You’ve heard of fashion trends, consumer trends, economic
trends, social trends, but have you ever heard of dance trends?
Ask any Korean what the popular dance routines are at this
very moment. I guarantee they will have an answer for you. Everyone’s answers
probably won’t be the same, but they’ll definitely name a routine.
Having spent almost 5 full summers in Korea and a semester in Shanghai, I came face to face with one of the continent's most powerful industries, the entertainment industry. The influence of Asian entertainment on the other side of the world is unbelievable. Entertainment has always been my biggest interest and I have been exploring this business from a very young age. And of course, I know a couple of these dance routines as well.
Idol groups dominate the Korean music industry today. They
not only start make-up, hair and fashion trends, but they also create dance
trends. You’ll see kids as young as 5 years old to elders with white hair
knowing the trendy dance moves to popular songs.
As for Americans, when we think of a popular dance, we think
of a type of dance such as dubstep or tango. This is definitely not the case
for Asian pop culture.
From the release of Wonder Girls’ “Tell Me” music video in
2008, Korean idol groups have become obsessed with creating dance routines that
will become the next big trend.
The release of “Tell Me” started a huge stir all around the
world causing people to upload videos of themselves dancing the routine. This
marketed, not only the song itself, but also the Wonder Girls.
Not too long after, Wonder Girls’ huge hit, Girl’s Generation came out with their song, “Gee” which also had an easy tune and very distinct, yet simple dance moves. This, once again, allowed their fans to easily imitate the dance moves. In a sense it allows the fans to relate themselves to these celebrities. Of course, the trend of Youtube videos followed and once again, another song was successfully marketed with its dance moves.
As for popular boy group dances, Super Junior’s “Sorry, Sorry” was a huge hit all across Asia. The wonderful dance moves of 12
good-looking guys apologizing while rubbing their hands was bound to be a
success. 2PM’s “Heartbeat” and “Again and Again” could not have had more
parodies all over the media.
The list of hit songs with their hit dance moves is
never-ending.
The dance styles range from cute to sexy, fast to slow and
even soft to hard.
I’ve tried to figure out why the Asian market has become so
centralized on dance moves. Although this is just a personal theory, one word
comes to my mind: Karaoke.
It’s hard to wrap my mind around just how deep karaoke is
rooted into the Asian culture. Especially in Japan and Korea, people go to a
Karaoke bar just as much or maybe even more than they go to a regular bar. It’s
something people do after company dinners, after birthday parties, hangouts, after
exams, etc. These people start going from when they were in elementary school.
Families would go Karaoke together and just sing and dance their troubles away.
So what could more fun than to be able to know the exact
dance routine to the song you’re singing? You can’t get much crazier than that.
However, the popularity of K-pop has taken the popularity of
its dance moves with it. Now, there are videos posted from people all over the
world dancing to these Korean songs. What started from a market specific trend
has now spread to a rapidly growing universal music industry.
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