K-pop is a new genre of popular music that is coming from Korea. This new genre is quickly gaining fans all over the world.
We have already talked about the beginnings of this genre, the things that make it unique and some of its history. Now, it’s time to dive a little more into its current success.
- K-pop’s increasing popularity forms part of Hallyu, or the Korean Wave
- Hallyu is called the popularity of South Korean culture in other countries
- K-pop is increasingly making appearances on Western charts such as Billboard
- The development of online social media has been a vital tool for the Korean music industry in reaching a wider audience
- As part of the Korean Wave, K-pop has been embraced by the South Korean government as a tool for projecting South Korea’s soft power abroad, particularly towards overseas youth
- In August 2014, the prominent British news magazine The Economist dubbed Korean pop culture “Asia’s foremost trendsetter”
- By the beginning of the 21st century, the K-pop market had slumped
- Early K-pop idol groups that had seen success in the 90’s were on the decline
- H.O.T. disbanded in 2001
- Other groups like Sechs Kies, S.E.S., Fin.K.L, Shinhwa, and g.o.d became inactive by 2005
- Solo singers like BoA and Rain grew in success
- The success of boy band TVXQ after its debut in 2003 marked the resurgence of idol groups to Korean entertainment and the growth of K-pop as part of Hallyu
- The birth of second-generation K-pop was followed with the successful debuts of SS501 (2005), Super Junior (2005), Big Bang (2006), Wonder Girls (2007), Girls’ Generation (2007), Kara (2007), Shinee (2008), 2NE1 (2009), 4Minute (2009), T-ara (2009), f(x) (2009), and After School (2009)
- During the beginning of the 21st century, K-pop idols began receiving success elsewhere in Asia
- In 2002, Baby Vox’s single “Coincidence” became popular in many Asian countries after it was released and promoted during the World Cup in South Korea
- BoA became the first K-pop singer to reach No. 1 on the Japanese Oricon music chart
- Shortly afterwards, Rain had a sold-out concert to an audience of 40,000 fans in Beijing
- In 2003, Baby Vox topped the Chinese music charts with their Chinese single “I’m Still Loving You” from their third album Devotion
- This marked the first time an idol group did so, creating a huge fanbase in China
- They also charted in various music charts in Thailand
- TVXQ marked the rise of K-pop boy bands in Japan
- In 2008, their single “Purple Line” made TVXQ the first foreign boy band and second Korean artist after BoA to top the Oricon music chart
- Since the mid-2000s, a huge portion of the East Asian music market has been dominated by K-pop
- In 2008, South Korea’s cultural exports (including television dramas and computer games) rose to US$2 billion
- Thus maintaining an annual growth rate of over 10%
- That year, Japan accounted for almost 68% of all K-pop export revenues
- This was ahead of China (11.2%) and the United States (2.1%)
- The sale of concert tickets proved to be a lucrative business
- TVXQ’s Tohoshinki Live Tour in Japan sold over 850,000 tickets at an average cost of US$109 each
- The tour generated a total of US$92.6 million in revenues
- Psy’s “Gangnam Style” music video was the first YouTube video to reach one billion views, achieving widespread coverage in mainstream media
- As of April 2019, the video has 3.3 billion views
- Several failed attempts have been made by entertainment companies to break into the English-language market
- These attempts include the idol groups BoA, Wonder Girls, Girls’ Generation, and CL
- Later attempts were more successful with BTS and Blackpink breaking into English markets
- BTS won Top Social Artist at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards in 2017
- It was the first K-pop group to win a BBMA
- Their performance of the song “DNA” at the American Music Awards was the first AMA performance by a K-pop group
- The performance also led to the song peaking at number 67 on the Billboard Hot 100
- The following year, BTS became the first K-pop group to reach number 1 on the Billboard 200 with Love Yourself: Tear
- Map of the Soul: Persona later became the best-selling album ever in South Korea
- The album had more than 3.2 million sales in less than a month
- On May 15, 2019, BTS also kicked off Good Morning America’s ‘Summer Concert Series’ on the same day as headliners at Central Park in Manhattan
- On the night of December 31st 2019, BTS ushered in the upcoming year 2020 with a performance at the New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square
- The concert was in front of one million spectators and a television audience of over one billion people
- As of 2019, Blackpink is the highest-charting female K-pop act on both Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200
- Peaking at number 41 with “Kill This Love”, and peaking at number 24 with Kill This Love
- 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
- Their song “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du” became the most viewed music video by a K-pop group on YouTube
- As of September 2019, Blackpink is the most-subscribed music group on YouTube
- Blackpink was the first K-pop group to perform at Coachella
- K-pop has spawned an entire industry encompassing music production houses, event management companies, music distributors, and other merchandise and service providers
- The three biggest companies in terms of sales and revenue are SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment
- They are often referred to as the “Big Three”
- These record labels also function as representative agencies for their artists
- They are responsible for recruiting, financing, training, and marketing new artists as well as managing their musical activities and public relations
- Currently, the agency with the greatest market share is S.M. Entertainment
- In 2011, together with Star J Entertainment, AM Entertainment, and Key East, the Big Three companies founded the joint management company United Asia Management
- In 2009, DFSB Kollective became the first distributor of K-pop on iTunes
- In 2011, 1,100 albums were released in South Korea
- The hip-hop genre had the most representation, at two-thirds of the total albums
- One-third of the albums were from a variety of other genres, including rock, modern folk, and crossover
- In 2012, the average cost of obtaining a K-pop song in South Korea amounted to US$0.10 for a single download, or $0.002 when streamed online
- In the first half of 2012, according to Billboard, the Korean music industry grossed nearly US$3.4 billion
- This was a 27.8% increase on the previous year
- K-pop was recognized by Time magazine as “South Korea’s Greatest Export”
- Korean record charts include the Korea K-Pop Hot 100 and the Gaon Singles Chart
- Some K-pop records have appeared on the Oricon Albums Chart of Japan and the Billboard Hot 100 of the United States
- In 2009, singer Hwangbo entered the European music industry for a short period when she released the single R2song
- She reached #1 on the world’s largest dance music site JunoDowload, being successful in the United Kingdom, Europe, as well as Korea
- Thus, becoming the first Asian artist to achieve it
- In May 2014, Exo became the third K-pop act to enter the Billboard 200 that year
- 2NE1, Girls’ Generation and Wonder Girls were the first K-Pop act to chart on Billboard 200
- In October 2016, BTS’s album Wings becomes the first Korean album to chart in the UK Album Charts, reaching #62
- The album is the highest charting and best selling K-pop album in the Billboard 200
- In February 2017, BTS landed their fourth album You Never Walk Alone at #61 on the Billboard 200
- In September 2017, BTS landed at #14 on the UK Album Charts with their new album, Love Yourself: Her
- Love Yourself: Tear debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 135,000 album-equivalent units
- It sold 100,000 pure album sales
- Thus, becoming BTS’ highest-charting and first number one album in the US
- It is also the first K-pop album to top the US albums chart
- And the highest-charting album by an Asian act
- “Fake Love” peaked at number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 that same week
- Thus, becoming the band’s highest reaching song on the chart as well as their first in the top ten
- Overall, “Fake Love” is the seventeenth non-English song to reach the top ten
- And the first for a K-Pop group
- The single also debuted at number seven on Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart with 27.4 million streams earned in the week ending May 24
- Giving BTS its first top ten on the chart
- Making “Fake Love” the first K-pop song to land on top ten since Psy’s “Hangover” feat. Snoop Dogg in 2014
- In June 2018, YG Entertainment’s girl group Blackpink became the first K-pop girl group to hit within the top 50 of Billboard 200 album chart
- Their first mini-album SQUARE UP debuted at No. 40
- Their title song “Ddu Du Ddu Du” charted at No. 55 on the Billboard Hot 100 char
- Making it the highest charting song and the first full Korean language song by a K-pop girl group
- On April 22, it was confirmed that Blackpink would be featured in Lady Gaga’s sixth studio album Chromatica, in the track titled “Sour Candy”
- BTS have also made songs with famous U.S. acts like Halsey, Juice WRLD and many more
- K-pop artists are frequently referred to as idols or idol groups
- Groups usually have a leader, who is often the eldest or most experienced member and speaks for the group
- The youngest group member is called the maknae
- The popular use of this term in Japan was influenced by boy group SS501 when they expanded their activities in the country in 2007
You can find more about K-pop in Part 5.
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