K-pop culture

One of the things that couldn't go unnoticed while in Korea is the influence of their own musical style. We all knew that we are going to the homeland of Gangnam style, but what we did not sense such a strong dominance of Korean popular music, so called K-pop.

Korean pop is a part of Korean Wave which marks a global phenomenon originating in South Korea at the beginning of 21st century that had a strong impact throughout the world and influenced contemporary culture, music, film and television industry. Even though South Korean culture and traditions go a long way back, there is a big American influence and millennials seem to outrule the old traditions with a new age music and lifestyle. K-pop has a quite recognizable sound and it contains a wide spectrum of musical and visual elements, which makes it hard not to notice.

K-pop culture is widespread and very influential among young people and can be seen everywhere

Judging by the moves of Olympic mascots, Soohorang and Bandabi, it seems like they also like the sound of K-pop!

Each day of the Winter Olympics is featuring a different headline performance following the medal ceremony, so we had a chance to watch a Korean pop group B1A4 performing. Dynamic performance was followed by a big ovation, which once again confirmed the popularity of K-pop culture.

                 K-pop boy band B1A4 performing at the Winter Olympics

Since BB always tends to follow news and trends from different destinations, maybe K-pop artists will soon get on our A-list.

Another very popular activity in Korea are karaoke, also known as 'noraebang'. It might not be so common in the Western world, which is probably the reason why we twitch a little bit every time someone mentions singing karaoke, but for Koreans this is a very popular way of having fun and relaxing time during a night out. In fact, it is so popular that sometimes students and even company employees go for a round of noraebang during their lunch break! In order to be more comfortable and avoid public shame caused by not so amazing vocal abilities, there is a possibility of renting the entire room just for a close group of friends to enjoy singing without worry.

Since in BIG BERRY we are always trying to adapt to locals, this time was no different so we decided to give it a go and try out this most popular Korean trend. 

           The entire room can be rented just for the private karaoke show  

                            There are even special K-pop dancing rooms

Considering our musical talents we only hope that the isolation of the singing rooms was at least slightly better than our vocals. But, all in all, we have to admit that singing karaoke is a perfect way to spend and relaxed evening with friends and a lot of laughter.

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