A New Sound: My Experience with Korean Pop Music

The first time I heard people talking about Korean Dramas I was in denial, and thought they where just a little crazy. Then a few months passed by when the first drama caught my eye, Gong or The Princess Hour was aired on a local channel, and it was just out of these world. Why talk about Korean Dramas? Well, they where the key to my epiphany of KPOP. Whit dramas you link the soundtracks, with the soundtracks the artists, also you have a few Korean Actors that are singers as well, which made all the sense to be drag to this incredible new sound and all those choreographies out of this World .

The first KPOP song I listened to was The Boys from Girls' Generation, it was out of my own will, since it was play all over the radio when it came out on 2011. This girl group is from the Korean Entertainment Company SM, which is the home of trending groups like Super Junior, SHINee, f(x), EXO, and their new girl group Red Velvet. But their most proud artist is BoA, which is a female solo artist that also has acted along side Derek Hough on the film Make Your Move on 2013, she is know as the Queen of Korean Pop and was the first artist to jump to the Japanese market and the American industry, the last wasn't as good as the Company though but the Japanese debut helped the Korean music industry and other markets to go there. BoA is not only one of the artists of the company, right now she owns stocks from the Company and is Creative Director, which made her part of the board since 2014.

Now I will tell you about the first group I liked and find it out of this World, 2PM. JYP Entertainment goes beyond expected with their international members. The group was establish after a reality program, that ended with the male groups 2PM, with beast like appearance and up beat music, the other group would be 2AM, where their music is romantic and ballads. There is six members on 2PM: Jum.K, who is the main vocalist; Nichkhun also known as the Thailand Prince, he is Thai-Chinese born in California, his position on the group is sub-rap and visual; Taecyeon, main rapper, he's also an actor; Wooyoung, he is the lead vocalist and main dancer of the group; Junho, lead vocalist and lead dancer; the youngest member of the group is Chansung, whos position is vocalist and sub-rapper. The range age is from their mid 20's to the late 20's, which is perfect for everyone. And now I will tell you the song that made all of them come in right into my heart, A.D.T.O.Y. from the album Grown of 2013.

After I went through some videos from 2PM the desire for more kpop music and groups started to built up. So I started to look for groups from the same company, which lead me to MissA. MissA is a female group with four members, two Koreans (Min and Suzy) and two Chinese (Jia and Fei). The group got more attention after Suzy made her debut as an actress on Dream High and the movie Architecture 101. Don't get me wrong, all the members have their unique talents and personalities, which the fans have the time to see on variety shows and other projects. I also started to like the male group GOT7 since the very beginning, with their song Girls, Girls, Girls. From all the groups on kpop I would say this is the most dynamic and international. The members Jackson, Mark, and BamBam are non-Koreans; Jackson is a former fencing national athlete from Hong Kong, Mark is from Taiwan raised on the United States, and BamBam is from Thailand where his mother has a Korean Restaurant. JB and Jr where part of a duo named JJ Project, and made their acting debut with Dream High 2. For the remaining members we have Youngjae, which is the main vocalist, and Yugyeom, who is the main dancer and the youngest among all the members. I can't left out that JYP was once the home of the incredible Rain. He is a well known entertainer (singer and actor), who has made a great mark on the industry with his music and amazing dance moves, and can't forget that he made his Hollywood debut with the main role on Ninja Assassin.



Alright, is time for me to let you know about the artists from another well known company, YG Entertainment. From this company we have the "bad boys and bad girls" of the kpop industry, Big Bang and 2NE1, and they also have the eccentric PSY, who is well known for showing the World a part of what kpop music is with the song Gangnam Style on 2012. The company is recognize for having a different background music, since their sound is hip-hop and R&B influenced. Big Bang is a male group formed from a reality TV show organized with the company and the Channel Mnet. G-Dragon is the leader and rapper of the group, Taeyang is main vocalist and the best dancer among all the members, TOP is the main rapper with an overflowing charisma with an incredible acting carrear , Daesung is vocalist and was very active on the entertainment business as MC and on the show Family Outing, and the last member is Seungri, who is the youngest and also is an actor. They debuted on the year 2006 and since have being strong on the entertainment industry, they made their comeback last year with the MADE series, which consisted of a monthly release. You can say that Big Bang has made YG what is today, one of the most influential entertainment companies of South Korea. Then you have the girls, 2NE1!! Their concept is different from other girl groups, they are not sweet and innocent like others, with their attitudes you sure wouldn't think about messing with them. CL is the leader of the group, and she can do it all (sing, rap, and dance), she now is preparing for her debut on the USA under the management of Scooter Braun (who also manages Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande). Then you have Bom, the main vocalist of the group who has the ability to amaze you with her incredible vocals; Dara who is vocalist and since a couple of years have being doing acting jobs, and now is active on the variety industry; Minzy is the youngest of them and is the main dancer of the group, currently she has open her own dance studio.

Mr. Yang seems to love reality TV shows that are also survival since Big Bang and 2NE1 had being officialy formed after one, and now that I have mention this I will introduce to you the newest groups from the company, WINNER and iKON. WIN: Who is Next?, open up the world industry for Team A and Team B on 2013, where they competed against each other to make their debut first under the name of WINNER. Team A was formed by five members: Minho, the rapper and former leader of the group; Seung Yoon, vocalist and leader of the group; JinWoo is vocalist; Seung Hoo is rapper; TaeHyun, vocalist and the youngest of them. Team B had six memebers: BI, rapper and leader of the group; JinHwan, vocalist and the older brother, he is like the mother of the group; Bobby, rapper and like the father of the group;Yun Hyeong, JuNe, and Dong Hyuk are all vocalists. At the end of the competition, which lasted almost six months the group that become WINNER was Team A, they where older and also had being more time as trainees. They made their debut on August of 2014 on the YG Family Concert, with the song Empty and Collor Ring, which where top on the music charts. Six months after the end of WIN (May 2014) Team B started on a new survival reality show, Mix and Match, where they finally had a name for the group, iKON. On this show the members had to face reorganization of the group, competing against each other and another three trainees for a spot on the group. But the group already had fixed members, BI, Bobby, and JinHwan where already part of iKON since they have being trainees four years and where prepare to make their debut. The remaining three members had to battle against  Chanwoo, Jung Jinhyeong, and Yun Hongseok, for the final set up. At the end of the show the group was made by the original members of Team B and the new member Chanwoo, who became the youngest among them. I have to say that what makes YG a great company is that they are not only interested on the stage presence of their artist, but they are very strict about the content of their music. Is well known that Mr.Yang likes that his artist learn all the basics for music, compose, write, and arrange music. G-Dragon and Taeyang had write and compose great songs for Big Bang and for their solo projects, G-Dragon produced a greatly amount of songs for the group and all the songs for his solo album Coup D'atat. The new groups also have made it big with self writhed songs, and also having BI as the producer for iKON's debut album Welcome Back.

With all that I have mention before you can tell that JYP and YG artists are my favorite, that is because they are not restricted about the freedom of their work. For me SM has a great amount of projects, but they don't let their artist explore to much. But this companies are not the only ones with great artists. Sistar (Starship Entertainment)  is a female group with four members that irradiates sexiness, and the main vocalist, Hyolyn, takes your breath away with her incredible vocals. Big Hit Entertainment is the home of the new male group BTS (Bangtan Boys) and the duo HOMME, BTS right now is one of the hottest "new" groups of kpop (and one of my favorites!!) along side iKON and GOT7. Cube Entertainment artist are the male group Beast and BTOB, the female group 4Minutes, and solo artist G.NA among other artists; a subsidiary of the last is A-Cube Entertainment, which is the home of the female group A Pink and solo artist Huh Gak. Another solo artist that I like is IU, she has an incredible voice and has made great acting jobs, being recognize for her main role on the drama You're the Best Lee Soon Shin.

Talking about Korean Pop music is to difficult for me, because I like a lot of groups and solo artists, and there is a big probability that I have left out great artists. All that I have mentioned before has being extracted from different internet pages and articles, also from the biography of each artists, and the rights of the media content goes to their respected owners. Everything that has being said on this entry is from my experience with kpop music, which I have loved to share with you all. Thank you for reading!!! Like and share ^.~