The Visibility Of K-pop As A Music Genre And Wave

“There are three things that make K-pop such a visible and unique contributor to the realm of pop music: exceptionally high-quality performance, an extremely polished aesthetic, and an “in-house” method of studio production that churns out musical hits the way assembly lines churn out cars” (Romano, 2018) 

The intended purpose of this essay, is to explore the varied aspects of what makes K-pop what it is. The focus will be on the way in which the contributions of visual art has been impactful in the Korean music industry, and how the landscape has changed since the creation of the genre and where it is heading too. However, ‘K-pop’ will be viewed as intergraded content rather than a genre, as some commentators argue that more goes into creating a successful ‘idol group’ than just the music. Also through this essay, an understanding of how the creative industry operates outside of the West, and if this has an impact within industry. The main focus on topics concerning the visual arts such as, branding, merchandising, and music videos. As a sub-topic to this, will be to look into the impact that K-pop has had in creating both economic and social trends both domestically and internationally.

Prior to the democratic South Korean government in 1987, two media networks controlled what type of music South Koreans listened too, of which promoted a positive image and ideologies of Korea, such as 아! 대한민국 (Ah! Republic of Korea), a patriotic song commissioned and promoted by the government through the networks (Vox, 2018) Networks introduced musical talent shows, however, these shows were under the jurisdiction of the government and their tight censorship, therefore the acts were either ‘safe’ or positive propaganda. The “music produced by the networks were primarily with slow ballads or “trot”; a fusion of traditional music with old pop standards.” (Romano, 2018) However, after the change in government, the country saw a change to modernise the country and views towards censorship, Koreans were exposed to a wider variety of music genres from outside of the country such as Western pop music.  

Even after the change in media, TV was still the dominate form of media, and the talent shows were still pulling in large viewership numbers. In 1992, viewers saw Seo Taiji and Boys, a male trio who brought a fusion of American hip hop with South Korean culture in their song, ‘I know’. Despite not be favoured by the judges, they challenged Korean social norms and censorship through their dress sense, musical content and style. This resonated with the public as the song went to the top of charts for 17 weeks and is the longest standing No.1 in the history of Korean music at the time (MoonROK, 2014). Even though the group disbanded four years after their talent show debut, they helped pave the way for new musical acts who wanted to take a new experimental approach - and for musical entertainment studios to step in to create a framework to cultivate musical acts that would be a viable profitable source for a new open market.   

An example of this frame work can be seen in SM Entertainment’s first idol group (1996); H.O.T.; a five piece musical act that represented what teens wanted to see from a modern pop group. The traits of the group were curated in a way, that is still seen in today’s idol groups; “a combination of singing, dancing, and rapping, and disparate personalities untied through music” (Romano, 2018)

In 2006, the South Korean music industry was the first major music market to surpass the 50% digital mark; “South Korea has been held up both as a digital trailblazer and as a canary in the mine for the global music industry.” (Mulligan,2013) As the consumption of music has changed, so has the process of production and distribution in order to keep up in the digital age. This is explored in the Digitisation in the music industry: The Contrasting business strategies of J-pop and K-pop, whose findings suggest that ‘The rise of K-pop and the decline of J-pop clearly demonstrate the different results from a decision to embrace or to wrestle with digitalisation’ (Parc, 2017) J-pop’s decline was down to industry not adjusting to the new digital era and focusing mainly on their domestic market. Where as K-pop gained traction through embracing the new age of digital, and casting their net of influence to an international market.   It has been argued that the internet has played a key role in the popularisation of  K-pop due to being distributed more effectively. This can be seen within recent years thanks to social media services (SNS) such as Youtube, Instagram and Twitter. During the second wave of idol groups (dubbed the golden era of the genre) saw groups such as 2NE1, BIG BANG and Girls Generation who garnered millions of views on their music videos and people outside of Korea could have access to these groups through SNS. (InternetsNathan, 2019)  

An example of this is Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ which became a viral hit for the genre in 2012 (At the time of writing, the video currently has 3.4 Billion views). Psy, who is a successful solo artist within Korea, become an overnight sensation internationally as people were intrigued by all the elements of the music video and song. It is argued that Psy was the first introduction of the genre on an international level, closely followed by the second wave of groups who also garnered international attention such as NCT 127, Monsta X, Black Pink, and BTS. (InternetsNathan, 2019)

The process of ‘creating’ an idol group can be compared to that of a factory line with how quickly entertainment companies churn idol groups out; a total of 244 idol groups have debuted in the past nine years. (REFERENCE) For the purpose of this essay, it is best to view the ‘idol group’ as a commercial product and the fans as consumers. Design is an intrinsic part of the music industry, so much so, that it is one of the main driving forces of K-pop in comparison to the music industry in the West, in this example, with regards to albums “music has become a primarily digital-first experience, and music’s visual side has moved from record sleeves to tiny icons in our playlists” (Gosling, 2016) Utilising art and design to create an outcome (branding, merchandising, even the idol group themselves) is a good way to create unique selling point that differentiates its self from other genres. This idea is taken further as often each entertainment company, therefore their respective idol groups, have a distinct style and aesthetic to them. 

The Seoul based design studio, Content Form Context(CFC) were approached by SM Entertainment who needed a new identity that could be flexible as they wanted to expand on their business ventures both in and out of the entertainment industry. “CFC has developed a visual identity inspired by the light that symbolises all the celebrities and content of SM Entertainment. The light moves smoothly and shapes the circle, and the circle evolves into various shapes and forms a symbol connecting S and M.The new symbol of SM Entertainment is a flexible identity that can be continuously transformed and expanded, representing the company that constantly evolves according to the trends and a changing medium. - Various shapes of circles and symbols creating colorful graphics and patterns become the design essence of SM Entertainment Visual Identity.” (CFC, 2018) This re-brand sees the entertainment company trying to create a new and fresher look for themselves through popular design trends seen during 2018, such as, juxtaposing colour palette (pastels and dark colours), creative typography and the utilisation of negative space (Pavlova, 2017) This branding can be seen not only within the entertainment company but also their commercial outlets such as the dedicated merchandise website and the ‘SMTOWN Store’.

SMTOWN, in Gangnam, is an immersive experience that fans can come to and live vicariously through the space. “SM Entertainment, on the other hand, only sells official products at offline stores, while SM's official product sales store, is a composite entertainment shop that combines karaoke, meeting rooms and merchandise in one.” (Lee & Chung, 2013) The space is comprised of a cafe, shop and events rooms that fans can use and feel like they are apart of the ‘SM family’. The retail space is where fans can buy official products related to the idol groups such as albums, memorabilia, and any brand collaborations, as well as items that the idols may use in their day to day life, such as food or clothing items, as seen in vlogger’s, dearnessie video where she goes to SMTOWN “for example, here is a cap that EXO’s Xuimin wore that fans can buy” (dearnessie,2018) The concept of the space is used to play into, and indulged in the fans idealised fantasy, in the return for monetary gain.  


The age of digitisation saw the introduction of streaming and online services (such as iTunes, Spotify and Melon) which saw a decline in physical album sales, along with this, piracy and copyright infringement which was becoming rife within the industry, due to the ease of sharing music digitally. However, rather than seeing this as a negative, the Korean music industry recognised the power of digital sharing and used this as an advantage, “Amidst this changing environment, the first ‘digital music’ album was produced in 1998 by a largely unknown Korean rapper Cho PD who established a ‘one-man’ label. He achieved remarkable success in Korea, and his online fame helped to promote the sales for his second album which was an offline release. Although the eight songs featured on the second album had already been released online, 500,000 physical albums were still sold nationwide” (Parc, 2017)

Although apposing to this shift, entertainment companies knew that the idol groups they promoted had a strong following of fans who would purchase products in relation to their chosen idol group. The idea of consumption driven by aesthetic can be seen throughout the genre but is prevalent within physical albums and the way they have been altered over the years in order to keep fans interested and mostly importantly, buying.   

Originally, physical albums consisted of a dual plastic case with the CD and a lyric book (similar to the physical albums in the West) which then progressed into to the same CD packaging but within luxury outer package which included member specific memorabilia which could be collected. The first example can be seen in Girl’s Generations second studio album ‘Oh’ in 2010, which see the release ‘photo cards’ of varying selfie style photos of different members which was randomised within each album. After the second press there were 18 different cards to collect, due to this, the album sold higher quantities (bchili,2019)   This trend of member exclusive memorabilia only grew to become a staple for the physical albums, and in accordance to IFPI’s Invaluable Recording Industry in Numbers, in 2012 saw, ‘Physical revenue grew by 19%, the third successive year of growth, while digital actually declined by 25%’ (Musicindustryblog, 2013)   

The albums further developed into special editions which would includ exclusive content such as photo books and video footage of the group. Progressing further into multiple version of albums, each promoting a different ‘concept’ or a re-package album - fans still buy them all. A great example of this is EXO, a largely popular group during the later half of the 2010s, who at the time consisted as one group but also three sub units (EXO-K, EXO-M and EXO-CBX) who released Exodus, in 2015, which was released in both Korean and Mandarin, all together there were twenty different albums to collect. Each member had a different album concept as well as different memorabilia in the Korean and Chinese versions of the album.(bchili,2019)  


HuskyFox, is a Seoul based branding company who aim to “build a relationship between brands and users by creating an identity through brand languages and visual elements to experience design” (HuskyFox, N.D.) The company were approached by BigHit Entertainment, to design the packaging for an upcoming album series for their idol group, BTS. BTS have often been given praise for their level of story telling in previous ‘era’s’ (when a album is released, everything in association with this album is referred to as an era) with the ability to interweave a strong concept and message throughout their music that fans enjoy.   

Due to this, HuskyFox wanted to keep this identity and personality of the group when designing the three separate set editions within the ‘Love Yourself’ series. ‘Love Yourself’ album was an “album that contains messages that young generation can feel the same such as dreams, wandering, temptation, hope and love (HuskyFoxB,2018?) This album also had to link into the concept of three previous albums which shared the idea of youth.   Each of the three albums in BTS Love Yourself series came in four different versions and each version having a varying concept behind it, showcased through the exclusive concept photos of the members. Each set had a distinct look to differentiate themselves from one another, this was achieved through the colour schemes and concept photos, however, the overall branding of the series, such as custom typography and illustrations were able to tell a cohesive story through its visual elements. This visual branding for the albums has been used within separate promotional material, digital song artwork, merchandising and so on.   In 2018, ‘Love Yourself: Tear’ was nominated for a Grammy in the upcoming 61st Annual Grammy Awards, for best recording package design, incl. Album Cover, Graphics & Photography. In accordance with Billboard, “BTS earning the recognition (along with their art team) is a further testament to the importance of the larger teams that collectively work together to bring not only high-quality music, but topnotch visuals and packaging that coincide with the larger themes represented by the music.” (Benjamin, 2018) In addition to this, Billboard also expressed that, 'The nomination for BTS' Love Yourself: Tear marks a major moment of inclusion and appreciation for South Korea's breakout artists, and is an important step inside and gaining attention of the notoriously traditional Recording Academy.” (Benjamin, 2018) “South Korean music industry has perfected the pop production machine into an effervescent assembly line of ridiculously catchy tunes sung by ridiculously talented people in ridiculously splashy videos” (Romano, 2018)