K-Pop: Korea's Musical Explosion

by Stuart A. Kallen

Featuring quirky horse-riding dance moves and an infectious electronic beat, an unlikely music video and its leading man made history in 2012. In December of that year, "Gangnam Style" reached one billion hits on YouTube--the most views ever. Seemingly overnight, the South Korean pop star behind the hit--Psy (Park Jae-sang)--became a household name.

Genres: Nonfiction, Music, Childrens, Middle Grade

64 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Kallen has written more than 350 nonfiction books for children and young adults. His books have covered a wide arc of human history, culture, and science. Kallen is also an accomplished singer-songwriter and guitarist in San Diego, California

Reviews

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Initial reaction: Oooh, this was so cool! Very short read with an overview of the history of Korean pop music and influential artists within the culture. I appreciated that this narrative touched on a number of acts I knew. This is oriented towards a general audience, even younger readers for reference, and while a short read, still very informative.

Full review:

This took me about 30 minutes to read overall, so it was a short read in comparison to the history of Korean pop music it covers. I enjoyed this for what it offered. It highlights some of the major influences on Korean music - highlighting musicians such as S.E.S., BoA, Super Junior, Rain, Psy, 2NE1, among other K-pop artists, not just those in contemporary notations, but also those that were influential in the country's history - sometimes controversial, many times transformative for the overarching style and music media attention in South Korea.

With full color photos, brief playlists, and a full glossary, this is definitely a nice primer for those who may not know much about K-pop and its respective influences, though it's meant more to be a brief source than comprehensive. I think those in its intended audience (middle grade/YA) will find this a quick read to peruse and helpful for what it offers.

Overall score: 4/5 stars

Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, from the publisher.

[Lex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of KPOP. I have started years ago at first because of the KDramas. Then I met SNSD or Girls' Generation and the rest were history. I love that there is a book for this and I quite agree with the author in everything. KPop is so known because in my opinion, they produced really good melody. Even those who are not Korean like me and didn't know Hangul, will be hooked just from the melody. Never mind that one cannot understand a thing they say.

Another thing. It's not just the music that people loved about them. It's also their clothes, fashion styles, makeups, they're flawless skin, cute accessories, etc. They are everywhere.

So this is definitely a must read for KPOP fans! :)

[Gillian Brownlee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just discovered my first K-pop band, so I’m trying to learn more about the genre. This book is a really great starting place!

[LaSarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an avid fan of K-pop, I thought this was a great way for new fans to learn a bit about my favorite kind of music. I, personally, enjoyed the history and the mentioning of some of my favorite songs and groups. K-pop is a great, interesting new genre of music that I hope has more an influence int he future in the US.

I thought the graphics and photos were bright and beautiful. The wording was easy to read and understand. It's a fairly quick read, but it's packed with a lot of info. Great job!!

[Margotd · Rating 3 out of 5]

The theme of this book is. There's different types of music. A lot of music genres have a lot of history involved. Another theme is, if you like one group in a genre of music. There's more groups and singers that influenced that group.

[Aleece · Rating 4 out of 5]

While we may have heard of K-Pop because of the release of "Gangdam Style" by Psy but it actually started much earlier and started getting off the ground in the 1980s. This is a nice introduction K-Pop and how it evolved over the years to become the sensation that it is today and how it was originally popular within South Korea and how it branched out to even the United States.

This is a great introduction for kids to read and learn about the history and the singers of K-Pop that really put K-Pop on the map. The information is basic enough for kids to understand but detailed enough to get the history and the significance out of the material. A great addition to those that love music and just want to know more information in general about the K-Pop sensation.

I received this advanced copy through Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

[Nadina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had checked this out from the library before the kpop worlds current (February/March 2019- Sungri) scandal broke. However, only in the midst of it am I actually getting around to reading it.
This was interesting and informative. The information I already knew about in here was accurate, and it was interesting learning some other things.
It was not all inclusive and there are a number of popular groups that were not even mentioned in here, but that is okay. This, to make note, is before BTS became a "global sensation" so don't expect to find them in here.
It was well written, though being written for children/young adults there are things that the author wrote about that I question. He talks about certain artists being censored due to the content, which is quite honestly probably rightly censored, and I feel there may have been a better way of writing those portions of the book. Also, he mentions at the beginning how the U.S. soldiers stay in Korea after the Korean war, however, officially the war is not over.
Anyway, in general the information was pretty good and I enjoyed reading it.

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read about a topic I'm not overly familiar with. Seemed a little vague after the first chapter, and I'm sure there are a few more artists that could have been included.

[Brian · Rating 1 out of 5]

This reads like a fanboy writing a 6th grade term paper at the direction of the topic's PR machinery. I have absolutely no better understanding of K-Pop or why it matters.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting and informative short book about a pop culture phenomenon. Even if you aren't too into the music scene most people have heard or seen "Gangnam Style" dancing. Even my 7-year-old son has though he has no idea where it came from. So it was interesting for me to read the back-story behind it.

[Scarlett (Carrie) · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good but I didn't learn anything new. It was all pretty common knowledge or things you could find online.

[Whitney]

I'm glad no one put the cover on. It's not very flattering of Twice.