Finally after a lot of struggle, Seoul’s annual Pride parade went ahead today and by all accounts it sounds like it was even bigger and better than last year. A lot of parade participants have been praising the police for their approach and it sounds like there was considerably…
Will Simms is definitely one of the most interesting composers working in K-pop. He’s written some of SM Entertainment’s most distinctive singles in the past few years. Girls’ Generation’s I Got A Boy, EXO’s Wolf, Red Velvet’s Happiness – his back catalogue represents some of…
As you probably know by now, 5-member boy band Boys Republic are doing a European tour in July.
They’ll be visiting various countries including France, Germany and the UK.
We’ve got two pairs of tickets to give away to their London date.
All you have to do…
What is it that makes a hit K-pop song?
It’s a question many have posed but no one has ever come up with a satisfactory answer.
In order to find out the answer we went straight to the source: the composers. We spoke to Erik Lewander (f(x…
After a long battle with Seoul Metropolitan Police, the Korean Queer Culture Festival have finally won the right to stage the Korean LGBT Pride Parade on the 28th of June.
The police force had earlier disallowed the parade from going ahead on the grounds that it was a threat to…
“Why does the consumption of K-pop music often trigger a passion for the South Korean language and for traditional Korean culture?”
It’s an interesting question that we here at Beyond Hallyu like many others often ponder.
Unfortunately there is a lack of data in this area and so…
A couple of years ago I wrote an article about aegyo as a cultural phenomenon and the role it plays in giving young women (and sometimes young men) a very limited form of power in a society in which they have very little. Most of the ideas came from a…
As you’ll know if you follow Beyond Hallyu, the Korean Queer Culture Festival has been beset by a number of problems because of issues with the police and authorities and interference from anti-LGBT Christian organisations.
Despite this, the festival is still going ahead although Pride may no longer…
As you may already know, five-member idol group Boys Republic are coming to the UK and other parts of Europe in July. We’ve been given the chance to interview the group as part of promotions for the upcoming tour. Rather than come up with it all ourselves we…
We’re in the middle of producing what we hope will be the best episode of our podcast so far. This time we’re exploring what it is that makes a K-pop hit and what makes K-pop different from other types of pop music.
We’re talking to…