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Why Sociologists Should Care about Hallyu (the Korean Wave)

Social Constellations: A World Perspective 2026;1(1):49-57.
Published online: March 31, 2026

1Department of Sociology, Yale University, United States

*Corresponding Author. g.kao@yale.edu
• Received: February 28, 2026   • Revised: March 13, 2026   • Accepted: March 20, 2026

© 2026 Bae and Kao.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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  • This essay provides an overview of the origins of Hallyu, or the Korean Wave as Korean cultural products spread worldwide, thus elevating the status of South Korea as a whole. We explore the origins of the term and the growth in popularity of the primary components of the Korean Wave: K-pop with groups such as BTS and BLACKPINK, K-dramas such as Squid Games and Crash Landing on You, K-movies such as Parasite and KPop Demon Hunters, and K-beauty products, and how Hallyu has evolved from Hallyu 1.0, or locally-produced in Korea to Hallyu 3.0, or products produced outside of Korea for localized markets. The visibility of these cultural products outside of Korea has far surpassed the success of any other Asian and arguably any country outside of the US. We argue for its importance not only for South Korea’s soft power but also for increasing the visibility of Asians along with the East Asian diaspora. Hence, sociologists ought to incorporate the implications of these changes in their studies of Korea and the East Asian diaspora.
South Korea is everywhere, spanning K-pop, K-dramas, K-movies, and K-beauty. K-pop has led the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Charts with multiple entries, such as “Dynamite” and “Butter” by global powerhouse BTS. In the past 5 years, K-pop has appeared on the U.S. charts more than 100 times. In 2025, Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters (2025) became the most-viewed Netflix film of all time. Similarly, Seasons 1, 2, and 3 of the Netflix TV series, Squid Game (2021), are the Top 3 most-viewed non-English series of all time (Pozirekides, 2026). Not only are K-beauty products all over TikTok, but NielsenIQ also stated that K-beauty sales in the U.S. in 2025 were estimated to be up more than 37 percent compared to 2024, making South Korea the leading exporter of cosmetics to the U.S., surpassing France (Fountain, 2025).
This essay provides a brief background on the Korean Wave or Hallyu and discusses its implications for soft power across the globe. We argue that the dominance of Korean popular cultural products has significant implications for the status of not only Korea, but also East Asia and the East Asian diaspora. Its prevalence and dominance signal that sociologists interested in popular culture, Korea, East Asia, and the Asian diaspora must take the importance of the Korean Wave seriously.
The Korean Wave, commonly known as Hallyu, was coined in the late 1990s, when a Beijing newspaper introduced the term to describe the emerging international popularity of Korean cultural products (Kao, 2025b). Following the end of South Korea’s authoritarian regime and the subsequent liberalization of its cultural industries, Korean entertainment began to flourish. The deregulation encouraged unprecedented cultural innovation, enabling the adoption of diverse genres and appeals to broader consumer bases (Kim, 2023).
Over the past two decades, the Korean Wave has evolved from a regionally bounded cultural phenomenon into a transnational force. The “K-” prefix has evolved into a genre category that extends beyond indicating the geographical origin of cultural products (Park, 2023). Its influence initially expanded across neighboring Asian countries, transforming South Korea from a cultural importer into a major cultural exporter. Cultural proximity in East Asia, the country’s economic growth, and the development of media technologies have collectively contributed to the global diffusion of K-culture (Jin, 2014). To date, the surge in its popularity is analyzed as a global dynamic extending outside the Asian context (Yoon, 2018). This new phase of the Korean Wave, beginning in the 2010s, is also referred to as “Hallyu 2.0,” distinguished by its expanded global reach and rapid dissemination, accelerated by the influence of social media (Jin & Yoon, 2016). Some argue that we are currently in the era of Hallyu 3.0, marked by further localization of K-pop-style products.
While K-pop and K-dramas have served as the two central pillars of the Korean Wave phenomenon, they have been closely followed by subsequent waves of K-movies and K-beauty industries (Oh, 2017). In the realm of K-pop, fandoms now span the globe, with groups such as BTS and BLACKPINK exemplifying what has been described as a “Hallyu tsunami” (Jin & Yoon, 2016). Similarly, K-dramas have achieved unprecedented transnational visibility, with South Korea becoming the second-largest content provider on Netflix after the U.S., and Squid Game (2021) serving as a prominent example (Yoon & Lee, 2025). K-movies have also gained significant international recognition, most notably when Parasite (2019) won multiple Academy Awards as a non-English-language film, followed by global attention for KPop Demon Hunters (2025) (Kao, 2025b; Kim, 2022). K-beauty products have also rapidly entered global retail markets, appearing on shelves worldwide (Kao, 2025b).
When people outside of Korea think of K-pop, they generally envision groups such as BTS and BLACKPINK, idol groups that are single-sex and known for their matching outfits and complex choreographies. More than any other group, BTS has managed to chart its singles all over the world, including the U.S. Meanwhile, BLACKPINK’s Rosé broke through the Top 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Chart in 2025.
While pop music in Korea covers all genres, including but not limited to ballads, hip-hop, trot, etc., we focus on the history of idol groups in South Korea, as this is the style of music that has met success outside of Korea. Still, even before the origins of the idol groups, Seo Taiji and the Boys were usually seen as the first modern K-pop group. They debuted in 1992 with the song “I Know,” which combined hip-hop, known as rap, and metal guitars. Seo Taiji also choreographed his dancing with two backup dancers. Seo Taiji’s significance is evident as he is popularly known as the “President of Culture” in South Korea (Choi, 2022).
SM, YG, and JYP
SM Entertainment (founded by Lee Soo-man), YG Entertainment (founded by Yang Hyun-suk of Seo Taiji and the Boys), and JYP Entertainment (founded by Park Jin-young) were traditionally known as the “Big Three” entertainment companies. Over time, these large companies and a plethora of medium and small companies, including DSP Media, FNC, and Jellyfish, developed and instituted a trainee system where teenagers are trained for months to nearly a decade before the possibility of being chosen to be in an idol group. These groups are strictly structured, and artists are signed to 7-year contracts with the company. They live together in dormitories with other members of the group, and are not supposed to engage in any questionable behavior, including dating, smoking, and drinking.
SM’s first idol group was H.O.T. (High Five of Teenagers), the first modern idol group in South Korea. They debuted in 1996 with “Descendents of Warriors,” but it was their second single, “Candy,” that became iconic and is still performed by the newest boy groups. SM later debuted the girl group S.E.S. in 1997 with the single, “I’m Your Girl.” Since then, SM has produced groups, such as TVXQ, Girls' Generation, NCT, aespa, and RIIZE. However, the solo artist BoA, who debuted in 2000, was trained and developed for the Japanese market. She represented one of the earliest successful exports of a K-pop artist.
YG Entertainment was formed in 1996 by Yang Hyun-suk, and he followed the genre initially embraced by Seo Taiji, with hip-hop artists like Jiunsean, 2NE1, Winner, and most notably Psy and BLACKPINK. More recently, their groups include BABYMOSTER, and they also developed solo artists such as SE7EN, who followed the popular solo artist Rain from JYP.
JYP Entertainment was formed in 1997 by Park Jin-young, commonly known as JYP. He was a well-known solo artist and dancer. His groups include g.o.d, 2PM, TWICE, DAY6, and Stray Kids, among others. His most well-known solo artist, Rain, was popular throughout Asia.
Big Hit Transforms to HYBE
BTS or Bangtan Sonyeondan, was formed in 2013 by Bang Si-hyuk of Big Hit Entertainment. Bang previously worked with JYP, but left to form his own company in 2005. With the meteoric success of BTS, Bang began to acquire other companies such as Pledis, Belift Labs, and so forth. In 2021, Bang took his new company, HYBE, public and became a multi-label entertainment company. He also bought Ithaca Records from Scooter Braun, and when HYBE went public, his company included artists such as Justin Bieber and even Taylor Swift’s master recordings, owned by Scooter Braun. HYBE includes groups such as SEVENTEEN and TWS under Pledis, BTS and Tomorrow by Together under Big Hit, ENHYPEN and Illit under BELIFT labs, NewJeans under Ador, and Le Sserafim under Source Music. In addition, they have developed groups in other countries, with KATSEYE with Geffen Records, Santos Bravos in Latin America, and &TEAM in Japan.
Beginning in the late 1990s, several Korean television dramas gained popularity beyond South Korea, particularly in East and Southeast Asia. Early successes such as What Is Love All About (1997) and Stars in My Heart (1997), followed by major hits including Winter Sonata (2002) and Jewel in the Palace (2003), marked the emergence of the Korean Wave within the domain of television drama. These series successfully reached audiences across national borders, especially in Japan, Thailand, and Hong Kong (Jin & Yoon, 2016).
Over the past decade, the expansion of digital media platforms has further amplified the cultural influence of K-dramas, attracting large audiences in the Middle East, the Americas, and Europe (Park & Lee, 2019). Advances in video-sharing technologies and online streaming services have dramatically increased global viewership, enabling deeper penetration into Western markets and the accumulation of substantial audience shares. Netflix began offering Korean television content to U.S. subscribers in 2012 (Ju, 2020). This moment marked the first formal recognition of “Korean TV” as a distinct category within streaming catalogues, separate from “Korean movies.” Since then, Netflix has expanded this classification to include curated categories such as “K-dramas for Beginners” and “Most Bingeable Korean Television” (An, 2022).
In this context, K-dramas have become an integral component of global streaming platforms, supported by widespread popularity and transnational fandom. No longer confined to fan-based video-on-demand websites, K-dramas are now prominently featured as Netflix Originals. Series such as Sweet Home (2020) and My Name (2021) achieved notable international success, while Squid Game (2021) marked a historical milestone by topping Netflix’s global charts and surpassing 265 million views within its first 91 days. Reflecting this success, Netflix entered multi-year content partnerships with major Korean production companies, including CJ ENM and Studio Dragon, and invested more than half a billion USD in Korean content in 2021 alone (Yoon & Lee, 2025).
Beyond their transnational popularity, K-dramas are widely recognized for their role as vehicles of cultural soft power (Park & Lee, 2019). They contribute to the global circulation of Korean culture by stimulating related industries: International audiences are drawn to Korean cuisine featured in dramas, develop aspirations to visit filming locations searching for romanticized imaginaries, and emulate the fashion and beauty styles of actors. In this way, K-dramas function as a central gateway of cultural export, encouraging foreign audiences to engage with Korean values, lifestyles, and social systems.
If Squid Game (2021) signaled the global ascendancy of K-dramas, Parasite (2019) marked a historic breakthrough for Korean cinema. At the 2020 Academy Awards, Parasite (2019) won multiple major honors (Kim, 2022). More significantly, it became the first non-English language film to win Best Picture, an achievement that exceeded the symbolic value of the awards themselves, given the Oscars’ longstanding reputation for American and Eurocentric bias. Around the time of the centennial of Korean cinema in 2019, K-movies began to command sustained attention in the global market.
Historically, the creation of K-movies was facilitated, and their quality improved due to state support and investment from conglomerates such as Hyundai and Samsung in the 1990s (Kim, 2022). Following Japanese colonial rule, the Korean War, and successive authoritarian regimes, Korean cinema was shaped by foreign political influence and later by anticolonial nationalist ideology. However, by the late 1990s, with the support of a democratic civilian government, Korean cinema entered a renaissance and began to enjoy greater freedom of expression (Yecies & Shim, 2015). It is during this period that the cinematic dimension of the Korean Wave emerged, as filmmakers finally claimed their own voices independent of external powers and gained greater autonomy in addressing political and social issues.
Although there were concerns of reproducing Hollywood aesthetics, embedded within capitalist and neoliberal production structures, Korean cinema has incorporated and reworked foreign cinematic conventions through processes of hybridity. Indeed, hybridity characterizes not only K-dramas but also K-movies, reflecting Korea’s historical and geopolitical position. Director Bong Joon Ho exemplifies this dynamic, as his films blur the boundaries between familiar Hollywood genre conventions and distinct Korean sociopolitical critiques (Kim, 2022; Lee, 2020).
Most representatively, Parasite (2019) satirically exposes the widening socio-economic inequality in Korea, narrating what might seem like familiar themes in a most Korean way (Jeong, 2021; Oh, 2021). In this sense, the film is recognized as distinctly Korean in its local imagery and narrative texture, yet at the same time, it speaks to universal realities. This duality is often cited as a key reason the film was so widely embraced, despite linguistic and cultural barriers (Kim, 2022).
More recently, the Netflix film KPop Demon Hunters (2025) joined this trajectory, becoming one of the platform’s most viewed films. Its sing-along version topped the U.S. box office despite a limited two-day release (Kao, 2025b). Its cultural impact extended beyond the screen, as the title song “Golden” ranked first on the U.S. Billboard chart for five consecutive weeks, while four additional tracks entered the top 10. On February 1, 2026, “Golden” further made history at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards by winning Best Song Written for Visual Media, becoming the first Korean song to receive a Grammy in that category (Pozirekides, 2026).
As its title outwardly signals, the film foregrounds Korean heritage and identity, drawing on Korean names, locations, history, and artistic traditions (Kao, 2025b). At the same time, it centers on the contemporary K-pop industry, reflecting the realities of K-pop idols and their fandom cultures. It has been particularly praised for presenting distinctly Korean cultural elements without excessive Americanization or dilution of its “Koreanness.” In this regard, the film stands as a compelling example of the Korean Wave’s evolving power and how far its influence can extend when the domains of K-pop and K-movie converge.
Korean beauty is inseparable from discussions of K-pop, K-dramas, and K-films. That is, a subsidiary effect of the Korean Wave’s broader branding strategy is the commodification of a Korean version of idealized beauty. The ideal beauty constructed and circulated by Korean media industries has been accentuated and branded as K-beauty (Leung, 2021). The core traits of K-beauty combine Asian-Orientalized features, most notably fair skin, youthful facial appearance, and distinctive fashion and makeup aesthetics (Kang et al., 2020). The phenomenal success of K-culture has consequently stimulated parallel growth in Korean fashion and cosmetics. That is, consumers of K-culture began to emulate the looks of K-pop idols or K-drama actors. For instance, following the broadcast of My Love from the Star (2013), the cosmetic products that the actress Jun Ji-hyun wore on screen experienced an unprecedented surge in sales (Tang, 2014).
A notable characteristic of K-beauty is that its idealized standards are presented as attainable through strategic product placement in Korean media (Leung, 2021). The fashion and cosmetic items worn by idols and actors are readily available for purchase, reinforcing the commercial circuit between media representation and consumer practice. Consequently, the popularity of the Korean Wave has translated into substantial growth in K-beauty sales. Although initial demand emerged primarily in East and Southeast Asia, K-beauty has since penetrated global markets (Kang et al., (Kang et al., 2020). Today, Korean cosmetics constitute one of the fastest-growing sectors in the global beauty industry, competing with established Western markets such as the U.S. and the UK. The trend signals a shift from mimicking traditional Western beauty standards toward embracing K-beauty as a new racialized image of modernity. As Hoang (2014) observes, “Now, the new modern is Asian.”
Statistically, Korean cosmetic exports continue to reach record levels. In 2025, exports increased by 12.3 percent to $11.4 billion, with the highest monthly figure exceeding $1.15 billion in September (No, 2026). The number of importing countries expanded to 202, including growing markets in Europe and Latin America. The U.S. remains the largest market, with exports reaching $2.2 billion, followed by China and Japan. According to Korea Customs Service statistics, cosmetic exports in January 2026 rose by 34.1 percent compared to the same month in the previous year (Choi, 2026). Likewise, K-beauty, supported by its substantial consumer power, stands as an undeniable force that further propels the Korean Wave.
As stated, the visibility of Korea seems to be at an all-time high. In the 1970s and 1980s, most Americans’ knowledge of Korea likely came from the TV show MASH, where Korea served as a backdrop to the sitcom which was set in a temporary American military hospital. The next ubiquitous representative of Korea was Psy’s “Gangnam Style,” which reached #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Chart in 2012 (Kao, 2025a). As of March 2026, the music video for “Gangnam Style” has been viewed 5.8 billion times. Along with BTS’s dominance not only in Korea but also in the U.S. and worldwide, K-pop is more visible now than ever.
During a time when foreign language study is down in the U.S., the Korean Wave has undoubtedly raised interest in Korea and the Korean language. Fans want to understand their favorite idols’ live broadcasts or K-dramas. The Modern Language Association reported in 2023 that while foreign language enrollment at U.S. universities declined between 2016 and 2021, enrollment in Korean increased by 38 percent, more than any other language (Quinn, 2023). This overlapped not only with the growth of BTS’s popularity but also with K-dramas such as Squid Game (2021) and Crash Landing on You (2019). At our home institution, it is clear that most, if not all, Korean language learners are no longer heritage speakers, but instead non-Korean fans of K-pop and K-dramas.
While there is no doubt that the Korean Wave has put Korea front and center of the global stage in terms of popular culture and given it a form of soft power, we argue that it has also made the Asian diaspora and Asian Americans more visible. Asian Americans have also benefited by becoming seen as less geeky and more attractive. Elsewhere, Kao and Lee (2020) argued for the possibility that the rise of the Korean Wave may even help Asian Americans from xenophobic attacks.
As the members of BTS have returned from their mandatory military service and are about to release their new album “Arirang,” and embark on a new world tour, we will have to wait to see if the Korean Wave continues to thrive or stagnates. While HYBE has been focused on localization, developing music groups locally without references to Korea, BTS seems to be bringing attention back to Korea with a very Korean theme. We are anxious to see where this leads in 2026 and beyond.
Beyond these social and cultural implications, the Korean Wave also invites closer sociological examination. Research on cultural industries is frequently limited to discussions of superficial popularity or narrowly focused on production, leaving their broader implications unseen (Peltoniemi, 2015). Similarly, despite the influence of the Korean Wave across cultural globalization, its soft power and transnational flows, particularly within sociological scholarship, have yet to be sufficiently examined. Given that K-culture is widely appreciated by international consumers and that its impact extends beyond a single domain into diverse and interconnected fields, including music, drama, film, and cosmetics, greater attention should be paid to how far it can reach and what potential it holds.
In fact, the Korean cultural industries that lead the Korean Wave are complex and multifaceted, as they are shaped by processes of selection, power, resources, labor, and market circulation. Although the Korean Wave may appear to be a recent phenomenon, the Korean cultural industries are shaped by a long history, intricate power dynamics, institutional systems, and structured orders. With their growing international popularity, their influence continues to expand, increasingly reaching beyond cultural production to affect other institutions and intervene in broader power relations. Central to these effects is the capacity to control visibility, rendering the previously unseen visible, as demonstrated by the increasing global visibility of Korea and the Asian diaspora.
From a sociological perspective, the Korean Wave provides an opportunity to examine how cultural globalization is produced through interactions among media industries, global audiences, and digital platforms, as well as how cultural exports reshape power relations, identity formation, and institutional practices. In this sense, greater sociological research and attention should be directed toward the growth and influence of the Korean Wave, once dismissed as temporary popularity but now emerging as a central cultural power.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Why Sociologists Should Care about Hallyu (the Korean Wave)
Soc Constell. 2026;1(1):49-57.   Published online March 31, 2026
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Why Sociologists Should Care about Hallyu (the Korean Wave)
Why Sociologists Should Care about Hallyu (the Korean Wave)