Popular global Korean trends

MANY don’t know but South Korean culture or K-culture trends began in the 1980s. Today, South Korea is considered a major exporter of popular culture.

It started with the K-dramas then the K-pop which spread like a wildfire all across East, Southeast, South Asia and the rest of the world.

The development of social networking services and online video sharing platforms, especially YouTube, played a big role in the K-culture explosion worldwide.

This heavily impacted contemporary cultures, such as the music industry, film industry, television industry, and behavioural aspects of people throughout the world. Today these are the five most popular K-culture trends among the global youths.

Webtoons

It originated in South Korea, but now it has gained immense traction among those between 15 – 24 years old. This new wave has been getting more and more comic readers turning to them. It is visible in the number of monthly active users of Kross Komics, which is a webtoon app in India. Today the app has crossed 3 million downloads since it started service in India in December 2019, and now has 1.1 million monthly users. One can choose any of its unique and engaging content which has – action, romance, drama, comedy, fantasy, horror, slice of life, mystery, and thriller.

K-pop

It is short for Korean popular music, which is a music genre that also originated in South Korea as part of South Korean culture. The genres take their influence from all around the world, such as pop, experimental, rock, jazz, gospel, hiphop, R&B, reggae, electronic dance, folk, country, and classical on top of their traditional Korean music roots.

Psy’s Gangnam Style achieved widespread coverage in mainstream media along with artists like BTS (pictured), Blackpink, Big Bang and Monsta X, who are very popular globally.

K-Drama

The Korean Drama which is now famously called K-Drama. They are Korean language television series that are made in South Korea. Today Korean dramas are very popular globally, thanks to Netflix quickly tapping into the market and creating original K-dramas.

Korean Cuisine

Koreans usually have grilled meats which are accompanied by spicy and sour shreds of cabbage called Kimchi. The preserved cabbage (also made with other vegetables) is the cornerstone of Korean cooking. Local inquiries for dishes such as Korean fried chicken, Korean style Ramyeon, Kimchi, gimbap, kimchi-jjigae started flooding in after Korean expatriates listed their canteens on online food delivery platforms.

Korean Fashion

With the Korean Wave sweeping over many countries, the cultural influence of Korea has reached the fashion world, as well. Korean fashion is evident in the outfits worn by artists, who are partnering up with major fashion houses to showcase their work. |