foreign musical elements helped reshape and modernize South Korea's contemporary music scene.
H.O.T
Modern K-pop "idol" culture began with the boy band H.O.T. in 1996, as K-pop grew into a multicultural genre that started an enormous fanbase of teenagers and young adults. After a slump in early K-pop, from 2003 TVXQ and BoA started a new generation of K-pop idols that broke the music genre into the neighboring Japanese market and continue to popularize K-pop internationally today.
Korean Wave
With the advent of online social networking services and Korean TV shows, the current spread of K-pop and Korean entertainment, known as the Korean Wave, is seen not only in East Asia and Southeast Asia, but also in India, Latin America, North Africa, Southern Africa, the Middle East and throughout the Western world, gaining a widespread global audience.
BTS
Kpop takes over
Blackpink
As of 2018, Blackpink is the highest-charting female K-pop act on both Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200, peaking at number 55 with "Ddu-Du Ddu-Du", and peaking at number 40 with Square Up, respectively. They are also the first and only K-pop girl group to enter and top Billboard's Emerging Artists chart. They are also the first female K-pop group to have four number-one singles on Billboard's World Digital Song Sales chart. At the time of its release, "Ddu-Du Ddu-Du" was the most-viewed Korean music video in 24 hours on YouTube, and in January 2019, it became the most viewed music video by a K-pop group on the website reaching 780,882,840 views with over 9 million likes
K-pop Scandle
But Is this Korean wave coming an end? If so why? A digital sex scandal that police say involves some of K-Pop's biggest stars has rocked the K-Pop world, leaving it facing a reckoning from which some believe it might not recover. In the past month, four major K-Pop idols have apologized or announced early retirement after being linked to a group chat in which members shared sexual videos of women who were allegedly filmed without their consent. On Thursday, singer Jung Joon-young was arrested in connection with the scandal.