[NEWS] Big Bang featured in English Newspaper "The Guardian"! (111217)

From the "Guardian" article :
"Bored by Cowell pop? Try K-pop"

The biggest surprise at last month's MTV European Music awards didn't come from the outfits chosen Lady Gaga, or that weird naked man roaming around the stage. In fact, the most unexpected moment arrived towards the end of the ceremony, when the winner of best worldwide act award was announced. The winners of the fan-driven award were Korean group Big Bang, who won 58m votes to beat Britney Spears. This was the one act that night most viewers wouldn't have known.

Bigbang's victory shed light on the rise and rise of Korean music across Europe. Korean pop – K-pop for short – has become one of South Korea's most notable exports in recent years. Paul Han, co-founder of the South Korean pop culture blog Allkpop.com, defines the style as "fun music, with a fusion of many genres" – it takes in electro-driven bubblegum pop; sometimes it's sprinkled with semi-nonsense English lyrics; sometimes there's an added R&B sway. Its audience is largely female, from early teens through to late 20s. "K-pop, I think, is personality," says the Korean-Canadian singer G.Na. "It's very melodious, very easy to sing along to."

So, how does K-pop grow in the West from here? Can it make the transition from being an internet-based phenomenon, with a self-selecting if hugely active fanbase, to crossing over into the mainstream media? Was Big Bang’s win at the European Music awards the shape of things to come, or just an indication of how well-organised those fans are – in short, was it K-pop’s Belle and Sebastian at the Brits moment? Simon Hong, the CEO of Cube Entertainment, the label whose bands came to London a couple of weeks ago, is optimistic but cautious: “The show in Brixton is a good opportunity for this part of the world to get a glimpse of our high-level artists in Korea. But there’s a lot more work to be done, so K-pop is just on the starting line.”

Read the Full article here

Source : @ukbigbang via guardian.co.uk//@unitedkpop

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