Korean culture, or K-Culture, is the starting point of the Korean Wave, which is expanding its influence around the world. Let’s start with the first theme, “The Beginning of the Korean Wave: K-Drama and K-Pop.”
K-Drama and K-Pop are Korea's representative cultural content, capturing the hearts of people around the world with unique storytelling and distinctive music.
1. K-Drama
Korean dramas (K-Drama) can be said to be the starting point of the Korean Wave.
Korean dramas began to gain popularity in many Asian countries in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and have since spread their influence worldwide. The dramas ‘Winter Sonata’ and ‘Descendants of the Sun’ are representative examples.
K-Drama is capturing the hearts of many people with its unique storytelling, in-depth character development, and outstanding acting. Additionally, Korean dramas are well-known for addressing social issues.
Korean drama (Han-guk drama), more commonly known as Koreanovela or K-drama, is a type of Korean-language television series produced in Korea. It is popular worldwide, thanks to the spread of Korean popular culture (" Korean Wave "), especially in Asia, and its widespread availability through streaming services, which often offer subtitles in multiple languages.
Many Korean dramas have been translated internationally, and some of them have had a significant impact in other countries. Other countries broadcast some of the best-known dramas through traditional television channels.
Korean dramas have garnered international attention in terms of fashion, style, and culture. Their rise in popularity gave the fashion line a major boost.
The ‘Korean Wave’, or Korean Wave, has had a great influence on countries around the world. Along with that wave, Korean TV dramas appeared. Demand for K-dramas has grown over the past two decades after Hollywood movies, Japanese pop culture, and the financial crisis that hit South Korea in 1997 virtually destroyed it. Today it is gaining traction internationally.
Interest in K-dramas has inspired many people to visit Korea. According to a report published by the Korea Herald, more than half of tourists who visited Korea came to watch Korean dramas. ("Impact of Korean Dramas on the World", 2022)
The late 2010s and 2020s saw renewed interest in K-dramas in international markets.
Netflix began seeking out productions from South Korea and other countries around 2018 to expand its service offerings to its growing international audience.
These efforts paid off, and director Hwang Dong-hyuk's Squid Game surpassed 111 million viewers in just 17 days after its release in September 2021, ranking first in the service's highest viewership rating.
2. K-Pop
K-Pop refers to Korean popular music and is one of the important factors leading the Korean Wave.
The first known use of the term 'K-pop' appeared in Billboard at the end of an article by Cho Hyun-jin on October 9, 1999, titled 'Korea Allows Some Japanese Live Acts', which the magazine's correspondent referred to as Korean.
Used as a broad term for popular music.
K-Pop is captivating fans around the world with its unique music style, performance, and artists' charm. Many K-Pop groups, including BTS, BLACKPINK, EXO, and TWICE, are enjoying global popularity and are promoting Korean culture.
They form a deep connection with their fans not only through their musical qualities, but also through their fashion, attitude, and approach to social issues.
K-pop (Korean: K-pop; RR: keipap), short for Korean popular music, is a form of popular music that originated in Korea as part of Korean culture.
Rooted in Korean traditional music, it contains styles and genres from around the world, including pop, hip-hop, R&B, rock, jazz, gospel, reggae, electronic dance, folk, country, disco, and classical music.
The term 'K-pop' was coined in 2000. It became popular in the 1990s, especially in an international context.
The Korean term for domestic popular music is gayo (歌謠), which is still widely used within Korea. "K-pop" can refer to all popular or pop music from Korea, but colloquially it is often used in a narrow sense to refer to all Korean music and artists associated with Korea's entertainment and idol industries.
Originally called "lap dance", a more modern form of the genre emerged in 1992 with the formation of the hip-hop boy band Seo Taiji and Boys. Their experimentation with different styles and musical genres and the incorporation of foreign musical elements helped to reshape them. Modernizing Korea's contemporary music scene.
Modern K-pop 'idol' culture began in the 1990s when K-pop idol music grew into a subculture that accumulated a huge fandom among teenagers and young adults.
After an initial slump in idol music, starting in 2003, TVXQ and BoA spread the music genre to the neighboring Japanese market and started a new generation of K-pop idols who still popularize K-pop internationally today.
With the advent of online social networking services and Korean TV shows, the spread of Korean entertainment, now known as K-Pop and the Korean Wave, has expanded not only to East and Southeast Asia, but also to Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Latin America, North Africa, Southern Africa, East Africa, the Middle East and the West. It has an international audience across the globe.
In 2018, K-pop achieved remarkable growth and established itself as a 'power player', with sales growth increasing by 17.9%. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's 'Global Music Report 2019', as of 2019, Korean popular music ranked 6th among the world's top 10 music markets, and BTS and Blackpink were selected as artists leading market growth.
In 2020, K-pop had a record-breaking year, recording a growth rate of 44.8%, making it the fastest-growing major market of the year. As of 2023, the K-pop IDOL group has grown significantly as a 4th generation group, and its popularity is rising.
In the end, K-Drama and K-Pop play an important role in promoting Korean culture to the world with their respective charms. Both areas are major components of the Korean Wave, which allows you to experience the diversity and depth of Korean culture.
This concludes the article “The Beginning of the Korean Wave: K-Drama and K-Pop”