Despite cultural differences, K-pop is conquering the international music industry. (GlobeLiveMedia/Jovani Perez)

The success that K-pop has achieved over the past decade is indisputable: every day you see hangul (Korean alphabet) words dominating the global twitter trendsits representatives add millions of views each time they publish a music video on YouTube, they are nominated for important awards such as the grammys and they are at the top of the most relevant charts like those of Billboard or iTunes.

With their perfectly synchronized choreographies, their catchy songs and the mixture of genres and styles that compose them, it is to be expected that many streaming platforms will be interested in measuring the impact of the Korean musical wave and make lists like Top iTunes K-Pop Songs.

Based on the number of downloads or digital purchases made through the Apple system, the iTunes K-pop chart is available to view every 24 hours in at least 39 countries, including Peru, so it’s a tally worth worth checking to find out. favorite singles of the moment and not be left behind by trends.

Here are the top 10 K-pop songs from iTunes Peru:

1. Still to come
Artist: BTS

2. film
Artist: BTS

3. Run BTS
Artist: BTS

4. Yours
Artist: Jin

5. MONEY
Artist: Lisa

6. MORE
Artist: j-hope

7. pink venom
Artist: BLACKPINK

8. LALISA
Artist: Lisa

9. Stay Alive (Prod. by SUGA of BTS)
Artist: Jungkook

ten.stay gold

BLACKPINK members on the black carpet at the VMAs.  (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz)
BLACKPINK members on the black carpet at the VMAs. (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz)

Modern K-pop (from English “Korean pop”) has its origins in the 1990s with the rise of popular band Seo Taiji and Boys in 1992 known for incorporating western music styles 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 on a talent show on MBC with the song Nan Arayo, baffling the jury, who gave them the lowest marks. However, the success this single received on radio and TV was overwhelming, resulting in more songs being released in this style and more artists opting into it.

It was not 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 have long been dubbed the “Big 3” – until the success BTS achieved thanks to BigHit Entertainment (now known as Hybe Labels)‒ and are dedicated to training the first generation of idols, in order to satisfy the demand of Korean audiences to want 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

At the start of the new millennium, some of the idol groups that had debuted were without activities while others like Baby Vox were successful in various parts of Asia, an example of which was their song Coincidence, which was promoted at the Soccer World 2003. Cup and which reached number one on the Chinese music charts.

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 was already leading 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 obstacle 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.

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