The Wave Goes Abroad

Chapter 1 of the sibling course K-Drama and Korean Film introduced the Korean Wave. This chapter follows its musical side: K-pop's first foreign audiences in Asia, the viral moment of "Gangnam Style" in 2012, the American chart success of BTS and Blackpink, and the question of what language the music is sung in. Every record in it is a claim with an owner, and the "firsts" are the articles' wording.

First Audiences: Asia

The Korean Wave article says K-pop "first gained popularity in China after the 1997 radio program Seoul Music Room began broadcasting in Beijing". It names debuts that were "major breakthroughs for K-pop in Asia": BoA (2000), Rain (2002), TVXQ (2003), Super Junior (2005), BigBang (2006), and Wonder Girls and Girls' Generation (2007).

• Japan. BoA "became the first South Korean pop star to break into the Japanese market" with the album Listen to My Heart (2002), "following the fall of barriers that had restricted the import and export of entertainment between the countries since the end of World War II". The article adds that in the 2008 fiscal year, "68 percent of all K-pop exports from South Korea were exported to Japan" (the article's figure; I read no source for it).
• Elsewhere in Asia. The H.O.T. article says the group was commercially successful in China and Taiwan and "among the first stars of the Korean Wave in Asia" (Chapter 3). The K-pop article says TVXQ and BoA had succeeded in Japan by the early 2000s.
• Hallyu 1.0 and 2.0. The Korean Wave article says the first generation, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, "remained confined to Asia" and meant mainly dramas and films. The second, from 2008, "was driven primarily by the popularity of K-pop distributed on online platforms like YouTube", with a shift in government policy "from indifference to enthusiastic support" under the Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administrations.

"Gangnam Style" (2012)

The "Gangnam Style" article gives the main facts, and several of its claims are about firsts.

BTS

The BTS article says the band formed in 2010, debuted in 2013 under Big Hit Entertainment (Chapter 4), and that "by 2017, BTS had crossed into the global music market and led the Korean Wave into the United States". It lists a series of "firsts", all as the article gives them.

• "The first Korean ensemble to receive a Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)", for "Mic Drop".
• "The first act from South Korea to top the Billboard 200", with Love Yourself: Tear (2018).
• In 2020, "the first all-South Korean act to reach number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard Global 200", with "Dynamite".
• The best-selling musical act in South Korean history "according to the Circle Chart", with more than 40 million albums sold as of 2023 (Chapter 7's caution about chart counts applies).
• "The first non-English-speaking and Asian act to sell out concerts at Wembley Stadium and the Rose Bowl" (2019).
• Named IFPI's Global Recording Artist of the Year for 2020 and 2021.

The article also says the group announced a pause on 14 June 2022 so the members could do 18 months of mandatory military service, which "they all completed by June 2025". Chapter 9 returns to that law.

Blackpink

The Blackpink article calls the group, formed by YG Entertainment and debuting in August 2016, "regarded by various publications as the 'biggest girl group in the world'". Among the claims it records:

• "Ddu-Du Ddu-Du" (2018) was "the first song by a Korean female group to enter the UK Singles Chart and receive a certification from the RIAA", and its video was the first by a Korean group to pass one and two billion YouTube views.
• The Album (2020) was the first album by a Korean girl group to sell one million copies. Born Pink (2022) was the first to sell two million and the first by a Korean girl group to reach number one on the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart.
• The group was "the first Asian act to headline Coachella in 2023".
• "Over 40 billion streams and 20 million records sold worldwide".

The Language Question

What language should a song reaching the world be sung in? The articles give pieces of an answer.

• English phrases. Chapter 6 gave the K-pop article's account of English in names, titles and lyrics, and its note that English "has not guaranteed" popularity in North America.
• Fans learning Korean. The Korean idol article says fans "have demonstrated their commitment to K-pop idols by taking the initiative to learn the Korean language, often with the help of romanization, to comprehend the meaning behind K-pop songs".
• Multi-language trainees. The K-pop article says trainees are commonly taught foreign languages including Mandarin, English and Japanese. It also says "many K-pop idols are not ethnically Korean or Asian".
• Translation in a title. The "Gangnam Style" article notes that the refrain "오빤 강남 스타일" has been translated as "Big brother is Gangnam style", with Psy referring to himself. The word oppa carries a meaning in Korean that this translation only partly shows, and I read nothing in these articles on how the word is understood.
• Purity and hybridity. Elaine W. Chun's research (Chapter 6) says that hybrid language may even make fans admire the stars, but "ideals of linguistic purity are still difficult to alter".

Reading "Global" Claims

1. Find the boundary. What does "first" cover: Asia, Korea, a gender, a chart, a year?
2. Find the owner. Chart positions belong to Billboard, the Circle Chart or IFPI. Fan counts belong to the platform.
3. Keep reach and depth apart. A billion views or a number one says how many saw or bought, not why.
4. Remember the plan was not always the result. "Gangnam Style" was meant for a local audience, which is a reminder that luck and platforms matter.

Exercises

Next chapter: Pressure and Argument, which covers working conditions, mental health and the deaths that prompted public debate, military service law, and controversies, handled factually and with care.