December 21, 2022
Left to Right: Yomi Hemley ’25, Sadie Bodzin ’25, and Kate Meis ’25 looking at a K-Pop album and holding lightsticks.
Other similar genres like J-pop or C-pop haven’t blown up nearly as large or globally as K-pop. So what is the global appeal of K-pop and why has it become so popular in contrast to other Asian entertainment?
“There’s so much more that goes into the image and performances, the variety shows that they do– it’s just a lot more polished I guess,” Aubrey Foreman ‘25 said. “I think a lot of it is because people like consuming Asian entertainment, like Kdramas and anime. Also, the members are really attractive, which results in gaining even more attention.”
According to Foreman, Idols have a certain image of “perfection.” There isn’t any diversity within body types– group members are almost always the Korean beauty standard, creating an impossible idea of beauty, which can be extremely harmful. A single mistake in a dance routine, or a voice crack on stage is often faced with extreme backlash, feeding more into the idea of perfection idols often feel they need to attain.
“I don’t really get why people don’t really like pop from other places. It’s maybe just because it hasn’t really come out of the woodwork yet,” Joseph Fullenkamp ‘24 said. “I think what intrigues people about K-pop is that it’s from a different place than we are. I think that what intrigues people about K-pop is not only the celebrities but also how they take pop in a different direction.”
Why people are more enthralled by K-pop rather than pop from other places might also be answered by what the K-pop industry is doing differently than other industries.
“I feel like they keep up with the industry. They really try to do everything they can and even if that involves some ‘bad’ things, they do anything and everything in their power to really make themselves big,” Zion Araquistain ‘26 said.
One of the reasons that K-pop blew up in general is because of the emergence of BTS. On the other hand, J-pop is much less mainstream in comparison to K-pop.
“A lot of people don’t really know many J-pop artists unless they are big fans of that culture,” Edith Kang ‘24 said. “Also advertising wise you don’t see much advertising for J-pop or like Western music or other cultures like K-pop does. K-pop is really into fan service with fan meets, photocards, lightsticks, posters, and advertising them as much as they can compared to other countries.”
Your donation will support the student journalists of Iowa City High School. For 2023, we are trying to update our video and photo studio, purchase new cameras and attend journalism conferences.