NYTimes: K-Pop Music to the West Through Social Media

The power of social media has propelled K-Pop to spread its popularity in North America and other countries through Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

The NYTimes posted an article with the title ‘Bringing K-Pop to the West’ on March 4 that these social networking sites “make it easier for K-pop bands to reach a wider audience in the West, and those fans are turning to the same social networking tools to proclaim their devotion.”

The article stated internet brought K-Pop singers closer to their fans outside Asia.

“When bands like 2NE1, Super Junior and SHINee hold concerts in Europe and the United States, tickets sell out within minutes, and fans have used Facebook and Twitter to organize flash mobs demanding more shows, as they did in Paris in May,” stated the article.

Through the official social media pages K-pop singers and group are able to make an announcement for their upcoming albums, concerts, appearances and TV shows even before news media outlets.

There are loyal fans around the world that translate songs, Korean news articles and posts of Twitter or me2day into different languages.

“Thanks to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, Jay Park is not just an artist but also his own P.R. agent, fan club president and TV network. He is bypassing traditional media gatekeepers locally and gate-crashing his way globally onto overseas charts via social media,” shared Bernie Cho, president of DFSB Kollective, a digital music distributor through the article.

The article added K-pop is boosting the cultural image of South Korea.

“A global exporting powerhouse, the country [South Korea] had always chafed at its lack of cultural exports that would let the rest of the world know that it was more than a maker of Hyundai cars and Samsung cellphone,” stated the article.