Why do Indians like K-pop?
The real reason
What is K-pop?
Korean pop popularly known as “K-pop” was not known to the world until recently. Just before the pandemic, people started to notice this fantastic group of singers. Soon after the pandemic was over K-pop and KDrama were all over in an Indian Household.
How I was introduced to K-pop?
I have a sister who is 9 years younger than me. Who is also my Gen-Z Wikipedia, she and her best friend have been listening to Korean music since they were in 7th or 8th grade. Every time she started putting that music on I was the last one to be interested in them. But one fine day she explained to me why she especially listens to “BTS” the world's most famous boy band.
After knowing the way these guys have struggled, the story of this music company owner was very heartbreaking. These 7 guys have no family or any connection to the music or entertainment industry. They all came from middle-class or upper-middle-class families, they were all still in their teen years when they left home to live alone to start their careers. And this is just the story of that one boy band which has created history.
BTS army is real, As I mentioned this is just one band. But in reality, there are so many other bands or K-pop stars who have worked hard to get to where they are. Maybe BTS put South Korea on the world map, but the credit goes to other entertainers as well.
Let's talk K- Drama
K- Drama is not just funny and entertaining, but they have such stories that Indian or Western cinema or reality TV world has not been able to cover up. Looking back at the Indian teleshows all I can see is rubbish, 99% of the series promote toxic culture in families or I see reality TV shows from the West that are way too vulgar to watch. Before the Netflix era exploded I hardly watched TV only due to these reasons. Also if you see the Netflix era during the pandemic and post-pandemic a lot of people have turned to watch K-Drama.
Getting to the Point
India is a country with the highest population, but still, the literacy rate is very low, which contributes to a lot of people not understanding or moving forward with the modern world. India a is country that still has casteism and colorism even in 2023. And these have nothing to do with being educated, there are examples in society where families have rejected a man or woman to be married in the family just because they look a bit dark. India might have brought down fairness cream ads for women or men, but obsession over white skin is still in people's minds. In a recent ad from Clavin Kleni Junkook, one of the members of the BTS became overly popular for his shirtless pic, I even saw many YouTube short videos where groups of girls in an Indian mall were fighting over to click picture with the screen ad in front of CK store.
That got me to realize people never appreciate someone for the talent they have they always want to admire their skin or color. This is not just common people, there are also a lot of Indian celebs who only click pictures or want to go there concerts for their looks and not because they understand music or the meaning of their lyrics.
