Korean Pop Trivia | 100 trivia & facts about K-pop [Part 4]

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