When you think of the country South Korea, one of the first things that come to mind is likely to be the kpop industry. This is because the country has been exporting modern pop to international audiences since the late 90s and it is incredibly popular in China and Japan. Features that set the South Korean pop music industry apart from similar industries in other countries are the impressive lights displays and high intensity synchronized dance routines that accompany almost every performance. Fashion is also a big part of the kpop world and group members are often paid a lot of money to promote certain clothing and shoe brands.
Online streaming services also enabled South Korea to export another very popular part of its experiment industry, TV serial dramas. Global video streaming services now host TV dramas from the country for international audiences complete with English subtitles. You only have to visit sites like Viki and DramaFever to see how popular K-dramas are around the world. All of the television series have Korean music soundtracks, which helps to promote music from the country.
Over the years there has been some criticism of industry practices in the kpop world. Management companies have been accused of exploiting idols via restrictive contracts that required unreasonable amounts of work. In a BBC report, the contracts were referred to as “slave contracts”. The criticism of the industry also came about as very popular k-pop stars were forced to rehearse and perform with little or no sleep by management companies. Fortunately, in 2014, the government passed new laws to regulate the music industry. These laws were designed to protect idols under the age of 19 from overtly sexualized performances and unhealthy labor practices. To this day, however, there are still many that criticize the industry.
Nowadays, it is not uncommon to see k-pop artists making an appearance in Western music charts like Billboard. The invention of social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube made it easier for South Korean idols to market their singles and albums to a wider audience. Some of the most well-know kpop groups include Girls’ Generation, Super Junior, Big Bang, BTS, and EXO. In September 2017, the album “Love Yourself: Her” by BTS reached 14th position in UK album charts. On May 20th, 2018, BTS won Top Social Artist during the annual Billboard Music Awards in the US. Korean music really is popular around the world.