Brief (but not really…) history of K-Pop

“Breve storia del K-Pop” has been published by Salani, a (not at all “short”: over 500 pages) book that reconstructs and retraces this international musical phenomenon from its beginnings to the present day. The author is Ivan Canu, one of the leading experts on the subject.
We publish here an excerpt from the preface, postponing the review until after reading the volume.

Two moments, in time.

Summer 2022. I’m looking for some different music than usual on YouTube. I stumble upon Maniac by Stray Kids. I listen to it over and over
Sometimes, this non-trivial pop captures me, the changes in rhythm, tempos, the casual borrowings from other sounds. I’m fascinated by a lin-
gua which has a different musicality from the Latin and Anglo-Saxon ones, which are more familiar to me. But, also, a choreographic construction that the eight boys interpret with an energy that the boy bands of the 90s dreamed of even in their
best performances by Menudo, NSYNC or the Backstreet Boys.

I’m going to look for others, I’m going back through SKZ’s discography, I’m looking at the fan-cams, the live shows on TikTok, pieces of programs and shows, the best of the ships that the fans build between them.
the members of the group, the reaction videos of choreographers and vocal trainers, Hyunjin’s performance as artist of the month
in the choreography of Motley Crew. And gradually that treacherous Sir Biss that is YouTube whispers in my ears that there is much more:
“look at ATEEZ for example, Say My Name, Deja Vu and why aren’t you interested in Jackson Wang, so international, with Blow And
Drive You Homeor Crazy Wonho’s? But look for the classics, Mirotic by TVXQ! And Lucifer of SHINee”. They both date back to
fourteen years ago, which must have been a brilliant year for K-pop. Then, an avalanche. Love Shot And Monster by EXO,
Beautiful Liar of MONSTA Sorry, Sorry by Super Junior, Taemin’s epiphany, 6’s vintage dance
Key, Birthday of Ten, Turn Back Time by WayV, Rover by Kai, Sugar Rush Ride and then everything about TXT, Psycho by Jun, Criminal
Love And Fever by Enhypen.
The spontaneous question arises: but what about female groups? I start with Invitation by Uhm Jung-hwa, also in the delicious TXT cover, then I immediately discover Blackpink, I have in mind Boombayah And Playing with fireI have to listen to Mamamoo, Red Velvet, Aespa, TWICE, (G)I-idle, NewJeans, Le Sserafim, ITZY, the Trouble Maker magnet, gradually going further and further back in time, in the sounds and aesthetics of the first 2000s, I Am the Best And Fire of 2NE1, Nobody And I know Hot by Wonder Girls, Number 9 And Roly Poly of T-ara, Change And Bubble Pop! by HyunA, Mister by KARA, Bad Girl Good Girl by Miss A, So Cool of Sistar, Hot Summer And Danger of f(x).

Even further back I arrive where it all began, in 1992 with the three Seo Taiji and Boys. I just made a, very relative and partial, playlist from Spotify.
From that moment, for a couple of years I listened, watched and then read and studied everything I found at the same time
and I was curious about K-pop. I got into it through YouTube first and then through live shows, into the world and everyday life of this music: why it is listened to on social media and why the idols, the artists who perform it, are followed by millions of fans and
internationally organized fandoms.

Summer 2024. At the end of this project, I’m going to see my first K-pop concert, at the iDays in Milan, on July 12th. The very young NMIXX and Stray Kids perform, the latter awaited by around seventy thousand fans as if waiting for something
messianic, long promised.

Not even the hailstorm and the San Siro racecourse transformed into an archipelago of soaked fans in the middle of muddy lakes prevented the epiphany of one of the symbolic groups of the new generations of K-pop, who played perfectly in an hour and twenty minutes of concert , sung, danced and performed by videos on mega-screens, has realized how K-pop is capable of filling spaces previously reserved for rock groups or Taylor Swift. It is a circle, which begins with SKZ and closes with them with an ideal new beginning, this book.

Here are tigrides.

Ivan Canu