Over the past couple months, the world saw three things:
1. Three popular Korean Pop boy groups commonly known as BTS, EXO, and GOT7 were all nominated for a Billboard Music Award under the category "Best Social Artist". Although BTS made history in 2017 as the first South Korean group to win a BBMA, this is the first time that not one, but THREE South Korean pop bands were nominated under the same award.
2. BlackPink, a popular K-pop girl group that gained most of America's attention, also made history as they were the first EVER K-pop girl group to ever perform at Coachella.
3. On Friday, April 12th, BTS dropped their 6th mini album which features American artist Halsey in their main track "Boy With Luv", and also contains a track that Ed Sheeran helped create, which rose to number one on the charts within minutes. Did I mention they're being compared to The Beetles?
If Psy hadn't generated enough attention towards K-pop with his hit song "Gangnam Style" in 2012, then the attention it's receiving now is something greater than the attention regular American music receives. Regular American pop has been famous around the world for quite some time. I could go to any country and find a least a hundred people who 100% know who One Direction is. That's always been the case with American pop bands. They grow so big that they reach larger audiences all around the world. K-pop was a type of music genre that, at least during my time, never really reached farther than Asia. It was like their own trophy that they got to enjoy as a continent, that's how I always put it.
The fact that K-pop is now widely enjoyed all around the world, especially in the states, Is something that I'm so proud of. I'm not proud because I'm a fan, I'm proud because my country has openly welcomed a new music genre that seemingly now has an incredible amount of influence within the music industry. Not only is this huge for Korea, a country that has created a genre of music that finally the whole world has found, but this is huge for the rest of the world too.
I always used to think that American pop was the only widely known music genre popular around the world, so when K-pop got big, it actually shocked me beyond belief. In a good way, that is. What's so amazing about the impact K-pop now has on music is that it's influencing all of us to welcome all kinds of music genres into our countries. The world is continuing to change each and every day, and that changing cycle is never going to stop. So, to be able to see just how much the music industry has changed and how inclusive it is compared to recent years is something I'll be proud of until the day I die. Inviting K-pop into our country the way we did is something we should continue to do with music that belongs to other countries. Instead of making music America's, let's make it the world's.
