Riding the Hallyu Wave

안녕하세요 여러분!  annyeonghaseyo-yeorobun
Hello Everyone!

I hope you all enjoyed the post last week discussing holidays in Korea! Halloween just passed, did you celebrate Halloween? If you did, what did you dress up as? If you don't celebrate Halloween what is your favorite holiday overall?

This week I am going to talk about a topic some of you may be familiar with or someone you know may be familiar with: K-pop and Korean entertainment! Have you heard of K-pop or perhaps BTS? What about Korean dramas?

Me at the BTS concert in California last May.

K-pop or Korean Popular Music is a genre of music in South Korea that started in the 90s but has continually grown in popularity throughout Korea and the world. The name they call this popularity boom is known as the "hallyu (Korean music and tv) wave". With the recent popularity of BTS, the hallyu wave appears to be as popular as ever. I asked my Korean roommate Jiwon what she thought about the popularity of BTS and kpop in America and she said that she was really surprised since k-pop has never been so popular before. Jiwon was even more shocked when I told her that my little sister (who is 11) has a lot of friends who really like k-pop and BTS since she didn't expect that young kids would also be interested.

A clip I took at a k-pop concert last month of the group

Red Velvet performing "Power Up". 

K-pop fans are called "stans" and every k-pop group has their own name that their fans will call them. I don't listen to a lot of groups but I do like one called SHINee. SHINee stans are called "shawols". Members of each k-pop group are called "idols". K-pop fans also usually have a favorite member which they call their "bias". My "bias" in SHINee is the member named "Key". For anyone who does listen to BTS or K-pop in the class, do you have a favorite member (bias)?

Me posing with two of SHINee's newer albums in front of a big picture of SHINee. The member right behind me is "Key".

If you are a fan of k-pop when the members come out with new albums you can go to fun events like fan meetings and concerts if you are able to get tickets. It can be really competitive to get tickets to k-pop concerts so many people will use multiple computers and wait up for hours in hopes of getting a seat. Although I have gone to k-pop concerts in America, it is actually a lot harder to get tickets here in Korea since there are so many more fans here for those groups.

A picture I took at a SHINee fan meeting in Seoul.

Aside from k-pop another very big part of Korean entertainment is k-dramas. K-dramas (Korean dramas) are the most popular genre of TV shows in Korea. Korean dramas are different from American dramas in that they almost always only have one season (typically 16 episodes that are one hour each) with clear beginning, middle, and ends. American TV show typically can go on for multiple seasons without a clear end in sight. You can almost think of a Korean dramas as a very long movie. Although not as popular in America as k-pop, K-dramas do have a pretty large fanbase in America as well. Kdramas have also even made influence in American media. Have you heard about the American TV show "The Good Doctor"? The Good Doctor was actually based off of a 19 episode 2013 korean drama with the same name!

Picture from the famous k-drama "Goblin". 

The last big area of Korean entertainment are Korean variety shows. Variety shows, like Korean dramas have also played a role in American entertainment. Have you heard of The Masked Singer? The Masked Singer in America was actually based off  the Korean version "King of Masked Singer"(as well as a similar show in Vietnam). There are a lot of different variety shows in Korea such as game shows (like Running Man), k-pop idol performance shows (like Inkigayo, Music Bank, etc), and talk shows (like Radio Star).

American actor, Ryan Reynolds, on the Korean variety show "The King of Masked Singer".
Ryan Reynolds sang while wearing the mask on the right.

If you have listened to any k-pop before who is your favorite group? If you've watched a k-drama or variety show which show have you watched? If not, would you like to listen to any k-pop or would you watch a Korean tv show?

Lastly, I hope you enjoyed this post. If you have any future topic ideas let me know as well!!  

안녕!

(annyeong)

Bye!