Zachary's Music Blog: Part 4: K-Pop in Australia

Due to its close proximity with Asia, K-Pop is far from unknown in Australia. A major event regarding K-Pop’s presence in Australia is the 2011 K-Pop Music Festival at ANZ stadium in Sydney, which featured the likes of Girls' Generation, TVXQ, B2ST, SHINee, 4minute, miss A, 2AM, and MBLAQ. Around the same time that the video for Gangnam Style blew up, boy band NU’EST visited Sydney Harbour and the University of New South Wales; they were in the area to judge a major K-Pop concert being held. Psy’s Gangnam Style was a massive hit in Australia, reaching #1 and becoming one of the highest selling songs of the year. Psy’s success has increased K-Pop’s popularity in Australia. Australian television channel SBS launched a one hour show focusing on Asian pop music called SBS PopAsia in 2011, which with increased popularity extended to a length of two hours with an accompanying 24/7 digital radio station.

Many Australians have moved to South Korea and have entered the South Korean music industry. An example is Australian Barom Yu, who moved from Sydney to Seoul in pursuit of entering the breakdancing scene. Not long after arriving, he was approached by a talent scout while walking down the street. After lots of training he formed a group with five others called C-Clown. Barom is not the only Australian who has achieved success as part of the South Korean music industry, with many others with similar success stories.