IndexIntroductionThe beginning of K-pop in the 90sK-pop goes globalConclusionThe Korean wave, which they called Hallyu, is an idea that the culture of South Korea and popular cultures as television dramas and films become a major global cultural event. And the most important Halyu is K-pop, which means Korean pop music. K-pop is becoming one of the most popular popular musics in the world. This type of music includes dance, electronic music, electro-pop, hip-hop and R;B1. K-pop was globalized first in the Asian region, then in the 2000s it has recently globalized around the world. In this article, I will analyze and compare the transformation of K-pop from the 1990s to today. There will be some identities in this transformation, including the change of K-pop industry and the change of fandom group culture. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay IntroductionIn 2012, a music video called "Gangnam Style" produced by Psy (Jae-Sang Park) was released on YouTube1. This music video has totaled over 300 million views on YouTube, which is the most viewed song in K-pop history, which also ranked second on the Billboard Hot Chart for seven consecutive weeks. However, its lyrics are Korean instead of English, the only English words in this song are the lyrics of "Oppa Gangnam Style", yet Americans are very interested in this song because of the "invisible horse dace", even without understand the meaning of the lyrics. South Korea is one of the countries that develops its "soft power" – refers to the intangible power that a country exerts through its image, rather than through hard force, which refers to economic power and military power. Since the 1990s, K-pop has spread first to Japan and China, then to East Asian countries such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, a new phenomenon due to globalization. In addition to meaning Korean pop music, K-pop is also a piece of transnational hybrid music that refers to other global popular music in various ways. The building of international success at the regional level and its expansion around the world, which is the story of K-pop, shows how the local cultural industry has survived in the flow of globalization. Fan participation is helping Hallyu spread around the world, and the social networking service is becoming a medium that connects fans with idols, fan groups are called 'fandoms'. Fandoms not only promote their own groups, but also actively consume them by recreating the original subject with high levels of attachment. In early fandom culture, they focused more on commercial power, genre, and subculture. Nowadays, social networking services (SNS) become a new factor, and fandoms are commonly used to communicate between fans and national borders. The Beginning of K-pop in the 1990s To understand the development of K-pop in South Korea, we must first understand the history of the Korean music industry. In the 1980s, there was no independent music industry in Korea. From the South Korean TV series "Reply 1988" (shown in 2016 by TvN), the first episode shows Duk-seon (played by Hyeri) watching the movie "A Better Tomorrow", a Hong Kong movie which shown in 1986. This reflects the fact that at that time Koreans were more interested in theater and music than Hong Kong and Taiwan. According to William Tuk (2012) ballads were the most popular musical style in South Korea in the 1980s. For this reason, the musical style with heavy metal or R;B did not develop, even though this music was bannedfrom television. In the early 1990s, Korean society was undergoing economic development, this led Korean music to develop into an independent industry. , then, entertainment industries start to grow. In the 1990s, the three major music entertainment companies established: SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment and YG Entertainment. Between 1996 and 1998, several male and female idol groups debuted in Seoul and pioneered the beginning of K-pop. They represented the emotions of the youth of the 90s, that's why they are called "First Generation K-pop Idols". New generation dance music songs were more focused on dance-pop based on the combination of Korean-style melody line and Western rhythm patterns instead of ballad style. Their music was usually with strong rhythm and dances which made their performance make a difference and become unique compared to Japanese pop music and American pop music. The most distinctive first K-pop idol group was H.O.T. which led the direction of K-pop music. They were a male idol group, who were the first to enter Asian markets and became successful international stars in Korean industries. They had also adopted the distinctive features of the model for idol groups: the group constitution and division roles format, meaning that each member had their own distinct part, for example, they separated the part into singer (vocal and sub -vowel). , rapper and lead dancer. K-pop fandom culture began in the 1990s because of the new generation K-pop idols, which the term means "fan-girl". In Korea, fandom is a serious thing, they usually make people follow and support their idol group for a long time. One of the biggest rivalries in K-pop history was the competition between the two biggest idol groups of the 90s: HOT and Sechskies. In the Korean TV drama “Reply 1997” (broadcast in 2012 by TvN), fandom culture in the 1990s and physical fights between fans were shown. Another aspect highlighted in the television drama was that fans waved fandom-colored balloons (HOT in white and Sechskies in yellow) during the live performance and concert. K-pop goes global Thanks to the success of the new generation of K-pop, the idol groups that created K-pop have attracted the attention of Asian countries. This success led to the successful debut of second-generation K-pop idols such as Girls Generation and Wonder Girls in Asian countries, particularly Japan and China. Nowadays, it is common for K-pop groups to release songs and albums in Japanese or Mandarin, for example, EXO first debuted in EXO-K and EXO-M separately, where K represents Korea and M represents Mandarin. In addition to Asian countries, several K-pop groups have tried to enter the US market, for example BTS performed their song "DNA" at the American Music Awards in 2017 and also participated in the Ellen Show in 2018. A Due to the development of current technology, SNS is one of the important channels for K-pop to promote their music. They released music videos and live music performances on YouTube, which gave many chances for K-pop to connect with international audiences. Today's fandoms are creating new trends in fandom culture; they invested more money in promoting their idol groups. Entertainment companies developed the unique glow stick instead of waving balloons, which created a beautiful ocean of glow sticks during the concert. Furthermore, fandom names are not only used in K-pop, but the fandom names created by the group are important to them.