A revised edition of this celebrated cultural history features a new Afterword and two new
chapters focusing on the global K-pop phenomenon BTS as well as the Academy Award-winning
film Parasite and the hit Netflix series Squid Game. By now everyone in the world knows
the song "Gangnam Style" and Psy an instantly recognizable star. But the song's international
popularity is no passing fad. "Gangnam Style" is only one tool in South Korea's extraordinarily
elaborate and effective strategy to become a major world superpower by first becoming the
world's number one pop culture exporter. As a child Euny Hong moved from America to the
Gangnam neighbourhood in Seoul. She was a witness to the most accelerated part of South Korea's
economic development during which time it leapfrogged from third-world military dictatorship
to first-world liberal democracy on the cutting edge of global technology. Euny Hong recounts
how South Korea vaulted itself into the twenty-first century becoming a global leader in
business technology education and pop culture. Featuring lively in-depth reporting and
numerous interviews with Koreans working in all areas of government and society The Birth of
Korean Cool reveals how a really uncool country became cool and how a nation that once banned
miniskirts long hair on men and rock 'n' roll could come to mass produce boy bands soap
operas and the world's most important smart phone.
