The Hallyu Wave: How Crisis Led to K-Pop

South Korean culture is so easily accessible these days that we almost take it for granted. Every major South Korean entertainment company from Arirang…

Hallyu’s Homogenisation of Beauty in Asia

Popular culture is sneakily pervasive, carrying with it not just catchy tunes and attractive actors, but also social norms, beauty ideals and a variety…

Roundtable: Expectations vs. Reality with Psy’s “Hangover”

Psy dropped his "Hangover" music video earlier this month to mixed responses on both the song and video. After both "Gangnam Style" and "Gentleman," ey…

Roundtable: Self-Reflection Time

Let us to catch our breaths this week from the whirlwind of news and releases in the Hallyu world and focus inward on how we perceive who we are as par…

Hypocritical Hallyu: International Fans and K-pop Fandom

The K-popiverse was hit with some disturbing rumors this afternoon: an international fan of male megaband EXO, who have finally made a much-anticipated…

Hallyu’s Appeal to Asia… No, The Other Asia

Breaking news: Korean pop culture has gone international. I know, it caught me by surprise, too. With Hallyu's rise in prominence globally, the Kore…

Natthew and Diversity in K-pop

If you've been paying attention to the K-pop scene lately, you might have noticed a new (and non-Korean) face on the scene: Thai singer Natthew (Nat Th…

HallyU.S.A: K-pop’s Appeal to Asian-Americans

While Hallyu is defined as the spread of Korean pop culture around the world, let’s focus on the affect it has on a specific subpopulation in the West.…

Authenticity, K-pop and the West: Part 1

Fake! It’s a word inundating the comment section of English articles on K-pop, if not heavily insinuated by the authors themselves. To most Western …

The Korean Wave and the Question of Soft Power

Bad news for Japanese fans of K-pop: the Japanese media is reporting that due to escalated tensions surrounding the Dokdo/Takeshima/Liancourt Rocks ter…