Kpop music

Before I came to Korea, I knew about Kpop music, but I didn't realize how popular it is in Korea. Kpop is like the entire USA music industry concentrated in one genre of music. You hear it everywhere: stores, subways stations, buses. I haven't been to a Kpop concert yet(one of the things on my list to do) but I have heard they are different from USA concerts and are a lot of fun.

Most Kpop is in the style of 90's pop in the USA. Because of this, Amercan artists like Brittany Spears and Madonna are very popular in Korea. It feels like I am reliving the 90's in respect to music again as an adult. To make it even more 90's, women's style here in Korea right now is very 90's. Leggings are the "it" item with oversized sweatshirts. So funny! For those of you who would like to hear some of my favorite Kpop songs, I have links to them on the blog. Most of the singers have good voices. One of the funny things is that the Kpop groups aren't the usual four or five singers like in America: There are at least seven. Some groups have over ten members. It is almost like a choir rather than a singing group!

Oh, funny thing happened yesterday as I was walking to my South and North Korea class. To get to class I have to take these wooden stairs down a very steep hill. There are two staircases that join together halfway down the hill. As I was walking down one of these staircases, I noticed a lot of Korean students standing on the stairs looking at the other set of stairs. I saw Brian and Katie, two of my international friends also looking at the stairs. They told me that a Kpop singer was filming part of his newest music video on the staircase. Sure enough there was an entire film crew, and the famous singer that I had not heard of previously. I quickly pulled out my camera and caught a shot of the film crew and a short video of the singer before an intimidating security guard dressed in black covered my camera. If you look in the top left corner of the video, you can glimpse the singer for a second before my camera was covered. Too funny! Didn't think I would see a Kpop music video being filmed while I was in Korea!