The Hallyu Wave; How It Changed The Music And Entertainment Industry

Annyeonghaseyo! For all those unfamiliar with Hallyu, I just said “hello”.  Hallyu or the Korean Wave is referred to the global popularity of South Korea’s pop culture, entertainment, music, TV dramas and movies. The growth of Korean culture over the past few years has been phenomenal. 

One can’t mention Hallyu without mentioning K-pop. Hallyu has been building for nearly two decades, but K-pop has become increasingly famous to global audiences in the past five to 10 years. Girls are swooning over K-pop stars. South Korean artists have hit the Billboard Hot 100 and the music industry has come to an impressive $5 billion industry.

Remember how none of us understood “Gangnam Style” but still grooved to it? The song gained around 3 billion views on YouTube. Currently, BTS is the most popular K-pop band which was nominated for major international awards like the Grammy, VMA, BBMA, BMA, etc and won. They also featured in international magazines and topped billboard charts breaking all stereotypes as the first ever non-english song to be ranked number 1 on the billboard. 

The K-pop star Kim Tae-hyung was voted the most handsome man/ most handsome face in the world. The movie Parasite won awards at the Cannes film festival, Academy award, BAFTA award and the list goes on. It was all over the media globally.

South Korean movies are now featured on famous digital platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. The wave of change brought by the Korean industry has a massive impact globally. Their stars are recognized and loved by their international fans and there is no stopping them!