Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cronolegs]

Chilling watching the closing ceremony and the spice girls pop up.

First thing that jumps to mind is Kpop. I notice Kpop seems to be a direct copy of the spice girls and 90's pop music in general.
Girl Power and funky tight outfits etc etc etc. Not to mention musically similar tempos and melodies

Oldschool and funny.

I had a bet with my adult students a while back that Kpop would not last another 5 years.
They seemed adamant Kpop will become global and appealing to the western market.
To which I laughed and said 'it's to cute for the western market'.

However now I think maybe a better response would be... 'we have been there done that'.

[transmogrifier]

KPop will still be around long after we've gone. In Korea at least. It's like an unkillable cockroach.

[Konglishman]

I don't know. To my deep shock, I recently met two hispanic American tourists (from North Carolina) who are deeply fixated on Kpop. According to them, it is actually starting to become a trend among American teenagers.

[highstreet]

Kpop is slowly gaining popularity in the US. It'll probably never become the dominant music genre, but they have some fans in the West

[Dodge7]

[highstreet]

[Newbie]

It IS growing in the West and will continue to do so. Youtube has done wonders for K-pop in the West.

However, I would almost bet my life that it will never be "huge" or even "really big" in the West. Like the OP said, "been there done that." You can count on it growing, though.

Watching the Spice Girls made me think: "Won't it be funny at the next Korean Olympics when some big wigs start thinking they should copy the British closing ceremonies and have their pop stars perform and then have the majority of viewers think to themselves "who the eff are these people and why the eff am I watching this crap. Can't we see some Korean music and dance?"

[Konglishman]

[transmogrifier]

[transmogrifier]

Heh, the Gangnam Style video is funny. A total pisstake of the typical cookie-cutter KPop video crap.

[Chalmers]

I'm Ron Burgandy?

[happiness]

Koreas been looking FOREVER ways to get tourists interested here, and K-Pop is the way. Not droves, but it works when sloganeering like Sparkle and Dynamic never did. I dont get the Psy song and why it hit, but why not?

Japanese come here for the great exchange rate.
Chinese come here to shop
and the rest come to see where these dramas and concerts are.

Hey, if it works...good on them.

I do want to say the music now seems less....Korean than maybe 10 years ago. I do miss Turtles and groups like that, I think thse were K-pop Kayo-kyoku.

But let me tell you, I was at a bar the other week with a pal and these local gals were dancing with these foriegn guys who were good dancers, and these girls were amazing dancers, just like the videos. Im sure a good time was had by all later that night, and hey, if they want to copy those videos and some guys/gals get lucky, why the heck not?

Im going back to listening to Depeche Mode though...

[3DR]

I do like the song and video for Wondergirls Like This..until I heard the lyrics, I thought it was a Western song.

[JustinC]

If it starts to sell records in any significant numbers Kpop could be huge, really the next big thing that tweenies will think is the best. thing. evaaaa. Depressing but true, kids today have no better taste than kids before and if a musical bandwagon gets rolling execs will be beating the crap out of each other to jump on it.

[northway]

K-pop can get big the way anime got big. Not huge, by any means, but quite popular within a certain subset of the population.