K-pop in Colombia: the 10 songs that dominate on iTunes

It is not surprising that nowadays when opening social networks, such as Twitter, the first thing that appears on the list of trends are words in Hangul (Korean alphabet) related to the K-pop; names that are short and apparently not as easy to pronounce as Taehyung, Bangchan or Cha Eunwoo; or expressions as strange as selca day, oppa and fight.

And it’s amazing how despite the cultural differences, the different languages ​​and the geographical separation, the Hallyu (translated as Korean Wave) has had such a big impact on Western audiences, especially in Colombia, a country that has characterized itself as a big consumer of K-dramas, food, K-beauty and the like.

K-pop is a factor that deserves to be highlighted, because currently its greatest representatives began to invade the lists of the most famous songs such as the Hot 100 or the Billboard 200, have broken records held by artists of Beatles stature and have even been nominated for the grammys.

It is therefore not surprising that streaming platforms give it a place and have created its hit list, as is the case of Apple with its best K-pop singles available for at least 39 countries, Colombia included; thereby encouraging The South Korean music industry jump between oceans and disrupt other cultures.

Here is a list of 10 best songs of this day :

1. POST IT (feat. Sion)
Artist: Yong Jun Hyung

2. Wind
Artist: Jong Ho

3. Still to come
Artist: BTS

4. The astronaut
Artist: Jin

5. pink venom
Artist: BLACKPINK

6. Close
Artist: BLACKPINK

7. Like it’s your last
Artist: BLACKPINK

8. film
Artist: BTS

9. Bong Hwan Ah (Instrumental)
Artist: Norazo

ten.MORE

Artist: j-hope

Modern K-pop (from English “Korean pop”) was born in the 1990s with the debut of popular group Seo Taiji and Boys in 1992, known for incorporating western musical genres such as rap, hip-hop, rock, jazz, electronic and techno into their songs.

This trio, made up of Seo Taiji, Yang Hyun-suk and Lee Junodebuted in a talent show on MBC with the song Nan Arayo, leaving the jury shocked, who gave them the lowest marks. However, the success this single established on radio and TV was resounding, resulting in more songs being released in this style and more artists betting on it.

It wasn’t until 1995 that producer Lee Soo Man founded one of the companies that remains a “heavyweight” in the music industry to this day, S&M Entertainment; while former Seo Taiji & Boys member Yang Hyun Suk created YG Entertainment (nineteen ninety-six); followed by JYP Entertainment (1997), created by singer Park Jin Young.

These three companies were long known as the “Big 3” ‒until the success BTS achieved thanks to BigHit Entertainment (now known as Hybe Labels)‒ and were dedicated to teaching early generation idols, in order to satisfy Korean audiences’ demand to see younger artists.

In this way, the HOT group was one of the first to debut in the industry, followed by others who made up the famous “first generation of K-pop” like Sechs Kies, SES, Fin.KL, NRG, Baby VOX, Diva, Shinhwa and god

By the start of the new millennium, some of the idol groups that had debuted were inactive while others like Baby Vox were having success in various parts of Asia, an example of which was their song Coincidence, which was promoted at the 2003 FIFA World Cup and topped the Chinese music charts.

At the same time, other artists who went solo also marked a turning point: Boathe first Korean singer to lead the Oricon chart in Japan, an equivalent of the Billboard chart but Asian and in which artists from other countries rarely manage to enter and Rainan actor and singer who performed in front of 40,000 people in Beijing.

Later I’ll make the call “second generation of K-pop”still in the hands of groups made up of young figures such as TVXQ (started in 2003), SS501 (2005), Super Junior (2005), BIGBANG (2006), as well as girl groups like Wonder Girls (2007), Girls generation (2007) and KARA (2007).

In 2008, South Korea already dominated the entertainment market in Asia with an annual growth rate of more than 10% in the exports of its musical and television products with K-dramas, even representing 68% of the music market in Japan, ahead of China (11.2%) and the United States (2.1%).

Later, other bands like SHINee or INFINITYthe latter who managed to obtain the record of being the first to top the Billboard Emerging Artists chart in 2014 with his song Last Romeo; 2PM, EXO, 2IN1, until you reach the third generation of K-pop where new groups such as BTS, Seventeen, GOT7, Twice, Red Velvet, BLACKPINK, MAMAMOO, among othersso far fourth generation which are everyone who debuted between 2017 and 2018 like Stray Kids, ITZY, Ateez, Astro and more.

It should be mentioned that a watershed that should be considered is Rapper PSY’s Gangnam Stylea song that not only managed to break unimaginable records on music platforms such as Youtubebut it also traveled the world and showed that language was no barrier to success in highly competitive countries like American industry.

To this day, the relay of the greatest representatives of K-pop is held by the group BTS ‒integrated by Suga, RM, Jin, Jimin, J-Hope, V and Jungkook‒, who in addition to dominating the music industry in South Korea and consolidating their notoriety in the rest of the world, were named “Asia’s trend leader” by The Economist and “Artists of the year” by TIME magazine, through his Grammy Award Nominations and his 10 Billboard Awards.