Unless one has been living under a rock, one would have come across videos of the strangely pretty, androgynous looking boy bands as well as the similarly, uniformly pretty girl bands that comprise K-Pop or the South Korean pop music scene. Those of us who have been living under a rock may be amazed to know that there is in fact more to Korean music than Psy’s Gangnam Style.
The various bands of this genre have a tremendous fan following the world over. Even the language barrier has become largely irrelevant, with songs often featuring English phrases or lyrics. I’m really trying not to be racist here; but can you really tell them apart?
Fans offer gifts of rice to their K-Pop idols, ranging from a few kg to several tons! These rice bags are decorated with banners, flowers and photos. Fan rice is big business in South Korea! Fan rice is meant to not just show love for a fave band but also to show social responsibility. The rice is usually donated to a charity of the band's choosing.
K-pop bands travel far and wide to perform; frequently performing in Dubai, UAE for instance, where they have a significant following. Fans from China and Japan routinely travel to South Korea for concerts. In 2012, 7000 Japanese fans flew to Seoul for a live performance. In India, we often have hair salons featuring posters of K-pop stars, offering K-pop hairstyles.
There are fan clubs of the bands all over. One live K-pop concert in Barcelona had fans from all over the world camp at the concert venue overnight to get in. Since 2009 about 260 fan clubs have mushroomed in Peru and Chile alone.
It isn’t just K-pop, Korean culture as a whole is gaining popularity all over the world. Their TV shows and movies are also very popular elsewhere. There are over 3 million active members of the Hallyu (Korean wave or popularity of Korean culture in other countries) fan clubs.
Finding out one's K-pop bias is an exercise that involves the fan making a list of their fave K-pop groups and idols and picking the ultimate one out of all the groups.
Fans are exceedingly devoted to and protective of their idols or their K-pop bias. They are not amused when someone mistakes them for a Chinese band, criticises them or when non-fans cannot tell them apart.
Not only is this band hugely popular, it now is an act with an international standing after winning the 2017 Billboard Music Award for the top social artist of the year.
The hugely popular K-pop band was also on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. They certainly have the moves… and did you notice how pretty they are? They are all so skinny they are probably invisible sideways and they have some rather strange hair but they are pretty all right.
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