Hallyu Wave and its sudden hype during the Pandemic in India 

The Origin and Spread of Coronavirus from Wuhan, China affected the world, its environment and its people severely. The World was turned upside down for almost everyone as many people lost their jobs, family, loved ones and went through a lot of pain and suffering.

But, some people were really blessed too, as they got time to spend with their families, take care of them, tried new cuisines and ate together. It was basically Healing time for them. Students got free from the entire daily and hectic routine of Schools and Colleges. It was a chill pill time for them.

During the initial stages of  Coronavirus in India, around March, the famous Indian channel Door-darshan started telecasting old and blockbuster religious shows Ramayana and Mahabharata and then, later continued to telecast more such religious shows. Time was passing, everyday news was becoming more scary and people of all age groups became more phone addicts. Browsing the internet and several apps each day became a trend and people learnt a lot of new things. 

At that very time, on August 21,2020 there came an English Song, Dynamite. It was trending all over the YouTube and many people watched it because of the Trending thing. The boys and the Band Behind the song were discovered by most of the students and young people in India and that’s how BTS aka, Bangtan Sonyoendan  conquered the mind and heart of many Indians.

Of Course, BTS was famous before Dynamite too in many European and Asian countries including India, but the very fact that it was their first English song and the pandemic made it even more and more renowned. The history of the Seven membered boy band Idols was something more inspiring and attracting.

Their struggle before the Debut in 2013, struggle after the debut, being accused of plagiarism and depicting Hip Hop dance form with makeup and backslash from the broadcast was all heart touching fair share of struggle stories. People were gathering all such information with full interests without realizing the fact that they were actually learning and listening something new, which was the Korean language along with the whole new genre of Korean music and lyrics.

BTS is very well known not only for their music, dance but also for inspiration and Self love messages they give from their Songs. Here, they inspired many people to hear and learn Basic Korean language. 

Coming to the term Hallyu which means Korean wave. This wave Comprises of everything related to Korea like the Korean Drama (K-drama), Pop music (K-pop), Skincare, Food, Tourism, Webtoon, Games and many more. Things related to South Korea are presently promoted by many International influencers, actors, models, musicians etc., and many South  Korean companies launched projects  in order to do the same.

Talking about the K-drama, yes many people in the pandemic binge watched a lot of these dramas as these dramas are of Short duration, less time consuming and consists of all genres that suits the audience of all ages specially the teenagers.  They have talented and best looking actors and actresses performing and depicting each role perfectly.

The most watched Korean dramas during the Pandemic were, Boys Over Flowers, Legend of the Blue sea, Healer, Descendants of the Sun, My love from the Star and many more.

The Korean Glass Skin and skin care products are trending a lot more. Everyone is obsessed with the flawless and fresh Korean skin tone and are trying hard to achieve them. One of the best things about Korea is, people take care not only of their body but also of their skin. They follow a proper skincare regime, called a 10 step Korean skincare routine, starting from a very young age and that’s why their skin is so bright and beautiful.

A shocking fact states that Korean Men are much more careful about their look, fashion sense, make-up, lifestyle and there’s nothing wrong if someone is looking after themselves as self love and healing is important. Brands like Innisfree, The Face shop, Cosrx, Laneige are most famous here for their affordable skin care products like Sheet masks, serum, green tea toner, lip tints etc. In previous years, South Korea gained a lot of attention due to its beauty standards, skin care products and affordable plastic surgeries.

The Korean cuisine is practiced a lot in India and people have become the fan of Ramyeon (Korean Noodles), Kimchi (Korean pickle) , Kimbap(seaweed roll made of rice, egg, vegetables etc), Bibimbap(different vegetables mixed with rice and red chilli paste in a bowl), tteokbokki(rice cake), bulgogi etc.

The Convenience stores of Korea are well shown in Korean dramas and every audience wishes to have such stores in their area. These stores have most of the ready to eat food. There are also microwaves and sitting arrangements in these stores, where people can immediately eat their food after microwaving it for a few minutes.

There are many Instagram pages and websites promoting Korean Tourism perfectly. Many Indian influencers collaborated with these tourism companies/ websites for the Promotion of  South Korean places. The Namsan tower/ Seoul gained a lot of recognition internationally after The Legend of Blue Sea drama.

A few more places include Gyeongbokgung palace(Historic place with museum) , Myeong dong(Shopping hub), Lotte world( Adventure and water park), Bukchon Hanok Village etc.

PUBG broke all the records. The gaming history, industry and the world knows it’s popularity. There are many famous Korean dramas based on the Korean webtoons like True Beauty, Extraordinary you, My ID is Gangnam beauty, What’s wrong with Secretary Kim, Itaewon class etc. The webtoons are really fun and interesting to read and must be read for sure sometimes.

Yes, coming to Kpop, for which my readers are eagerly waiting. I had mentioned a brief about BTS previously. Korea has a Music system which is very different from Bollywood. As everyone knows Bollywood and the system here, let’s discuss the Korean music and dance system. There are big entertainment agencies/ companies in Korea and the most famous ones are HYBE (Bighit entertainment formly), JYP, YG, SM, Cube, Pledis, FNC.

These entertainment agencies conduct a serious and several step auditions of artists or young people starting from age 15. These people are all students who get selected according to their talent of singing and dancing. After Selection and contract signing, the company trains them and makes them ready for the stage debut spending all sort of money in the process.

During the tough training period, people performing extraordinarily well are grouped together and are finally  allowed to debut . And that’s how Kpop groups are formed. The members are known as Kpop idols. After the successful debut, further music works and concerts, these idols have to return the money and extra expenditure spent on them by the agency, according to the contract.

Yes, that’s the overall hectic procedure. But, today the world is crazy for them. Everyone danced to Psy's “Gangnam style” back in 2012. BTS, Blackpink, Twice, TXT, Super Junior, Exo, Shinee, Seventeen, Stray kids, Mamamoo, Bol4 and many more  Kpop groups are some of  the most popular groups. Their popularity and fanbase are beyond imagination. These idols are so inspiring sometimes and their message to the youth is pretty strong and motivating.

Recently, the most trending news everywhere was When BTS represented South Korea for the second time in the United Nations General Assembly, giving the message to Youth and performing their new song. These Idols and Artists have produced songs which top all international charts and break all records. Their albums are sold on a large scale and their concerts are Performed with thousands of audience in it.

I hope the article is fun and worth reading.

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