The Establishment of K-Pop: K-Pop’s Main Characteristics

K-Pop began as a part of Korean local popular music in the late 1990s, but has become a global popular music genre first in East Asia since the early 2000s then even outside East Asia since the early 2010s. Especially, after the big success of BTS and other bands in the late 2010s K-Pop is considered one of the hottest rising musical genres in the world. In the beginning when K-Pop was developed as a specific musical genre in Korea, it mostly referred to US and Japanese popular music both musically and industrially. Musically, K-Pop referred to R&B, hip hop, and electronic dance music from United States and enka and J-Pop from Japan. Industrially, the unique business model of K-Pop usually called ‘agency–idol system’ supported by ‘total management strategy’ was highly influenced by the star system of Hollywood movie studios in the early twentieth century and the factory processing of Motown in the 1960s as well as by Japanese idol industry in the 1980s and 1990s. It means K-Pop is basically a result of cultural hybridization between local and global. Based on the hybridization, K-pop industry has evolved that unique business model, which makes K-Pop differentiate with other global music genres. Recently, K-Pop is accepting other cultures as well as human resources from different parts of the world. International players including musicians, composers, and producers are now essential parts of K-Pop and industrial collaboration between Korea and other countries is increasing. This makes K-Pop’s business model more standardized as well as globalized in the process of being recruited, trained, produced, and worked. However, be it ever so standardized, K-Pop is still a kind of popular culture that cannot be totally standardized or de-humanized like industrial products. The unexpected success of K-Pop in global markets is not entirely due to its industry-like standardization, but also its cultural characteristics and advantages such as cultural hybridity and active communication with local and international fans, which could appeal to them in a more humane way. K-Pop is both Korean local and global popular music, as well as both standardized and humane music.