The birth of K-pop, or Korean pop, originated in Korea when a group called Seo Taiji and Boys performed their song “Nan Arayo” on South Korea’s Broadcasting system. Their songs consisted of choreography, dance music, hip-hop, rock R&B, and western-style pop. While entirely new to Korea, this attracted a vast audience with this group selling 2.3 million albums. Seo Taiji and Boys are widely considered the pioneers of K-pop, paving the way for a new era of idol groups nurtured by entertainment agencies. However, their popularity was not internationally known until 2012 when a South Korean solo artist named PSY released the song ”Gangnam Style.”This was very popular among international fans with this music video on YouTube reaching 5.3B views with its unique tune and iconic dance moves. Following this success, BTS, a now internationally known K-pop group, had reached much success becoming the largest international K-pop group. According to “BTS: The Story Behind the Success” by Beat,”[BTS] released their first full-length album[in 2017] to debut at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, making them the first K-pop group to achieve this feat.”This historic act opened doors for more K-pop groups such as the famous K-pop girl group Blackpink; because of this popularity, it started creating more fanbases. As of 2024, multiple K-pop groups have gained traction, especially in the U.S. where several have become household names with big fan bases such as BTS, Blackpink, TXT, Twice, Straykids, NewJeans, and many more!
While K-pop is still growing in popularity, language barriers hinder its full potential. With the top two languages spoken in the U.S. being Spanish and English, most consumers or citizens don’t understand the Korean language. K-pop songs lean to an average of 50% in English, according to “K-pop targets a global audience with English Lyrics” by The Korea Herald. This linguistic divide causes individuals such as Jasmin Colea, a college student at WestConn, to listen to K-pop as she ”like[s] listening to K-pop but it’s hard [for her] to listen along”.However, this obstacle has paradoxically fueled interest in Korean language learning. As the article “K-pop Drives Boom in Korean Language Lessons” highlights, Korean language courses have seen a surge in enrollment, with numbers increasing from 30 to 150 students in just a decade. This was caused by these consumers wanting to learn Korean to understand K-pop better and to better understand the song lyrics that they are listening to. Aiden Charolcy, a K-pop fan, had stated that he ”would love to learn Korean to understand Stray Kids: my favorite K-pop group.” This correlation between learning Korean and the rise in K-pop amongst Westernized countries has affected how people live or go about their daily lives as they learn new languages, specifically Korean as they widen their learning.
Learning Korean and listening to K-pop has also had a positive impact on consumers’ mental health. Research published by “The International Journal of Indian Psychology” stated that “the results revealed that there is a significant difference between the anxiety levels of Kpop and Non-Kpop Listeners (t = -55.643).”The rhythmic and melodic nature of K-pop combined with its uplifting and relatable lyrics can have a soothing effect on the mind and body and these fans use K-pop to ease their mind of stress and anxiety. In addition to influencing listeners to leran the Korena language K-pop also can provide a sense of accomplishment, help you gain new knowledge, help connect with other Koreans, and help distract yourself from everyday stressors as a newfound hobby.
On top of all of this, K-pop consumers are exposed to a variety of cultures as not every K-pop idol is Korean.
As one of the biggest K-pop idols, Lisa from Blackpink is Thai and to become a K-pop idol, she had to learn the Korean language and about their culture. Just like Lisa, many Western consumers like to learn the culture of their favorite K-pop idols to better understand them. As Colea had specifically said, “[she] would like to learn about Japanese culture to better understand [her] bias which is Ni-ki from Enhypen (Bias in K-pop means an idol from a specific group who stands out to you).” In this case, Colea would like to better understand Ni-ki, a popular K-pop idol from the famous boy group Enhyphen. This in turn affects consumers as it helps broaden their horizons to different cultures.
As of 2024, according to “Tech Report,” there are 7.97 billion monthly plays of K-pop streams worldwide on Spotify; this is a 12% increase as of 2012. This has significantly impacted many consumers’ daily lives as more consumers listen to K-pop nowadays as it’s risen in popularity.
