The rise of Korean culture around the globe

Korean pop culture and entertainment has slowly penetrated global pop culture with the popularization of K-pop and K-dramas

Although top Korean dramas like Squid Game are suddenly generating a lot of international attention for Korean entertainment, Korean culture and entertainment have permeated global media for several years, and top-charting Korean musicians in particular have been making an incredible impression on American media.

The relationship between Korean entertainment fans and the quick spread of Korean media is extremely important to note when observing how the Korean wave has made an impact on American pop culture. For example, because of the language barrier between Korean media, which rarely ever uses English, and international fans, political, social and cultural misunderstandings and conflicts can arise. However, that hasn’t stopped Korean entertainment from becoming popular among an extremely diverse audience.

Korean pop music first made an imprint in American media through artists like Park Jin Young (JYP), BoA, Girls Generation and Wonder Girls, who not only debuted in America but also produced songs for already well-established American talent and worked with famous American producers. However, K-pop really took off in the U.S. around 2012 with Psy’s “Gangnam Style.” Currently, groups such as BTS and Black- pink and their collaborations with Western artists have made them household names in American pop culture. For example, BTS holds the record for the greatest number of YouTube views in 24 hours, generating almost 110 million views in this short amount of time. This band and many others break record after record for the number of YouTube views and albums sold, and several Korean music artists regularly chart on Billboard’s Hot 100.

Hannah Lee, an accounting junior and a teaching assistant for UTD’s Korean Language Club (KLC), said that though people have been interacting with Korean culture for a while, stan culture has definitely amplified the new K-pop wave.

Stan culture can be defined as a group of people coming together to share and discuss a topic that they are passionate about.

Usually, these communities are found on social media sites such as Twitter and are made up of different people from all over the world. The Korean wave, which appears to be a sudden topic of interest but has actually been gradually gaining an international following, has been exemplified by stan culture and the creation of “fandoms” for different Korean idols, actors and actresses. Yet, an unintended consequence of stan culture being such a driving force in popularizing Korean entertainment in America is that misunderstandings about Korean culture can arise.

“Misconceptions and miscommunications about what our culture is like can be really frustrating because it can cause a lot of disagreements when there shouldn’t be any,” Lee said. “There is a lot of sexism and toxic beauty standards in Korean culture that need to be dismantled, and I think international fans are helping with that aspect … but then there are some things that people call out that is just basic Korean culture.”

One of the examples that Lee mentioned involved an idol named Young Jae who is from a popular boy band called Got7. International fans criticized him for wearing an earring and rings that resembled the Swastika in relation to Nazi Germany. However, the jewelry that he was wearing was actually a symbol representative of his religion, Buddhism, and since there is a large number of Buddhists in Korea, Korean fans knew that his jewelry symbolized his religion. In cases such as this, ignorance surrounding certain aspects of Korean culture can lead to false portrayals of Korean artists, and issues like this are exacerbated by stan culture and Korean entertainment’s wide international following.

Nonetheless, the Korean wave has attracted millions of fans, and regardless of whether fans can speak or understand Korean, they support their favorite Korean artists and enjoy Korean media to a great extent.

Blanca Diaz, a global business junior and a member of KLC, said, “When you compare [K-dramas] to the shows we have here, there really isn’t anything like K-dramas. I could say the same thing about Spanish TV shows like Telenovelas. If I compare Telenovelas to K-dramas, they aren’t the same thing; they both have their own way of expressing themselves. I think the interest surrounding [K-dramas] also involves the

After a Night of Unsettling Dreams

There were many musical acts throughout the Halloween weekend, but one of the most notable was the rescheduled Radio UTD Pseudo Stereo Showcase featuring "After a Night of Unsettling Dreams" as the opening act and "Skirts" as the main act. A very relaxed concert, the two acts brought a mix of chill lo-fi and indie rock sounds. Normally a solo act, "After a Night of Unsettling Dreams" brought on a drummer that perrformed admirably for the occasion, and "Skirts" had an interesting mix of instrumentation for their tracklist off their album "Great Big Wild Oak." The concert heralded the first Pseudo Stereo showcase run by Radio UTD since 2018 and brought a medium-sized crowd to enjoy the cool evening weather at the Plinth.

If you are looking for a comic that blends striking visuals and good storytelling with a uniquely digital format, you should read the webcomic “Ava's Demon” by Michelle Czajkowski. It's a particularly good pick-up for lovers of fantasy and sci-fi due to its interesting spin on the concepts of reincarnation and galactic warfare.

At first, the webcomic centers around a teenager named Ava Ire and her demon Wrathia, who we quickly learn has a knack for tormenting Ava and getting her in trouble. We are introduced to the pair when Wrathia gets Ava sent to the principal's office and expelled. While Ava is being scolded, we are introduced to two other key characters, Maggie and Odin. Then, the comic suddenly shifts into high gear and takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride of events where all three are trying to escape their planet as it is randomly being attacked and destroyed. But during the escape, Ava has