If you know Rain, BoA (shown left), and Sistar, then you already know K-Pop, Korea’s contemporary pop music and its artists.
K-Pop music is one of the fastest growing music genres in the world, and along with Korea’s popular TV drama serials, films and comic books are a growing source of export revenue for Korea.
The growing global fan base of Korea's entertainment and cultural offerings, known as "Hallyu" or the "Korean Wave" feels more like a tidal wave in some countries. In France, for example, fans mostly in their youth sold out a concert in Paris reportedly in fifteen minutes. Several hundred fans who missed out on tickets held a rally and danced to K-Pop music in front of the Louvre Museum campaigning for a second concert. They got their wish for a second concert which also sold out in minutes. Aflash mob as witnessed by this YouTube video shows hundreds of fans from all ethnicities crowding the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris last June, 2011 to welcome their favorite K-Pop artists. (image right)
On
December
31,
2011
Korea's
Culture,
Sports
and
Tourism
Minister
Choe
Kwang-shik announced
a
2012
policy
to
expand
support
of
Hallyu,
to
help
keep
the
wave
of
Korean
pop
culture
surging
across
its
borders.
The
Korean
government
also
hopes
to
attract
more
Hallyu
fans
into
the
areas
of
food,
tourism,
fashion
and
other
cultural
and
entertainment
offerings.