In Jung’s article, “K-Pop Idols, Social Media, and the Remaking of the Korean Wave,” it illustrates how K-pop industries are a strong believer of the success behind social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube as a generator of new waves to reach out to the American markets. In reference to this wave that Jung has mentioned, it is called Hallyu. His focus is determined on four Korean wave formations and in particular, Psy’s fame resonates within the fourth wave of the social media explosion era.
In accordance to Jung’s explanation of the fourth wave, the emergence of Psy’s popularity is referred as the latest Hallyu K-pop idol within the late 2000s to present. During this wave, K-pop idols embodied “music and dance styles, visual stylistic emphasis, and multimedia presence” as a way to “generate new waves and reaching different shores, including America and Europe (Jung 2015, 80) This was followed by the introduction of a contributing factor that have progressed Hallyu within the American markets. Through the “intense development of information and communication technologies,” it has allowed many fans to video-share and to exploit “new social media to the maximum, including K-pop flash mob…and K-pop cover dances (Jung 2015, 81).” Hence, Psy’s signature horse dance in “Gangnam Style,” has enabled fans from all over the world to use these technologies such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to communicate and to generate “a greater circulation” all over the world (Jung 2015, 82).
In conclusion, Psy is one of the K-pop idols that has ever reached in such epic crossover success. There is no doubt that Psy’s fame is solely based on Hallyu K-pop as the facilitation of technological advances in site-sharing spaces like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube has enabled him to reach new shores.
Bibliography
Jung, Eun-Young. Hallyu 2.0: The Korean Wave in the Age of Social Media. Edited by Sangjoon Lee and Markus Nornes. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2015.