Kpop

PSY’s Gangnam Style has now crossed 3.8 billion views on YouTube. This makes Gangnam Style the most-watched Kpop Video ever and it is not even close. This is saying a lot since Kpop has been growing in popularity for many years before Gangnam Style came out. Since YouTube’s launch back in 2005, YouTube has continued to grow. Now nearly 6 billion videos are watched each day with people uploading close to 400 hours of video to YouTube every minute. Kpop accounts for less than 1% of YouTube’s content. Yet it gets close to 5% of the views. Clearly, a lot of people, not just Koreans, watch Kpop music videos on YouTube. 

COVID-19 has caused SEOULSPACE to work from home and in order to combat the boredom of being locked down, we decided to download the once-popular app called FaceApp. It is a photo editing app that allows you to change the look of a person in terms of age, hair color, facial hair, and even gender. We decided to see how the members of BTS would look if they were born a woman. The results are pretty amazing. Turning BTS into women was easier than ever thanks to FaceApp. In addition, we took the time to poll the staff to see which female BTS member was the best looking. Therefore, the results are ranked from the hottest to the least hot. Do you agree? If you have recommendations for other Kpop boy groups, make your suggestions in the comments section. To get a full profile please check out Kprofiles!

The two “God Mothers” of Kpop girl groups come down to Fin.K.L. (1998) and S.E.S (1997).  Kpop Entertainment companies did a good job of training some of the top talents in Korea in both vocals and dancing before debuting the group. Kpop Girl Groups always had a disadvantage in the industry. Many looked and sounded the same, however, there were also many that went against tradition and really exploded on a global scale. Each Kpop Girl Group has its own style and story. Many have been able to take advantage of social media to really expand their audience and let fans into their personal lives. For example, Blackpink’s’ Lisa is the top Kpop Instagram influencer of all time, bigger than any Kpop star including the men. 

K-pop is still bigger than ever. It is growing every day not just in Asia but all around the world. Furthermore, Kpop Entertainment companies are reporting all-time high profits and K-pop groups are getting global exposure. In 2019, BTS performed on SNL which made them the first Korean musical performer on the show and also sold out Wembly Stadium in England. Then in 2020, BTS's disco-style song "Dynamite" went to #1 on both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global US charts. Therefore, Korea's main asset still continues to be K-Pop as Kpop Entertainment companies continue to find new talent. Most of these KPop companies/agencies are looking to expand outside of Korea and into other Asian markets as well as North America and Europe.