A recent NY Times article Korean Pop Machine: Running on Innocence and Hair Gel discusses the teen pop phenomenon that's been going in South Korea for at least a decade. While the general concepts are largely copied from American teen pop (The Jackson 5 to New Edition, New Kids on the Block, The Backstreet Boys, etc.), the Korean music industry has created a manufacturing empire, cranking out an endless stream of boy and girl groups as well as solo artists.
The popularity of Korean pop music (K-Pop) goes extends well beyond Korea, with many artists also achieving popularity in Japan, China and throughout much of Southeast Asia. Some of the most K-popular groups include SHINee, Girl's Generation, 13-member group Super Junior, 2NE1, etc., etc., etc. With the Wonder Girls international hit Nobody, K-Pop has even started to have some success in the West. It may be tough for much of the highly produced K-Pop to become popular in the U.S., but then again if Justin Beiber can do it, anything is possible.
K-Pop boy group SHINee
Here in China, K-pop takes a backseat to Chinese pop (which generally tends to be blander than the Korean variety) although its a very large backseat. This may be largely due to the ingrained nationalism programmed into young Chinese. Despite this, quite of few the most popular Korean pop stars have very large fan bases in China.
I recently tried to get an idea of what music is most popular among Chinese college students by asking in some of my classes. Although this was by no means a comprehensive or scientifically conducted poll, my general conclusion is that China is still about at least a decade or two behind the rest of the world in terms of its pop music tastes. When asked who their favorite non-Chinese singers or bands are, other than Lady Gaga and Justin Beiber, the most common responses are Michael Jackson and the Backstreet Boys (and MJ and the BBBs seem to be even more popular than the Bieb). Sadly, no students in my classes were familiar with John Lennon although a few had vaguely heard of The Beatles. Maybe this shouldn't be too surprising since popular music development was severely stunted during the Chairman Mao years (especially during the Cultural Revolution). During the decades when rock, R&B and their pop offshoots were developing and thriving in England and the U.S., Western music was virtually non-existent in China.
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