A BRIEF HISTORY OF K- POP
When did K- pop come popular?
Musical acts made up of seductive and talented youthful people have been a dependable form for success for decades. One Direction reigned in 2010, the battles between Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera defined pop music in the ’90s, and New Kids On The Block was an ‘ 80s acid- marshland teen dream. But on November 19, 2017, the K- pop band BTS took to the AMA stage for their first- everU.S. performance and shook the American music assiduity.
BTS would go on to set the record for utmost Twitter engagements, grace the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine, record with Lil Nas X on Old Town Road( Seoul Town Road Remix), sing carpool Karaoke, and solidify their transnational stardom. The Korean Wave that started in the ‘ 80s eventually crested over the United States.
It’s been four times since BTS performed at the AMAs and burst into the American mainstream. But it would be a injustice to the kidney to say that K- pop started when BTS burst on the scene.
What's K- pop?
K- pop or Korean Pop is the internationally popular, aesthetic- driven, style- bending, trendsetting, music kidney of the 21st century.
Originating in South Korea, K- pop draws influence from a range of stripes like pop, experimental, gemstone, hipsterism- hop, R&B, electronic, and cotillion .
The variety of influences is so vast there’s a K- pop band or pantomime for every taste. There are massive girl groups like Girls Generation who produce straightforward pop successes. But if you like pop with rap breaks inspired by the rapid-fire lyrical styles of Nicki Minaj also check outBLACKPINK.However, also the emo- stylized group F, If your taste skews furtheralt.T. islet is for you. And if you want some slow and voluptuous R&B,g.o.d. has the logjams. But, despite the kidney- straddling K- pop is a completely Korean kidney. The melodies are inspired by traditional Korean music and the lyrics are in Korean with the occasional English sprinkled throughout.
K- pop Through The Times
The 1950s
Korean pop and hero culture may feel like a recent emergence but it’s nothing new. The kidney started with The Kim Sisters in the 1950s.
The Kim Sisters were a Korea born pop music triad who spoke no English but achieved fame in theU.S. by performing soulful renditions of American pop songs fully phonetically.
Like the K- pop stars of moment, the Kim Sisters were extraordinarily talented and perfectly nominated. During the Korean War, they dazed GI’s with their performances and once The Kim Sisters arrived stateside, they appeared on the Ed Sullivan show 22 times. The Kim Sisters were the first Korean vocalizers to have a song appear on the Billboard map and because of their strides, they're considered the first South Korean music group to achieve success in theU.S. The Kim Sisters came icons of Korean culture and laid the root for moment’s K- pop stars.
The 1970s
Political activism is an important throughline in K- pop. Most lately BTS spoke out against the rise inAnti-Asian hate crimes in theU.S. And it’s come commonplace for Kpop suckers in America to commandeer and fully ail racist trending motifs. In addition to the poppiness of the music, the themes in the lyrics range fromanti-bullying to social knowledge. A lot of this focus on activism can be attributed to folk- gemstone songster and musician Kim Min- ki. In 1970, he wrote the brief but rueful song Morning Dew. The song would go on to be the hymn of the youthpro-democracy movement during a time of political strife. Kim Min- ki frequently used his music as activism and ultimately, his compendiums were banned because of it.
The 1990s
Seo Taiji and Boys is the first band that resembles the K- pop music and mega audience we've moment. Seo Taiji revolutionized Korean Pop music by incorporating it with popular American music. They coupled the new brand of music with hipsterism- hop choreography, and K- pop was born. Seo Taiji and Boys were the first- ever K- pop group. Image of Seo Taiji and Boys. print fromscmp.com.
First Generation K- pop( ’90s- 00)
Once the K- pop stardom form was discovered( kidney- bending music, seductive players, indefectible appearances, and intricate choreography) the first generation of Kpop stars steered by.H.O.T is considered to be the first true K- pop hero group because the group was largely manufactured and made up of trained pop stars. They released the song Delicacy in 1997 and it would come a bubblegum pop hit in Korea. Other first- generation bands to know about are Sechs Kies, a boy band who debuted in 1997;S.E.S. is a girl group formed in 1997, andFin.K.L formed by DSP Media in 1998.
Alternate Generation( ’ 00s- ’10s)
( stands for Groove Over Cure) debuted in 1999, leading into the alternate generation of K- pop.G.o.d following the same design came one of the most popular boy bands of the early 2000s in South Korea. They were followed by TVXQ, a pop brace who debuted in 2003, Super Junior from 2005, BIGBANG arrived on the scene in 2006 as didF.T. ISLAND in 2007.
Third Generation( ’10s- Present)
The K- pop groups who are dominating the maps moment are the third generation. BTS, EXO, Seventeen and BLACKPINK have taken over the music world with no signs of stopping. The mainstream success of third- generation K- pop in theU.S. is unique because traditionally America exports culture but has been reticent to import it.
To say it bluntly, entertainment in theU.S. is dominated by a white- centric monoculture. With a many notable exceptions like fortune’s Child, Menudo, New Edition, the vast maturity of successful and assiduity- backed groups have been white.
The third generation of K- pop was suitable to crack the American mainstream in large part due to social media. The social media smash has made it so niche culture can be participated encyclopedically. TikTok and Instagram are further than participating spots; they ’re different avenues to entry, rather of just television and Radio. They ’re platforms that when used rightly can launch someone into stardom.
The music assiduity loves a group of youthful people that can sing, dance, and appeal to consumers between the periods of 13- 18. K- pop is the British Invasion for Gen Z.
Not only are K- pop icons covering magazines and dealing merch, but they're extraordinarily talented, impeccably nominated, socially conscious, and able of generating enormous engagement on social media. The appeal of pop music and boy/ girl bands has been infectious for decades. Every generation gets a gang of pop stars to fawn over, but for the first time in America, they aren't white, they're Korean.
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