South Korean music

K-pop is an abbreviation for Korean pop music (also referred to as Kayo or Gayo music), specifically from
South Korea. Many of these artists and musical groups have branched out of South Korea and have
become popular in many countries around the world. The popularity of K-pop is often considered a part of
the rise of the Korean Wave, the recent surge of popularity of contemporary South Korean culture in Asia.
Modern Korean popular music first appeared in the 1930s. In the 1950s and 1960s, the musical
performances organized by U.S. forces in and around the American military bases in South Korea
provided South Koreans with examples of other modern music. The South Korean pop music scene soon
had several genres: Boy or girl bands whose appeal lay mostly in their appearance; a technically difficult,
older genre that had its roots in the colonial period and was popular with older Koreans; and the often
amateur acoustic guitar singer-songwriters, who became popular in the 1960s and sang in a simple vocal
style. In 1970s, rock music was introduced into South Korea, mainly popularized by Cho Yong Pil. Trot,
pop music inspired by Japanese-styled music, also became a main genre in pop music. The debut of the
group Seo Taiji and Boys in 1992 marked a turning point in South Korean popular music, as the group
incorporated elements of American popular musical genres such as rap, rock, and techno into its music,
which brought a decrease in the popularity of trot. The tremendous success of Seo Taiji and Boys in
South Korea and other experimental groups, such as Panic, set the trend for the present generation of Kpop groups and artists. Dance-oriented acts became dominant in the South Korean popular music scene
of the early 90s including the legendary hip hop
Korean Pop music
Korean popular music has in the last decade become a significant model for youth culture throughout
Asia. Yet, although the Korean music industry is both vibrant and massive, this is the first book-length
work devoted to Korean pop music in English. The book offers a comprehensive account written by
thirteen scholars of Korean studies, ethnomusicology, and popular culture from Canada, Great Britain,
Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the U.S. It charts Korean pop from the 1930s to the present
day, from genres imitative of early twentieth-century European and Japanese styles ("trot" and
"yuhaengga") to contemporary punk clubs, rap bands, and music television shows. Consideration is given
to South Korean singers who catered to American troops in the aftermath of the Korean War, to acoustic
guitar songs and their use in 1970s' student protest movements against military dictatorship, to state
propaganda pop, and to the explosion of global styles that marked the 1990s. Lyrics and dance, media
packaging and stage costumes, song rooms and singing doctors, highway songs and new folksongs, and
the impact of the Internet are all explored.
East Asian Pop Culture: Analysing the Korean Wave
By: Kichi Iwabuchi

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