On the screen are six young men, still in their 20s, wearing similar outfits and dancing with the precision and unity of a 1990’s boy-band. They dance in what seems to be an abandoned room built for industrial purposes, singing in fluent Korean to a fast-paced beat. The lights flicker as the camera follows moves to show six more men, wearing the same outfits, and executing the same dance routine.

The six young men are part of a 12-men group known as Exo, a popular band from South Korea. They are one of the many groups that contribute to the raising international popularity of Korean popular music, or “K-pop.” The USC Center on Public Diplomacy hosted a discussion about the thriving influence of K-pop with guest speaker Jie-Ae Sohn. Sohn, former president of the South Korea international (Arirang TV & Radio) talked about how other countries depicted Korea from the 1970’s to current day. She also talked how K-pop has built a more intriguing image of Korean culture. To give an example of a K-pop group, Sohn showed a music video for Exo’s song called “Growl.”

READ MORE:FACTORY GIRLS: CULTURAL TECHNOLOGY AND THE MAKING OF K-POP

Some people in attendance had little knowledge of K-pop. Miguel Thomas, who serves in the US Air Force, attended the event because he wanted to get a better understanding of Korean pop culture. 

“Besides of Psy, I had no knowledge of it before,” Thomas said. “That’s why I wanted to come here to see what it’s about,”

Thomas enjoyed the dance routine in the video; he believed that K-pop could be an appealing musical option for people who enjoy American pop music.

“I feel that it’s a good alternative to what we have going on here,” he said.

Other students had a more proficient knowledge of Korean pop culture. Merissa Jane Lee, a junior Film & TV Production major, uses K-pop to keep in touch with her friends overseas.

“It helped me keep in touch with my friends back home in Sinapore,” she said.

Lee listens to music from the group Exo. She also listens to Vixx, a boy band of six who created songs called “Error” and “Voodoo.” Like Exo, their music videos consists of synchronized dance moves,  matching outfits, and songs that are parallel to pop and indie tunes in the United States. The draw to K-pop could be the external appearance of the groups, according to Lee.

“The thing about K-pop is that it’s glamorous, it’s glitzy, it’s happy,” she said, “And I think that it’s intriguing to people here. Like the whole theatricality of K-pop, like Lady Gaga did well because she was over the top. I think K-pop is big, it’s over the top, it’s not very subtle.”  

Sohn believes Koreans' knack for entertainment and personal sacrifice mixed with ideal technological conditions in Korea that makes K-pop an international phenomenon. According to Sohn, the strong values in education instilled into Korean children give them the discipline to dedicate long hours into singing and dancing practices.

“The proverb is you get into the dream university if you sleep three hours, if you sleep five hours, you don’t,” said Sohn, “It’s that kind of educational values that are pumped into the Korean  educational system that really get these kids trained. They desire to be K-Pop stars. They will sacrifice 21 hours of their 24 hours to train…it’s sort of inbred in them.”

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