essays on kpop

K-Drama Review

Essay On K-pop: Best Topics And Tips For Choosing

It all started with gangnam style – the video that went viral in 2012, and went on to top music charts in over 30 countries..

The song earned the Guinness World Record as the first YouTube video to hit 1 billion views and paved the way for the Korean wave of pop culture and ideas. The seldom-known genre of music has garnered a lot of influence, and the music industry is ranked among the top ten music markets worldwide. If you’re a student or researcher, let us show you the best topics about pop culture you can write a paper on and how to choose one yourself.

Kpop as a Research Topic: Why to Select

Kpop or Korean pop is a fast-rising music style and popular culture, so it is quite a widespread research subject for many. But not every student is genuinely interested in music. It’s better to choose everything to taste. However, if this is an assignment from the teacher, or you just lack skill, pay someone to write your paper on Papersowl.com for 100% original academic essays. Besides expertise, also check out topic concepts for inspiration if you’re stuck. When students pay for college essay, they ensure that the writing is not plagiarized or badly written. And the theme does not matter to professionals. Meanwhile, if pop is something you’ve been crazy about, go ahead and enjoy completing your assignment.

10 Best K-pop Topic Ideas To Write About

The popularity of pop has broken the language barrier and has raised awareness of Asian music and culture. It has also spread inclusion and diversity over the world and broken stereotypes. Below are popular kpop essay topics and angles to explore for your article:

The globalization of K-pop: A study of the factors that have contributed to the global popularity of Korean pop music.
Pop and its impact on Korean culture: A discussion of how pop has influenced the cultural identity of South Korea.
The role of social media in the success of Korean pop: An analysis of how social media has helped to promote and popularize pop.
The rise of BTS and the impact of their music on the international music industry: A study of how BTS has broken down barriers and achieved success in the US and other global markets.
The influence of Hallyu on fashion and beauty trends: A discussion of how pop has influenced the beauty and fashion industry both in Korea and internationally.
The dark side of pop in Korea: An exploration of the challenges faced by pop idols and the negative effects of the industry on their mental and physical health.
The impact of pop on the Korean economy: A study of the economic benefits of the pop industry for South Korea.
K-pop and gender representation: An analysis of the way pop portrays gender and sexuality in its music and visuals.
The role of K-pop in promoting Korean language and culture globally: A discussion of how pop has helped to promote the Korean language and culture around the world.
K-pop and fandom culture: An exploration of the unique and passionate fandom culture that surrounds pop and how it differs from other music fandoms.

Tips for Choosing a K-pop Essay Topic

Before choosing a topic, read the assignment brief and the directions. This will help you understand the requirements you must satisfy for a perfect grade. Then, choose a topic you have an opinion about. You won’t produce an A-grade article about something if you don’t have passion for it. Hence, select an intriguing theme. It should be something you already know, care about, or would like to learn more about. Ask yourself the following questions:

Am I interested in this topic?
Is it appropriate for my audience?
What is my purpose for deciding on this theme?
Can I develop it into an article within the time frame and word count required?
Can I research it adequately to meet the source requirements?
Is the topic too broad or narrow to fit the requirement?

If a subject is too broad, narrow it down to make it easier to manage. One way to do this is to tackle the problem from a specific perspective. Don’t combine topics or attempt to be overly ambitious. Instead, reduce the scope, and don’t be shy to ask your tutor for recommendations.

Things to Pay Attention to When Writing Your Kpop Paper

There are various ways to format your article. Pay attention to the following:

Follow Structural Requirements

There are different types of essay writing. Your paper can be persuasive, informative, or descriptive. It all depends on the purpose of writing an academic essay or article. Most papers follow the introduction–body–conclusion structure. But the body paragraph differs depending on the article type. Pay attention to the guideline and use the following to structure your article:

Introduction: open your article with a hook – something fascinating to capture the reader’s attention. It can be a question, a fact, or a famous quote. Follow it with your thesis statement and introduce the concepts you want to discuss.
Body paragraph: discuss the concept in detail using paragraphs. If the brief does not provide instructions on the number of sections to write, use your discretion. But only use one paragraph to discuss a concept to aid understanding. Use transition words to flow between sentences and maintain coherence.
Conclusion: recap the main points of your article here and leave a call to action.

2. Research The Topic

The next thing to do after deciding on the topic is to spend time researching Korean pop culture. Read books, watch interviews, and invest quality time into listening to the songs. You can join a few fan clubs to know what happens behind the scene. If something is not clear, don’t hesitate to consult your instructor for further instruction.

3. Reference To Avoid Plagiarism

Don’t forget to cite sources you use for your article to avoid plagiarism. Popular referencing styles include APA, MLA, and Chicago styles. Read the brief to know the required citation style.

4. Proofread and Edit

After writing your article, manually read through for grammar, sentence, and punctuation mistakes. Ask a friend to also read through for errors you missed or use an online grammar checker for more efficiency. Submit your paper only after proofreading it.

South Korea is Asia’s fourth-largest country by economy. Its music culture started making worldwide headlines and has impacted the sector a lot. This didn’t only happen in Korea but also in the United States, Germany, and other countries. Popular culture has broken several barriers, but it is not without its backlash. As a result, it is the ideal space for a writer to explore.

Onew Joins Griffin Entertainment

SHINee member and artist Onew is making a new start at the new agency, GRIFFIN Entertainment. Onew released...

DKZ is Ready to “REBOOT” With 2nd Mini Album

Get ready! DKZ returns with new music on April 12th! K-pop enthusiasts rejoice as DKZ, the quintet renowned...

TAEMIN Signs Exclusive Contract With Big Planet Made Entertainment

SHINee member and solo artist TAEMIN joins Big Planet Made Entertainment. Big Planet Made Entertainment, a general entertainment...

The “60th Baeksang Arts Awards” Confirms Ceremony Date

The 60th Baeksang Arts Awards will be held at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul from 5 p.m. on May...

Latest News

Seventeen to release special album capturing 9-year journey, kingdom kickstarts 2024 activities with new album, kim woo jin announces music return this month, [exclusive interview] meet nowadays: exploring the charms and aspirations of k-pop’s newest boy group.

Search form

The rise of k-pop, and what it reveals about society and culture.

Initially a musical subculture popular in South Korea during the 1990s, Korean Pop, or K-pop, has transformed into a global cultural phenomenon.

Characterized by catchy hooks, polished choreography, grandiose live performances, and impeccably produced music videos, K-pop — including music by groups like BTS and BLACKPINK — now frequently tops the Billboard charts, attracts a fiercely dedicated online following, and generates billions of dollars.

Yale sociologist Grace Kao, who became fascinated with the music after watching a 2019 performance by BTS on Saturday Night Live, now studies the subgenres of K-pop and its cultural, sociological, and political effects.

Kao, the IBM Professor of Sociology and professor of ethnicity, race, and migration in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and director of the Center on Empirical Research in Stratification and Inequality (CERSI), recently spoke with Yale News about the kinds of research her interest in K-pop has prompted, why the genre’s rise has been important to so many Asian Americans, and why she urges today’s students to become familiar with various musical genres.

The interview has been edited and condensed.

You have said that watching BTS on Saturday Night Live changed your view of K-pop. How did that performance transform your interest in K-pop from a personal one into an academic one?

Grace Kao: I saw that performance, and it stayed in the back of my mind. Then, when we were on lockdown because of COVID, being stuck at home set the stage for having time to watch more K-pop videos. At first, I was just watching them for fun. I knew K-pop was something important, but I didn’t know anything about it. I thought “I should educate myself on this.” My current research collaborator, Wonseok Lee [an ethnomusicologist and a musician at Washington University], and a Yale graduate student, Meera Choi, who’s Korean, offered guidance.

I’ve always been interested in race and ethnicity and Asian Americans. I knew in my gut that K-pop was important, but it was hard to figure out exactly how I could work on it, since I’m a quantitative sociologist. What's fun about being a researcher and being in academia is that we can learn new things and push ourselves. I think that’s the best part of this job.

Grace Kao recommends this playlist to get started.

When I started working on it, I tried to learn without having a clear research question. Then, along with my collaborator, Lee, we started thinking about papers that we could work on together. I was also able to take first-semester Korean, so now I can read Korean, and Choi and I can begin working on different research papers.

What kinds of research are you doing?

Kao: One paper is about the link between ’80s synth-pop and very current K-pop. Others have argued that K-pop borrows heavily from American Black music — R&B, hip hop, and so forth. And it’s true, but we’re arguing that K-pop has links to all these different genres because the production is much faster. We also finished another paper looking at the links between New Wave synth-pop to Japanese city pop [which was also popular in the 1980s] and a Korean version of city pop. And we’re probably going to start a reggae paper next.

In another project, with two data scientists we’re looking at Twitter data related to a 2021 BTS tweet that happened about a week after a gunman in Atlanta murdered eight women, including six of Asian descent. The tweet, which was about #StopAsianHate, or #StopAAPIHate, was the most retweeted tweet of the year. Everyone in that world knows that K-pop is extremely influential, but there are moments now where it seems like it’s ripe for political action because fans are already really organized. We’re looking at how the conversation about the shootings before and after they tweeted changed. The analysis involves millions of tweets, so it's very data intensive work.

Last March you gave a talk on campus in which you talked about the role of K-pop in “transformative possibilities for Asian Americans.” What is an example of those possibilities?

Kao: Partly it’s just visibility. The SNL performance by BTS was really important for people. Especially people my age, we had never seen a bunch of East Asian people on the stage singing in a non-English, non-Western language. I knew that was an important moment regardless of whether or not you like the music or the performance.

I think during COVID, BTS made Asian faces more visible. They were on the cover of Time magazine, every major publication. They were everywhere. But it also brought up questions of xenophobia. People were making fun of them because of how they looked. At the time there was also the extra baggage that comes with being Asian. But any time BTS were attacked, because their fandom is so big and so passionate, their fans would jump on anyone who did anything to them. Then journalists would cover it, and suddenly there were all these stories about how you shouldn’t be racist against Asians.

Many of us who study Asian Americans have observed over time that it often seems acceptable for people to make fun of Asian things. Just by virtue of the fact that it’s [BTS], that their fans are protecting them, and that that gets elevated to the news is a big deal. President Biden invited them to the White House. These are all things I would have had trouble imagining even just five years ago.

You teach a first-year seminar, “Race and Place in British New Wave, K-pop, and Beyond,” which focuses on the emphasis on aesthetics in both genres’ popularity. What understanding do you hope students walk away with?

Kao: I want students to take pop culture very seriously. Sometimes pop music seems not serious, but so many people consume it that it can have pervasive and serious consequences on how people see folks of different race, ethnic, gender, and national identities.

Another thing I wanted students to learn about is genres of music. Students today like music, but they consume it very differently than people did when in college. We listened to the radio or watched MTV, so we were fed something from a DJ or from actual people who were programming the content. You’d end up listening to a lot of music that you didn’t like, but you’d also have a better sense of genres than students now. Today students consume music through Spotify or YouTube and so forth, which use algorithms to give you songs that are similar to the songs you liked, but not necessarily from the same genre. Students can have diverse and wide-ranging experiences with music, but I found that they have trouble identifying that any particular song is part of a genre. So I feel like it’s important for them to listen to a lot of music.

I want them to consume it because sometimes we think we can comment on things that we don’t know anything about. We don’t actually consume it. I think it’s important for students to walk away knowing something about these genres and to be able to identify them: this is a reggae song, this is a ska song, this is synth-pop, et cetera.

What K-pop groups are you currently into?

Kao: Besides BTS, I enjoy listening to groups such as SEVENTEEN, ENHYPEN, NewJeans, Super Junior, and new group TRENDZ.

Arts & Humanities

International

Social Sciences

Media Contact

Bess Connolly : [email protected] ,

Study spurs federal action: Consent for intimate medical procedures

PODCAST: Navigating the AI revolution responsibly

Portraits of Windham-Campbell Prize winners

Eight writers awarded Yale’s Windham-Campbell Prizes

Yale Library acquires historic video interviews with leading musicians

Show More Articles

Home / Essay Samples / Music / Music Genre / Kpop

Kpop Essay Examples

K-pop as a subculture and its influence on the world.

Korean pop music is a worldwide movement that emerged in South Korea in the beginning of the 21st century that shaped contemporary agriculture music film and TV in a major international light. Although South Korean culture and customs go back a long way in a...

A Report on K-pop and Its Worldwide Success

South Korea is a country in East Asia. There are many things to do in South Korea such as walking around Seoul’s busy streets, to Busan’s beaches, shopping in Gangnam, or eating Jeju’s oranges. However, the one thing you are guaranteed to hear everywhere is...

My Appreciation for South Korea

South Korea is a country that holds a special place in my heart. From its rich history and culture to its modern innovations, there are numerous aspects of South Korea that I admire and appreciate. In this essay, I will share some of the things...

The Development and Popularization of K-pop Internationally

Korean pop is a genre of famous tune originating in South Korea. While the modern shape of Korean pop can be traced again to the early 90s, the term itself has been popularized considering the 2000s, which additionally refers to domestic pop song in South...

The Factors of the Rise of K-pop Industry

Korean pop, also known as K-pop, is the biggest music genre in South Korea, and with its unique attributes, has firmly engraved its mark and consolidated its position globally. K-pop may have been a foreign concept to Westerners previously, but recently, it has been recognised...

Mental Health Issues in K-pop Industry

K-pop is becoming a global phenomenon attracting more people to Korean music and culture, but the truth is that it is not that good when people look closely. K-pop groups have talent and enthusiasm that is not being promoted the right way. Companies inside this...

The Development of K-pop and Its Influence on East and Southeast Asian Countries

Kpop has developed to be the South Korean government’s showcase to the world. Stating that Kpop is one of its many “perfect” examples. However, Kpop is not all it has been made out to be, with labor abuse, past government censorship, and maldistribution of money,...

The Impact of American Culture on K-pop Idols

Today, we’ll be exploring a musical phenomenon that has taken the world by storm: K-pop, or Korean popular music. Its explosive popularity began in the mid-1990s. However, the development of K-pop into its current form involved decades of history and politics. I’ll only be scraping...

Trying to find an excellent essay sample but no results?

Don’t waste your time and get a professional writer to help!