The Universal Impact of the Hallyu Wave

Sophia Huang 04/13/14 The Universal Impact of the Hallyu Wave The Korean wave, otherwise known as Hallyu, originated from the Korean success in film marketing. The wave began in East Asia around the 1990s and spread globally to parts of Europe, the United States, and even Latin America (Ravina 2009). This phenomenon has led to thousands of non-Koreans to question how the Korean wave originated. Authors like Shim Dooboo, Shin Solee, and Kim Lanu revisit the possible causes of the success of the Korean Wave. While Shim Dooboo argues that the government promotion and funding was the driving force behind the Korean wave (Shim 2006), Shin Solee and Kim Lanu argue that it is the success of the Korean entertainment houses that accounts for the boom of the Korean wave (Shin and Kim 2013). The Korean wave, an occurrence that has lasted for many years now, is currently at its greatest impact. Although the Korean culture has assimilated into the American culture for some people, it has recently “died down”. The success of the Korean wave came mainly from the “hybridization” of American music, perceived as soul, hip-hop, rap, and rock, and Korean music, originally consisting of mainly ballads (Shim 2006). However, recently the combination of two seemingly different cultures has led to some backlash including that of Rain, a popular singer from Korea, who was named, “a copycat of Justin Timberlake” (Ravina 2009). Korean pop singers and entertainment industries need to change the way they perceive Americans. Popular solo singers and groups, like the famous 2NE1 and Big Bang, tend to incorporate the “thuggish” and “ghetto” side of Americans, consistently using non-Asian background dancers and filming their music videos in a “shady” neighborhood. In CL’s, a member of 2NE1, music video for her song The Baddest Female she portrays a tough and “bad” female, wearing chains and having golden teeth. When this music video was uploaded onto

Cited: Sang-Hun, Choe. "In South Korea, Plastic Surgery Comes Out of the Closet." The New York Times. The New York Times, 03 Nov. 2011. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. Ravina, Mark. "Introduction: Conceptualizing the Korean Wave." Southeast Review of Asian Studies 31 (2009): 3-9. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. Shim, Dooboo. "Hybridity and the Rise of Korean Popular Culture in Asia." Media, Culture & Society 28.25 (2006): 25-44. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. Shin, Solee I., and Lanu Kim. "Organizing K-Pop: Emergence and Market Making of Large Korean Entertainment Houses, 1980–2010." East Asia (2013): Web. 13 Apr. 2014.