Everywhere?

So on the last post I mentioned about how K pop is just about EVERYWHERE.
Then, now, how did it gain such a great attention?

courtesy of www.joinsmsn.com

Above picture is a poster of a Korean drama, "Winter Sonata," which gained a lot of popularity in Japan, China, and Taiwan around early 2000s. Basically, this drama did two things: first, it created an international star Bae Young Jun (the man in the picture), and catalyzed to make the term, "Korean Wave (:한류)." The people that watched this drama, which gained an unusually great international popularity, then started to pay attention to South Korean fashion and lifestyle, because they were such a fan of this drama, and those came after (some of them specifically made to target international audiences, although they were shown in Korea). From then, this so-called "Korean Wave" has become the driving force in lifestyle of Eastern Asian youth.
So as Korean Wave was influencing people in all of East Asia (some South Asia like Vietnam), the followers of Korean Wave came to know about K pop easily, as they were following through what is popular, and considered "cool" among Korean Youth.

courtesy of www.iamkoream.com

So that's Asia.

How about Europe and the USA?
Some of you may know K pop idol groups like SNSD, Wondergirls, or 2NE1. As they held concerts for Korean diasporas, it started to gain some attention by people who are native to those regions. Thus, American and European youths started to search for these groups and their music.

How did you come to know about your K pop groups and their music? Comment down below! :)