Perfect Looks, Catchy Songs and... a Tendency Toward Suicide. What K-pop Is and How It Became So Popular

Not just music, but an entire subculture rapidly reaching the global market.

While K-pop was at first popular only in South Korea, today the fans of the “Korean wave” number about 100 million worldwide. K-pop stars gather armies of fans and become real idols of the young generation, yet not all of them cope with such responsibility — in the last 3 months alone, 3 popular performers have died. One of them was found dead just yesterday.

What Is K-pop

K-pop stands for Korean pop. It is a music genre that originated in South Korea and spread across almost the entire Asia-Pacific region. In sound, it is the pop music familiar to us, but with elements of other genres, which may include electronic, dance music, rock and hip-hop. The main hallmark of genre songs is repeated words in the choruses, most often in English, which stay in the listener's head and play there over and over. They sing about various things: food, lifestyle, romantic relationships and much more. In particular, one of the most popular groups of the genre, BTS, devoted its latest albums to growing up, social pressure and self-acceptance.

K-pop fans, called “K-poppers,” can be found all over the world, although the musicians mostly perform at home or in other Asian countries such as China, Singapore or Japan. In Europe, their concerts are extremely rare to see; far more often they add American cities to their tours.

When K-pop Appeared

The genre began its development in the early 1990s. In particular, in 1992 the trio Seo Taiji & Boys performed on a local talent show. They played a hip-hop song with a typical Western sound. The whole world loudly heard about K-pop after the release of PSY’s “Gangnam Style” video, which almost instantly became the most-viewed video in the world.

In general, the history of K-pop can be divided into three generations. The first laid the foundations of the genre. This was pop songs with rap and synchronized dancing. This concept emerged with the debut of the boy group H.O.T in 1996.

The second wave brought the genre enormous popularity. It was launched by the boy band TVXQ in 2003. Their fan club even entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest in the world, with more than 900 thousand members. After them, other groups gained popularity: Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, Big Bang and 2NE1. Today, the years when they were at the peak of their popularity are considered the golden age of K-pop.

The third generation emerged in 2012. For the loud debut of the group EXO, producers devised a concept in which each of the 12 members had their own superpower. Their first album sold more than a million copies, and tickets to their concerts sold out literally instantly. This wave showed that K-pop could develop better and more actively as a genre. The music became more diverse, and the lyrics became more complex and multifaceted.

Why the Genre Is Popular and Its Features

K-pop songs are performed by “idols.” From childhood they are prepared for a star future in production centers, where they are taught vocals, dance and acting. By the way, they also often appear in local TV series. Idols also learn foreign languages and bring their appearance to an ideal. They are forced to constantly stay in excellent shape, follow strict diets, and almost every one of them has undergone plastic surgery. Most often, nothing is known about the idols' private lives, which makes them mysterious. K-pop groups consist either entirely of boys or entirely of girls. The number of members in a group varies from five to nine.

Future stars enter production centers at the age of 8 to 10. According to labels, the earlier a child joins, the better and longer their career will be. The average age of idols is 16 to 28. Under South Korean law, all men must complete military service by the age of 28, and K-pop performers who return from service mostly begin solo careers. Although women do not serve in the army, they also end their group careers closer to 30. All of this is because youth worship is very strong in South Korea.

Producers of groups pay enormous attention to the visual side of the collectives and the images of their members. Performers are constantly professionally made up, and each has an individual style that is carefully developed for them.

Another important component of the genre's success is the “army” (ARMY), that is, the fans. In South Korea, the interaction between artists and fans differs from what is customary in Europe. Here it has reached a completely different level.

Most often, stars communicate with fans through Twitter, which is popular in Asia. There, idols often publish posts and photos, write thank-you messages and try to interact with fans as much as possible.

K-pop groups do not have a permanent and clear concept of their own. Production centers follow trends and the situation in society, so the positions and conceptual approach of the groups can change radically from album to album.

At first, in the 1990s and the “zero” years, K-pop groups followed their Western counterparts and adopted all of their tricks. In the 2010s, everything changed. South Korea began to follow trends more closely, and now they are ahead of Western artists.

Popular K-pop Groups

BTS and Blackpink are the biggest K-pop groups right now. Their videos gain hundreds of millions of views within the first couple of days after publication, their albums quickly reach the top spots of various charts, and their tracks are played on radio stations around the world.

BTS consists of seven boys, and they began their activity in 2013. But they became famous only two or three years later. The main difference between BTS and most other genre groups is that they write their own songs. The boy band records features with various Western stars, for example, with Nicki Minaj and Charli XCX. And last year they even gave a speech at the UN.

Blackpink stands out in that this production project has been popular since the first day of its existence. It is managed by one of the largest labels in South Korea — YG Entertainment. They carefully develop the images of four girls and control every move they make, both on stage and off it. Last year, the performers set a world YouTube record for the number of views of a music video in the first day after release, and this year the group performed twice at the Coachella festival in the United States.

How and Why K-pop Stars Ruin Their Lives

According to the World Health Organization, the suicide rate in South Korea is one of the highest in the world, and this autumn alone 3 K-pop stars took their own lives. In October, the singer Sulli, who performed in the girl group f(x) until 2015 and later decided to focus on her acting career, was found dead. The young woman had about 5 million followers on Instagram, but not everyone liked her posts and stance. Sulli was often subjected to bullying in the comments, which is presumably why she took her own life.

She repeatedly told fans that they had a choice in how they show their bodies. In September, during a live broadcast on Instagram, she — whether deliberately or by accident — exposed her breast, after which a storm of criticism followed. In this respect, South Korean society is very conservative.

Sulli was friends with another K-pop singer, Jonghyun, from the group SHINee. He also took his own life in 2017. At the time of his death he was 27 years old, and before killing himself he left his sister a suicide note: “It was hard for me. Please let me go and say that I worked well. This is my last word.”

In late November, another friend of Sulli, singer Goo Hara, was found dead. She had said that she and Sulli were like sisters. She had already attempted suicide once in May of this year, after which she apologized to fans for what they had had to go through.

In 2018, Goo Hara filed a lawsuit against her former boyfriend for threatening to post her intimate videos online and thereby destroy her career. Her boyfriend had also previously received a suspended sentence for violence and blackmail.

And yesterday, December 3, the K-pop singer and actor Cha In-ha passed away. While the police are conducting an investigation and not disclosing additional details of his death, it is not ruled out that this is again a case of suicide. He was 27 years old.

The careers of some K-pop idols also end for another reason — for example, two stars of the genre were sentenced to prison terms for gang rapes: Jung Joon-young (six years) and Choi Jong-hoon (five years). The first was also found guilty of filming and distributing video of the crime. This court ruling exposed a long-standing and serious problem for South Korean society: sexual violence. In society, people have finally begun to talk about the need for change in attitudes toward women.

Aleksey Simonchuk