Trend: Hallyu – K-Cool

Hallyu is the Korean term to describe the phenomenon of the rising popularity of Korean products and productions.

Trend Description
Korea is the new cool. Not only cool gadgets come from here these days, but also music, television-shows, fashion styles, movies, food and beverages. Recently, Korean lifestyle trends are staring to catch the attention of the US market. The South Korean government and national tourism organization now support this trend by pumping money into oversea events featuring Korean art and music. With 20 000 concertgoers, the Los Angeles K-Pop Festival was reportedly the largest Asian music event in the US.

Cases:

Hanboks
At the Pret a Porter Paris 2005 , hanboks took to the runways. The traditional Korean dress was refashioned by Western and Korean designers. Today the hanbok usually consists of a wrapped long skirt and a short, bolero-like jacket. The fifty entirely free reinterpretations will grace the future hanbok museum in Paris.

Old Boy
Old Boy is a strange, violent thriller from Korea - based on a Japanese comic book. It not only won 13 awards, including Winner of the Grand Jury prize at Cannes, but is still a hit in U.S. art houses.

So-ju
So-ju is a Korean version of vodka made from rice and barley. It has 25% to 35% of alcohol concentration, and is almost transparent. The taste is very bitter and although it is nearly pure alcohol, it has almost no smell. Trendy bars in San Francisco and Oakland have the high percentage drink on their drink menu. Korean cuisine is also on the rise. Upscale Korean restaurants in New York and California are packed.

K-Pop
The most famous example of the new success of K-Pop is Rain. The 23-year old singer and actor could be described as the Korean version of Justin Timberland or Usher. not only big in Japan (he performed at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan 2005, held at NK Hall in Tokyo), but also had several very successful concert in the United States, including two sold out concert at New Yorks Madison Square Garden.

Trend Impact:
First of all hallyu and K-Pop mean big bucks for South Korea itself. In 2004 and 2005 the export of pop culture, merchandise sales and tourism related to hallyu brought almost 2 billion US$ into the country. It is no wonder the government and the national tourism organization are teaming up for Hallyu and Korea Wave Tourism Marketing Campaigns. But the success of hallyu products and productions overseas shows that there is more to it than just a marketing campaign. With hallyu, Koreans are starting to present themselves more self consciously. Instead of adapting American and Japanese pop culture, they are exporting own ideas. We can expect to see more of it soon!

Korean National Tourism Organization

Oldboy

Rain auf Amazon

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