How BTS and KPop disrupted mainstream politics
USA TODAY
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMdtM6Jy7Gc
In a political climate as crazy as this one, the most powerful speech at the United Nations wasn’t actually from a world leader but from a KPop band. Huh?
We have the FAQs.
“I wanna hear your voice, I wanna hear your conviction.”
That was Kim Nam Jun, a member of BTS, one of the world’s most popular KPop boys band. You might have seen them, here, here, here, here, here or even here.
“Hey, Jimmy,” “Yeah.” “I’m Jimmy.” But their most important appearance yet was being the first KPot group to address the UN.
“No matter who you are, where you’re from, your skin color, your gender identity, just speak yourself.”
Their simple, powerful message has come a long way. And we don’t just mean from South Korea. To better understand the sub-genre on Korean music, let’s take you back to the 90’s. The rising popularity of Korean dramas and KPop was known as “Hallyu” or Korean wave.
But what made that wave swell into a global phenomenon was the internet. In fact, the first video to reach 1 billion views on Youtube was Psy’s “Kangnam Style” in 2012.
Kangnam Style may have seen like an overnight success, but it takes much longer for KPop artists to make it big. Aspiring artists are usually scouted or auditioned for management companies. If selected, they are groomed, mentored, and intensely trained from a young age by managers or agents for years before recording their first song. It’s a formula used by many successful groups and labels in the Western world. Think The Temptations, Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, The Monkees, Pussycat Dolls and more but much more intense.
The music is fun but it’s no game. KPop is a cultural force to be reckoned with. Unlike rock music whose history is embedded in rebellion, KPop’s roots are more business-like. The KPop industry emerged from the financial crisis in the late 1990’s when the South Korean economy tanked.
To rebuild, the government didn’t just focus on obvious sectors like manufacturing and tech, they invested in entertainment. As audiences grew, KPop became a major South Korean export. Global sales for KPop-related music and video grew to earn 5 billion a year. And that’s when it got political. In 2015, South Korea started blaring KPop music across the border toward North Korea. Songs such as APink’s “Just Let Us Love” and Bing Bang’s “Bang Bang Bang” were played to entice the North and also show cultural dominance. In 2017, a North Korean soldier who dashed across the DMZ and were shot five times by its troops even asked to listen to KPop girls bands while recovering in the hospital.
Candidates embraced KPop during South Korea’s presidential election in 2017. Campaigns altered lyrics to popular KPop songs and choreographed signature dance moves. South Korea’s current president Moon Jae-in for example, used “Cheer Up” by the girl band Twice as his anthem.
In North Korea, people were literally being imprisoned for watching or listening to KPop but recently there’s been a breakthrough. Kim Jong-un has admitted that he likes KPop music saying he was deeply moved after watching a 2-hour concert in Pyongyang. The concert was the latest in a series of diplomatic moves designed to ease tensions to the Trump and Kim summit.
Now we have Korean sensation BTS stepping up to the plate to address the UN and the world. Telling people to believe their own conviction and voices. The seven-member boy band joined UNICEF in creating LOVE MYSELF campaign, building the belief that, “Trude love begins with loving myself. I have many faults and I have many more fears but I am gonna embrace myself as hard as I can. And I’m starting to love myself gradually, just little by little.” The reactions speak for themselves. Maybe KPop can change the world after all.
