The Rise of East Asian Pop Culture: South Korea and Japan
During the past decade, East Asian pop culture has risen significantly, especially in the West. Numerous East Asian music groups, TV dramas, movies, and many other elements related to pop culture have become popular around the world, attracting millions of fans. Most notable is the rise of South Korean and Japanese pop culture, which took off the most among all of East Asia. The media, particularly, has contributed a lot to the growing influence of East Asian pop culture.
South Korean pop culture’s growth in popularity and its spread is referred to as Hallyu, which is a Chinese term that means “Korean wave”. Hallyu began spreading to China and Japan first, later spreading to Southeast Asia, while making a huge impact on countries worldwide. The influence of Korean pop culture especially grew more among the Japanese in Japan after the fifty-year ban on pop cultural exchange between Korea and Japan was lifted in 2000.
The popular media contributed to the origin of Hallyu with movies and TV dramas that were released in 1999. One of the most successful movies that spread across Southeast Asia, making Hallyu much more renowned, is “Swiri,” which is about North and South Korean espionage. Along with this movie, there are several more that are also attributed to the growing influence of Hallyu due to their popularity among Asian countries other than Korea. Because of the many successful endeavours, this led to the immense surge in popularity of Korean pop culture. The popularity of movies, dramas, and music are the major factors that sustain the Korean wave.
The worldwide phenomenon band BTS (Bangtan Boys)
The most significant factor that began the Hallyu is when the Korean government repealed the ban on foreign travel for Koreans in the early 1990s, allowing them to travel to the West, particularly the U.S. and Europe. Those who have been educated in Western countries brought home new perspectives when it came to pop culture. For instance, K-pop incorporates a lot of Western influences.
K-pop has ever since grown and received recognition from people all over the world, not just in Asian countries. It is considered the heart of Hallyu because of its constantly-growing popularity. Korean pop culture has been easily exposed to other people through various social media platforms, thus making a huge contribution to the growing success of K-pop, especially K-pop groups such as BTS and Blackpink. Additionally, the existence of democracy and television in South Korea is one of the main factors that allowed K-pop to simply exist. The reformation of South Korea’s democratic government in 1987 brought changes to television. Since TV is the main form of media in South Korea, especially with talent shows that are televised widely, many music groups are able to gain more exposure to audiences in South Korea. Therefore, these talent shows on TV have a tremendous impact on the successes of South Korean bands.
Besides the prominent K-pop groups that many people see today, the Korean singer, Psy, started the K-pop phenomenon with his song “Gangnam Style” back in 2012, reaching over billions of views on YouTube. However, K-pop is now maintained with idols from the most famous K-pop groups. In particular, BTS has made K-pop culminate the most in the evolution of K-pop, with their music topping many charts globally.
The popular K-pop band Blackpink (stylized BLΛƆKPIИK)
K-dramas have also risen drastically, especially with many dramas being put on big streaming platforms such as Netflix. These K-dramas have become just as popular as K-pop over the past few years. Their popularity on Netflix is attributed to their catchy soundtracks and high production values. K-dramas have especially increased in popularity on Netflix in India recently, most prominently among Gen Z and millennials.
Just like Korean pop culture, Japanese pop culture has been seen in the media for years. Most popular is anime, which has been around in the West for over a decade now. Anime rose to massive popularity in the West mainly through TV broadcasting. The first hit anime show in America that came along in the late 1980s is Dragon Ball Z. This brought anime a huge fandom that continued to grow over the years. Anime shows such as Pokémon, Sailor Moon, and Yugioh brought another huge wave of anime to the Western audience during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Anime being broadcasted on TV increased more during the early 2000s. Because of this, anime has been exposed to countless more people, and the industry continues to significantly grow even more.