Gangnam...Style?

If you know what this image is, then congratulations, because you have officially been inducted into the world of Hallyu. Hallyu is a general term for the Korean Wave, or the rising popularity of South Korean entertainment worldwide.

The aforementioned picture is from a Korean music video called “Gangnam Style” by South Korean rapper, Psy, and the video already has over 170,000,000 views on YouTube. Yep, you saw that right, 170 million. If that’s not a hallmark for Korean entertainment, then I don’t know what is.

The Korean music industry has gained a lot of momentum in the last decade, especially with advances in social media that have allowed people easy online access to Korea's entertainment culture. If you like catchy pop songs and extremely attractive Asian people, then you may just like Korean music.

The most popular type of music in Korea is Korean pop or Kpop, which spans various genres such as electronic, dance, and R&B. Kpop was popularized in South Korea in the 90s, and it has some unique characteristics that distinguish it from any other entertainment industry.  

1. Groups

Kpop artists are almost always in groups, and those groups are big. Kpop groups usually have 4 or more members, and the groups are typically gender-specific. Some examples include Super Junior, an all-guy group of 10 members, and Miss A, an all-girl group with four members.

Super Junior in "Mr. Simple"

Miss A in "Breathe"

 2.  Looks

Kpop artists are always extremely attractive and stylish. Part of what makes Kpop so interesting is the “image” of each group. Every member of a group is going to be inhumanely beautiful, smooth-skinned, and thin (kind of like a vampire?), and each member's style is going to be very modern and, in some cases, seemingly Lady Gaga-inspired.

Big Bang's Taeyang and GD in "I Need a Girl"

Big Bang's GD in "Fantastic Baby"

Sistar's Bora in "Ma Boy"

2ne1's Minzy in "I Am the Best"

Super Junior's Eunhyuk in "Mr. Simple"

Big Bang's T.O.P in "Fantastic Baby"

3. Music videos, music videos, music videos

Kpop groups have music videos for almost all of their songs, and these videos are usually a pretty big deal. The typical Kpop group will release one song at a time during their “comeback” stage, and each song will get its own highly-anticipated music video. These videos will utilize fancy cinematic techniques as well as dramatic makeup and costuming.

Big Bang's "Monster"

Sistar in "Alone"

2ne1 in "I Am The Best"

4. Choreography

Kpop groups are big on choreography. In comparison with American music videos, which usually tell some kind of story where half the video features the singer with an intense look on his or her face, Korean music videos have a lot of choreographed, group dances. Many of these dances are catchy (as seen in Gangnam style—don’t tell me you haven’t tried that horse dance before) and creative.

Beast in "Breath"

SNSD in "Run Devil Run"

In addition to these characteristics, the music industry also has award shows like MAMA (Mnet Asian Music Awards), which are comparable to America’s VMA’s and are viewable on YouTube.

There are also lesser-known indie groups in South Korea that you can check out, like Busker Busker, which interestingly enough includes one white guy.

If you can get over the fact that you’re probably not going to understand any of the songs in Kpop, I would definitely recommend checking some of the groups out and immersing yourself in Hallyu culture!