SEOUL, South Korea - Paula Lema Aguirre, a high school student from Peru, says she ishappiest when she sings Korean songs, especially "It Hurts," the group 2NE1's single aboutteenage love.
Ms. Aguirre is not a native Korean speaker, but that did not stop her, along with about 40 otheraspiring singers from 16 countries, from making it to the finals in December of the K-Pop WorldFestival competition in the South Korean town of Changwon.
For South Koreans, the festival, the first of its kind, was confirmation of how widely theircountry's latest export has spread, first to Asia and more recently to Europe, the Middle Eastand the Americas, mainly because of social media.
When bands like 2NE1, Super Junior and SHINee hold concerts in Europe and the UnitedStates, tickets sell out within minutes, and fans have used Facebook and Twitter to organizeflash mobs demanding more shows, as they did in Paris in May.
K-pop now has its own channel on YouTube, and the videos by bands like Girls' Generationhave topped 60 million views. Girls' Generation signed with Interscope Records to release thegroup's latest album in the United States last autumn and made its American television debuton David Letterman's "Late Show" in January.
K-pop bands' style is a fusion of synthesized music, videoart, fashionable outfits and teasing sexuality mixed with doe-eyed innocence. K-pop performances like T-ara's "RolyPoly," Wonder Girls' "Nobody" and Super Junior's "SorrySorry" have repetitive choruses, often interspersed withEnglish. Their synchronized dance routines have becomesuch a fad in Asia that children, soldiers and inmates imitatethe dancing.
South Korea is one of the most wired countries in the world,and digital piracy devastated its music scene. The industry regrouped by focusing more ondigital distribution and touring.
Yet being savvy with career moves, social media and marketing is not enough - hard work andtalent still matter. South Korea's "star-management" agencies select and train aspiring teenagesingers, often housing them together. With the international market in mind, the agenciesrequire trainees to learn a foreign language.
For the singers in Nine Muses, the training began at 1 p.m. each day. Electric music throbbedand managers yelled encouragement as the women danced for 10 to 12 hours, seven days aweek, for up to four years before the group made its debut in 2010.
A global exporting powerhouse, the country had always chafed at its lack of cultural exportsthat would let the rest of the world know that it was more than a maker of Hyundai cars andSamsung cellphones.
But now, said Andrew Kang, the arts and recording director at Star Empire Entertainment inSeoul: "K-pop has become Korea's killer content."
Choe Sang-hun reported from Seoul, and Mark Russell reported from Barcelona, Spain.
