Riding the Korean Wave

Korean pop culture is electrifying the world with the phenomenon calledHallyu, the “Korean Wave.” It is a far cry from when Korean pop culture’sbest efforts were merely an echo of Hollywood. The Korean media issaturated with images of Hallyu’s success overseas, showing young peoplefrom around the world screaming at K-pop concerts, singing along to K-popsongs in Korean, and studying the Korean language. Fellow East Asians werethe first of these fans in the mid-1990s. In 2011 the Korean Wave sweptEurope, notorious for its cultural snobbery, the Middle East, South America,and finally the United States, penetrating the cultural center of that country,New York.What is really going on? Koreans are bemused, for the most part, bymedia images of enthusiastic foreigners, because in Korea the catchy tunesand flashy dance routines of K-pop, perfectly executed by dazzling, unrealteen idols, have lost its charm for many. People want to hear actual singers,not entertainers, which is why reality competition shows such as “NaneunGasuda” (“I Am a Singer”), “Superstar K,” and “Star Audition: the GreatBirth” are doing so well. Koreans are only now warming up to music of thetruly homespun variety, where there is no place for the slick music of teenidols manufactured by huge record labels. There is something about theKorean Wave, however, that makes it difficult to dismiss as merely the resultof a few greedy entertainment companies or an occasion for nationalisticpride. Yes, the Korean Wave and the K-pop craze is built and sustained bya deeply exploitative system involving a handful of talent agencies signingteenaged stars for so-called “slave contracts,” but that does not make theKorean Wave any less of an ongoing cultural phenomenon, and a big oneat that. For this issue of list_Books from Korea, “The Rise of Korean PopCulture,” aims to address that phenomenon through a discussion of Koreandramas and novels, the Korean animation and character industry, Koreanfilm, and K-pop.What is happening with Korean pop culture? What does digital mediahave to do with it? And what will happen with the development of 3D? Whatkind of cultural shift is taking place on social networks such as YouTube andFacebook? After years of trying to remake itself in the image of Hollywood,has Korean culture eventually come back to its roots? The universal and theidiosyncratic meet in the Korean Wave, now a worldwide phenomenon. 

By Kim Yonghee