It’s a case worth the discombobulated delight of the nation, and the scratches on the head of inquiring outsiders. The explosive popularity of South Korean culture that transcends national, cultural, and social borders has been the nation’s most prized possession of the past decade, with renditions of the colloquial phrase that adds ‘K-’ in front of a popular phenomenon becoming a bombarded buzzword heralded by the government and media alike. K-wave, K-pop, K-movies, K-dramas, and even K-quarantine during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic — the nation simply cannot soak up enough of the sweetly global acclaim cascading towards its culture. In November’s issue, The Granite Tower (GT) examines the origins of the K-Wave, the differentiating factors that hoisted it up to ubiquity, and its double-sided implications.
The K-Wave, alternatively titled hallyu, is a “global craze for Korean culture” that expands from “TV dramas and music” to “Korean traditional culture, food, literature, and language,” as defined by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism (MCST). When considering the nation’s severe state of economic destitution a mere half a century ago and its consequential late start as a global player, the transfiguration of South Korea’s global portrait induced by the K-wave can be rivaled by but a few. The nation’s politicians have latched onto the suave cultural diplomacy enabled by the expanded scope of Korean soft power, formulating a poignant piece of irony with the country’s epidemic struggles of a stagnant economy, declining birth rate, and domestic political turmoil.
Back to the Roots
The sheer scale of the expeditious global outburst of the K-wave is best encapsulated through observations from outside the house. In 2017, The New York Times asked in an opinion piece: “Can K-pop ever conquer America?” Five years later, the same publication would define K-pop as the “hungriest pop scene on the planet,” referring to both the genre’s bottomless ambition for global conquest and its diverse cacophony of employed genres.
The cultural, social, and economic prowess of the K-wave is especially compulsive when considering that the social liberation that enabled such an explosion in the cultural sector is not yet half a century old. Anti-Communism, maintenance of government stability, and hostility against labor movements were ubiquitous excuses for media censorship utilized by South Korean administrations in the 20th century. The military dictatorships of Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan administrations of the 1970s and 80s symbolize a dark period in South Korean culture, with outright, physical oppression of media being commonplace.
The establishment of the Sixth Republic of Korea in the 1990s brought forth the demolition of dictatorships and opened a new era in the government’s relationship with the media. Explicit censorship based on grounds of political or moral controversy gradually regressed to a relic of the past, thus preparing the liberal capacity for creators to express their artistic creativity; the foundations of the K-wave were now at the ready.
Accompanying the hallyu boom, the MCST defined the three stages of the K-wave in a comprehensive report in 2013, classifying each version as the following:
Korean Wave 1.0: In the latter half of the 1990s, K-wave began its commencement offshore, mostly based on TV dramas such as Winter Sonata (Kyeowool Yeonga). The popularity of such dramas was mostly limited in Northeastern Asia, South Korea’s most geographically adjacent area.
Korean Wave 2.0: From the mid-2000s, the tide of the K-wave developed to be more K-pop-centric. Blossoming new stars such as Bigbang, Wonder Girls, and Girl’s Generation reached wide popularity and laid the precedent for the breaching of global barriers of the genre. This epoch also coincided with the birth of social media, and the then-infant social networking services (SNS) such as YouTube and Twitter worked as prime facilitators of the K-wave.
Korean Wave 3.0: The 2012 smash hit Gangnam Style was the undeniable catalyst for the third wave of hallyu. In this era, the effects of the K-wave began to reach the proper beginnings of transnational popularity, harnessing all media types from songs, movies, and dramas.
As the most groundbreaking changes to the K-Wave occurred after 2013, GT would additionally categorize the status quo as the Korean Wave 4.0. This era saw the proper rise in global prominence of Korean culture, met with widespread critical acclaim and devoted fanbases on an international scale. It is from this period that Korean culture started to denote “the potential of non-Western cultural hegemony” as stated by Professor Dal Yong Jin (School of Communication, Simon Fraser University). Encapsulated by monuments such as Parasite’s triumph at the Oscars and Bangtan Boys (BTS)’s conquest of the Billboard charts, the current stage of the K-wave encompasses unprecedented success and acceptance of Korean works in the international arena. Word-of-mouth fueled by social media and OTT (Over The Top) services has been the prime vessel of its popularity.
Behind the Billows of K-pop
With picture-perfect faces, choreography perfected down to hairline fractures, and irresistible personal charisma, K-pop idols steal hearts and garner acclaim with their border-breaching charm. Though there are varying speculations on how such a characteristic genre from a singular nation reached international popularity, here are some of the most prominent hypotheses that explain the global billow of K-pop.
1) The K-pop Cultural Universe
Popular music before K-pop was generally a form of self-expression or the vehicle of ubiquitously recognizable sentiments such as heartbreak, first love, or seduction; K-pop now attempts to challenge the set paradigm. The genre’s proposal of a cultural universe, or a form of multimedia storytelling where idols utilize multivarious forms of media to formulate a single storyline, is a globally unprecedented way of musical presentation. The creation of such universes is the biggest trend in K-pop, with big names such as BTS, Aespa, and NMIXX respectively adopting their own fantastical narratives.
Aespa’s meticulous curation of the SM Entertainment Cultural Universe (SMCU) is perhaps a blueprint of the cultural universes of the K-pop world. The group utilizes each song, music video, and separately released animated episodes to tell a singular story of the ae — the digital avatars of the members and the protagonists of the SMCU — and the main villain, the black mamba. In “Black Mamba,” the group’s debut track, the black mamba is said to be an evil, electronic conglomerate of data that threatens the members and their duplicates as they search for true homogeneity between their physical and digital personas. “Savage” and “Girls,” subsequent releases of the group, now delineate the conquest of the black mamba and its demise.
K-pop is the first form of art to convey an overarching storyline solely through popular music. The reinvention of the relationship popular music holds with further narratives is one of the key selling points of the genre. Professor Lee Jang Hyuk (Department of Business Administration) highlighted the “attracting” storytelling aspect of K-pop, commenting on its capacity to “make fans anticipate and communicate about the upcoming albums and narratives.” Such provoking narratives hold much lucrative import in that it provides ample basis for the conglomeration of a fanbase, as the interpretation of cultural universes relies solely on hawk-eyed fans.
2) Dedication
The bond between K-pop artist and their fans is one as doting as nothing else. K-pop has revolutionized the approach artists traditionally take with fans by actively employing it as an enormously lucrative business opportunity. Fandoms have separate names, colors, and lightsticks that bestow separate senses of identity on each. To instigate the fans into thinking that they have a personal relationship with idols, messenger apps such as Bubble, Universe, and Pocketdols have the artist send messages and exclusive pictures to users, in spaces designed to look like 1-to-1 chatrooms.
The fandom culture is not something unique to K-pop. What sets it apart from historical precedents such as the 1960s’ Beatlemania, however, is the sheer structural mechanics behind its employment as a business opportunity and the tight-knit sense of community fueled by the spread of virtual means of communication.
3) Image Control
The secrets behind K-pop’s success can be recapitulated into one word: capital. K-pop is made under a strictly hierarchical system, where mammoth recording labels hire producers, lyricists, choreographers, and more to produce a singular group. Under such a system, idols are interpreted not as autonomous artists, but as a perfectly polished model of marketing. As attaining a fanbase is the key to success in the K-pop world, the maintenance of flawless imagery becomes critical. K-pop stars, particularly idols, are expected to keep a devotedly PG-13 image detached from love, sex, or drugs while dually maintaining a carefully measured sense of implied flirtation with their fandom for a basis of a devoutly parasocial relationship.
The K-pop quartet Blackpink has reached international stardom based on their shinily curated image of the rich, sultry, and brashly confident femme fatale who is not afraid to boast sexual innuendos, enumerate their endless luxury items, and harbor a haughty attitude towards boys and heartbreak. (See: “Tally,” a groovy, hip-hop-based track from the group’s sophomore album Born Pink, croons: “I say f**k it when I feel it / Cause no-one’s keeping tally, I do what I want with who I like.”) It is notable, then, that the group’s star Kim Jennie received castigating censure for being “indecent” when intimate photos between her and Kim Taehyung (styled V) from BTS were leaked to the public. The contradiction between the attitude harnessed by the public towards Jennie’s songs and her life denotes an implicit rule in the K-pop world: K-pop idols may sing about love, but they are not allowed to participate in it.
On the K-screen
South Korea holds the spot of Hollywood’s most viable competitor in terms of the ubiquity of its content. Though K-dramas are often translated as “Korean soft dramas” in English, this translation is misleading; K-dramas cannot be encapsulated by a singular genre in that they encompass a wide variety of topics, ranging from feel-good romantic comedies to gritty bloodbaths. The success of K-movies and dramas have to do with both their suave mix of the East and the West and the impeccable timing of the boom of OTT services.
Many internationally acclaimed K-dramas and movies such as Parasite and Squid Game have been praised for their shrewdly unconventional perspective of society. Additionally, Korean romantic comedies have attracted the attention of viewers by portraying a sweet, controlled narrative that diverges deeply from a more indecent portrayal of love that Western audiences are more accustomed to. Though Squid Game and Crash Landing on You may appear as polar opposites, K-dramas and movies across all genres satisfy the niche of an array of viewers by producing content that is distinctively recognizable as Korean, while still catering to a global audience. “Global audiences are drawn towards Korean culture due to reliable, enjoyable, and sharable stories embedded in local content,” stated Professor Jin. Embedded within the beautifully shot scenes of Seoul and the glassy skin of actresses are the universally recognizable sentiments such as forbidden love, workplace romance, structural injustice, and the agonies of surviving in a capitalistic society.
Beyond innovative storytelling, technological advancement has enabled K-media to be shared with the world. The rise of OTT services has been the chief catalyst for increasing accessibility of Korean media, as they are now readily available to an infinite supply of global audiences with more than 30 subtitles to match. In addition, the K-wave’s usage of alternative media platforms has played a hearty part in boosting its reception. “Transmedia storytelling and media convergence are the two main strategies used in expanding the K-wave’s global influence,” commented Professor Jin.
Where the Wave Stops
1) Beauty Standards
The impacts of the K-wave reach high and low, and its most especial ramifications lie within the exacerbation of stringent beauty standards. Though unrealistic beauty standards promoted by mass media are not a unique happenstance, Korean beauty standards shine both in their ubiquity in media and the propensity to induce viewers to fit inside the box. A slim figure, pale skin, double eyelids, and a small V-shaped face are some of the most recognizable characteristics of the standards.
Beauty standards promulgated by the media are most deleterious in that there is a separate industry that benefits some of the people, most predominantly women, suffering from severe insecurities with their bodies. It is not a coincidence that the South Korean plastic surgery industry has observed a simultaneous outburst along with the global prominence of K-pop. A 2020 report by the National Health Insurance Service revealed that women constituted more than 75 percent of nationwide anorexia patients, with females in or under their 20s making up a cumulative 25 percent. Popular hashtags on social media form pro-anorexia cliques, where members upload pictures of slim celebrities for "weight-loss" inspiration and share tips on how to go 120-hour fasts without fainting. The non-existent status of diverse body representation and constant exposure to polished idols, all promulgated nationwide due to the rise of the K-wave, have been the primary inducements of the epidemic of eating disorders among young Korean women.
2) Power imbalance
Though fans are an instrumental factor in K-pop, they are also part of an implicit power hierarchy within the industry. The power framework that trickles down from the recording label to the artists all the way down to the fans is accused of sacrificing individual creativity and prioritizing profit over anything else.
The recording label is in the irrefutable upper hand in that they select trainees to become idols while putting prospective trainees into binding financial contracts. As the majority of trainees are underage in the selection process (consider IVE and NewJeans, two of the most prominent K-pop rookies of 2022, who share an average debut age of 16.) the financial and personal hierarchy of power makes idols unable to speak up against abuses. Moreover, idols who have undergone their selection process are tacitly prohibited from expressing their musical creativity in the name of reducing the risk of defying the character of an idol group. This system of effective exploitation is not only harmful to the young artists but also burdens fans who are in captivity of the company’s bait and switch. Within the status quo, exploitative schemes by recording labels can be hindered by close to none.
Sustainability
The United States (U.S.) and the United Kingdom are undeniably the two strongest holders of cultural soft power. California’s Hollywood sign, Queen Elizabeth, Uncle Sam, and James Bond are beyond universal in their recognition. South Korea’s cultural wave, in turn, differs greatly from its predecessors in that it does not have a substantial economic foundation behind it. As denoted by Suman Lee, the chairman of SM Entertainment, in an interview with The Guardian, South Korea’s model of soft power is “culture first, economics second.” In contrast to former models employed by the U.S. and the U.K. where a nation at the peak of its geopolitical influence utilizes its economic and political empire to distribute its culture around the globe, the Korean model does not require such a gargantuan foundation. The nation, without having ever reached geopolitical or economic primacy in the international arena, employs its idols, movies, and dramas to boost national benefit.
Such an unprecedented model makes it natural to wonder: is the K-wave truly sustainable? How does it differ from other tourist-based economies, often treated as the paradigm of shaky economic sandcastles? It is easy to solely equate the K-wave to the incandescent sea of lights of lightsticks in a sold-out K-pop concert and the glimmering curve of the Oscar award held in hands. The national narrative around K-pop has been one of unbridled nationalistic pride. Utilizing “cultural nationalism” and hosting “government-initiated cultural events,” the South Korean government “uses the current boom of local culture in the global cultural scene in nation-building,” as determined by Professor Jin.
Utilizing the K-wave for a political benefit, however, is prone to backfire. Despite delineations, it is impossible to pin the K-wave down to a tangible thing; it is a cultural trend, with numerous conflicting reasons behind its success. Overtly focusing on its economic prospects instead of its artistic and creative value decreases the chances of bettered global ubiquity. Moreover, attempts to deliberately interpret it to serve national benefit or contend that the stars’ national identity was a key part of its achievements turns the K-wave into a manipulatable, politically contingent term. As stated by Professor Jin, “[the government’s] core cultural policy should be limited to necessary support, rather than excessive intervention,” to avoid alienation of global audiences and preserve its authentic value. It must not be forgotten that K-wave is most valuable as the genesis of the breakdown of Western cultural hegemony, the propagation of Korean talent, and transnational unity under art.
Along with the continuation of the K-wave, South Korea must remember not to get caught up in a tide of endless self-back pats. There must be comprehensive ethical guidelines on how to treasure creativity, talent, and global reception instigated by the K-wave and not out the flicker of flame by inordinate intervention. A sleekly byzantine filigree, the root of South Korea’s bulimia crisis, the most delicately synthesized form of multimedia art — with numerous attributes dangling from its mane, the K-wave rides on for the foreseeable future, and perhaps for longer with sagacious approaches in augmenting its sustainability.