K-Pop Idols Bring Korean Culture Into Global Spotlight
The continuous growth of the K-pop industry caught the attention of the world and made them interested at the Korean culture.
According to the data from Korea Creative Content Agency, the profit of the South Korean music industry increased at 4.8 trillion won (US$4.3 billion) by the end of 2015 which is increased by 2.7 times compared to the results gathered 10 years ago.
The Korea Creative Content Agency is a cultural institution run by the state. It also explains that the ongoing trend of the so-called "Hallyu Wave" or the global popularity of the Korean pop culture has expanded the Korean culture into different parts of the world. It has attracted and pleased many people from different countries to patronize the Korean cultural products.
The Hallyu or Korean Wave began in South Korea through the debut of the first Korean pop group named H.O.T. in 1996. The group consists of five members and the first K-pop act to hold a concert at Beijing Worker's Gymnasium in China. Their concert gathered about 10,000 people who attended their concert. This is when the "Hallyu" wave started and later become the term used in pertaining to popular Korean celebrities.
H.O.T is one of the most prominent K-pop boy bands in the history of K-pop culture. SM Entertainment is the one who created the boy group H.O.T. It is one of the largest entertainment agencies in South Korea until now. In 2001, the boyband H.O.T. disbanded and Sm Entertainment introduced a new solo artist named Boa. In 2002, Boa gained popularity in the Japanese music industry. She got the top spot at Oricon, which is one of the leading music charts in Japan. It showed that the foreign market of the K-pop industry has a great potential to be successful.
After that, many K-pop groups appeared from different entertainment companies like YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment. In twenty years, the Korean music industry has grown bigger as it continue to gain fame and popularity around the world.
"The incubating system is a complete solution that includes vocal and dancing training programs, as well as a K-pop songwriting and producing system. K-pop has made outstanding progress in establishing itself as a distinctive genre in the global music market. The change is explicit, as seen in the case of the U.S. Billboard charts that now run a separate K-pop chart," said Lee Sang-yoon, a cultural content consultant at Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency.