The Korean popular music consumed overseas under the banner of K-pop is pop and dance music performed by idol groups, who have mainly emerged since the 1990s and have come to enjoy popularity among teens. Since the 1990s can be considered the period in which K-pop directly took root, the development from the 1990s up through the 2000s when the popular music of the new generation entered the global spotlighted under the name of K-pop will be examined in this volume.

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 the subject to appear in English.

K-pop, described by Time Magazine in 2012 as "South Korea’s greatest export", has rapidly achieved a large worldwide audience of devoted fans largely through distribution over the Internet. This book examines the phenomenon, and discusses the reasons for its success. It considers the national and transnational conditions that have played a role in K-pop’s ascendancy, and explores how they relate to post-colonial modernisation, post-Cold War politics in East Asia, connections with the Korean diaspora, and the state-initiated campaign to accumulate soft power. As it is particularly concerned with fandom and cultural agency, it analyses fan practices, discourses, and underlying psychologies within their local habitus as well as in expanding topographies of online networks. Overall, the book addresses the question of how far "Asian culture" can be global in a truly meaningful way, and how popular culture from a "marginal" nation has become a global phenomenon.

This book offers an in-depth study of the globalization of contemporary South Korean idol pop music, or K-Pop, visiting K-Pop and its multiple intersections with political, economic, and cultural formations and transformations. It provides detailed insights into the transformative process in and around the field of Korean pop music since the 1990s, which paved the way for the recent international rise of K-Pop and the Korean Wave. Fuhr examines the conditions and effects of transnational flows, asymmetrical power relations, and the role of the imaginary "other" in K-Pop production and consumption, relating them to the specific aesthetic dimensions and material conditions of K-Pop stars, songs, and videos. Further, the book reveals how K-Pop is deployed for strategies of national identity construction in connection with Korean cultural politics, with transnational music production circuits, and with the transnational mobility of immigrant pop idols. The volume argues that K-Pop is a highly productive cultural arena in which South Korea’s globalizing and nationalizing forces and imaginations coincide, intermingle, and counteract with each other and in which the tension between both of these poles is played out musically, visually, and discursively. This book examines a vibrant example of contemporary popular music from the non-Anglophone world and provides deeper insight into the structure of popular music and the dynamics of cultural globalization through a combined set of ethnographic, musicological, and cultural analysis. Widening the regional scope of Western-dominated popular music studies and enhancing new areas of ethnomusicology, anthropology, and cultural studies, this book will also be of interest to those studying East Asian popular culture, music globalization, and popular music.

In its incipient stages, Korean pop music was strongly influenced by Western pop music, diversifying through many stages of copying, translation, and interpretation from the early 20th century. Those unique creations by experimental and creative Korean artists are now being received by international audiences in the form of “K-Pop,” an abbreviation for “Korean pop.” It is spreading beyond the regions of China, Japan, and Southeast Asia and into Europe and the United States. It is increasingly gaining recognition as something more than just a fad?as a phenomenon that has staying power with global audiences. K-Pop Beyond Asia Background of the Growth of Hallyu Growth of the Entertainment Agencies at the Center of Hallyu Ballads and Dance Music Hallyu’s Expansion into Asian Markets The 100-Year History of Korean Pop Music The First Korean Pop Music Overseas: “Arirang” Unstable Beginning after 1945 The Rise of the Eighth US Army Show The Vietnam War and Expansion into Southeast Asia Stepping Stone of Korean Pop Music’s Overseas Expansion The Beginning of Hallyu and K-Pop Contemporary Korean Pop Music 2000: Rise of the First Generation of Idol Groups 2001: From Emotional Ballads to Hip Hop 2002: Dance and Vocal Artists 2003: Hyori Syndrome 2004: Korea’s Three Major Record Companies and Their Artists 2005: Chart-topping Ballads 2006: The New Generation of Idol Boy Groups 2007: The New Generation of Idol Girl Groups 2008: Wonder Girls and Other Top Female Singing Groups 2009: The Meteoric Rise of Idol Groups in Korea 2010: The Korean Wave in the Asian Music Market 2011: The Growing Influence of Girl Groups with each Major Record Company 2012: PSY Syndrome 2013: Competition between Old K-Pop Artists and Idol Groups 2014: Hit Collaborations K-Pop: Evaluation and Prospects Export-driven K-Pop, Going Beyond Korea, China, and Japan The Spread of K-Pop through Social Media The Global Appeal of K-Pop K-Pop’s Star-Making System Benefits of Global Cultural Exchange beyond Asia k pop,korean pop music,Hallyu,SHINee,SUPER JUNIOR,GIRLS' GENERATION,2NE1

Converging theory and practice, this book provides a unique analysis of Korean youth’s attempts to become global celebrities within the growing K-pop phenomenon, which is rapidly becoming part of global media systems and culture. K-pop has become one of the most popular cultural forms in the global music markets, despite having a relatively new global presence. Its recent spread around the world suggests that K-pop exists as a local-based genre of music in global markets, including Western markets. Unlike other existing books on K-pop, which mainly focus solely on academic analyses or industrial perspectives, K-Pop Idols: Popular Culture and the Emergence of Korean Music Industry combines theory with industry and musical aesthetics. Following the idol group Nine Muses through a year-long chronicle, the authors portray the everyday lives of young girls relentlessly pursuing happiness, satisfaction, and the achievement of their dreams in the K-pop world.

K-pop's remarkable global popularity is no coincidence. Its success cannot be attributed to a talented individual or a set of favourable government policies but is instead the result of continuous innovation by risk-taking entrepreneurs.For the first time in English, this book presents a focus on the managerial and structural features of the K-pop industry to unpack the resounding success of K-pop companies and the Hallyu Wave phenomenon. It analyses leading industry players, explaining the success strategies of K-pop from the perspective of innovation management theory. It places a particular special emphasis on SM Entertainment, a leading pioneer in the South Korean entertainment industry, and sheds light on the company's strategies for success.As the book examines how K-pop developed over time, it draws an interesting parallel with the semiconductor and IT industries, noting common characteristics between them. It concludes with thoughts on K-pop's future and advises K-pop innovators on developing new business models combining new technologies in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and augmented reality (AR) to keep the momentum going. It is a must-read for readers interested in innovation, the entertainment industry, and the global phenomenon that is the Hallyu Wave.