History
The emergence of the group Seo Taiji and Boys in 1992 marked a turning point for Korean popular music, as the group incorporated elements of American popular musical genres of rap, rock, and techno into its music. The tremendous success of Seo Taiji and Boys in Korea and other experimental groups (such as Panic) set the trend for the present generation of K-pop groups and artists. Following Seo Taiji and Boys, dance-oriented acts were dominant in the Korean popular music scene of the early 90s including the legendary hip hop duo Deux (듀스). By the mid-90s, teen idol groups, which are now often considered "legendary groups" due to their strong popularity during their era, such as Baby V.O.X., Fin.K.L., g.o.d, H.O.T., Shinhwa, Sechs Kies, and S.E.S. were very popular, having strong fanbases and high-selling albums (with some groups having a "million seller", an album selling over one million copies). Starting with the break-up of Sechs Kies, most of these groups have disbanded, It is often stated that at this stage Korean music became slightly better than noise[citation needed]. Although some have continued their success in the following decade; new groups (most notably DBSK and SG Wannabe) have since taken their place.
Currently, in the 2000s, pop groups are still very popular, although there has been the emergence of Korean R&B and Hip-Hop. Artists such as MC Mong, 1TYM, Rain , Big Bang and Epik High have proven successful. Underground artists such as Drunken Tiger, Tasha (Yoon Mi Rae), and Dynamic Duo have also helped Hip-Hop making its way into the mainstream. Recently, rock music has become noticed by the public, with acts like the Yoon Do Hyun Band and Seo Taiji gaining national recognition. In addition, there are also some very popular techno/dance artists such as Lee Jung Hyun and Kim Hyun Jung, who both have had very long careers while remaining firmly entrenched in their genre of music. Just as well, ballads and R&B have remained popular, as singers like Baek Ji Young and KCM, in addition to SG Wannabe, have continued their success for many years.
There are also many artists who have had international success as well. BoA has become the highest-selling international artist from Korea, due to her strength in the J-pop market; this was in part due to Lee Soo Man's adaptation of the Blue Ocean Strategy. Since then, artists such as Rain and Se7en have also released albums outside of Korea, becoming well-known throughout Eastern Asia. Rain has also had his international RAINY DAY 2005 Tour, having tour dates at Madison Square Garden, the first Korean star to do so. He also plans to make a U.S. debut. Skull, a Korean reggae artist from YG Entertainment is working on his U.S. debut and was even listed on the Billboard charts[1]. Se7en who is also from YG Entertainment[2] and Min from JYP Entertainment[3] both hope to enter the English-language music market in 2008. They are not the first Asians to do so; Utada Hikaru and CoCo Lee have released English-language albums before. However, there has yet to be an Asian artist breaking the mainstream American music industry successfully[4].
source:wikipedia
