The song “Gangnam Style” completely took the American audience by surprised when it became extremely popular in 2012. Shortly after its release it was played on popular radio stations and ranked as the most watched music video on Youtube of all time. Now, 5 years later, the video has accumulated over 2 billion views, and keeps rising every day.
Most people would think of the song as a one hit wonder, since then no Korean artist has made it to the mainstream popularity that PSY obtained, however, ever since “Gangnam Style” became popular, the Korean pop industry has only boomed and expanded to include the far Western hemisphere into their fan base.
Some Korean pop (K-pop) music groups are ranking up the top charts all around the world, including Billboard and Itunes in the United States. This is the case of Bangtan Boys, better known as BTS, whose albums ‘Wings’ and ‘You Never Walk Alone’ made it to rank 61 and 26 respectively on the Billboard 200 chart.
In March, BTS came to the United States to finish the Western leg of their world tour, which began on February 18th in South Korea. Per the groups agency, BigHit Entertainment, the group sold about 60,000 tickets, and sold out all their shows.
The modern concept of K-pop is composed by girl and boy groups made of anywhere from 3 to 17 individuals whom are trained in singing, rapping and dancing and are assigned certain roles within their groups. The first group to follow this concept debuted in 1996 under the name H.O.T (High Five of Teenagers), composed by five young men and managed by SM Entertainment, one of the biggest entertainment companies in South Korea. The group became extremely popular with their new combinations of dancing, rapping and singing among young Korean girls but disbanded before it could make an impact on the West.
The Hallyu Wave(한류) is the name that was given to the increase global popularity in South Korean entertainment culture in the West. Although hard to trace exact groups that boosted the music’s popularity, famous singers and actors like Shinhwa, BoA, Big Bang, Girl’s Generation, Super Junior and TVXQ in the early and mid-2000s are some of the most internationally famous groups that helped the industry grow to what it is now.