Through 'Inkigayo': The Evolution of Korean Music Shows Alongside K-pop
Lecture in Korean
Photo from Unsplash
Seungho Ryu, Entertainment Program Producer, Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS)
Thursday, February 29, 202411:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Bunche Hall, Rm 10383
The big K-pop trend, led by BTS, is still going strong. Just recently, in July 2023, Jungkook got the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and many other K-pop artists are doing well on the charts too. Notably, among the top three music awards in the United States, excluding the Grammy Awards, the American Music Awards introduced the K-pop category in 2022, and the Billboard Music Awards did the same in 2023. This shows that K-pop is now recognized as a genre even in the United States.
Given the high status of K-pop, looking at how Korean music shows have changed alongside K-pop is a quite interesting work. Since the late 1990s when H.O.T., recognized as the origin of K-pop, created a sensation, Korean music shows have progressed by satisfying the needs of K-pop artists and occasionally setting new directions for the K-pop. With global platforms like YouTube, the music show stages of major K-pop artists often accumulate not only 1 million views but also frequently surpass 10 million views. Nowadays, K-pop fans worldwide are enthusiastic about the new attempts and changes on Korean music shows. Additionally, with such overwhelming views, Korean music shows have now become an undeniable source of revenue for broadcasting stations. Therefore, examining the changes in Korean music shows and predicting their future is an important task at this time.
In this talk, Mr. Ryu wants to show how Korean music shows, especially 'Inkigayo' (one of most popular Korean music show), has developed with K-pop. He will examine the points of change in those shows, which become noticeably different with each generational shift in K-pop. He will also tell stories about why and how these changes happened, as well as venture into predicting how Korean music shows might evolve in the future.
*Event is exclusive to CKS Visiting Scholars, graduate/undergraduate students, and faculty
Sponsor(s): Center for Korean Studies
