Table of contentsIntroductionThe beginnings of K-pop in the 1990sK-pop goes globalConclusionThe Korean wave, which they called Hallyu, is an idea that South Korean culture and popular cultures such as television series and films become a major global cultural element. And the most important Hallyu is K-pop, which means Korean pop music. K-pop is becoming one of the most iconic popular musics in the world. This type of music includes dance, electronic music, electro-pop, hip-hop and R;B1. K-pop first went global in the Asian region, and then recently went global in the 2000s. In this article, I will analyze and compare the transformation of K-pop in the 1990s to today today. There will be certain identities in this transformation, including the change of the K-pop industry and the change of the fandom group culture. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"?Get the original essayIntroductionIn 2012, a music video titled "Gangnam Style" produced by Psy (Jae-Sang Park) was released on YouTube1. This music video has been viewed over 300 million times on YouTube, making it the most viewed song in K-pop history, which also ranked second on the Billboard Hot Chart for seven consecutive weeks . However, its lyrics are in Korean instead of English, the only English words in this song are the lyrics of "Oppa Gangnam Style", yet Americans are very interested in this song because of the "dace of the invisible horse", even if they don't understand. the meaning of the words. South Korea is one of the countries developing its "soft power" - refers to the intangible power that a country exercises through its image, rather than through hard force, which hard force refers to economic power and to military power. . Since the 1990s, K-pop first spread to Japan and China, and then to East Asian countries such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, forming a new phenomenon of globalization. Besides K-pop meaning Korean pop music, it is also a piece of transnational hybrid music that references other global popular music in various ways. Building international regional success and then expanding globally, which constitutes the history of K-pop, shows how the local culture industry has survived in the flow of globalization. Fan participation helps Hallyu spread around the world and the social networking service becomes a medium that connects fans with idols, fan groups are called "fandom". Fandoms not only promote their groups, but also actively consume them by recreating the original subject matter with high levels of attachment. In early fandom culture, they focus more on commercial power, gender, and subculture. Nowadays, social networking services (SNS) are becoming a new factor that fandoms are commonly used to communicate between fans and national boundaries. The beginnings of K-pop in the 1990s To understand the development of K-pop in South Korea, we must first understand the history of the Korean music industry. In the 1980s, there was no independent music industry in Korea. Taken from the South Korean television drama series "Reply 1988" (broadcast in 2016 by TvN), in the first episode, it shows that Duk-seon (played by Hyeri) is watching the movie "A Better Tomorrow" which is a comedy film. Hong Kong which showed in 1986. This reflects the fact that Koreans were moreinterested in the theater and music of Hong Kong and Taiwan at that time. According to William Tuk (2012), ballads were the most popular style of music in South Korea in the 1980s. For this reason, the heavy metal or R;B style of music did not develop, although this music was banned from television. In the early 1990s, Korean society was in economic development, which led Korean music to develop into an independent industry. , therefore, entertainment industries begin to grow. In the 1990s, the three largest music entertainment companies were established: SM Entertainment, JYP.Entertainment and YG Entertainment. Between 1996 and 1998, several male and female idol groups debuted in Seoul and were the first to emerge from K-pop. They represented the emotions of young people in the 1990s, which is why they are called "First Generation K-pop Idols". New generation dance music songs focused more on dance-pop based on the combination of Korean-style melody line and Western rhythm patterns instead of ballad style. Their music was generally very rhythmic with dance, which made the difference and became unique in comparison with Japanese pop music and American pop music. The most iconic early K-pop idol group was HOT, which led the direction of K-pop music. . They were a group of male idols, who were the first to enter Asian markets and successfully become international stars in Korean industries. They had also made the distinct features of the idol group model: the formation of a group and the format of distribution of roles, which meant that each member had their own distinct one, for example, they separated the part into singer ( vocal and sub-vocal), rapper and lead dancer. K-pop fandom culture began in the 1990s due to the new generation of K-pop idols, whose term means "fan-girl". In Korea, fandom is a serious business, they usually have their idol group following and supporting them for a long time. One of the biggest rivalries in K-pop history was the fandom competition between the two biggest idol groups in the 1990s: HOT and Sechskies. In the Korean television series "Reply 1997" (broadcast in 2012 by TvN), 1990s fandom culture and physical fights between fans were shown. Another highlight shown in the TV series was fans waving balloons of the fandom color (HOT in white and Sechskies in yellow) during the live performance and concert. K-pop is going globalDue to the success of the new generation of K-pop The idol groups that created K-pop have attracted the attention of Asian countries. This success led second-generation K-pop idols such as Girls Generation and Wonder Girls to successfully debut in Asian countries, especially Japan and China. Nowadays, it's common for k-pop groups to release songs and albums in Japanese or Mandarin. For example, EXO debuted separately in EXO-K and EXO-M, with K representing Korea and M the Mandarin. Besides Asian countries, several K-pop groups have tried to enter the American market, such as BTS who performed their song "DNA" at the American Music Awards in 2017 and also attended the Ellen Show in 2018. Due of the development of current technology. , SNS is one of the important channels for K-pop to promote their music. They released music videos and live music performances on YouTube, which gave K-pop many chances to connect on the level.