I’m an Old White Dude Who Loves K-Pop Music

Yes, it’s true. I love K-pop, even though it’s highly unusual for someone in my baby boomer generation to get into that kind of music. Plus, it’s mostly sung in the Korean language, but with some English interspersed here and there. But the dancing, oh, the dancing. It’s so exciting to watch the amazingly choreographed dance routines, which are fun and entertaining as accompaniments to the songs.

K-pop stands for Korean pop. So, what is it? You may be wondering. Well, let’s Wikipedia explain it:

“K-pop (an abbreviation of Korean pop; Korean:) is a genre of popular music originating in South Korea. While the modern form of K-pop can be traced back to the early 90s, the term itself has been popularized since the 2000s, replacing the term Gayo (가요), which also refers to domestic pop music in South Korea. Although it generally indicates “popular music” within South Korea, the term is often used in a narrower sense to describe a modern form of South Korean pop that is influenced by styles and genres from around the world, such as experimental, rock, jazz, gospel, hip hop, R&B, reggae, electronic dance, folk, country, and classical on top of its traditional Korean music roots.

The more modern form of the genre emerged with the formation of one of the earliest K-pop groups, Seo Taiji and Boys, in 1992. Their experimentation with different styles and genres of music and the integration of foreign musical elements helped reshape and modernize South Korea’s contemporary music scene. Modern K-pop “idol” culture began with the boy band H.O.T. in 1996, as K-pop grew into a subculture that amassed enormous fandoms of teenagers and young adults.

After a slump in early K-pop, from 2003 TVXQ and BoA started a new generation of K-pop idols that broke the music genre into the neighboring Japanese market and continue to popularize K-pop internationally today.

With the advent of online social networking services and Korean TV shows, the current spread of K-pop and Korean entertainment, known as the Korean Wave, is seen not only in East Asia and Southeast Asia but also in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Latin America, North Africa, Southern Africa, the Middle East and throughout the Western world, gaining a widespread global audience.” — Wikipedia

The first international K-pop hit that caught my attention was called Gangnam Style by South Korean musician Psy, which was his 18th K-pop single. By any standard you can think of, Gangnam Style became a surprise smash hit around the world, primarily because of its catchy lyrics and humorous dance routines led by Psy.

The song was such a massive hit that on December 21, 2012, Gangnam Style became the first video on YouTube to rack up one billion views. Yes, that’s billion with a “b”! Everywhere you looked, you’d find Psy pretending to ride a horse, performing his signature move.

The YouTube video became so popular, groups of people from all over the world, and from all walks of life, made countless numbers of videos of themselves lip synching the words to the song and doing Psy’s crazy horse-riding dance. It was a global phenomenon and came totally out of leftfield.

Here’s Psy’s Gangnam Style music video.

With Psy’s Gangnam Style busting the global market wide open, he was gradually followed onto the international scene by other K-pop groups, both male and female. In more recent years, some blockbuster groups have emerged, with massive numbers of fans following them. On the men’s side, there’s the mega-popular group known as BTS, which has its own fanatic BTS Army.

Here’s BTS in action singing their huge hit Boy With Luv.

On the women’s side, one of my all-time favorite K-pop songs is by Miss A called I Don’t Need a Man. I’ve sent this incredibly catchy song to some of my grown nieces who’ve had some trouble in their relationships with certain males. A modern woman can choose to have a man in her life, of course, but does she NEED one if he’s far more trouble than he’s worth? I don’t think so. So Miss A’s colossal hit song serves as an excellent anthem for women’s independence. Plus, it’s a lot of fun.

Here’s Miss A’s catchy I Don’t Need a Man music video.

“Management agencies in South Korea offer binding contracts to potential artists, sometimes at a young age. Trainees live together in a regulated environment and spend many hours a day learning music, dance, foreign languages, and other skills in preparation for their debut. In 2012, The Wall Street Journal reported that the cost of training one Korean idol under SM Entertainment averaged US$3 million.” — Wikipedia

The girl group Blackpink released a music video called Ddu-Du-Ddu-Du on January 21, 2019, which became YouTube’s highest viewed K-pop group music video.

Here’s Blackpink performing Ddu-Du-Ddu-Du.

One thing I especially like about K-pop is that, although the name generally is associated with South Korean pop music, it is often considered to be a genre that’s all-encompassing and exhibits a wide spectrum of visual and musical elements. Thus, K-pop style artists are popping up all around the world, whether they are citizens of South Korea or not, and displaying their unique styles.

So, there you have it. I’m an old white dude who’s a big fan of K-pop and always will be. It’s fun to watch and doing so makes me feel like a young person again. Unfortunately, I can’t perform any of the K-pop dance moves, except maybe in very slow motion.

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Thanks for reading. Copyright Terry Mansfield. All rights reserved.