Korean music business, over and over again, was “When will Korea have a Destiny’s Child?” Or, later, a Beyonce or a Justin Timberlake? That is, when would a K-pop group become big in the United States?
At the time, the question seemed ridiculous. K-pop was catchy but it was so far away from the big pop stars of America. When I posed that question to Western music executives, they would also answer the same way: “Why would we want a Korean Destiny’s Child when we already have Destiny’s Child? We already have Beyonce and Justin Timberlake, too.” K-pop would have to wait.
The thing is, K-pop didn’t want to wait. It kept growing and pushing, winning over more and more fans. And then came Psy and “Gangnam Style.” Goofy Park Jae-sang, who had been singing and dancing for a decade with his catchy, silly songs. But “Gangnam Style” was even goofier and catchier than usual, and this time the West got the joke. Leading websites and celebrities started tweeting and linking to the “Gangnam Style” video on YouTube and soon the song took off. And somehow, it kept getting bigger and bigger, until today it tops 1.8 billion views, nearly twice as many as the next biggest song.
Even before Psy, K-pop had been growing. It spent much of the 2000s spreading around Asia, with BoA becoming a major star in Japan, and Rain finding huge popularity around the region. But, like a lot of people, I thought it was mostly a local trend. However, as I spent time on the Internet, reading the popular Internet forums, I couldn’t help but notice other names beginning to appear, people from other locations around the world.
The first time I heard K-pop in Europe was in 2009, in a dingy local café on the western end of Barcelona, far from the tourist strip. It was a quiet Sunday morning, and I was enjoying a coffee and a snack when I suddenly noticed a strangely familiar sound on the radio. The music was bright and poppy, in different chords than Spanish pop usually uses. Then I finally heard the voices. They were singing in Korean. I asked the bartender, a middle-aged Catalan man, how he could have K-pop on his stereo and he shrugged and said he just liked it. No big deal.
It’s amazing, but in just five years 2PM has become one of the leading groups in K-pop.
Soon after that, K-pop began springing up everywhere. SM Entertainment held two hugely popular shows in Paris in 2011. The group JYJ had concerts in Barcelona and Frankfurt. Girls’ Generation appeared on David Letterman and other US television shows. Groups like Big Bang and Super Junior started playing in Europe, the United States and South America. Clearly, something was going on.
There are also more groups than ever, with dozens now making their debut each year. From 1998 until 2008, about thirty K-pop groups, duos and solo artists were introduced each year. In 2009, the number leapt to more than forty. Then nearly seventy in 2010. And more than a hundred in 2012. Clearly, no book can cover all of K-pop but I hope this book will include most of your favorites.
Before July 2012, who could have predicted that Psy would become Korea’s most famous pop star?
So, what does it all mean? Aside from Psy, the top K-pop acts often get ten million to thirty million hits for their videos, with the biggest songs topping fifty million views, and Girls’ Generation’s “Gee” now over one hundred million. A hot new song from a big star can rocket to the top of the iTunes charts all over the world, at least for a day or two after it gets released. Western music websites like Popdust regularly feature articles about Korean music, and when Korean artists face off against the biggest American pop stars in online polls, the Korean artists usually win hands down. K-pop may not be dominating sales but its fans are numerous enough and passionate enough to make a real difference.
K-pop may not get much play on Western radio or much respect from “serious” journalists but that’s mostly a sign of how the middle-aged powers that be often just don’t get it. But the stars of K-pop—along with the songwriters and producers and fans—know what they like.
People have been underestimating K-pop since the music started. They won’t be underestimating it anymore.
The sun rising over Seoul as the nation’s capital wakes up in the morning.
You can’t really understand K-pop without knowing something about the land that gave rise to it. It’s no surprise that modern Korea is as flashy and exciting as the music it has created. Just as K-pop continually changes and moves forward, in Korea change is the only constant, especially in Seoul.
There was a time not long ago when Seoul was overwhelmingly drab, full of boring concrete and ugly buildings. Not anymore. Today’s Seoul looks to dazzle with amazing shops, the coolest styles, and more and more incredible modern architecture. Walking around the fancy shops by Dosan Park or the winding streets of Hongdae, you quickly understand how the dazzling world of K-pop was born here.
Seoul is the biggest city in Korea, home to ten million people, with another ten million living in the suburbs and surrounding cities. It’s huge. And although Seoul is more than 600 years old, most of the city is actually quite new. After the Korean War (1950–3) pretty much leveled everything, there were barely one million people living there. But as Korea recovered from the war, the country rebuilt, and Seoul in particular rebuilt like crazy, re-fashioning itself again and again.
Today, Korea and its capital Seoul are barely recognizable compared to what they were a generation ago. If you want to know what K-pop is really about, you have to understand where it came from. You need to walk the meandering alleys of Samcheongdong, close to the ancient Gyeongbokgung Palace in the heart of the city. You need to see the brightly lit bridges that cross the Han River.
Today, there are four main neighborhoods if you want to know the cool Seoul: Hongdae, Samcheong, Gangnam and Apgujeong. A city the size of Seoul is, of course, full of interesting and amazing areas but these are key.
Hongdae—“Hongdae” being short for Hongik University in Korean—is the main artsy area in Seoul, home to the most popular nightlife area for university students, young artists and indie music. It’s also the headquarters of YG Entertainment, one of the “big three” music labels, which owns big hip-hop clubs like NB as well as restaurants and other buildings right in the heart of the neighborhood.
Gangnam Intersection is the heart of Seoul’s richest business district, the part of town made famous in Psy’s “Gangnam Style.”
Located in western Seoul, in an area rich with top universities, this part of town has long been a bit different. Back when most of Seoul shut down at midnight, Hongdae clubs kept the music going all night long. Artists flocked here for weirdness and cheap rent (although it’s not cheap anymore). The first techno clubs sprang up here, and today there are dozens of live music clubs and hundreds of bars and other cool hangouts. A weekend flea market in the park at the heart of Hongdae brought in young people selling cute handmade wares of all sorts, further shaping the character.
Gwanghwamun is the front gate to Seoul’s most famous palace, Gyeongbokgung, first built in 1395.
It is also home to the Coffee Prince café where the famous TV drama of the same
