Hi, this is Izzy, your K-beauty and fashion curator. This week, we’ll have a special theme. Even though I am introduced as a fashion/beauty curator in this blog, I’m not only close to K-beauty and K-fashion, but also K-culture, especially K-POP! Thus, today, I’ll give you guys a guideline that would make all of you guys fall into K-POP. Plus, even if you already think you’re a K-POP expert, why don’t you hear a piece of information and opinion from the local one? Now, let’s start with the very start of K-POP history.
[The Pioneers of K-POP, 1990s-2000s: H.O.T/S.E.S/Fin.K.L/SECHSKIES]
While Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, and Spice Girls were shaking the whole North America continent, H.O.T, S.E.S, Fin.K.L, and SECHSKIES were doing the same role in South Korea. Every member of the group was well known by their name and had a huge ‘fandom’ following them for day and night. Their fashion, their make-up, their snacks, literally everything they do became the trend.
[The Globalization of K-POP: BoA, TVXQ, Wonder Girls]
After the first generation, various k-pop artists were newly launched and their young fans always sent them huge love and support. Since the groups (or solo artists) reached to extraordinary success in the short term, the agencies started to look forward to the global success of K-POP. And the first global stage they’ve selected was Japan. BoA and TVXQ cut the start line and received lots of love from the Japanese. Meanwhile, Wonder Girls was getting ready for their debut in the states. Since South Korea and the United States had such a long distance, people never thought of the idea, but Wonder Girls ventured the idea and implemented their plan. Unlike the success in Japan, it wasn’t a huge success (such as having a concert on the biggest stage in the country), but they became the first Asian artist who entered Billboard Hot 100 chart. (They entered as the 76th place) Eventually, by this process of solidifying the foundation of global K-POP, 2NE1, SHINEE, 2 PM, and furthermore BTS, MONSTA-X, TWICE, BLACKPINK could relatively easily get accepted by global citizens.
(More photos at https://wondergirls.jype.com/gallery.asp)
[The Rise of K-POP in the U.S.: BTS, MONSTA-X, BLACKPINK, TWICE]
Now, in this era, there would be some experts among our subscribers. Based on the senior K-POP group’s effort, U.S. pop listeners started to recognize the charm of K-POP. Emma Stone once mentioned K-POP in the TBS Conan show, as a ‘beyond excellent’ thing in 2015, and starting from this occasion, the interest in K-POP boosted up. Some Americans started to notice famous K-POP artists such as 2NE1 and English comments in K-POP youtube channels started to be easily found. And the seemingly slowly growing interests after the occasion boosted up once again. Yes, it was them: BTS. Based on their profound theme ‘Love yourself’, they released a unique song with story-telling lyrics and performed it with an intense dance performance. This fascinated U.S. pop listeners and BTS winning the 8th place on the Billboard Hot 100 chart proved the popularity. Plus after their success, Monsta-X, Blackpink, Twice also gained lots of attention and had concerts in the states. Unlike 2015, now, K-POP is not an unfamiliar genre which is only mentioned by a single celebrity. It is now a real trend that various celebrities mention in a talk show with no doubt that everybody will understand what they are talking about. Finally and thankfully, K-POP became a broadly loved genre.
https://www.elitedaily.com/p/33-bts-words-to-know-once-you-join-the-army-18175312
[K-POP star: secrets of their shining eyes]
Before we end this discussion, we cannot skip the beauty and fashion part since I am a K-beauty and K-fashion curator. So! Watching K-POP stars’ performance videos or music videos, you would have once thought, how do they look so different in every performance? Or how do their eyes shine like a movie character all the time? And the answer is COLOR LENS. K-POP stars often wear color contact lenses to match their concept. When they have to perform a song that has a fancy concept, they dye their hair in unique colors such as pink, blue, grey, and wear color lenses that match their hair color. The lens helps the stars look younger and more attractive.
Check out two K-Pop videos, now you can notice their eyes are shining due to color contact lenses!
Everything about colored contact lenses 