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K-pop Essays

K-pop, also known as Korean pop music, has taken the world by storm in recent years. With its catchy tunes, vibrant choreography, and charismatic performers, it has captured the hearts of millions of fans worldwide. Therefore we will discuss some K-pop essay topics, ideas, and tips for writing a K-pop college essay. Here are 5 K-pop topics to write about:

  • The evolution of K-pop – This topic explores how K-pop has evolved over the years, from its early days in the 1990s to its current global popularity. You can analyze the various stages of K-pop and how it has changed over the years.
  • The impact of K-pop on Korean culture – K-pop is not just a music genre; it is also a cultural phenomenon that has influenced Korean society. You can discuss how K-pop has influenced Korean culture, such as fashion, beauty standards, and language.
  • K-pop and globalization – This topic analyzes how K-pop has become a global phenomenon and its impact on globalization. You can discuss how K-pop has introduced Korean culture to the world and how it has influenced other cultures.
  • The business of K-pop – K-pop is not just about music; it is also a massive business. You can explore how the K-pop industry works, from training programs to music production and marketing strategies.
  • K-pop fandom culture – K-pop has some of the most passionate fans in the world. You can explore the fandom culture and the role of fans in the success of K-pop.

When writing a K-pop essay, it is essential to have a deep understanding of the topic. It is also crucial to research and gather relevant information to support your arguments. You can use K-pop news articles, academic papers, and documentaries as sources.

In conclusion, K-pop is a fascinating subject to explore for students looking for unique essay topics. Remember to conduct thorough research, organize your thoughts, and present your arguments clearly to impress your professor.

Intellectualism In K-pop: Hidden Intellectualism

In “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff, he discusses his view on intellectualism by describing it through the lens of a sports fanatic, arguing that intellectualism is found in other places rather than only in academics. He goes on to explain that through sports such as...

  • Hidden Intellectualism

K-Pop: Unveiling Its Discourse Community and Influence

The major difference between humans and animals is the ability to communicate with each other. Throughout the course of human development, people need a way for mass communication to reach a final decision or to represent a certain point of view or belief. This can...

  • Discourse Community

The Star Of K-pop, Bts, And Their Relation To Fans

In today's generation, music with various languages has gain traction with the international audience. One of them is Korean music, or what is often referred to as KPOP. Not knowing the language doesn't stop us from enjoying it. KPOP has become a global sensation that...

  • Music Industry

Understanding The Negative Sides Of K-pop Industry

The era of Korean pop music (shortly K-pop) began in the 1990s with the rise of Seotaiji and the Boys – a hip-hop group with their hit single Nan Arayo/I Know – who brought a new audience to music: teenagers. Idols’ job is not merely...

The Reasons Why K-pop And Korean Music Are So Popular

South Korea is well-known for beautiful places, delicious foods and modern technology. However when people talk about South Korea, they will mention about K-pop as well. K-pop is an abbreviation of Korean pop, according from an encyclopedia, K-pop “is a genre of popular music originating...

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The Visibility Of K-pop As A Music Genre And Wave

“There are three things that make K-pop such a visible and unique contributor to the realm of pop music: exceptionally high-quality performance, an extremely polished aesthetic, and an “in-house” method of studio production that churns out musical hits the way assembly lines churn out cars”...

Exploring Why K-pop And Korean Wave Is So Popular

Intro Hello everyone. Today I will be discussing how the integration of social media into Kpop fandoms, particularly through video streaming platforms like Youtube, has affected fan participatory culture, by altering the interaction and behaviours of fandoms and the distribution of Korean content throughout the...

The Relationship Between K-pop's Popularity And Self-esteem

Scholars have analyzed the impact that K-pop has on its audience and listeners (Lie, 2012). The popularity of South Korean popular music (K-pop) has since spread from “Japan and Taiwan” to “the Americas and the Middle East” (p. 340). This is because of the gradual...

The History of K-Pop Popularity in Latin America

K-pop means 'Korean pop', however this concept refers in general to the popular music industry in South Korea. It can be said that K-Pop is not a specific musical genre, but a mixture of different western musical styles such as rock, jazz, hip hop, among...

  • Pop Culture

K-Pop Fandom as a Subculture: Comparing K-Pop and Western Fandoms

Subcultures are when individuals join specific groups to collectively carry out certain activities that deviates from mainstream culture or society (Grinnell College, n.d.). Whereas the term ‘scene’, is often used to — particularly in the context of music — capture the relationships between members, such...

Analysis of the K-Pop Industry and Its Eye-Catching Marketing

K-Pop (Korean pop music) refers to 'Korean pop music, or popular music from Korea, including dance music, modern rhythm, and blues, pop music, hip hop music.' (Wikipedia, 2019) This industry can fit in Richard Caves' seven economic properties. Firstly, in terms of A list/B list,...

The Dark Side of K-Pop Industry

The day I started writing this article was also the day I happened to visit a book fair in my hometown. I was more than surprised when upon entering, I could hear ‘Fake Love’ by Korean boy band BTS blasting on the speakers. While I...

Effects of Patronizing Korean Pop (KPOP) Songs in the Philippine Music Industry 

Abstract Philippine music, with its famous OPM and other genres of music brought by the influence of the westerners, have been affected when foreign music like Korean pop songs became famous to the Filipinos. It has been affected in a sense that only a few...

The Popularity and Love of Kpop Culture Among Teenagers

The world has many cultures trending nowadays, most of them help on shaping “the world”, what I mean is that many of these culture flow in our lives and bring impacts to our society, maybe also economic markets. One in that many cultures are becoming...

Understanding the Influence of K-Pop on Filipino Teens

Kpop are becoming more popular in Asia especially in the Philippines more particularly on Filipino Teenagers or what we call nowadays as millennials. The influence of Kpop on Filipino teenagers is gradually increasing. The visual, music, choreography, and artistic content of Korean music and videos...

My Attitude To BTS, Korea Boyband

BTS, Korea boyband, arguably the biggest boyband in the world today. Maybe you've heard it, maybe you saw it at Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. A group of sweet-faced young people who took k-pop to the next level. I've written a bit about how k-pop...

Best topics on K-pop

1. Intellectualism In K-pop: Hidden Intellectualism

2. K-Pop: Unveiling Its Discourse Community and Influence

3. The Star Of K-pop, Bts, And Their Relation To Fans

4. Understanding The Negative Sides Of K-pop Industry

5. The Reasons Why K-pop And Korean Music Are So Popular

6. The Visibility Of K-pop As A Music Genre And Wave

7. Exploring Why K-pop And Korean Wave Is So Popular

8. The Relationship Between K-pop’s Popularity And Self-esteem

9. The History of K-Pop Popularity in Latin America

10. K-Pop Fandom as a Subculture: Comparing K-Pop and Western Fandoms

11. Analysis of the K-Pop Industry and Its Eye-Catching Marketing

12. The Dark Side of K-Pop Industry

13. Effects of Patronizing Korean Pop (KPOP) Songs in the Philippine Music Industry 

14. The Popularity and Love of Kpop Culture Among Teenagers

15. Understanding the Influence of K-Pop on Filipino Teens

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The rise of k-pop, and what it reveals about society and culture.

Initially a musical subculture popular in South Korea during the 1990s, Korean Pop, or K-pop, has transformed into a global cultural phenomenon.

Characterized by catchy hooks, polished choreography, grandiose live performances, and impeccably produced music videos, K-pop — including music by groups like BTS and BLACKPINK — now frequently tops the Billboard charts, attracts a fiercely dedicated online following, and generates billions of dollars.

Yale sociologist Grace Kao, who became fascinated with the music after watching a 2019 performance by BTS on Saturday Night Live, now studies the subgenres of K-pop and its cultural, sociological, and political effects.

Kao, the IBM Professor of Sociology and professor of ethnicity, race, and migration in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and director of the Center on Empirical Research in Stratification and Inequality (CERSI), recently spoke with Yale News about the kinds of research her interest in K-pop has prompted, why the genre’s rise has been important to so many Asian Americans, and why she urges today’s students to become familiar with various musical genres.

The interview has been edited and condensed.

You have said that watching BTS on Saturday Night Live changed your view of K-pop. How did that performance transform your interest in K-pop from a personal one into an academic one?

Grace Kao: I saw that performance, and it stayed in the back of my mind. Then, when we were on lockdown because of COVID, being stuck at home set the stage for having time to watch more K-pop videos. At first, I was just watching them for fun. I knew K-pop was something important, but I didn’t know anything about it. I thought “I should educate myself on this.” My current research collaborator, Wonseok Lee [an ethnomusicologist and a musician at Washington University], and a Yale graduate student, Meera Choi, who’s Korean, offered guidance.

I’ve always been interested in race and ethnicity and Asian Americans. I knew in my gut that K-pop was important, but it was hard to figure out exactly how I could work on it, since I’m a quantitative sociologist. What's fun about being a researcher and being in academia is that we can learn new things and push ourselves. I think that’s the best part of this job.

Grace Kao recommends this playlist to get started.

When I started working on it, I tried to learn without having a clear research question. Then, along with my collaborator, Lee, we started thinking about papers that we could work on together. I was also able to take first-semester Korean, so now I can read Korean, and Choi and I can begin working on different research papers.

What kinds of research are you doing?

Kao: One paper is about the link between ’80s synth-pop and very current K-pop. Others have argued that K-pop borrows heavily from American Black music — R&B, hip hop, and so forth. And it’s true, but we’re arguing that K-pop has links to all these different genres because the production is much faster. We also finished another paper looking at the links between New Wave synth-pop to Japanese city pop [which was also popular in the 1980s] and a Korean version of city pop. And we’re probably going to start a reggae paper next.

In another project, with two data scientists we’re looking at Twitter data related to a 2021 BTS tweet that happened about a week after a gunman in Atlanta murdered eight women, including six of Asian descent. The tweet, which was about #StopAsianHate, or #StopAAPIHate, was the most retweeted tweet of the year. Everyone in that world knows that K-pop is extremely influential, but there are moments now where it seems like it’s ripe for political action because fans are already really organized. We’re looking at how the conversation about the shootings before and after they tweeted changed. The analysis involves millions of tweets, so it's very data intensive work.

Last March you gave a talk on campus in which you talked about the role of K-pop in “transformative possibilities for Asian Americans.” What is an example of those possibilities?

Kao: Partly it’s just visibility. The SNL performance by BTS was really important for people. Especially people my age, we had never seen a bunch of East Asian people on the stage singing in a non-English, non-Western language. I knew that was an important moment regardless of whether or not you like the music or the performance.

I think during COVID, BTS made Asian faces more visible. They were on the cover of Time magazine, every major publication. They were everywhere. But it also brought up questions of xenophobia. People were making fun of them because of how they looked. At the time there was also the extra baggage that comes with being Asian. But any time BTS were attacked, because their fandom is so big and so passionate, their fans would jump on anyone who did anything to them. Then journalists would cover it, and suddenly there were all these stories about how you shouldn’t be racist against Asians.

Many of us who study Asian Americans have observed over time that it often seems acceptable for people to make fun of Asian things. Just by virtue of the fact that it’s [BTS], that their fans are protecting them, and that that gets elevated to the news is a big deal. President Biden invited them to the White House. These are all things I would have had trouble imagining even just five years ago.

You teach a first-year seminar, “Race and Place in British New Wave, K-pop, and Beyond,” which focuses on the emphasis on aesthetics in both genres’ popularity. What understanding do you hope students walk away with?

Kao: I want students to take pop culture very seriously. Sometimes pop music seems not serious, but so many people consume it that it can have pervasive and serious consequences on how people see folks of different race, ethnic, gender, and national identities.

Another thing I wanted students to learn about is genres of music. Students today like music, but they consume it very differently than people did when in college. We listened to the radio or watched MTV, so we were fed something from a DJ or from actual people who were programming the content. You’d end up listening to a lot of music that you didn’t like, but you’d also have a better sense of genres than students now. Today students consume music through Spotify or YouTube and so forth, which use algorithms to give you songs that are similar to the songs you liked, but not necessarily from the same genre. Students can have diverse and wide-ranging experiences with music, but I found that they have trouble identifying that any particular song is part of a genre. So I feel like it’s important for them to listen to a lot of music.

I want them to consume it because sometimes we think we can comment on things that we don’t know anything about. We don’t actually consume it. I think it’s important for students to walk away knowing something about these genres and to be able to identify them: this is a reggae song, this is a ska song, this is synth-pop, et cetera.

What K-pop groups are you currently into?

Kao: Besides BTS, I enjoy listening to groups such as SEVENTEEN, ENHYPEN, NewJeans, Super Junior, and new group TRENDZ.

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How K-pop became a global phenomenon

No country takes its fluffy pop music more seriously than South Korea.

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They call it Hallyu, the Korean wave: the idea that South Korean pop culture has grown in prominence to become a major driver of global culture, seen in everything from Korean dramas on Netflix to Korean skincare regimens dominating the cosmetics industry to delicious Korean tacos on your favorite local menu. And at the heart of Hallyu is the ever-growing popularity of K-pop — short, of course, for Korean pop music.

K-pop has become a truly global phenomenon thanks to its distinctive blend of addictive melodies, slick choreography and production values, and an endless parade of attractive South Korean performers who spend years in grueling studio systems learning to sing and dance in synchronized perfection.

Hallyu has been building for two decades , but K-pop in particular has become increasingly visible to global audiences in the past five to 10 years. South Korean artists have hit the Billboard Hot 100 chart at least eight times since the Wonder Girls first cracked it in 2009 with their crossover hit “Nobody” — released in four different languages, including English — and the export of K-pop has ballooned South Korea’s music industry to an impressive $5 billion industry .

Now, with South Korea hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang at a moment of extremely heightened geopolitical tensions , K-pop has taken on a whole new kind of sociopolitical significance, as South Korea proudly displays its best-known export before the world.

How did K-pop become a $5 billion global industry?

essay about kpop

Vox explore K-pop’s elaborate music videos, adoring fans, and killer choreography for our Netflix series Explained .

Watch now on Netflix.

What the Winter Olympics’ opening and closing ceremonies told us about K-pop (and vice versa)

During the Olympic opening ceremonies on February 9, 2018, athletes marched in the Parade of Nations to the accompaniment of a select group of K-pop hits , each playing into the image South Korea wants to present right now: one of a country that’s a fully integrated part of the global culture.

The Parade of Nations songs all have significant international and digital presences, and each advertises the cross-cultural fluency of K-pop. Twice’s “Likey” is a huge recent hit for the group, and recently made it to 100 million views on YouTube faster than any other song by a K-pop girl group. (The video prominently features the girls on a fun field trip to Vancouver, marketing the idea that they’re at home all over the world.) Big Bang’s “Fantastic Baby” was one of the first K-pop hits to make inroads in American culture and was featured on Glee’ s K-pop episode along with “Gangnam Style,” which also played during the Parade of Nations.

Psy’s ubiquitous 2012 hit is part doofy comedy and part clear-eyed satire, made by a musician who’s part of a wave of South Korean musicians who’ve studied at American music schools. “Gangnam Style” spent five years racking up more than 3 billion views on YouTube, reigning as the most-viewed video in the platform’s history before being dethroned in 2017.

As a whole, these songs and performers show us that K-pop stars can excel at everything from singing to comedy to rap to dance to social commentary. And their fun, singable melodies make it clear that the South Korean music industry has perfected the pop production machine into an effervescent assembly line of ridiculously catchy tunes sung by ridiculously talented people in ridiculously splashy videos. When Red Velvet sing, “Bet you wanna (bet you wanna) dance like this” in their single “Red Flavor,” they’re sending a message to the world that South Korea is modern but wholesome, colorful, inviting, and fun.

And at the Olympics closing ceremonies, we saw live performances from two more K-pop icons: solo artist CL, formerly a member of the powerhouse girl group 2NE1, and multi-national band Exo. CL’s appearance was a testament to her success in achieving one of the holy grails for K-Pop — a crossover into US fame, or at least onto the Billboard Hot 100. CL has landed on the list twice since 2015.

Exo, meanwhile, is arguably one of the two or three biggest K-Pop successes going right now. The band was a perfect fit for the Olympics — they’re multilingual and were formed with the intention of performing in Mandarin and Japanese as well as South Korea. And for several years, Exo was split into two subgroups, one performing mainly in Korea and one mainly in China. All of this made them a great choice to serve as a symbolic transition between nations, as Tokyo gets ready to host the 2020 Summer Olympics, followed by Beijing hosting the Winter Olympics in 2022.

Prominently missing from the live performance roster at the Olympics was the most popular K-pop band in the universe at the moment: BTS. BTS became an uncontested US phenomenon in 2017, with two songs hitting the Billboard Hot 100, a huge performance at the American Music Awards, a New Year’s Eve performance in Times Square, and a remix of their latest single, “Mic Drop,” done by Steve Aoki. If it’s possible to ascribe a tipping point to a “wave” that seems to be endless, BTS might be it; it certainly seems that the all-boy group has gone as far as a South Korean band can go in terms of making inroads into American culture — they recently graced the cover of American Billboard magazine. But while the band was missing from the Olympics, their song “DNA” — the other of their pair of 2017 hits — did at least play during the opening ceremonies, much to the delight of fans.

None of this is accidental. K-pop has become the international face of South Korea thanks to an extremely regimented, coordinated production system. More than any other international music industry, K-pop has been strategically designed to earworm its way into your brain — and to elevate South Korea and its culture onto the world stage.

How did we get here? Through a combination of global political changes, savvy corporatization and media management, and a heck of a lot of raw talent being ground through a very powerful stardom mill.

K-pop began in 1992 with one electric hip-hop performance

K-pop as we know it wouldn’t exist without democracy and television — specifically, South Korea’s reformation of its democratic government in 1987, with its accompanying modernization and lightening of censorship, and the effect this change had on television.

Prior to the establishment of the nation’s Sixth Republic , there were only two broadcast networks in the country, and they largely controlled what music South Koreans listened to; singers and musicians weren’t much more than tools of the networks. Networks introduced the public to musical stars primarily through weekend music talent shows. Radio existed but, like the TV networks, was under tight state control. Independent music production didn’t really exist, and rock music was controversial and subject to banning ; musicians and songs were primarily introduced to the public through the medium of the televised talent show, and radio served as little more than a subsidiary platform for entertainers who succeeded on those weekend TV competitions.

Before the liberalization of South Korean media in the late ‘80s, the music produced by broadcast networks was primarily either slow ballads or “trot,” a Lawrence Welk-ish fusion of traditional music with old pop standards. After 1987, though, the country’s radio broadcasting expanded rapidly, and South Koreans became more regularly exposed to more varieties of music from outside the country, including contemporary American music.

But TV was still the country’s dominant, centralized form of media: As of 1992, national TV networks had penetrated above 99 percent of South Korean homes, and viewership was highest on the weekends, when the talent shows took place. These televised talent shows were crucial in introducing music groups to South Korean audiences; they still have an enormous cultural impact and remain the single biggest factor in a South Korean band’s success.

As Moonrok editor Hannah Waitt points out in her excellent series on the history of K-pop, K-pop is unusual as a genre because it has a definitive start date, thanks to a band called Seo Taiji and Boys. Seo Taiji had previously been a member of the South Korean heavy metal band Sinawe , which was itself a brief but hugely influential part of the development of Korean rock music in the late ‘80s. After the band broke up, he turned to hip-hop and recruited two stellar South Korean dancers, Yang Hyun-suk and Lee Juno, to join him as backups in a group dubbed Seo Taiji and Boys. On April 11, 1992, they performed their single “Nan Arayo (I Know)” on a talent show:

Not only did the Boys not win the talent show, but the judges gave the band the lowest score of the evening. But immediately after the song debuted, “I Know” went on to top South Korea’s singles charts for a record-smashing 17 weeks, which would stand for more than 15 years as the longest No. 1 streak in the country’s history.

“I Know” represented the first time modern American-style pop music had been fused with South Korean culture. Seo Taiji and Boys were innovators who challenged norms around musical styles, song topics, fashion, and censorship. They sang about teen angst and the social pressure to succeed within a grueling education system, and insisted on creating their own music and writing their own songs outside of the manufactured network environment.

By the time Seo Taiji and Boys officially disbanded in 1996, they had changed South Korea’s musical and performance landscape, paving the way for other artists to be even more experimental and break even more boundaries — and for music studios to quickly step in and take over, forming an entire new studio system from the remnants of the broadcast-centered system.

Between 1995 and 1998, three powerhouse music studios appeared: SM Entertainment (often referred to as SM Town) in 1995; JYP Entertainment in 1997; and YG Entertainment in 1998, created by one of the members of Seo Taiji and Boys, Yang Hyun-suk. Together, these studios began deliberately cultivating what would become known as idol groups.

The first idol group in South Korea appeared on the scene in 1996, when SM founder Lee Soo-man created a group called H.O.T. by assembling five singers and dancers who represented what he believed teens wanted to see from a modern pop group.

H.O.T. shared traits with today’s idol groups: a combination of singing, dancing, and rapping, and disparate personalities united through music. In 1999, the band was chosen to perform in a major benefit concert with Michael Jackson, in part because of their potential to become international pop stars — an indication that even in the ’90s, the industry was attuned to K-pop’s potential for global success.

That potential can be seen in the studios’ eager promotion of multilingual artists like BoA , who made her public debut at the age of 13 in 2000 and in the ensuing years has become one of South Korea’s best-known exports thanks to a brand built on raw talent and multicultural positivity.

All the while, K-pop as a whole was building its own brand, one based on flash, style, and a whole lot of quality.

Don’t ask what makes a K-pop song. Ask what makes a K-pop performer.

There are three things that make K-pop such a visible and unique contributor to the realm of pop music: exceptionally high-quality performance (especially dancing), an extremely polished aesthetic, and an “in-house” method of studio production that churns out musical hits the way assembly lines churn out cars.

No song more perfectly embodies these characteristics than Girls’ Generation’s 2009 hit “Gee,” a breakout success that came at a moment when K-pop was starting to turn heads internationally due to a number of recent milestone hits — notably Big Bang’s “Haru, Haru,” Wonder Girls’ “Nobody,” and Brown Eyed Girls’ “Abracadabra.” “Gee” was a viral internet earworm , breaking out of typical K-pop fan spaces and putting Girls’ Generation within striking distance of US fame.

The combination of cheeky, colorful concept, clever choreography, cute girls, and catchy songwriting makes “Gee” the quintessential K-pop song: It’s fun, infectious, and memorable — and it was all but algorithmically produced by a studio machine responsible for delivering perfect singing, perfect dancing, perfect videos, and perfect entertainment. The then-nine members of Girls’ Generation were factory-assembled into the picture-perfect, male-gaze-ready dolls you see in the song’s music video via extreme studio oversight and years of hard work from each woman — a combined 52 years of training in total, beginning in their childhoods.

Through highly competitive auditions, starting around ages 10 to 12, music studios induct talented children into the K-pop regimen. The children attend special schools where they take specialized singing and dancing lessons ; they learn how to moderate their public behavior and prepare for life as a pop star; they spend hours in daily rehearsals and perform in weekend music shows as well as special group performances. Through these performances, lucky kids can gain fan followings before they even officially “debut.” And when they’re old enough, if they’re really one of the lucky few, the studios will place them into an idol group or even, occasionally, launch them as a solo artist.

Once an idol group has been trained to perfection, the studios generate pop songs for them, market them, put them on TV, send them on tour, and determine when they’ll next make their “comeback” — a term that usually signals a band’s latest album release, generally accompanied by huge fanfare, special TV appearances, and a totally new thematic concept.

Because of the control they exert over their artists, South Korean music studios are directly responsible for shaping the global image of K-pop as a genre. But the industry is notoriously exploitative , and studio life is grueling to the point that it can easily cross over to abusive ; performers are regularly signed to long-term contracts, known as “slave contracts,” when they are still children, which closely dictate their private behavior, dating life, and public conduct.

The studios are also a breeding ground for predatory behavior and harassment from studio executives. In recent years, increasing public attention to these problems has given rise to change; in 2017, multiple studios agreed to significant contract reform . Still, as the recent suicide of Shinee artist Kim Jong-hyun revealed, the pressures of studio culture are rarely made public and can take a serious toll on those who grow up within the system.

Despite all this, the cloistered life of a K-pop star is coveted by thousands of South Korean teens and preteens — so much so that walk-in auditions to scout kids for the studio programs are frequently held in South Korea and New York.

In addition to studio auditions, a wave of new TV audition shows have sprung up in the past few years, giving unknowns a chance to be discovered and build a fan base. Often called idol shows or survival shows, these audition shows are comparable to American Idol and X-Factor. Competitors on these shows can make it big on their own or be grouped up — like the recently debuted group JBJ (short for the fan-dubbed moniker “Just Be Joyful”), consisting of boys who competed in the talent show Produce 101 Season 2 last year and then got put in a temporary group after fans started making composite Instagram photos of them all together. The band only has a seven-month contract; enjoy it while it lasts!

essay about kpop

These TV-sponsored idol shows have caused pushback from the studios, which see them as producing immature talent — and, of course, cutting into studio profits. That’s because a K-pop group’s success is directly tied to its live TV performances. Today there are numerous talent shows, along with many more variety shows and well-known chart TV countdown shows like Inkigayo and M Countdown, which factor into how successful — and therefore bankable — a K-pop idol or idol group is seen to be. Winning a weekend music show or weekly chart countdown remains one of the highest honors an artist or musical group can attain in the South Korean music industry.

Because of this dependence on live performance shows, a song’s performance elements — how easy it is to sing live, how easy it is for an audience to pick up and sing along with, the impact of its choreography, its costuming — are all crucial to its success. Groups routinely go all-out for their performances: Witness After-School learning to perform an entire drumline sequence for live performances of their single “Bang!” as well as pretty much every live performance mentioned here .

All of this emphasis on live performances make fans an extremely active part of the experience. K-pop fans have perfected the art of the fan chant , in which fans in live studio audiences and live performances will shout alternate fan chants over the musical intros to songs, and sometimes as a counterpoint to choruses, as a show of unity and support.

This collectivity has helped ensure that K-pop fan bases both at home and abroad are absolutely massive, and intense to a degree that’s hard to overstate. Fans intensely support their favorite group members, and many fans go out of their way to make sure their favorite idols look and dress the part of world-class performers . K-Con, the largest US K-pop convention, has grown exponentially over the years and now includes both Los Angeles and New York.

(There are also anti-fans who target band members — most notoriously an anti who attempted to poison a member of DBSK in 2006. But the less said about them, the better.)

You might expect that in the face of all this external pressure, K-pop groups would be largely dysfunctional messes. Instead, modern-day K-pop appears to be a seamless, gorgeous, well-oiled machine — complete with a few glaring contradictions that make it all the more fascinating.

Modern K-pop is a bundle of colorful contradictions

Though government censorship of South Korean music has relaxed over time, it still exists, as does industry self-censorship in response to a range of controversial topics. South Korean social mores stigmatize everything from sexual references and innuendo to references to drugs and alcohol — as well as actual illicit behavior by idols — and addressing any of these subjects can cause a song to be arbitrarily banned from radio play and broadcast. Songs dealing with serious themes or thorny issues are largely off limits, queer identity is generally only addressed as subtext, and lyrics are usually scrubbed down to fluffy platitudes. Thematically, it’s often charming and innocent, bordering on adolescent.

Despite these limitations, K-pop has grown over time in its nuance and sophistication thanks to artists and studios who have often either risked censorship or relied on visual cues and subtext to fill in the gaps.

Case in point: the 2000 hit “Adult Ceremony” from singer and actor Park Ji-yoon, which marked the first time a K-pop hit successfully injected adult sexuality into fairly innocuous lyrics, representing a notable challenge to existing depictions of femininity in South Korean pop culture.

The women of K-pop are typically depicted as traditional versions of femininity. This usually manifests in one of several themes: adorable, shy schoolgirls who sing about giddy crushes; knowing, empowered women who need an “oppa” (a strong older male figure) to fulfill their fantasies; or knowing, empowered women who reject male validation , even as the studio tailors the group’s members for adult male consumption.

essay about kpop

An idol group’s image often changes from one album to the next, undergoing a total visual and tonal overhaul to introduce a new concept. However, there are a few girl groups — 2NE1 and f(x) spring most readily to mind — that have been marketed as breaking away from this gender-centric mode of performance; they’re packaged as rebels and mavericks regardless of what their album is about, even while they operate within the studio culture.

Yet the women of K-pop are also increasingly producing self-aware videos that navigate their own relationships to these rigid impositions. Witness Sunmi, a former member of Wonder Girls, tearing down her own carefully cultivated public image in her recent single “Heroine,” a song about a woman surviving a failed relationship. In the video, Sunmi transforms physically , growing more empowered and defiant as she faces the camera and finally confronts a billboard of herself.

If songs for women in K-pop break down along the “virgin/mature woman” divide, songs for men tend to break down along a “bad boy/sophisticated man” line. Occasionally they even break down in the same song — like Block B’s “Jackpot,” the video for which sees the band posing as wildly varied members of a renegade circus, uniting to kidnap actress Kim Sae-ron into a life of cheerful hedonism.

Male performance groups are generally permitted a broader range of topics than K-pop’s women: BTS notably sings about serious issues like teen social pressures, while many other boy bands feature a wide range of narrative concepts. But male entertainers get held to arguably even more exacting physical and technical standards than their female counterparts, with precision choreography — like Speed’s all-Heely dance routine below — being a huge part of the draw for male idol groups:

If you’re wondering whether co-ed bands coexist in these studio cultures, the answer is, not really. Most of the time , co-ed groups tend to be one-off pairings of members from different bands for one or two singles, or novelty acts that are quickly split into gendered subgroups. The most famous actual co-ed band is probably the brother-sister duo Akdong Musician, a pair of cute kids who made it big on an audition show; and even they get split up a lot to pair with other singers. (See the “Hi Suhyun” clip above, which features Lee Hi and the sisterly half of AM, Lee Su-hyun.)

It probably goes without saying that this traditional gender divide isn’t exactly fertile ground for queer idols to thrive. Despite a number of K-pop stars openly supporting LGBTQ rights, the industry aggressively markets homoeroticism in its videos but remains generally homophobic. But progress is happening here, too: South Korea’s first openly gay idol just appeared on the scene in early 2018. His name is Holland, and his first single debuted to a respectable 6.5 million views.

Hip-hop tends to be a dominant part of the K-pop sound, particularly among male groups, a trend that has opened up the genre to criticism for appropriation. South Korea grapples with a high degree of cultural racism, and recent popular groups have come under fire for donning blackface , appropriating Native American iconography , and much more . Still, K-pop has increasingly embraced diversity in recent years, with black members joining K-pop groups and duo Coco Avenue putting out a bilingual single in 2017.

Last but not least, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention South Korea’s emergent indie music scene , which includes a thriving crop of independent rap, hip-hop, and, increasingly, R&B artists , as well as a host of grassroots artists who’ve made waves on SoundCloud .

Taking stock of all these changes and paradoxes, we might be able to extrapolate a bit about what the future of K-pop looks like: even more diverse, with an ever-increasing number of independent artists shaking up the studio scene, even though most of them will still have to play within the system’s rigid standards.

This gradual evolution suggests that part of the reason K-pop has been able to make international inroads in recent years is that it’s been able to push against its own rigid norms, through the use of modern themes and sophisticated subtexts, without sacrificing the incredibly polished packaging that makes it so innately compelling. That would seem to be a formula for continued global success — especially now that South Korea and its culture has the world’s attention. Hallyu may swell or subside, but the K-pop production machine goes ever on. And from here, the future looks fantastic, baby .

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Studying K-Pop: The Cultural Meaning Essay

Globalization has made people more aware of other cultures, traditions, values, and viewpoints. In this sense, Asian cultures, including their artists, performers, and actors, gain more popularity in other nations. Among the well-known Asian music genres is K-Pop, which introduced to the world a large number of talented musicians. However, while learning about K-Pop can contribute to the understanding of the new genre, it can be valuable to study this field from a cultural perspective. This way, the cultural meaning of studying K-Pop involves a deeper understanding of the Asian communities, their values, preferences, perception of aesthetics, and artistic activity.

K-Pop can be referred to as a part of the popular culture of the Asian region. From an academic point of view, such kind of culture is an “inferior culture” culture and involves popular entertainment, art, press, and cinema (Storey 8). While being considered inferior, K-Pop is still valuable in terms of Asian ideology, which implies a systematic set of beliefs. The first cultural meaning of studying K-Pop involves learning “a general process of intellectual, spiritual, and aesthetic development” of Asian people (Storey 1). This will allow other nations to gain a more profound knowledge of great artists and the philosophy behind some lyrics. Furthermore, K-Pop can be useful in terms of learning about “a particular way of life” of South Korean individuals since clips of K-Pop songs might give references to or show Asian holidays, sports, and religious festivals (Storey 2). Lastly, “the works and practices of intellectual and especially artistic activity” might be learned via K-Pop due to Korean approaches to performances (Storey 2). This way, K-Pop serves as a conduit of information to learn about the Asian community.

Therefore, comprehending the cultural significance of K-Pop requires a better understanding of Asian populations, including their values, tastes, and conception of aesthetics and artistic endeavor. Learning a broad pattern of the intellectual, social, and artistic growth of Asian people is the primary cultural meaning of studying K-Pop. Additionally, K-Pop can be beneficial in learning about a certain approach to the life of South Korean people because music videos may make references to or depict Asian holidays, sporting events, and religious festivals. Finally, due to Korean attitudes to performances, practices of artistic activity may be learned through K-Pop.

Storey, John. “What is Popular Culture?” Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction . Routledge, 2021, pp.1-15.

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IvyPanda. (2023, August 25). Studying K-Pop: The Cultural Meaning. https://ivypanda.com/essays/studying-k-pop-the-cultural-meaning/

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IvyPanda . (2023) 'Studying K-Pop: The Cultural Meaning'. 25 August.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Studying K-Pop: The Cultural Meaning." August 25, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/studying-k-pop-the-cultural-meaning/.

1. IvyPanda . "Studying K-Pop: The Cultural Meaning." August 25, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/studying-k-pop-the-cultural-meaning/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Studying K-Pop: The Cultural Meaning." August 25, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/studying-k-pop-the-cultural-meaning/.

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essay about kpop

Essay On K-pop: Best Topics And Tips For Choosing

It all started with gangnam style – the video that went viral in 2012, and went on to top music charts in over 30 countries..

The song earned the Guinness World Record as the first YouTube video to hit 1 billion views and paved the way for the Korean wave of pop culture and ideas. The seldom-known genre of music has garnered a lot of influence, and the music industry is ranked among the top ten music markets worldwide. If you’re a student or researcher, let us show you the best topics about pop culture you can write a paper on and how to choose one yourself.

Kpop as a Research Topic: Why to Select

Kpop or Korean pop is a fast-rising music style and popular culture, so it is quite a widespread research subject for many. But not every student is genuinely interested in music. It’s better to choose everything to taste. However, if this is an assignment from the teacher, or you just lack skill, pay someone to write your paper on Papersowl.com for 100% original academic essays. Besides expertise, also check out topic concepts for inspiration if you’re stuck. When students pay for college essay, they ensure that the writing is not plagiarized or badly written. And the theme does not matter to professionals. Meanwhile, if pop is something you’ve been crazy about, go ahead and enjoy completing your assignment.

10 Best K-pop Topic Ideas To Write About

The popularity of pop has broken the language barrier and has raised awareness of Asian music and culture. It has also spread inclusion and diversity over the world and broken stereotypes. Below are popular kpop essay topics and angles to explore for your article:

  • The globalization of K-pop: A study of the factors that have contributed to the global popularity of Korean pop music.
  • Pop and its impact on Korean culture: A discussion of how pop has influenced the cultural identity of South Korea.
  • The role of social media in the success of Korean pop: An analysis of how social media has helped to promote and popularize pop.
  • The rise of BTS and the impact of their music on the international music industry: A study of how BTS has broken down barriers and achieved success in the US and other global markets.
  • The influence of Hallyu on fashion and beauty trends: A discussion of how pop has influenced the beauty and fashion industry both in Korea and internationally.
  • The dark side of pop in Korea: An exploration of the challenges faced by pop idols and the negative effects of the industry on their mental and physical health.
  • The impact of pop on the Korean economy: A study of the economic benefits of the pop industry for South Korea.
  • K-pop and gender representation: An analysis of the way pop portrays gender and sexuality in its music and visuals.
  • The role of K-pop in promoting Korean language and culture globally: A discussion of how pop has helped to promote the Korean language and culture around the world.
  • K-pop and fandom culture: An exploration of the unique and passionate fandom culture that surrounds pop and how it differs from other music fandoms.

Tips for Choosing a K-pop Essay Topic

Before choosing a topic, read the assignment brief and the directions. This will help you understand the requirements you must satisfy for a perfect grade. Then, choose a topic you have an opinion about. You won’t produce an A-grade article about something if you don’t have passion for it. Hence, select an intriguing theme. It should be something you already know, care about, or would like to learn more about. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • Am I interested in this topic?
  • Is it appropriate for my audience?
  • What is my purpose for deciding on this theme?
  • Can I develop it into an article within the time frame and word count required?
  • Can I research it adequately to meet the source requirements?
  • Is the topic too broad or narrow to fit the requirement?

If a subject is too broad, narrow it down to make it easier to manage. One way to do this is to tackle the problem from a specific perspective. Don’t combine topics or attempt to be overly ambitious. Instead, reduce the scope, and don’t be shy to ask your tutor for recommendations.

Things to Pay Attention to When Writing Your Kpop Paper

There are various ways to format your article. Pay attention to the following:

  • Follow Structural Requirements

There are different types of essay writing. Your paper can be persuasive, informative, or descriptive. It all depends on the purpose of writing an academic essay or article. Most papers follow the introduction–body–conclusion structure. But the body paragraph differs depending on the article type. Pay attention to the guideline and use the following to structure your article:

  • Introduction: open your article with a hook – something fascinating to capture the reader’s attention. It can be a question, a fact, or a famous quote. Follow it with your thesis statement and introduce the concepts you want to discuss.
  • Body paragraph: discuss the concept in detail using paragraphs. If the brief does not provide instructions on the number of sections to write, use your discretion. But only use one paragraph to discuss a concept to aid understanding. Use transition words to flow between sentences and maintain coherence.
  • Conclusion: recap the main points of your article here and leave a call to action.

2.    Research The Topic

The next thing to do after deciding on the topic is to spend time researching Korean pop culture. Read books, watch interviews, and invest quality time into listening to the songs. You can join a few fan clubs to know what happens behind the scene. If something is not clear, don’t hesitate to consult your instructor for further instruction.

3.    Reference To Avoid Plagiarism

Don’t forget to cite sources you use for your article to avoid plagiarism. Popular referencing styles include APA, MLA, and Chicago styles. Read the brief to know the required citation style.

4.    Proofread and Edit

After writing your article, manually read through for grammar, sentence, and punctuation mistakes. Ask a friend to also read through for errors you missed or use an online grammar checker for more efficiency. Submit your paper only after proofreading it.

South Korea is Asia’s fourth-largest country by economy. Its music culture started making worldwide headlines and has impacted the sector a lot. This didn’t only happen in Korea but also in the United States, Germany, and other countries. Popular culture has broken several barriers, but it is not without its backlash. As a result, it is the ideal space for a writer to explore.

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Essay about Kpop and Its Popularity

essay about kpop

Korean pop history can be traced back to idol groups who debuted throughout the 90s (Vincent 2019). One of many first well-known groups was Seo Taiji and Boys. Their debut of melded Western-style pop music with lyrics in Korean went above and beyond the cultural norms in popular culture during the time (Vincent 2019). This marked the beginning of the current, beat-oriented era of K-pop.

Following the first wave of idol groups came the music studios diving into the picture in the late 90s. Three big companies established themselves and so are currently referred to as the big entertainment businesses in South Korea. These businesses, namely SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, and YG Entertainment, became the “Big 3” because of what size and popular they are (2019).

Idol groups soared high from the 90s to today. This has resulted in the in-depth perfecting of details such as for example choreography, outfits, and mannerisms, and the types of songs ended up resonating more with the fans, who became hyped because of their favorite artists and K-pop groups (Vincent 2019). K-pop groups of both girl groups and boy bands have arisen due to the undeniable influence and popularity of Korean popular culture globally.

Works Cited

Vincent, Brittany. “A Brief, Condensed History of K-Pop. ” Teen Vogue, Teen Vogue, 21 Oct. 2019. “Worldwide Idols.” My passion , 5 Apr. 2019.

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essay about kpop

essay about kpop

How to Write a Scholarship Essay – What I Learned from BTS J-Hope

essay about kpop

How would the soundtrack of your life sound like? What songs will be playing in the background of your life as you look back on the life you lead? What songs have been there for you through the toughest moments of your life? For me, one of the most impactful songs in my life is BTS’s “Dope.” Even though “Dope” is a fast-beat and playful song, the lyrics are incredibly meaningful.

And most importantly, this song accompanied through my final year in college, which was not a regular senior year by any stretch of the imagination. For an entire year, I toiled away at my 80-page honors thesis while juggling a full load of classes, and trying to launch my first company in both China and the United States at the same time. It was a grueling, emotionally-draining, and precarious time – but also a time of tremendous growth and character.

No other year in my life has been met with so much scrutiny and harsh criticism at the same time that I received unquantifiable amounts of love and support. All these years later, I am unsure about how I should feel I reminiscence about the stressful and high-pressured days in that final year. But one thing is for sure, I am unbelievably thankful for BTS to have released the music that they have.

It helped keep me company throughout this period of time in my life and it still brings me back flashbacks every time I listen to “Dope.”

OK 우린 머리부터 발끝까지 전부 다 쩌 쩔어 작업실에 쩔어 살어 청춘은 썩어가도 덕분에 모로 가도 달리는 성공가도
Ok we’re dope from head to toe Over half of the day, we drown in work Even if our youth rots in the studio Thanks to that, we’re closer to success BTS, Lyrics to “Dope”

Because of my appreciation for BTS, I was very eager to write a blog post about them. But instead of writing it about all of them, I decided to write on J-Hope today, who with his namesake has brought a tremendous amount of optimism and hope in my life. So this blog post will be dedicated to exploring J-Hope’s life and presenting it in the form of a scholarship essay. Hopefully, it will entertain you guys as you learn more about J-Hope’s life while also picking up some tips on how to write a killer scholarship essay. DISCLAIMER: I based the majority of this hypothetical scholarship on research I conducted on J-Hope’s life. But since I wasn’t able to directly interview J-Hope (maybe one day I will though!), I don’t know how accurate everything is. So take everything for a grain of salt! I am only writing this for educational purposes.

Scholarship Prompt

Describe a time when you demonstrated leadership abilities outside of school.

Suggested Essay Outline

Before I dive in to share my tips on how to write this scholarship essay, I would advise J-Hope (and anyone else that has a leadership story to share) to use this outline to structure your essay.

I don’t have enough time to go through each section individually to explain how you should write them, but this outline should help guide you through the writing process.

When it comes to this type of scholarship essay, there is only one “bulletproof” way of writing a bomb essay. And that is to select a killer leadership story to write about it. Picking a good story is not only half the battle, but a good story will also basically write itself without too much effort and will help guide you in laying out the rest of your essay.  As you sit down to mull over which leadership story you want to write about, try to keep these qualities in mind:

  • Presents a Clear Problem that You Need to Help Solve: The leadership story has a clear challenge that requires you to help solve.
  • Requires teamwork: The leadership story is not a story about how you overcame obstacles on your own, it’s always about how you help lead a team of other people to defeat the challenge.
  • The Story is Concise: Even though the challenge may be multi-faceted, the story is generally straightforward and easy to tell without having to explain an excessive amount of background information and characters involved. You don’t want a story that turns into 100 other little background stories before you can get to your main point. 
  • Had a Profound Impact on You: The leadership story needs to be meaningful to you and played a big role in influencing your leadership style.
  • Bigger Implications: The leadership story is bigger than the story itself, its impact can extend to other areas of your life, career, and the people that you want to influence in the future.

When it comes to J-Hope, I think one of his most memorable leadership stories is about how he helped lead BTS members through some of the most difficult times before and after they first debuted.

One of my favorite BTS performances of all time is when they sang “DNA” at the American Music Awards (AMA) back in 2017.

Not only was it beyond incredible for BTS to be the first-ever Kpop group to perform at the AMAs, but their song, “DNA” was also a show-stopper with swoon-worthy lyrics:

우리 만남은 수학의 공식 종교의 율법 우주의 섭리 내게 주어진 운명의 증거, 너는 내 꿈의 출처
Our meeting is like a mathematical formula Commandments of religion, the providence of the universe; The evidence of destiny given to me You’re the source of my dream BTS, Lyrics to “DNA”

What I really like about these lyrics is that they are creative in describing how ingrained a feeling is. Instead of just saying, “I felt it in my gut and it felt right,” they turned to singing about mathematical formulas, religious commandments, laws of the universe, and their DNA to make a point. Similarly, you want to make sure you are equally creative when you explain how you stepped up as a leader. Here are some questions that you may want to answer in this section:

  • How did you step up as a leader?
  • What leadership qualities did you demonstrate?
  • How did you lead your team?
  • How did you convince your team to believe in you?
  • What type of leader do you think you are?
  • What insights did you gain about what it takes to be an effective leader?  

Here’s how I think J-Hope can write about his leadership style and abilities:

As you near the end of your essay, take some time to write about the outcome of your story. Explain how your leadership skills helped the team overcome the big obstacles and share some details to illustrate how that looks like.

You can also talk about your grander leadership goals for the future or the challenges that you hope to be able to help tackle in the world. And then before you end your essay, make sure you leave a big “mic drop” moment for your readers.

Or in other words, leave a memorable last line or message to your reader that is so powerful that they are likely to keep thinking about it even after they’ve moved on to reading someone else’s essay.

Now that’s a real swag right there. #swagalicious This is how I think J-Hope could write his final few paragraphs:

And there you have it! I found J-Hope’s story extremely inspiring and it was a real honor to write about him!

Make sure you leave a comment for me down below and let me know which celebrity you’ll like me to write about next! Cheers!

STAR IN YOUR OWN STORY

Figure out how to Make Your Story Shine on Paper

“BTS love yourself world tour 180826 Jimin jungkook jin namjoon suga yoongi jhope hobi V Taehyung RM”  by  Jimin Memories gallery  is marked with  CC PDM 1.0

“Album LYS Answer ver F – BTS”  by  Yun_Q  is marked with  CC PDM 1.0   “iwm9ks1lc-mx83ej-nx-dje3-jdxm-bts-lal-72j-kdi3-2018-bb5-billboard-su7-1500”  by  Yun_Q  is marked with  CC0 1.0

“d257ffe6ly1fog4y144haj235s23uwu4”  by  Yun_Q  is marked with  CC0 1.0  

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K-pop As A Subculture And Its Influence On The World

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