Contemporary Korean Arts Series 6K-POPHow it became the global crazeK-pop referred to pop and
dance music performed by idol groups mainly targeted at teens has been expanding in popularity
beyond Asia to Europe and South America. It was the 1990s when this school of music first
appeared in Korea but its emergence was not abrupt and its roots are sunk deep into decades of
Korean popular music history. This book is designed to introduce to international audiences
interested in Korean music how the modern form of Korean pop music began and evolved.
Understanding the history of Korean pop music which has shifted and progressed in the currents
of social transformation means figuring out just how Korean society has been transfigured.This
book is mainly divided into two sections. The first deals with the developments in Korean pop
music from Japanese rule up to the early 1990s. Exploring this period which falls into a
prehistory of K-pop will serve as an opportunity for understanding the historical context
surrounding K-pop. The second section illustrates the processes of the formation to K-pop
throughout the 1990s and the stages in its development into its current form as a globalized
cultural element. The main focuses of the second portion include K-pop's representative idol
groups the social circumstances that yielded K-pop and its production system.Gaining a
thorough grasp of the K-pop fever around the world requires a more multi-dimensional
perspective that encompasses its historical context and structural conditions. In this sense
this book will prove useful to those who desire to learn about K-pop and Korean popular culture
and further about Korean society.
