To all the people who danced to ‘Gangnam style’ during 2012 without knowing it’s lyrics, just crossing your arms and hopping perfectly in sync with the beats. Kpop is finally here to stay and is slowly becoming a household name in India now!
And those people who watched ‘Descendants of the sun’ with their mothers on Zindagi channel, the first-ever exposure of Hallyu wave on Indian TV. Yes yes, we know ‘Song Joong Ki’ still gives you mercurial highs.
A majority of Indians are now familiar with the terms ‘Kpop’ and ‘kdrama’. They have an extended vocabulary for what BTS stands. Groups like BTS, Big Bang, EXO, Blackpink, Got 7, Super Junior is now consuming a whole lot of audience, despite language barriers. People can be seen covering a variety of kpop songs through their singing or dancing on social media platforms.
Netflix India’s trending list has witnessed Korean titles including ‘Crash Landing on You, It’s Okay to Not be Okay, Kingdom 2, and Light Up The Sky (a documentary centred around popular K-pop girl band BLACKPINK).
During the financial crisis in 1997, South Korea had to repay a loan from the IMF, then as export, they started to create their own content. With social media and youtube, the influence took place in the form of entertainment, music, food, beauty and fashion.
The impact that did spread from North East India, made people realize that they prefer a fresh story outlook within minimal episodes rather than monotonous extended writing with hundreds. Within a span of 16-25 episodes, kdramas are intricately portrayed, with aesthetics in cinematography and their specially curated osts. They track down sentimentality wrapped inside the real foil of innovative screenplay. Be it romance in ‘Boys over Flowers’ or ‘goblin’, action in ‘Healer’, ’tunnel’ or ‘signal’, history in ‘hwarang’ or ‘moon lovers’, or the undertones of youth traced in ‘Weightlifting fairy Kim Bok Joo’ or ‘Fight my Way’; the vibrancy of the characters is something within the audience’s reach. In spite of the existence of ‘Bollywood’, Indians have grown fond of the variety offered by the k culture.
Kpop videos having the brush strokes of various themes comes in contrast with what Bollywood music usually offers. The lyrics are worth translating for their depth and the sincerity with which they tackle critical issues- like female empowerment in BTS’s ‘21st-century girls’, what raw happiness tastes like in ‘Sea’, finding your true identity in Stray kids’ ‘NOT!’, and greek mythology in VIXX’ ‘fantasy’.
Kpop music videos are more than just catchy and repetitive catchphrases. They offer you a whole lot of universe even having literature and art references. Without having any big promotions on the Indian platform, their content is winning hearts of a spectrum of age groups. The artists often leave a distance within the themes and symbolism of music videos, and it is handed to the fans in its raw form leaving them free to interpret the theories in their own way. The aestheticism brought forth requires great scribbles of planning, with innovative choreographies, striking visuals, and out of the box fashion.
Once in a while, everyone needs some change from the mainstream media which they were consuming till now, and thus Hallyu wave brings the splash of pixie dust disguised as change with great potential lies ahead.
We Would Love To now What s Your Favorite Drama And Favorite Band…
Author: Ananya Moti