What Is K-pop? – 10 Interesting Facts About K-pop that You didn’t Know before

What is K-pop? Netflix decided to answer this question in its first “Explained” series’ episode. For all the people who probably heard about K-pop but really don’t understand what is about…. Yes… so this episode was made for you!

Netflix just launched a new documentary series called “Explained” which main objective is to reveal basic knowledge about different phenomena occurring these days. Fortunately for all the fans around the world, the first episode is about K-pop! In almost 20 minutes, “Explained” gives information about K-pop and the formula to keep its success.

I will list the 10 most interesting facts (from the episode) in my point of view:

• K-pop means revolution: The popular song in Korea, before K-pop appeared, was an ode to Korea. You know, like very pure and positive lyric. Oh! Korea (?! ????) from 1984 was influenced by the rules and ideologies of Park Cung Hee’s dictatorship (1963) who imposed that music in order to be public might be patriotic or safe. In 1992 Seo Taiji & Boys debuted with fresh new music style. They were too modern for “that” Korea. Seo Taiji & Boys brought a cultural revolution in Korea that include dance, fashion, identity and of course the use of music as a powerful “voice”. Through that voice Seo Taiji & Boys launched in 1995 the song Come back home that freely expressed hidden feelings of Korean society. K-pop was born to spring cultural freedom.

• K-pop is a business: by 1960 Korea was a very poor country which probably nobody knew about. However, by 1996 Korea achieve to increase its economy reaching the 11th position in the world rank. Koreans realize that K-pop could sell as “cultural commodities”, so then the “formula” was created. As many no fans think the “formula” is the explanation to why all the K-pop bands look pretty alike. It’s not a Korean thing… it’s a business thing and happens in many countries in many industries. By 1997 – boosted by the Asian economic crisis – Korean government decided to spread – to export – the cultural commodities to the world. K-pop is a main piece in the Korean economy’s growth.

• K-pop is more than just music: all the bands are composed by dancers, singers, beauties, a leader and a younger. Each member represents a different personality, attitude, tastes, etc. and at the same time is an important piece of the whole (as in the music as in the business). Remember Space Girls, one girl represented innocence, another represented the sport-life, the other elegance and so on. For Korea is the same. K-pop provides a sort of identity to the audience.

• K-pop is still “Healthy”: unlike Pop – or any kind of – music in other countries, Korean idols doesn’t get in troubles. they must always stay clean (no alcohol, no drugs and no scandals) and be respectful. Movies such as “The Runaways” (2010) or “Almost Famous” (2000) give us an idea about how artists fell apart after getting famous because of drugs, alcohol and scandals; on the contrary for Korea they mostly stay clean. We know there are several scandal rumors around Korean idols however the Korean industries know very well how to manage the situations. For us, audience or consumers, we still believe in their “healthiness”. Perhaps, through this concept K-pop sells to the world a sort of image of Korea.

 

• K-pop is a forever single: idols are married with the audience. This point and the one above, are the most distinguishable characteristic. Idols’ image are like princesses and princes. Singleness is good, is profitable. Love doesn’t exist. I don’t mean that they are like robot or something, I mean industries manage to control idols’ public image to keep them single for the audience. Of course, they have romantic life but that isn’t a topic for discussion in any arranged interview. K-pop is not just the music but could also be the illusion of a romance.

 

• K-pop is visual art: is not just about the active and positive music, but also about the video-clips, about the fashion and make-up or about the concerts. Video clips are stunning! Yes, even so you will think video clips are very weird, they’re actually a whole new and unique style. It reinvented the old pop into a new industry that involves the sight as much as the audition. It’s everything about design. Each song is made around a concept expressed in the scenery, infrastructure, clothes, make-up and even dance steps. K-pop is a visual explosion a whole audiovisual experience.

 

• K-pop is now multicultural: we know many K-pop songs have some English lyrics… or maybe Spanish such as Gfriend’s song Me gustas tu (???? ???) or Super Junior’s song Lo siento, and probably some other languages. But it’s not just about the lyrics, some melodies and rhythms come from different countries. Even some songs are written for foreigners like Red Velvet’s song “Red flavor” which was written by the Swedish Caesar & Loui. K-pop is no longer just a representation of Korea but tries to be one of the world.

 

• K-pop is “All in One”: the nowadays K-pop doesn’t follow the rules of “classic” Pop anymore, it’s in fact more like experimental. The songs’ structure is an arrangement of maybe 3 or 4 different music styles encapsulated in 3 minutes or more. Although might sound very weird when you listen for first time because is literally like having a schizophrenic episode of multiple feelings. It’s being more than bipolar… rather multi-polar. We could say that the songs now are popular and modern rhapsodies.
  
  
  

 

• K-pop is powerful: and in this point I don’t know if it’s a good point or a bad point. In 2012 the most famous song Gangnam style reached a ridiculous number of views on YouTube. Thus the song as well as the very weird dance inevitable got stuck in the mind of the whole world. Playing the song in front of the mass means to start to performance the weird dance “in mass”. It’s kind of scary. As a result, K-pop has an incredible power in its young audience and this audience is growing year by year. It’s good while K-pop is giving a positive influence unlike some other music genres but as someone said in the documentary… “Music is cool but its fans are so scary”.

 

Here the trailer of “Explained”:

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtCZJI_6np8[/embedyt]

Therefore, 100 Iconic songs… to give you an idea:

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWr7legxTBw[/embedyt]

So, I’m not a really fan of K-pop but I found the documentary very interesting. I got to know more about Korean culture as well. Maybe for K-pop’s fans the episode wasn’t enough to embrace what is K-pop, but at least for those who are beginners or just outsiders is a very good way to understand the music and perhaps to become a fan.