Over 100,000 K-pop fans attended the “MBC Korean Music Wave in Google” concert in Mountain View this week, which featured Korea’s top bands such as DBSK, Super Junior, and SNSD.
K-pop, also known as Korean popular music, has grown into a popular subculture among teenagers and young adults around the world and is becoming one of the latest trend in music.
“I became really attracted to K-pop around a month before freshman year began. I love K-pop because it’s different from American pop. American pop seems to always be all about sex and dating, while K-pop songs offer lyrics that actually have meaning behind it,” stated sophomore Iris Choi.
K-pop is defined as music that includes all the genres of “popular music” within South Korea, which is mostly dance, electronic, rap, hip-hop, and R&B genres. Many K-pop artists have mixed traditional Korean and Western music into their own songs.
In the mid-1920s, K-pop began to develop when Korean artist Masao Gouga started mixing traditional Korean music with Gospel music that American Evangelists had brought to South Korea.
After touring across the globe and have winning numerous awards such as “Best Rookie Award” and “Best World Act” from MTV , K-pop is currently popular in Japan, China and the U.S.
“I think K-pop appeals to teenagers because the singers are around the same age as us, if not younger. The agencies basically make it a requirement for them to look good too, and on the variety shows, they bring out the best qualities in the singer(s),” said sophomore Alexandria Liu.
Some other famous K-pop bands include MBLAQ, Wonder Girls, BEAST, F(x), Ukiss, and 2ne1.
“My favorite band is BEAST because all six of them are all able to sing very well, they are all very funny and each one has different personality,” commented Choi.
“MBLAQ is my favorite band because they’re hilarious, talented, great dancers, great singers, and really modest. The guys are also super hot,” added Liu.
The “MBC Korean Music Wave in Google” was sponsored by Google and Korean channel MBC to celebrate their collaboration together. It was the first free K-pop concert in the Bay Area and to stream live.
Fans rushed onto the the concert’s main website at 7pm to claim tickets, causing it to crash within the first two minutes. Others waited in line in Oakland the following week to retrieve their tickets.
“Since the website crashed, my mom had to stand in line for several hours to get me two tickets to the concert!” stated Liu.
Although K-pop has attracted many people, some believe that this trend of music will not last forever.
“K-pop will stick to me for the rest of my life, but I believe it will become less popular in the near future because too many rookie bands are coming out and the songs are starting to become too similar,” said Choi.
However, the K-pop craze will continue as fans will reunite once more on Friday night to attend Korean singer Jay Park’s “Verizon APAHM Tour 2012” in San Francisco.
