How K-pop Broke the West:

An Analysis of Western Media Coverage from 2009 to 2019

Jenna Gibson
University of Chicago

Abstract

Over the last decade, Western publics have gradually caught on to the K-
pop phenomenon; the Korean Wave has arrived on European and North
American shores and shows no signs of receding. Heightened interest has
corresponded with increased mainstream media coverage, both among
news and entertainment outlets. This article analyzes mainstream media
coverage of the Korean Wave from 2009 to 2019, including an
examination of overall trends in K-pop framing over time. This analysis
suggests that coverage of K-pop in Western media has proceeded through
four distinct stages of development: 1) Introductory Stage, 2) Gangnam
Style Stage, 3) Korean Wave Stage, and 4) Mainstreaming Stage. This
article also examines how the changing portrayal of K-pop for general
audiences has corresponded with a similar evolution in portrayals of South
Korea and Korean society as a whole.

Keywords: Hallyu, Korean Wave, K-pop, South Korea, Psy, Gangnam

Style, pop culture, media, soft power

Introduction
A 2009 Discovery documentary opens with scenes of Seoul, with all
its neon nightlife, shopping and delicious food. The introduction is
interspersed with images of legendary K-pop star Rain performing on
stage. “Hip Korea” follows the singer’s journey to stardom in Korea and
around the world. However, the video isn’t about a single singer, or even
about the K-pop industry. As the narrator makes clear during the
documentary’s introduction, Rain’s success parallels that of his country of
birth, South Korea: “His grueling path of trials and tribulations mirrors
that of his country…this is the story of a country in transition, a dynamic
city that inspires, and one man who, through sheer blood, sweat and tears,
has not only become the idol of a nation, but a superstar on the global
stage.”1

24 International Journal of Korean Studies • Fall/Winter 2018

 This documentary, portraying a hardworking star overcoming his
struggles just as Korea has done, is one of the early examples of English-
language media coverage of K-pop. Long before Psy came horse-dancing
onto the global stage, coverage of Korean culture in Western media was
infrequent and limited in scope. Gangnam Style changed this dynamic.
Seven years after Psy’s 2012 smash hit, superstar boy band BTS is
shattering records, becoming a ubiquitous symbol of pop culture in the
West.
How has Western media portrayed the K-pop industry and the stars
that behind it? How have those portrayals changed as the popularity of
Korean music has soared? And what does this coverage say about Korea,
a country intent on maximizing the potential of the soft power of its music
industry?
Through a qualitative analysis of Western news and entertainment
content since 2009, this paper illustrates how the Western media has
framed the industry, and how those evolving portrayals have affected how
a mainstream (non-fan) audience views both K-pop in particular and
Korea more broadly. This analysis identifies four stages of K-pop
coverage from 2009 to 2019, each characterized by a slightly different
portrayal. These stages correspond not only with different framing of K-
pop as a musical industry, but of Korean culture and, by extension, Korean
society as a whole. These four periods are: 1) Introductory Stage, 2)
Gangnam Style Stage, 3) Korean Wave Stage, and 4) Mainstreaming Stage.
This article begins by sketching the contours of existing literature on
media coverage and cultural diplomacy, as well as more specific work on
the Hallyu [Korean Wave] phenomenon and Korean pop culture’s
popularity around the world. It then analyzes English-language news
coverage and TV appearances related to K-pop, and argues that depictions
of the industry have gone through four distinct stages over the last decade,
each with their pros and cons. Next, the paper delves into the implications
of this media evolution, focusing in particular on how a mainstream
Western audience may view K-pop and Korean culture as they have
learned about it through the Western media. The conclusion argues that as
media coverage grew to take the K-pop industry more seriously, so did
publics. Additionally, the broadened interest and deepened respect for the
Korean music industry has led to parallel developments in overall positive
views of Korea as a state, which may lend credence to the idea that pop
culture diplomacy can indeed bring benefits in the foreign policy realm.

International Journal of Korean Studies • Vol. XXII, No. 2 25

Literature Review
Scholars of Korean pop culture and Hallyu have focused extensively
on the spread of Korean cultural products abroad. They have examined the
Korean government’s role in subsidizing the industry’s expansion into
new markets2 and the government’s use of K-pop as a public diplomacy
tool to promote positive feelings toward Korea around the world.3 Joseph
Nye, the eminent Harvard scholar who first coined the term “soft power”
to refer to a country’s ability to attract foreign publics, expressed
admiration for Korea’s ability to wield its pop culture for economic and
political gain.4
Within the Hallyu literature, a certain strand has also delved into the
reactions of local publics to the growing popularity of Korean pop culture.
However, these studies have largely focused on countries and regions
where Hallyu has been present for quite some time, including Japan, China,
Southeast Asia, and, to a lesser extent, Latin America and the Middle East.
These studies have examined what made Hallyu stars household names in
China, Japan and Taiwan, 5 Laos, 6 India, 7 Turkey, 8 Mexico 9 and other
countries.
Thematically, scholars have examined which attributes of Korean
cultural products have resonated so deeply with such diverse audiences.
One theory focuses on the innocuous and inoffensive nature of Korean
television content, with its innocent love stories devoid of any overt sexual
innuendo or raunchy content. This has allowed Korean soap operas to
flourish in socially conservative societies like Iran, where explicit content
is not allowed on public airwaves. 10 Another study focused on the
universality of the storylines found in these soap operas. In particular,
Asian audiences can see their families in portrayals of the scheming aunt,
the troublemaking brother, or the star-crossed lovers barred from meeting
because of social inequalities.11
More recently, significant literature has focused on the behavior of fan
communities, including deeper, ethnographic studies of K-pop fans in
Algeria,12 Israel,13 Japan14 and other countries. A new study on the fans of
mega boy band BTS—known as ARMY—delved into the digital
organization and networking that has allowed fans to get more actively
involved in sharing content and promoting their favorite band in their
respective communities.15
Finally, some research has examined backlash movements that have
emerged in certain countries and among governments concerned about the
dominance of Korean content. A study of Southeast Asian consumers

26 International Journal of Korean Studies • Fall/Winter 2018

found concerns about Korean cultural imperialism due to the ubiquity of
Korean products in the market.16 A study of anti-Hallyu movements in
China showed that the nationalistic sentiment made some feel threatened
by the success of Korean content as opposed to indigenous pop culture
products.17
Nevertheless, despite some fascinating research on Hallyu’s growth
and on fan behavior, there are several important gaps in this literature that
this article will attempt to examine. First, because K-pop has only taken
off in the West recently, there hasn’t been significant academic writing on
reactions of Western, particularly American, publics to the growing
popularity of Korean music around the world. To the extent that Hallyu
researchers have examined the United States and European countries, it
has largely been to puzzle through why the West has not picked up on the
worldwide phenomenon, or to focus on the small but dedicated fanbases
that have popped up in those countries within the last five to ten years.
This article deliberately avoids examining the fans of Korean culture.
While it is certainly possible that some fans first learned about K-pop
through the mainstream outlets analyzed here, they are not the main
subject of interest for this piece. People who are already fans of Korean
culture, regardless of how they were hooked into the fandom, will clearly
have a much broader and deeper sense of the industry and of various artists
within it; they likely will have formed their own opinions about the music,
the industry, and about Korea more generally.
Instead, by examining only mainstream news and entertainment
outlets, this research explores how the K-pop industry has been portrayed
to a broad, largely disinterested public. If knowledge of K-pop is acquired
from tangential information reported in The New York Times or The Ellen
Show, what picture does that create of the industry? And what does that
picture indicate about Korea, the industry’s namesake?

Four Stages
This research is based on searches for news and entertainment content
using the term “K-pop” over the last decade. The results were collected
using a series of Google News and Google Video searches using the
Boolean search term “K-pop,” restricted by year. This approach facilitated
the location and identification of the top results from mainstream media
outlets that were published in each year since 2009 that included the term
“K-pop.” To be clear, these searches are not exhaustive—it is entirely
possible that some news articles, particularly from smaller publications,

International Journal of Korean Studies • Vol. XXII, No. 2 27

did not appear in the search results because of Google’s algorithm, which
prioritizes larger and more trafficked websites. It is also possible that some
articles that were published at the time have been edited or removed since,
thus failing to appear in the results. However, the number of articles and
videos collected, especially in more recent years, gives confidence that this
approach sufficiently captured overall trends in K-pop coverage in the
West.
Because this research concentrates on Western audiences, the analysis
focuses on content that appeared in English-language, Western media
outlets. Western media outlets are those aimed at audiences in Europe,
North America, Australia and New Zealand. The vast majority of content
came from organizations based in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. This
focus is deliberate. Although there have been fan communities in the
Western world for quite some time, broad knowledge of, and interest in,
Korean music was absent in countries like the U.S. and the UK long after
it had become mainstream in other parts of the world.
As noted in the literature review, general publics in the Middle East,
Latin America and across the Asia Pacific region were at least familiar
with Korean pop music (and, even more broadly, Korean dramas), even if
they were not explicitly participating in K-pop fandom. While exploring
the admittedly fascinating state of K-pop’s popularity in those regions is
interesting, this research examines the time period when Korean artists
finally cracked the Western market. Through the four stages detailed
below, once can see the evolution of K-pop’s image in the Western psyche,
as it transitioned from a niche interest to a viral hit to a mainstream topic
of conversation.
One additional note—this analysis excludes music-focused or trade
publications such as Billboard and Pitchfork. Many of these publications
began detailed, serious coverage of K-pop long before the mainstream
media picked up on this phenomenon, Additionally, there are other reasons
to exclude trade journals. First, because industry publications cater to an
audience that is interested in the ins and outs of the music industry, the
coverage in these publications doesn’t necessarily reflect the information
available to the average member of the public. Second, because these
publications include news coverage and reviews by specialized music
journalists, the quality and depth of coverage of the K-pop industry
presumably exceeds that of more general mainstream publications.
Based on an analysis of the type and tenor of news and entertainment
mentions of K-pop in Western media in each year from 2009 to 2019, there

28 International Journal of Korean Studies • Fall/Winter 2018

are four distinct stages of K-pop coverage during the past decade. Table 1
depicts these stages:

Table 1: Four Stages of K-Pop in Western Media, 2009 to 2019

Stage Period Description Examples

“Korean pop music out to

conquer the world”
Sporadic coverage, (Reuters)
2009 - exploratory or general
Introductory
2011 stories, some emphasizing “Korean Pop Machine,
vapidity of the industry Running on Innocence and
Hair Gel” (The New York
Times)

“Britney Spears & Psy Do

the 'Gangnam Style'
Acknowledgement of K-
Dance on 'Ellen': Watch”
pop based on viral hit
(The Ellen Show)
2012 - Gangnam Style, but
Gangnam Style
2013 generally viewed as a
“Bizarre 'Gangnam Style'
quirky, exotic, and
K-pop music video blows
confusing phenomenon
up worldwide”
(Vancouver Observer)

Much wider coverage,

“K-pop: a beginner's
more focus on both good
guide” (The Guardian)
and bad parts of the
2014 - industry, some more
Korean Wave “Sistar, Hyuna Featured in
2017 nuance and attempt to find
Korea-Themed ‘Family
interesting angles on the
Guy’ Episode”
industry, but also more
(PopCrush)
stereotype-based coverage.

“How BTS’s Embrace of

More serious and Korean Tradition Helped
widespread coverage, Them Blow Up” (Vulture)
mainstream
2018 -
Mainstreaming acknowledgement and “The Sex Scandals
Present
understanding of at least Shaking K-Pop And A
some groups/the industry Reckoning Over How
more broadly. South Korea Regards
Women” (NPR)

Source: Developed by the author from multiple sources.

International Journal of Korean Studies • Vol. XXII, No. 2 29

The following sections will examine each of these four stages in depth,
including subjects of focus, overall tone, and stereotypes or tropes
repeated about the industry and its stars.

Introductory Stage
Covering the period from 2009 to 2011, the Introductory Stage was
characterized by infrequent coverage of K-pop. The entire year of 2009,
for example, saw only two articles in mainstream publications: a list-
based article in People about the Wonder Girls 18 and a piece in TIME
about K-pop’s popularity in Japan.19 The next year saw just five articles.
Because of the dearth of coverage during this period, it is hard to see
significant trends; each article seems to take a slightly different angle.
Compare the 2009 documentary highlighting Rain’s accomplishments
described in the introduction with one of the five mainstream news articles
from 2010, a piece from TIME on how K-pop was being blasted across the
DMZ as part of a propaganda campaign against North Korea.20 Rather than
indicating certain trends, the early years of K-pop coverage in the West
would be better described as disconnected and sporadic.
It wasn’t until 2011 that coverage really started to take off. While not
the subject of this article, it’s worth noting that several music-focused
publications started covering K-pop regularly in 2011, including Pop
Crush and MTV.21 Other outlets featured K-pop-related stories for the first
time in 2011 included NPR, BBC, Independent, The Atlantic, and Reuters..
The tone of coverage was often curious, but skeptical about Korean
acts. Many articles asked variants of “What is K-pop?” and “How K-pop
Conquered the World.”22 This era also set the stage for many of the tropes
that appear in K-pop coverage even today: that the industry is full of
manufactured, robot-like stars who sing shallow music to throngs of
screaming fangirls. A 2011 The New York Times article reviewing a
concert in New York exemplifies this trope. Under the headline “Korean
Pop Machine, Running on Innocence and Hair Gel,” the reviewer goes on
to describe the process of making a K-pop star:

“Think of the work required to make just one Justin

Bieber. The production, the management, the vocal
training, the choreography, the swagger coaching — all
that effort to create one teen-pop star in a country that’s
still starving for them. South Korea has no such drought,

30 International Journal of Korean Studies • Fall/Winter 2018

 thanks to several companies that specialize in
manufacturing a steady stream of teenage idols, in groups
of various configurations.”23

A 2012 New Yorker article, while published slightly after the

Introductory Stage, is worth mentioning here as well for its literal take on
this trope of manufactured artists: its profile of girl group Girls Generation
was titled “Factory Girls.”24 Descriptions of fans also started to coalesce
during this period. An Independent article, for example, described
“frenzied” and “excitable” teenage British fans of Korean boy bands,
emitting screams of “eardrum-shredding shrillness.”25
There are some bright spots in this coverage. Some articles, including
a well-researched column on the soft power potential the industry could
bring for Korea.26 as well as profiles of specific singers like Taeyang27 and
Tiger JK,28 brought more depth to the rare coverage during this period.
Despite the cliché-laden wording described above, the fact that the
industry’s biggest acts began appearing in mainstream media such as The
New York Times and TIME, and in coverage from broadcasters like the
BBC, is significant. This coverage meant that K-pop may have begun
entering the lexicon of the general public in the West during this period in
a way it had not before. With its minimal and stereotypical coverage, this
stage should largely be seen as building a baseline for K-pop and Korean
culture in the West upon which future content could build as fan
communities continued to grow.

Gangnam Style Stage

If asked to name a K-pop song in 2011, most Americans would be
hard pressed to provide an answer. Ask those same people in 2012, and
they would all likely give you the same answer: Gangnam Style. The song
has become a groan-worthy cliché for K-pop fans who, after revealing
their love for Korean music, are immediately asked “Oh, so you like Psy?”
Nevertheless, the impact of this one song and the interest it generated for
K-pop in the West cannot be overestimated. This impact was so large, in
fact, that it gets its own era of K-pop coverage: the Gangnam Style Stage.
This stage, lasting from when the song first hit airwaves in mid-2012
through 2013, is characterized by fascination with the zany Psy and his
absurd music video, but also a growing interest in the music industry that
birthed this incredible hit song.

International Journal of Korean Studies • Vol. XXII, No. 2 31

 To be clear, Psy is only K-pop in the broadest sense of the term.
Having come up through the ranks as a solo artist famous for irreverent
lyrics and satire, he’s a far cry from the group-focused, highly polished
idol singers typically associated with the industry. Nevertheless, Psy’s
ascension to the top of global consciousness brought with it a curiosity
about K-pop that had not yet emerged in the West, especially in the U.S.
The coverage of Psy and the broader K-pop industry during this period
was quite positive, with excited headlines proclaiming that Korean pop has
“gone global,”29 “blown up worldwide” 30 and is “rocking the world.” 31
The viral hit brought the words “Korea” and “K-pop” into the lexicon of
people who may never have thought about the industry, or the country that
birthed it. 32 From news coverage in local papers 33 to a plethora of
YouTube dance covers34 to an appearance on The Ellen Show,35 almost
everyone had at least heard of K-pop by the end of 2012, even if they
associated it with a single, quirky music video.
While this coverage was largely optimistic, there were some negative
comments. Perhaps because of its overwhelming ubiquity, there was
pushback against the viral hit, with articles claiming “There are many good
reasons to loathe ‘Gangnam Style,’” and bemoaning what its popularity
says about shallow internet culture.36
In addition, even supposedly positive appearances brought with them
problematic stereotypes that likely colored the view of K-pop among
readers or viewers. Particularly when discussing Gangnam Style and Psy,
articles often described him as unattractive, 37 chubby, 38 and quirky, 39
exoticizing and ultimately dismissing supposedly shallow Asian pop
culture,40 as well as feeding into problematic stereotypes of hilarious but
ultimately emasculated Asian men. 41 Ironically, despite its bright and
frenetic music video, Gangnam Style is hardly vapid. It is, in fact, a savvy
parody of the excesses of Korean society, cunningly wrapped in a catchy
radio-friendly bow. Nevertheless, with few exceptions, 42 the message
underlying the smash hit rarely if ever appeared as part of a serious
discussion in the extensive media coverage of the Gangnam Style
phenomenon.
Despite these drawbacks, there was a silver lining for coverage of the
industry. This sudden interest in Gangnam Style was accompanied by
broader inquiries into the K-pop industry, leading to the next stage of
coverage. Journalists were clearly interested to know more about the
industry behind the increasingly popular K-pop stars. Mainstream media
icons The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal published “Visual

32 International Journal of Korean Studies • Fall/Winter 2018

music: How ‘Gangnam Style’ exploited K-pop’s secret strength and
overcame its biggest weakness”43 and “Behind K-pop’s Pop: The Work of
Fans,”44 exemplifying the shift in coverage.

Korean Wave Stage

The third stage in Western media coverage of K-pop spanned the
period 2014 to 2017; it is only now beginning to transition to the final,
Mainstreaming Stage. This time period witnessed a rapid spread in the
types of media outlets that devoted space to covering K-pop, which
corresponded with a significant increase in the overall exposure of the
industry in the West.
Although articles on the general state of the industry or analyses the
overall growth of K-pop’s popularity overseas continued to be published
during this period, 45 many outlets became far more specific in their
coverage. The Los Angeles Times wrote about the headliners at KCON, a
massive annual convention for Hallyu fans,46 USA Today raved about Epik
High’s performance at the Coachella music festival,47 and The Wall Street
Journal profiled surrealist K-pop producer Hitchhiker. 48 Entertainment
media also got in on the hype: Conan O’Brien filmed a K-pop music video
featuring Korean-American actor Steven Yeun and K-pop
producer/singer/executive J.Y. Park; 49 girl group Sistar and solo artist
Hyuna made brief cameos in the irreverent comedy show Family Guy;50
and Nickelodeon launched a K-pop-inspired show about high schoolers
forming a pop group.51
This growing interest in the K-pop industry also meant outlets began
exploring a more diverse range of news angles for their coverage. Some
outlets picked up on the Korean Government’s support for the industry,
including pieces on NPR’s Code Switch podcast,52 and in The Wall Street
Journal.53 Others focused on the political implications of the industry’s
growth and K-pop’s role in inter-Korean relations.54 A widely reported
diplomatic spat over a Taiwanese K-pop star creating a row with China
after waving a Taiwanese flag at a performance in South Korea
underscored the international interest in K-pop.55 Even right-wing outlet
Brietbart got in on the craze with a story about an incident in Malaysia
where a girl hugged members of a Korean boy band on stage despite the
country’s strict laws on inter-gender contact.56
Although articles on “the dark side of K-pop” were a common
recurring theme throughout all stages, they became particularly popular
during the Korean Wave stage. Perhaps because of the industry’s

International Journal of Korean Studies • Vol. XXII, No. 2 33

overwhelming growth, coupled with the deliberately clean image
producers sought to portray, a variety of news outlets seemed determined
to uncover the dark secret behind K-pop’s glamour. Dozens of articles
from outlets like Vice,57 the Australian broadcaster SBS,58 BBC,59 NPR,60
and others used this exact wording in articles about the industry during this
time. Many articles focused on a hyper-competitive industry that
overworks young Koreans hoping to make it big.61 After the tragic suicide
of singer Kim Jonghyun in 2017, a spate of articles focused on the high-
pressure industry that failed to support him.62
The sudden demand for news and content related to the K-pop industry
led to an increase in factual errors as well. One common error that
appeared in various areas of coverage during this period was
misidentification of groups and artists. Journalists and editors unfamiliar
with the industry would sometimes simply choose a generic K-pop photo
to go with a story, regardless if that particular group was relevant to the
news at hand. For example, an NBC story about the death of Ladies Code
singer EunB used a thumbnail of Girls Generation’s Seohyun and
Tiffany. 63 Others assumed all boy bands are BTS due to the group’s
popularity.64 Some news outlets reporting on the aforementioned death of
singer Kim Jonghyun mistakenly used pictures of other, similarly-named
singers, or included photos of BTS in their reports rather than SHINee, the
group Jonghyun’s actual belonged to. 65 Despite the missteps and
stereotypes that occasionally appeared in K-pop news coverage during this
time, though the Korean Wave Stage witnessed an explosion of interest in
the industry, ushering in the more integrated and well-rounded coverage
now present in Western media.

Mainstreaming Stage
Beginning in 2018, but really taking hold now in 2019, K-pop really
became part of the mainstream conversation in the West. American and
British news outlets and TV shows that reach a broad demographic
audience have brought K-pop into the consciousness of people who would
never normally encounter information about musicians from other
countries. In contrast to the previous stage, in which mainstream coverages
was occasionally marked with problems and errors, the Mainstreaming
Stage is characterized by an increase in serious, in-depth coverage.
Examples of this more serious coverage include deep-dives into how
BTS has used traditional Korean imagery and sounds in their record-
breaking albums, 66 analyses of how K-pop’s boy bands are breaking

34 International Journal of Korean Studies • Fall/Winter 2018

gender norms67 and profiles of K-pop’s first openly gay singer.68 But this
deeper coverage has not always led to positive images of K-pop and its
stars. As with previous stages, the Mainstreaming State has seen an
increase in reporting on the negative aspects of the industry. Of particular
note, the mainstream media has widely reported on the sexual assault
scandal involving several major K-pop stars, many of whom are facing
criminal charges. 69 Other negative stories also got broad coverage,
including two singers who were fired from their management company
after admitting dating each other,70 and incidents of obsessive behavior by
fans.71
The Mainstreaming Stage also saw a sharp increase in TV appearances
by K-pop groups, which likely exposed an even broader audience to the
industry. Good Morning America has hosted BTS, BlackPink and NCT
127. The Late Late Show with James Cordon has hosted BTS and
BlackPink. BTS has also appeared on The Ellen Show, The Graham
Norton Show, Saturday Night Live, as well as performing at the American
Music Awards and presenting an award at the Grammys.
This broad coverage does not mean that coverage has fully evolved
past tropes, however. For example, BTS fans recently called out a segment
on the BBC, ostensibly about the group becoming the first Korean artists
to hit #1 on the UK albums chart and breaking YouTube records with their
new music video. This quickly devolved into a discussion among the
anchors about the poor quality of the song, leading one of the reporters to
ask, “Wasn’t it Gangland Style that started the whole K-pop thing?” He
was referring, of course, to Gangnam Style72 which, to be clear, did not
“start the whole K-pop thing” despite the amount of space devoted to it in
this analysis and many others.
As this exchange demonstrates, news outlets, radio shows and TV
programs have been scrambling to provide content to tap into the growing
interest in K-pop in the West, often without devoting the time to
understand or research the industry. Although one could argue that failing
to include photos of the correct Korean artists is a form of racism, there
have been, in fact, more extreme examples. Take, for example, comments
made by a radio DJ in the UK, who called BTS’ Korean-language singing
“noise.”73 A radio personality in Mexico74 and a TV anchor in Greece75
both got in hot water for calling members of Korean boy bands “gay” for
wearing makeup and saying they were ugly. Other, more subtly Orientalist
comments included a New Yorker article that said BTS was popular
because they bow often.76

International Journal of Korean Studies • Vol. XXII, No. 2 35

 However, one other hallmark of this stage was the active participation
of worldwide fans in calling out and demanding apologies for this type of
inappropriate behavior. Fan communities, always organized to some
extent around supporting their favorite groups, began participating more
vocally, organizing campaigns to support positive coverage, and calling
out problematic stereotypes and misleading reporting. In one recent
incident, fans called attention to racist tweets posted by a New York real
estate agent; his employer ended up firing him.77 This has its downsides,
of course. Sometimes fans equate negative but accurate reporting with
inaccurate, shallow, or outright racist coverage. Nevertheless, it is
emblematic of this stage of K-pop coverage that fan participation and
feedback became a major factor in how the industry is discussed in the
West, particularly on social media.
The amount of conversation that K-pop coverage sparks online, even
when that conversation is made up of negative feedback, is one of the
reasons news outlets, TV shows, and celebrities want to get in on the action.
Fans dubbed this type of coverage “clout-seeking;” i.e., using extremely
popular groups only for their social media clout rather than writing about
the industry with any actual expertise or sincerity. Celebrities like Kylie
Jenner have used K-pop songs in their social media posts to sell products.78
Controversial YouTuber PewDiePie suddenly professed his love for BTS
to his 17.4 million Twitter followers, 79 possibly in a bid to get fans to
subscribe to his channel to reclaim his throne as the most-subscribed user
on YouTube.80
It should be acknowledged that media outlets carrying this coverage
are, at the end of the day, companies; there is nothing intrinsically wrong
with covering a popular topic for the sake of getting more shares and clicks.
The problem arises when, because of the rapid expansion in interest
without a corresponding expansion in expertise among many journalists
and broadcasters, this broad but shallow coverage often includes factual
inaccuracies, problematic clichés, and even straight-out racism.
Not all of this behavior is negative, however. Fans loved the well-
integrated shout-out to boy band NCT Dream in a 2018 episode of the
American crime drama NCIS. 81 Jimmy Fallon has the loyalty of BTS’
ARMY fanclub thanks to his well-executed interview of the group in 2018
and his ongoing and apparent dedication to the group over time.82
While portrayals of K-pop in the Western media during this period
varied, the Mainstreaming Stage was characterized by a significant
increase in the general public’s awareness of the industry and some

36 International Journal of Korean Studies • Fall/Winter 2018

knowledge of the most popular performers and groups. The breadth of
coverage continued to grow rapidly and is likely to continue. This
expanded coverage will likely bring additional positive, nuanced coverage
(or even negative, nuanced coverage) that started to become more common
during this stage.

Portrayal of Korean Culture and Society

As evidenced by the amount of time and funding the South Korean
Government has invested in supporting Hallyu’s popularity overseas, K-
pop, and the way it is portrayed in foreign media, is about more than just
the industry itself. K-pop and other Korean pop culture products are
explicitly considered part of Korea’s “brand.”83 Promoting a positive view
of Korean pop culture is considered an effective way to promote a good
image of Korea as a whole.84
How, then, has the evolving portrayal of K-pop in Western media
outlets related to views of Korean culture and society more broadly? While
this research has alluded to some of the pros and cons of each stage of
coverage in the previous sections, this analysis now focuses on the broader
image of Korea created in these different narratives.
The first two stages of K-pop coverage, the Introductory and
Gangnam Style stages, typically created a similar image of Korea. In
general, South Korea is mentioned as a way to orient the reader. At times,
the articles made it clear that Korean cool extended beyond music. This
was especially true of those articles that focused on K-pop’s popularity in
Asia. For example, a 2010 article in The Economist enthusiastically titled
“Hallyu, yeah!” profiled a Cambodian fan who loved everything Korea
had to offer and planned to study abroad in the country. 85 A similarly-
themed BBC article from 2011 included the country in the headline,
“South Korea's K-pop craze lures fans and makes profits,” before
interviewing a Japanese woman who traveled to Seoul just to buy up K-
pop CDs and related merchandise.86 By showing the lengths that these fans
go to follow Korean trends and travel to Korea, readers of The Economist
and BBC were exposed to the country’s attractive power.
As coverage expanded, stories focusing on Korea as the backdrop of
K-pop became more common. Articles in CNBC87 and CNN88 discussed
Korea as a pop culture trendsetter. Journalist Euny Hong wrote a book
titled “The Birth of Korean Cool,”89 and a memorable 2014 CNN article
asked, “Is South Korea the Coolest Place on Earth?” 90 Despite some
stereotypes in the overall coverage of K-pop—including recurring tropes

International Journal of Korean Studies • Vol. XXII, No. 2 37

about manufactured, robot-like idols—a consensus nevertheless emerged:
Korea is very, very cool.
As mentioned, one of downsides of an explosion of interest in the
industry is the attendant coverage of negative incidents. More media
outlets have started to cover news events and scandals that may lead to
negative views of Korean culture and society. The ongoing sex scandal is
an example of this phenomenon. While much of the coverage is focused
on the particular crimes these men are alleged to have committed,
journalists have also explored the broader treatment of women in Korean
society and the link between these accusations and the global MeToo
movement. This type of coverage, while important, clearly comes with a
far more critical view of Korea and Korean society that may not have
occurred if K-pop had not become so popular.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that while the overall tenor of K-pop
coverage has been quite positive, there has been some backlash. When
Korean stars have gotten the spotlight, nationalistic and racist comments
have sometimes followed. In 2013, Girls Generation won YouTube’s
video of the year award, sparking joy from fans and racist comments from
others. “HOW DID THOSE IRRELEVANT ASIAN GIRLS WIN? WTF
WHO ARE THEY?” one commenter exclaimed. “Ugh can you believe it
One Direction lost to some weird Chinese girl,” said another.91 Similar
comments occurred four years later after BTS won an award at the
Billboard Music Awards. 92 As depictions of Korean artists continue to
gain more breadth and depth and their presence in Western media becomes
more normalized, those types of comments may become less common.
Overall, despite some dark spots, Western media coverage has
portrayed a largely positive view of the Korean music industry; it has made
Korea quite literally the coolest place on earth in the minds of many
Western audiences. For the South Korean government, this can be a major
opportunity to attract a broad range of people to learn more about their
country, buy its products, and travel for school or vacation.

Conclusion
Broadened mainstream news and entertainment coverage of K-pop by
Western media has led to increased reporting on South Korea’s music
industry and the culture and society that produced it. The Introductory
Stage, which was marked by infrequent coverage of K-pop, included some
problematic stereotypes of the industry as manufactured and fake. Because
of the limited coverage at this time, falsehoods and negative stereotypes

38 International Journal of Korean Studies • Fall/Winter 2018

were seldom refuted. Gangnam Style ushered in a separate, eponymous
stage that dominated interest in, and coverage of, the Korean Wave. For
years afterwards, Psy was the reference point for any conversation about
Korean pop culture. The impact of Gangnam Style on K-pop’s exposure
in the West cannot be overstated. Nonetheless, other groups have been able
to build on the coverage of Psy, ushering in the Korean Wave Stage that
was characterized by a deeper and sustained interest in the industry across
the world.
The current Mainstreaming Stage has witnessed increased coverage of
the culture and society behind the industry. South Korea has been
explicitly labeled as cool and trendsetting thanks to its pop culture.
Broadened, balanced coverage has also led to negative portrayals of the
country. Regardless, K-pop’s growth has clearly been a boon to South
Korea’s brand and has given the country a major boost on the world stage.
With coverage of and interest in K-pop seemly at a peak, what remains
to be seen is what the fifth stage in K-pop coverage will look like. Pop
culture is notoriously sensitive to fads and whims, leading observers to
wonder if K-pop will eventually fade away. The sustained and steady
growth of media attention over the last decade described in this analysis,
coupled with the fact that the industry itself moves extremely quickly as it
continues to put out a variety of content, suggests that Korean music may
be here to stay.

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46 International Journal of Korean Studies • Fall/Winter 2018