2000s Korean Pop Music History - THE YEAR OF 2012

21st century is when the culture and new media are joined together, thus, the world can encounter (or share) new culture very easily. 



K-pop is one of the pop culture in Korea that has been spot-lighted. In the early 2000s, marketing on Korean drama and its OST as well as idols in oversea countries succeeded to grab their attention. Consequently, K-pop was known as Korean Idols Music at that moment.



The development of new media, such as social network services as well as streaming services, Korean ballad, hip-hop and other genres has introduced to the world. Spontaneously, the strength of K-pop such as, easy melody, showy performance, music videos with the stories that arouse audiences’ interest, etc. causes to grab attention from Asian countries. Not only the Asian countries. Since 2011, K-pop has been spread out to western countries and also grabs their attention easily.



Consequently, the interpretation of k-pop has expanded. 





The exhibition “2000s K-pop History” introduces the trend of Korean Pop culture by using k-pop contents from every year. “2000s K-pop History” would help people to understand Korean culture and Korean pop culture and expect people to enjoy it.

The Year of 2012





          The year of 2012 could be called the year of Psy of YG Entertainment. Psy instigated the Psy syndrome all over the world with the legendary song <gangnam style> putting his name at the second on the American Billboard Main Chart “Hot 100” as a first Korean singer. 

The song was 2nd place on the chart for 7 weeks from November 17, 2012, and top on I-Tunes charts in the countries including America and UK. As of September 27, 2012, Psy was ranked number one on the UK Single Chart. Moreover, his music video got over 1.4 billion views on Youtube, which was listed on “Guinness Book of Records”.



 He was awarded the best video on MTV Europe Music Award, and New Media on the 40th American Music Award. His dance movement called “Horse dance” gained the world fame. The song <gangnam style> was ranked top for 10 weeks on KBS Music Bank, which broke the record of 9 weeks that Girls Generation had and the second longest top song next <invisible love> by Seunghoon Shin for 14 weeks in a row in 1992. However, <gangnam style> regained the top position, so it recorded the longest top song in music history with 16 weeks.

Sistar of Starship was very active that year. It released mini album <alone> in April, and the title song <alone> swept over all the music charts. 

The song gained great populatity instigating the “crane dance” syndrome, even the syndrome has last until now. The song was ranked top on Music Bank and Popular Music for 2 weeks, and ranked top total 5 times on music ranking shows. It was also ranked top for 4 weeks on Billboard K-pop chart making it the best Korean girl group. 

The group released summer special album <loving u> on 28th of June. This album had 7 songs including 2 new songs, <loving u> and <holiday> and 5 remake of its hit songs, among which the song <alone> gained popularity ranked top at most music charts. 



It held its first concert “Femme Fatal” at Olympic Hall of Seoul Olympic Park on September 15, 2012, and gathered 2,500 audiences.

JYP had <good without men> by MissA and another girl group “Wonder Girls” of JYP gained popularity putting the song <like this> top on Melon Monthly Chart in June.

YG had by 2NE1, and <blue> and <fantastic baby> by Big Bang.

Regarding hit songs by entertainment companies, SM’s EXO made its brilliant debut with the song <history>, Taetiseo composed of Girl’s Generation members Taeyun, Tiffany and Seohyun had <twinkle>, and f(x) had <electric shock>.



Cube Entertainment had <troublemaker> by Troublemaker, Core Entertainment had <lovey-dovey> and <day by day> by Tiara, and FNC had <extremely> by FT Island.

Loen’s first girl group of 5 members, which had had 2 years of preparation time, Fiestar made its debut with the single album <vista> armed with perfect teamwork and stable live singing, and was awarded New Star of Culture section on 2012 Seoul Success Award.