DEQSHA NOVENDRA WARDANI

9043720234

Personal Experience of the Korean Culture and Korean Wave

The Korean wave, also known as hallyu wave, is the icon of South Korea. The Korean
wave started in the late of 1990’s but it started to get attention from the world in 2010’s. At
first it got popular only in Asia but as time went by it got more attention and popularity in
America and even in Europe. Korean wave is not just the music or known as k-pop but also
Korean drama, film, television shows, and also Korean culture. People who are interested in
Korean waves usually start to put interest in the music or from the drama first and will end up
to put some interest in the television shows such as variety shows and reality shows and also
in the culture. I can say that K-pop plays a big part in spreading the Korean wave globally. In
my experience, the first time I was introduced to korean wave was back in 2010 when I
watched Super Junior, Shinee, Girls Generation, and F(x) music videos. Starting from it, I
keep exploring more about the Korean wave.
Idol groups usually attend variety shows or reality shows on TV to promote their new
songs and promote their group to the Korean public. Vice versa, for international spectators
they watch the shows because of their favorite idol group and get exposure about Korean
television shows. Somehow, I ended up becoming interested in watching Korean television
shows. For Korean dramas, the first time I watched a Korean drama was when one of the
Korean dramas was being played on Indonesian television with dubbing in Indonesian
language. At that time, even korean idol group concerts such as super junior and SMTown
concerts that were held in Indonesia were being broadcast on local tv stations. It shows how
much the popularity and the impact of the Korean wave in Asia, especially in Indonesia and
used by local TV stations to get more viewers.
The Korean wave itself has made a fandom culture. Fans seem to be willing to do
anything for their favorite actor and idol. When their idol releases a new album they will
stream the music video on youtube to gain more views on youtube they even have their own
strategy to make the music video views increase. Not only on youtube but also on music
digital platforms such as melon, apple music, spotify, etc, the fans will work hard so their idol
song will be on the top list of chart songs.
Concert and fan meetings are all fans' favorites where they can meet their favorite idol
and actor. As they gained more popularity outside Korea, they not only held concerts or fan
meetings in Korea but also had a tour to other countries. The fans will be willing to spend
more money to watch their idol and actor's concert or fanmeeting not only in their own
country but also in other countries because they think it will bring a different experience.
There are also some differences about the concert and fan meeting between Korea and
Indonesia, in Korea the price is all the same no matter where your section is in the venue
while in Indonesia each section has a different price.
Moreover, there are many experiences that I could get from watching the concert in
Korea and back in my country. I watched the NCT Dream encore concert last Friday and I
got a huge experience and I was very grateful to feel the experience. The difference with
concerts held in Indonesia is people in Indonesia enjoying the songs by participating in
singing the songs while in Korea they just stay quiet enjoying the songs, and doing some
fanchants. Fanchant is a phrase that is chanted by fans which consist of the group members
name based on birth year order in sync to live performances. In order to prevent crowding,
the crowd movement following the concert was carefully planned. Several exit doors were
made available. Additionally, they provide information on any remaining public
transportation options. When attending a concert in Indonesia, this is rather different because
certain concerts there do not actually plan for post-concert crowding. They don't provide
enough exit doors, which causes crowding inside and outside of the stage area, and they don't
provide information about ways to leave or where the audience can find public transportation
to get home.