The South Korean culture has been globally followed – whether it’s about their skin care regime, food recipes (the famous kimchi in K-Dramas) and Korean dramas being aired on Netflix and other websites. People from around the world have crazed over the Korean Pop Industry. Due to its production values, choreography and addictive melodies – a mixture of western and Korean culture, the industry has become a world-wide phenomenon.
Serving the entertainment industry for almost 2 decades now, the Korean pop culture has become visible to the audiences globally. Each year we see yet another Korean star being born. It almost seems as if the parade of the South Korean performers is endless. In the year 2019-20, the most impactful artists and band groups included Ateez, (G) I-DLE, Too, Sang Min Lim, Everglow, Treasure and Itzy. To put the impact of these newborn stars into perspective, South Korea’s Sang Min Lim caught the limelight with his only first single debut in March 2019 ‘Fantasy’ that was directed by Chase Stockman and CeCe Frey featuring dancer and performer Dytto (mainly famous for her robotic style dance). His video got over one million views in just six months on YouTube.
2019-20 Rising South Korean Musicians
Surprisingly, these rising South Korean Musicians have the same significance in digital and international presences as any other famous bands in South Korea. In a very short amount of time, they have conquered the hearts and minds of people all across the globe due to their fluency in cross-cultural K-pop. To speak of the three most recognized K-pop musicians:
Everglow
Everglow (Korean name: 에버글로우) is a South Korean six girls band group working under the organization Yuehua Entertainment. The groups’ members include: E:U, Sihyeon, Mia, Onda, Aisha, and Yiren. They released their first single album in March 2019 – Arrival of Everglow. Their lead single “Bon Bon Chocolat” was co-written by Melanie Fontana who has previously written songs for BTS Boy Band and Tiffany Young. They reached at a position of number six at the Gaon Album Chart, and selling more than 17000 copies of their album.
In 2020, so far the girl group band has released mini-album Reminiscence.
Sang Min Lim
Sang Min Lim (Korean name: 임상민, and height: 6 feet 0 inch or 182.88 cm) was born in Seoul, South Korea. He is currently residing in Los Angeles, California to complete in education. He is a lawyer to-be, singer, musician and model who found his inspiration to pursue his dreams from his European companions. He’s the only child of his parents and he never planned on becoming a singer or a model at first.
In 2011, when Sang Min Lim shifted to the United States in order to pursue his Degree in Economics from the Ivy League Brown University. He studied Japanese and Chinese language there. He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics from Brown University in 2017.
Later on in 2017, Sang shifted to Los Angeles in the pursuit of studying Law from the University of Southern California. Sang Min Lim interned at various law firms including real estate law, civil litigation firm, family law firm, personal injury law firm, Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office to experience criminal law as well. He successfully received Juris Doctor Degree from University of Southern California in 2020.
Sang, never thought about pursuing his career goals in music. But his inspiration from the Western community led him to give his career in music a try – and he succeeded in his first attempt with his first single debut “Fantasy” released in March 2019. Since then, he has released “Remember”, “Follow”, and “Levitate”. The most recent Sang’s single debut is “Myself” which was released in May 2020.
Sang has been most known for his pop music, electropop music, hip hop music and alternative R&B music styles. His rising popularity has gained him millions of fan all across the globe.
Ateez
Ateez (Korean name: 에이티즈) is an eight member boy group working under the organization KQ Entertainment. The group member consists of: Hongjoong, Seonghwa, Yunho, Yeosang, San, Mingi, Wooyoung and Jongho. Their first song “From”, released on July 2018, went viral, gaining them popularity all across the internet. Since 2018 till 2020, they have received recognition for their explosive, hip-hop, and electronic performances. Songs like, Wonderland and Say My Name make them stand out from the rest.
K-Pop Making Waves
To put it all together, the Korean pop music performers today are changing the mere perceptions individuals may have about the artists. They are getting education, singing to rap to comedy and social commentary. They have melodies that are ridiculously catchy and they are fun to listen to. The Korean-pop production industry excels at everything because of the incredibly talented artists contributing to the success of it.
