K-pop

While most Americans have only been aware of Korean pop, or K-pop, music since the infectious 2012 hit song Gangnam Style by Psy, it is a genre that has been widely popular since the 1990s. Its sudden notoriety marks a global trend called Hallyu, or the Korean Wave, which encompasses not only music but also other pillars of pop culture, such as movies and television, cuisine, and Korean cartoon art known as manhwa. This colorful, informative book is a study in cultural diffusion that began with American GIs during the Korean War and then continued through the repression of Park Chung-hee's regime and into today's rise of South Korea as an economic powerhouse.