K-Pop is taking the world by storm

A few years back, there was a song and dance craze that seemed to be everywhere. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? It’s called “Gangnam Style,” it’s by an artist called Psy, and chances are that you’ve heard it at least once. It was but a taste of an entire genre from a country in East Asia.

These days, there’s been a group that‘s seemed to rise above all the others — BTS (Bangtan Sonyeondan/Bulletproof Boy Scouts) has broken several records, sold stadiums and arenas out all over the world, and even spoken at the United Nations. Right now they’re probably the most popular boy band in the world, and although some people associate the whole genre of K-Pop to BTS, in reality, there’s so much more to it.

K-Pop is a genre that has many different flavors. There are girl and boy groups, and solo artists too, and each act has its own style of fashion, music, and choreography — and they often even change concepts with every comeback (a comeback is a release of a new song). There are cutesy songs, hard-hitting bops, mellow ballads, and other kinds of songs, and with how many artists there are out there, most if not all people should be able to find something to suit their taste.

If you don’t quite believe me, here are some artists you should check out: TWICE, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, ITZY, BLACK PINK, Stray Kids, (G)I-DLE, SEVENTEEN, EXO, IZ*ONE, and BTS. Listen to just one track from each of these artists, and you’ll see the variety in their music. I actually made a playlist on Spotify to help this exploration. It has 5 tracks from each artist mentioned here and, although it is really only a small selection, it should give you an idea of what’s out there at the moment.

There’s way more to it than the music though. These K-Pop stars, known as Idols, go through rigorous training well before they even debut as artists, with some trainees going in as children. Even then, these trainees don’t have a guarantee of debuting but they try their best everyday anyway. Although kind of crazy, this system produces some of the best performers out there. Everytime I watch a live stage performance, I’m amazed at how stable these artists’ vocals are even when they do the most grueling and spectacular choreography.

On the media side, apart from the tracks and albums that these artists release, each promotion round also includes music show performances, and other opportunities for fans to closely interact with these idols. I think that’s another really cool thing about the K-Pop industry. Fans have a chance to see their favorites in person every time they promote and the idols are able to show their appreciation to their fans -- it’s really nice to see.

K-pop music becoming more and more prevalent in the west is proof that music is something that transcends all language barriers. This is something that I heard from somewhere else, but I realize that this is true. Although more idols seem to be learning to speak english now, there are still many who only speak Korean. On top of this, save for some english words, most K-Pop tracks are in Korean. And yet, people from all over the world enjoy this music, and become fans who even try to understand them even more by way of checking out translations of their lyrics.

As time passes, we see more and more idol groups break through the western gates, increasing the presence of the genre. They’re making efforts to promote in countries far away from their home, and they’re doing a really good job. I’m happy that K-Pop is becoming more prevalent, and I’m excited to see what happens next with this fantastic genre.