The Hallyu Wave- K-pop

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Korean Pop Music

Korean pop music. To a foreigner, especially English speaking ones in my personal experience, a lot of these '???' will pop into the mind because who in the world listens to Korean pop music except for Koreans? Well for starters, me. I listen to K-pop and I love it even though half the time I don't even understand what the song is about because let me tell you from my personal experience, just because the melody is upbeat and the singers are dancing all excitedly and sometimes provocatively, it doesn't mean the song itself is cheery or nonsensical.  For example Hyunah- Change: 

When I first heard this song and saw the video, all I saw was a girl thrusting her hips sing 'Change', until I looked up a video with English subtitles and I realized there was a deeper message. She is basically telling people that they can change and not to listen to people that say they can't. It is a pretty deep message if I do say so myself.  

I would also like to point out that there are times in K-pop where the song itself is cheery and the lyrics are 'wtf' and very repetitive like in SNSD 'Gee':

Don't get me wrong I love K-pop and even though it seems like I am bashing right now, I am a complete sucker for these kind of songs ^.^ I guess this kind of leads to the question "Who do you like K-pop?" Some people will say that there are other songs and music genres that are so much better and I agree wholeheartedly there are music genres that blow K-pop out of the water, but I still prefer K-pop.

• First off, the songs are addictive. The entertainment companies of these groups know how to sell the songs. I love the repetitive lyrics it is just appealing to me as I anticipate when it will be sung next and I find myself singing along as at times, they are the only lyrics I know from the song. Like in SNSD- 'Gee', can you honestly say that 'Gee Gee Gee Gee Baby Baby' is not catchy?
• I would also like to bring to your attention that the artists are dancing. Yeah. How many artists do you know sing and dance through their entire song and I would also like to point out that they do sing and dance live. The next video is courtesy of SHINee- Lucifer:

Not only are the lyrics addictive, but so is the dance routine and you can't help but be impressed at the artists singing and dancing live and they actually sound good. Not all of the artists sound amazing while singing and dancing live because the choreography can be very strenuous and  not all of them will have as much experience like my awesome SHINee boys.

• Another reason for me lovign K-pop are the outfits believe it or not. The outfits can get very creative and will just shock you, but in a good way. This next group that I will introduce you to are called 2NE1 (21 or To anyone) with their song 'I am the Best'. They have other songs with eye-catching outfits, but I like this one the best.

• I have a deep respect for these artists, also known as Idols, because in a sense they are people you can look up to. There are so many of them that trained for years just to debut. What I mean by train is that many, if not all, of these idol singers joined a company and became a trainee where they learned how to sing, dance, act, model,  and learn a foreign language all while going to school and getting good grades. Even after years of training there still wasn't any guarantee that they would be able to debut. I really admire them because there are some success stories of idol singers coming from nothing, even running away from home to audition and become a trainee just to achieve their dream of becoming a singer or actor. I don't know many other artists that would go to such lengths to achieve their dream and it really irks me that some artists in America were made a star 'over-night', but to each their own.
• Lastly, I must confess that my first attraction to K-pop were the guys. I am a girl after-all and I do have my shallow moments :p.