title: Frédéric Chopin

text: As the composer's illness progressed, Sand had become less of a lover and more of a nurse to Chopin, whom she called her "third child". In letters to third parties she vented her impatience, referring to him as a "child", a "little angel", a "poor angel", a "sufferer", and a "beloved little corpse". In 1847 Sand published her novel "Lucrezia Floriani", whose main charactersa rich actress and a prince in weak healthcould be interpreted as Sand and Chopin. In Chopin's presence, Sand read the manuscript aloud to Delacroix, who was both shocked and mystified by its implications, writing that "Madame Sand was perfectly at ease and Chopin could hardly stop making admiring comments". That year their relationship ended following an angry correspondence which, in Sand's words, made "a strange conclusion to nine years of exclusive friendship". Grzymała, who had followed their romance from the beginning, commented, "If [Chopin] had not had the misfortune of meeting G. S. [George Sand], who poisoned his whole being, he would have lived to be Cherubini's age." Chopin would die two years later at thirty-nine; the composer Luigi Cherubini had died in Paris in 1842 at the age of 81.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Chopin's public popularity as a virtuoso began to wane, as did the number of his pupils, and this, together with the political strife and instability of the time, caused him to struggle financially. In February 1848, with the cellist Auguste Franchomme, he gave his last Paris concert, which included three movements of the Cello Sonata Op. 65.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: In April, during the 1848 Revolution in Paris, he left for London, where he performed at several concerts and numerous receptions in great houses. This tour was suggested to him by his Scottish pupil Jane Stirling and her elder sister. Stirling also made all the logistical arrangements and provided much of the necessary funding.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: In London, Chopin took lodgings at Dover Street, where the firm of Broadwood provided him with a grand piano. At his first engagement, on 15 May at Stafford House, the audience included Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The Prince, who was himself a talented musician, moved close to the keyboard to view Chopin's technique. Broadwood also arranged concerts for him; among those attending were the author William Makepeace Thackeray and the singer Jenny Lind. Chopin was also sought after for piano lessons, for which he charged the high fee of one guinea per hour, and for private recitals for which the fee was 20 guineas. At a concert on 7 July he shared the platform with Viardot, who sang arrangements of some of his mazurkas to Spanish texts. A few days later, he performed for Thomas Carlyle and his wife Jane at their home in Chelsea. On 28 August he played at a concert in Manchester's Gentlemen's Concert Hall, sharing the stage with Marietta Alboni and Lorenzo Salvi.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: In late summer he was invited by Jane Stirling to visit Scotland, where he stayed at Calder House near Edinburgh and at Johnstone Castle in Renfrewshire, both owned by members of Stirling's family. She clearly had a notion of going beyond mere friendship, and Chopin was obliged to make it clear to her that this could not be so. He wrote at this time to Grzymała: "My Scottish ladies are kind, but such bores", and responding to a rumour about his involvement, answered that he was "closer to the grave than the nuptial bed". He gave a public concert in Glasgow on 27 September, and another in Edinburgh at the Hopetoun Rooms on Queen Street (now Erskine House) on 4 October. In late October 1848, while staying at 10 Warriston Crescent in Edinburgh with the Polish physician Adam Łyszczyński, he wrote out his last will and testament"a kind of disposition to be made of my stuff in the future, if I should drop dead somewhere", he wrote to Grzymała.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Chopin made his last public appearance on a concert platform at London's Guildhall on 16 November 1848, when, in a final patriotic gesture, he played for the benefit of Polish refugees. This gesture proved to be a mistake, as most of the participants were more interested in the dancing and refreshments than in Chopin's piano artistry, which drained him. By this time he was very seriously ill, weighing under 99 pounds (less than 45 kg), and his doctors were aware that his sickness was at a terminal stage.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: At the end of November Chopin returned to Paris. He passed the winter in unremitting illness, but gave occasional lessons and was visited by friends, including Delacroix and Franchomme. Occasionally he played, or accompanied the singing of Delfina Potocka, for his friends. During the summer of 1849, his friends found him an apartment in Chaillot, out of the centre of the city, for which the rent was secretly subsidised by an admirer, Princess Obreskoff. He was visited here by Jenny Lind in June 1849.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: With his health further deteriorating, Chopin desired to have a family member with him. In June 1849 his sister Ludwika came to Paris with her husband and daughter, and in September, supported by a loan from Jane Stirling, he took an apartment at the "Hôtel Baudard de Saint-James" on the Place Vendôme. After 15 October, when his condition took a marked turn for the worse, only a handful of his closest friends remained with him. Viardot remarked sardonically, though, that "all the grand Parisian ladies considered it to faint in his room".


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Some of his friends provided music at his request; among them, Potocka sang and Franchomme played the cello. Chopin bequeathed his unfinished notes on a piano tuition method, , to Alkan for completion. On 17 October, after midnight, the physician leaned over him and asked whether he was suffering greatly. "No longer", he replied. He died a few minutes before two o'clock in the morning. He was 39. Those present at the deathbed appear to have included his sister Ludwika, Fr. Aleksander Jełowicki, Princess Marcelina Czartoryska, Sand's daughter Solange, and his close friend Thomas Albrecht. Later that morning, Solange's husband Clésinger made Chopin's death mask and a cast of his left hand.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: The funeral, held at the Church of the Madeleine in Paris, was delayed almost two weeks until 30 October. Entrance was restricted to ticket holders, as many people were expected to attend. Over 3,000 people arrived without invitations, from as far as London, Berlin and Vienna, and were excluded.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Mozart's Requiem was sung at the funeral; the soloists were the soprano Jeanne-Anaïs Castellan, the mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot, the tenor Alexis Dupont, and the bass Luigi Lablache; Chopin's Preludes No. 4 in E minor and No. 6 in B minor were also played. The organist was Louis Lefébure-Wély. The funeral procession to Père Lachaise Cemetery, which included Chopin's sister Ludwika, was led by the aged Prince Adam Czartoryski. The pallbearers included Delacroix, Franchomme, and Camille Pleyel. At the graveside, the "Funeral March" from Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 was played, in Reber's instrumentation.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Chopin's tombstone, featuring the muse of music, Euterpe, weeping over a broken lyre, was designed and sculpted by Clésinger and installed on the anniversary of his death in 1850. The expenses of the monument, amounting to 4,500 francs, were covered by Jane Stirling, who also paid for the return of the composer's sister Ludwika to Warsaw. As requested by Chopin, Ludwika took his heart (which had been removed by his doctor Jean Cruveilhier and preserved in alcohol in a vase) back to Poland in 1850. She also took a collection of two hundred letters from Sand to Chopin; after 1851 these were returned to Sand, who destroyed them.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Chopin's disease and the cause of his death have been a matter of discussion. His death certificate gave the cause of death as tuberculosis, and his physician, Cruveilhier, was then the leading French authority on this disease. Other possibilities that have been advanced have included cystic fibrosis, cirrhosis, and alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency. A visual examination of Chopin's preserved heart (the jar was not opened), conducted in 2014 and first published in the "American Journal of Medicine" in 2017, suggested that the likely cause of his death was a rare case of pericarditis caused by complications of chronic tuberculosis.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Over 230 works of Chopin survive; some compositions from early childhood have been lost. All his known works involve the piano, and only a few range beyond solo piano music, as either piano concertos, songs or chamber music.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Chopin was educated in the tradition of Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, and Clementi; he used Clementi's piano method with his students. He was also influenced by Hummel's development of virtuoso, yet Mozartian, piano technique. He cited Bach and Mozart as the two most important composers in shaping his musical outlook. Chopin's early works are in the style of the "brilliant" keyboard pieces of his era as exemplified by the works of Ignaz Moscheles, Friedrich Kalkbrenner, and others. Less direct in the earlier period are the influences of Polish folk music and of Italian opera. Much of what became his typical style of ornamentation (for example, his "fioriture") is taken from singing. His melodic lines were increasingly reminiscent of the modes and features of the music of his native country, such as drones.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Chopin took the new salon genre of the nocturne, invented by the Irish composer John Field, to a deeper level of sophistication. He was the first to write ballades and scherzi as individual concert pieces. He essentially established a new genre with his own set of free-standing preludes (Op. 28, published 1839). He exploited the poetic potential of the concept of the concert étude, already being developed in the 1820s and 1830s by Liszt, Clementi, and Moscheles, in his two sets of studies (Op. 10 published in 1833, Op. 25 in 1837).


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Chopin also endowed popular dance forms with a greater range of melody and expression. Chopin's mazurkas, while originating in the traditional Polish dance (the "mazurek"), differed from the traditional variety in that they were written for the concert hall rather than the dance hall; as J. Barrie Jones puts it, "it was Chopin who put the mazurka on the European musical map". The series of seven polonaises published in his lifetime (another nine were published posthumously), beginning with the Op. 26 pair (published 1836), set a new standard for music in the form. His waltzes were also written specifically for the salon recital rather than the ballroom and are frequently at rather faster tempos than their dance-floor equivalents.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Some of Chopin's well-known pieces have acquired descriptive titles, such as the "Revolutionary" Étude (Op. 10, No. 12), and the "Minute Waltz" (Op. 64, No. 1). However, except for his "Funeral March", the composer never named an instrumental work beyond genre and number, leaving all potential extramusical associations to the listener; the names by which many of his pieces are known were invented by others. There is no evidence to suggest that the "Revolutionary" Étude was written with the failed Polish uprising against Russia in mind; it merely appeared at that time. The "Funeral March", the third movement of his Sonata No. 2 (Op. 35), the one case where he did give a title, was written before the rest of the sonata, but no specific event or death is known to have inspired it.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: The last opus number that Chopin himself used was 65, allocated to the Cello Sonata in G minor. He expressed a deathbed wish that all his unpublished manuscripts be destroyed. At the request of the composer's mother and sisters, however, his musical executor Julian Fontana selected 23 unpublished piano pieces and grouped them into eight further opus numbers (Opp. 66–73), published in 1855. In 1857, 17 Polish songs that Chopin wrote at various stages of his life were collected and published as Op. 74, though their order within the opus did not reflect the order of composition.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Works published since 1857 have received alternative catalogue designations instead of opus numbers. The most up-to-date catalogue is maintained by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute at its Internet Chopin Information Centre. The older Kobylańska Catalogue (usually represented by the initials 'KK'), named for its compiler, the Polish musicologist Krystyna Kobylańska, is still considered an important scholarly reference. The most recent catalogue of posthumously published works is that of the National Edition of the Works of Fryderyk Chopin, represented by the initials 'WN'.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Chopin's original publishers included Maurice Schlesinger and Camille Pleyel. His works soon began to appear in popular 19th-century piano anthologies. The first collected edition was by Breitkopf & Härtel (1878–1902). Among modern scholarly editions of Chopin's works are the version under the name of Paderewski, published between 1937 and 1966, and the more recent Polish National Edition, edited by Jan Ekier and published between 1967 and 2010. The latter is recommended to contestants of the Chopin Competition. Both editions contain detailed explanations and discussions regarding choices and sources.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Chopin published his music in France, England, and the German states due to the copyright laws of the time. Thus there are often three different kinds of "first editions". Each edition is different from the other, as Chopin edited them separately and at times he did some revision to the music while editing it. Furthermore, Chopin provided his publishers with varying sources, including autographs, annotated proofsheets, and scribal copies. Only recently have these differences gained greater recognition.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Improvisation stands at the centre of Chopin's creative processes. However, this does not imply impulsive rambling: Nicholas Temperley writes that "improvisation is designed for an audience, and its starting-point is that audience's expectations, which include the current conventions of musical form". The works for piano and orchestra, including the two concertos, are held by Temperley to be "merely vehicles for brilliant piano playing ... formally longwinded and extremely conservative". After the piano concertos (which are both early, dating from 1830), Chopin made no attempts at large-scale multi-movement forms, save for his late sonatas for piano and cello; "instead he achieved near-perfection in pieces of simple general design but subtle and complex cell-structure". Rosen suggests that an important aspect of Chopin's individuality is his flexible handling of the four-bar phrase as a structural unit.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: J. Barrie Jones suggests that "amongst the works that Chopin intended for concert use, the four ballades and four scherzi stand supreme", and adds that "the Barcarolle Op. 60 stands apart as an example of Chopin's rich harmonic palette coupled with an Italianate warmth of melody". Temperley opines that these works, which contain "immense variety of mood, thematic material and structural detail", are based on an extended "departure and return" form; "the more the middle section is extended, and the further it departs in key, mood and theme, from the opening idea, the more important and dramatic is the reprise when it at last comes".


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Chopin's mazurkas and waltzes are all in straightforward ternary or episodic form, sometimes with a coda. The mazurkas often show more folk features than many of his other works, sometimes including modal scales and harmonies and the use of drone basses. However, some also show unusual sophistication, for example, Op. 63 No. 3, which includes a canon at one beat's distance, a great rarity in music.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Chopin's polonaises show a marked advance on those of his Polish predecessors in the form (who included his teachers Żywny and Elsner). As with the traditional polonaise, Chopin's works are in triple time and typically display a martial rhythm in their melodies, accompaniments, and cadences. Unlike most of their precursors, they also require a formidable playing technique.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: The 21 nocturnes are more structured, and of greater emotional depth, than those of Field, whom Chopin met in 1833. Many of the Chopin nocturnes have middle sections marked by agitated expression (and often making very difficult demands on the performer), which heightens their dramatic character.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Chopin's études are largely in straightforward ternary form. He used them to teach his own technique of piano playingfor instance playing double thirds (Op. 25, No. 6), playing in octaves (Op. 25, No. 10), and playing repeated notes (Op. 10, No.  7).


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: The preludes, many of which are very brief (some consisting of simple statements and developments of a single theme or figure), were described by Schumann as "the beginnings of studies". Inspired by J. S. Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier", Chopin's preludes move up the circle of fifths (rather than Bach's chromatic scale sequence) to create a prelude in each major and minor tonality. The preludes were perhaps not intended to be played as a group, and may even have been used by him and later pianists as generic preludes to others of his pieces, or even to music by other composers. This is suggested by Kenneth Hamilton, who has noted a 1922 recording by Ferruccio Busoni in which the Prelude Op. 28 No. 7 is followed by the Étude Op. 10 No. 5.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: The two mature Chopin piano sonatas (No. 2, Op. 35, written in 1839 and No. 3, Op. 58, written in 1844) are in four movements. In Op. 35, Chopin combined within a formal large musical structure many elements of his virtuosic piano technique"a kind of dialogue between the public pianism of the brilliant style and the German sonata principle". This sonata has been considered as showing the influences of both Bach and Beethoven. The Prelude from Bach's Suite No. 6 in D major for cello (BWV 1012) is quoted; and there are references to two sonatas of Beethoven: the Sonata Opus 111 in C minor, and the Sonata Opus 26 in A-flat major, which, like Chopin's Op. 35, has a funeral march as its slow movement. The last movement of Chopin's Op. 35, a brief (75-bar) perpetuum mobile in which the hands play in unmodified octave unison throughout, was found shocking and unmusical by contemporaries, including Schumann. The Op. 58 sonata is closer to the German tradition, including many passages of complex counterpoint, "worthy of Brahms" according to Samson.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Chopin's harmonic innovations may have arisen partly from his keyboard improvisation technique. In his works, Temperley says, "novel harmonic effects often result from the combination of ordinary appoggiaturas or passing notes with melodic figures of accompaniment", and cadences are delayed by the use of chords outside the home key (neapolitan sixths and diminished sevenths) or by sudden shifts to remote keys. Chord progressions sometimes anticipate the shifting tonality of later composers such as Claude Debussy, as does Chopin's use of modal harmony.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: In 1841 Léon Escudier wrote of a recital given by Chopin that year, "One may say that Chopin is the creator of a school of piano and a school of composition. In truth, nothing equals the lightness, the sweetness with which the composer preludes on the piano; moreover nothing may be compared to his works full of originality, distinction and grace." Chopin refused to conform to a standard method of playing and believed that there was no set technique for playing well. His style was based extensively on his use of a very independent finger technique. In his he wrote: "Everything is a matter of knowing good fingering ... we need no less to use the rest of the hand, the wrist, the forearm and the upper arm." He further stated: "One needs only to study a certain position of the hand in relation to the keys to obtain with ease the most beautiful quality of sound, to know how to play short notes and long notes, and [to attain] unlimited dexterity." The consequences of this approach to technique in Chopin's music include the frequent use of the entire range of the keyboard, passages in double octaves and other chord groupings, swiftly repeated notes, the use of grace notes, and the use of contrasting rhythms (four against three, for example) between the hands.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Jonathan Bellman writes that modern concert performance styleset in the "conservatory" tradition of late 19th- and 20th-century music schools, and suitable for large auditoria or recordingsmilitates against what is known of Chopin's more intimate performance technique. The composer himself said to a pupil that "concerts are never real music, you have to give up the idea of hearing in them all the most beautiful things of art". Contemporary accounts indicate that in performance, Chopin avoided rigid procedures sometimes incorrectly attributed to him, such as "always crescendo to a high note", but that he was concerned with expressive phrasing, rhythmic consistency and sensitive colouring. Berlioz wrote in 1853 that Chopin "has created a kind of chromatic embroidery ... whose effect is so strange and piquant as to be impossible to describe ... virtually nobody but Chopin himself can play this music and give it this unusual turn". Hiller wrote that "What in the hands of others was elegant embellishment, in his hands became a colourful wreath of flowers."


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Chopin's music is frequently played with "rubato", "the practice in performance of disregarding strict time, 'robbing' some note-values for expressive effect". There are differing opinions as to how much, and what type, of "rubato" is appropriate for his works. Charles Rosen comments that "most of the written-out indications of rubato in Chopin are to be found in his mazurkas ... It is probable that Chopin used the older form of rubato so important to Mozart ... [where] the melody note in the right hand is delayed until after the note in the bass ... An allied form of this rubato is the arpeggiation of the chords thereby delaying the melody note; according to Chopin's pupil Karol Mikuli, Chopin was firmly opposed to this practice."


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Chopin's pupil Friederike Müller wrote: [His] playing was always noble and beautiful; his tones sang, whether in full "forte" or softest "piano". He took infinite pains to teach his pupils this "legato", "cantabile" style of playing. His most severe criticism was 'Heor shedoes not know how to join two notes together.' He also demanded the strictest adherence to rhythm. He hated all lingering and dragging, misplaced "rubatos", as well as exaggerated "ritardandos" [...] and it is precisely in this respect that people make such terrible errors in playing his works.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: When living in Warsaw, Chopin composed and played on an instrument built by the piano-maker Fryderyk Buchholtz. Later in Paris Chopin purchased a piano from Pleyel. He rated Pleyel's pianos as "non plus ultra" ("nothing better"). Franz Liszt befriended Chopin in Paris and described the sound of Chopin's Pleyel as being “the marriage of crystal and water”. While in London in 1848, Chopin mentioned his pianos in his letters: "I have a large drawing-room with three pianos, a Pleyel, a Broadwood and an Erard."


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: With his mazurkas and polonaises, Chopin has been credited with introducing to music a new sense of nationalism. Schumann, in his 1836 review of the piano concertos, highlighted the composer's strong feelings for his native Poland, writing that "Now that the Poles are in deep mourning [after the failure of the November Uprising of 1830], their appeal to us artists is even stronger ... If the mighty autocrat in the north [i.e. Nicholas I of Russia] could know that in Chopin's works, in the simple strains of his mazurkas, there lurks a dangerous enemy, he would place a ban on his music. Chopin's works are cannon buried in flowers!" The biography of Chopin published in 1863 under the name of Franz Liszt (but probably written by Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein) states that Chopin "must be ranked first among the first musicians ... individualizing in themselves the poetic sense of an entire nation".


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Some modern commentators have argued against exaggerating Chopin's primacy as a "nationalist" or "patriotic" composer. George Golos refers to earlier "nationalist" composers in Central Europe, including Poland's Michał Kleofas Ogiński and Franciszek Lessel, who utilised polonaise and mazurka forms. Barbara Milewski suggests that Chopin's experience of Polish music came more from "urbanised" Warsaw versions than from folk music, and that attempts by Jachimecki and others to demonstrate genuine folk music in his works are without basis. Richard Taruskin impugns Schumann's attitude toward Chopin's works as patronising, and comments that Chopin "felt his Polish patriotism deeply and sincerely" but consciously modelled his works on the tradition of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, and Field.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: A reconciliation of these views is suggested by William Atwood: "Undoubtedly [Chopin's] use of traditional musical forms like the polonaise and mazurka roused nationalistic sentiments and a sense of cohesiveness amongst those Poles scattered across Europe and the New World ... While some sought solace in [them], others found them a source of strength in their continuing struggle for freedom. Although Chopin's music undoubtedly came to him intuitively rather than through any conscious patriotic design, it served all the same to symbolize the will of the Polish people ..."


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Jones comments that "Chopin's unique position as a composer, despite the fact that virtually everything he wrote was for the piano, has rarely been questioned." He also notes that Chopin was fortunate to arrive in Paris in 1831"the artistic environment, the publishers who were willing to print his music, the wealthy and aristocratic who paid what Chopin asked for their lessons"and these factors, as well as his musical genius, also fuelled his contemporary and later reputation. While his illness and his love affairs conform to some of the stereotypes of romanticism, the rarity of his public recitals (as opposed to performances at fashionable Paris soirées) led Arthur Hutchings to suggest that "his lack of Byronic flamboyance [and] his aristocratic reclusiveness make him exceptional" among his romantic contemporaries such as Liszt and Henri Herz.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Chopin's qualities as a pianist and composer were recognised by many of his fellow musicians. Schumann named a piece for him in his suite "Carnaval", and Chopin later dedicated his Ballade No. 2 in F major to Schumann. Elements of Chopin's music can be found in many of Liszt's later works. Liszt later transcribed for piano six of Chopin's Polish songs. A less fraught friendship was with Alkan, with whom he discussed elements of folk music, and who was deeply affected by Chopin's death.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: In Paris, Chopin had a number of pupils, including Friedericke Müller, who left memoirs of his teaching and the prodigy Carl Filtsch (1830–1845), to whom both Chopin and Sand became dedicated, Chopin giving him three lessons a week; Filtsch was the only pupil to whom Chopin gave lessons in composition, and, exceptionally, he on several occasions shared a concert platform with him. Two of Chopin's long-standing pupils, Karol Mikuli (1821–1897) and Georges Mathias (1826–1910), were themselves piano teachers and passed on details of his playing to their students, some of whom (such as Raoul Koczalski) were to make recordings of his music. Other pianists and composers influenced by Chopin's style include Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Édouard Wolff (1816–1880), and Pierre Zimmermann. Debussy dedicated his own 1915 piano Études to the memory of Chopin; he frequently played Chopin's music during his studies at the Paris Conservatoire, and undertook the editing of Chopin's piano music for the publisher Jacques Durand.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Polish composers of the following generation included virtuosi such as Moritz Moszkowski; but, in the opinion of J. Barrie Jones, his "one worthy successor" among his compatriots was Karol Szymanowski (1882–1937). Edvard Grieg, Antonín Dvořák, Isaac Albéniz, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Sergei Rachmaninoff, among others, are regarded by critics as having been influenced by Chopin's use of national modes and idioms. Alexander Scriabin was devoted to the music of Chopin, and his early published works include nineteen mazurkas as well as numerous études and preludes; his teacher Nikolai Zverev drilled him in Chopin's works to improve his virtuosity as a performer. In the 20th century, composers who paid homage to (or in some cases parodied) the music of Chopin included George Crumb, Leopold Godowsky, Bohuslav Martinů, Darius Milhaud, Igor Stravinsky, and Heitor Villa-Lobos.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Chopin's music was used in the 1909 ballet "Chopiniana", choreographed by Michel Fokine and orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov. Sergei Diaghilev commissioned additional orchestrationsfrom Stravinsky, Anatoly Lyadov, Sergei Taneyev, and Nikolai Tcherepninfor later productions, which used the title . Other noted composers have created orchestrations for the ballet, including Benjamin Britten, Roy Douglas, Alexander Gretchaninov, Gordon Jacob, and Maurice Ravel, whose score is lost.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Musicologist Erinn Knyt writes: "In the nineteenth century Chopin and his music were commonly viewed as effeminate, androgynous, childish, sickly, and 'ethnically other. Music historian Jeffrey Kallberg says that in Chopin's time, "listeners to the genre of the piano nocturne often couched their reactions in feminine imagery", and he cites many examples of such reactions to Chopin's nocturnes. One reason for this may be "demographic"there were more female than male piano players, and playing such "romantic" pieces was seen by male critics as a female domestic pastime. Such genderization was not commonly applied to other genres among Chopin's works, such as the scherzo or the polonaise. The cultural historian Edward Said has cited the demonstrations by pianist and writer Charles Rosen, in the latter's book "The Romantic Generation", of Chopin's skills in "planning, polyphony, and sheer harmonic creativity", as effectively overthrowing any legend of Chopin "as a swooning, 'inspired', small-scale salon composer".


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Chopin's music remains very popular and is regularly performed, recorded and broadcast worldwide. The world's oldest monographic music competition, the International Chopin Piano Competition, founded in 1927, is held every five years in Warsaw. The Fryderyk Chopin Institute of Poland lists on its website over eighty societies worldwide devoted to the composer and his music. The Institute site also lists over 1500 performances of Chopin works on YouTube .


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: The British Library notes that "Chopin's works have been recorded by all the great pianists of the recording era." The earliest recording was an 1895 performance by Paul Pabst of the Nocturne in E major, Op. 62, No. 2. The British Library site makes available a number of historic recordings, including some by Alfred Cortot, Ignaz Friedman, Vladimir Horowitz, Benno Moiseiwitsch, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Arthur Rubinstein, Xaver Scharwenka, Josef Hofmann, Vladimir de Pachmann, Moriz Rosenthal and many others. A select discography of recordings of Chopin works by pianists representing the various pedagogic traditions stemming from Chopin is given by James Methuen-Campbell in his work tracing the lineage and character of those traditions.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Numerous recordings of Chopin's works are available. On the occasion of the composer's bicentenary, the critics of "The New York Times" recommended performances by the following contemporary pianists (among many others): Martha Argerich, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Emanuel Ax, Evgeny Kissin, Ivan Moravec, Murray Perahia, Maurizio Pollini, and Krystian Zimerman. The Warsaw Chopin Society organises the "Grand prix du disque de F. Chopin" for notable Chopin recordings, held every five years.


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Chopin has figured extensively in Polish literature, both in serious critical studies of his life and music and in fictional treatments. The earliest manifestation was probably an 1830 sonnet on Chopin by Leon Ulrich. French writers on Chopin (apart from Sand) have included Marcel Proust and André Gide, and he has also featured in works of Gottfried Benn and Boris Pasternak. There are numerous biographies of Chopin in English (see bibliography for some of these).


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Possibly the first venture into fictional treatments of Chopin's life was a fanciful operatic version of some of its events: "Chopin". First produced in Milan in 1901, the musicbased on Chopin's ownwas assembled by Giacomo Orefice, with a libretto by .


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Chopin's life and romantic tribulations have been fictionalised in numerous films. As early as 1919, Chopin's relationships with three womenhis youth sweetheart Mariolka, then Polish singer Sonja Radkowska, and later George Sandwere portrayed in the German silent film "Nocturno der Liebe" (1919), with Chopin's music serving as a backdrop. The 1945 biographical film "A Song to Remember" earned Cornel Wilde an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor for his portrayal of the composer. Other film treatments have included (France, 1928) by Henry Roussel, with Pierre Blanchar as Chopin; "Impromptu" (1991), starring Hugh Grant as Chopin; (1991); and "" (2002).


title: Frédéric Chopin

text: Chopin's life was covered in a 1999 BBC "Omnibus" documentary by András Schiff and Mischa Scorer, in a 2010 documentary realised by Angelo Bozzolini and Roberto Prosseda for Italian television, and in a BBC Four documentary "ChopinThe Women Behind The Music" (2010).


title: Mara Wilson

text: Mara Elizabeth Wilson (born July 24, 1987) is an American actress and writer. She rose to prominence as a child for playing Natalie Hillard in the film "Mrs. Doubtfire" (1993) and went on to play Susan Walker in "Miracle on 34th Street" (1994), the title character in "Matilda" (1996), Annabel Greening in "A Simple Wish" (1997), and Lily Stone in "Thomas and the Magic Railroad" (2000). Wilson took a 12-year hiatus following the last film to focus on writing. She returned to acting in 2012, and has predominantly worked in web series.


title: Mara Wilson

text: Mara Elizabeth Wilson was born in Burbank, California, on July 24, 1987, the oldest daughter of Burbank PTA school volunteer Suzie Wilson (née Shapiro; 1953–1996) and KTLA broadcast engineer Mike Wilson. Her mother was Jewish, while her father is half Irish. She was raised Jewish but became an atheist when she was 15. She has three older brothers named Danny, Jon, and Joel, and a younger sister named Anna. She is a cousin of political commentator and media host Ben Shapiro, but has disavowed him due to differences arising from his conservative views and her opposing progressive beliefs. They have no contact with each other.


title: Mara Wilson

text: Wilson's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer on March 10, 1995, and died on April 26, 1996. The film "Matilda" was dedicated to her memory. Wilson later recalled that this affected her passion for acting. At age 12, Wilson was diagnosed with OCD. She has also been diagnosed with ADHD. She attended Idyllwild Arts Academy in Idyllwild, California. After graduation in 2005, she relocated to New York City to continue her studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in 2009. She appeared in her own one-woman show called "Weren't You That Girl?" while in college.


title: Mara Wilson

text: When Wilson was five, she became interested in acting after watching her older brother Danny appear in television commercials. Her parents were initially disinclined, but eventually agreed to allow her to act. After appearing in several commercials for businesses like Lunchables, Bank of America, Texaco, and Marshalls, she was invited to audition for the 1993 comedy film "Mrs. Doubtfire." Producers were impressed and awarded her the role of Natalie Hillard. The following year, she appeared in the remake of "Miracle on 34th Street".


title: Mara Wilson

text: In 1994, Wilson was cast in a recurring role as Nikki Petrova on "Melrose Place" and played Barbara Barton in the television film "A Time to Heal". She sang "Make 'Em Laugh" at the 67th Academy Awards broadcast on March 27, 1995, with Tim Curry and Kathy Najimy. In 1995, she won the ShoWest Award for Young Star of the Year.


title: Mara Wilson

text: Wilson's film work caught the attention of Danny DeVito, and she was cast as the main protagonist Matilda Wormwood in the 1996 film "Matilda". She was nominated for three awards for her performance, winning the YoungStar Award for Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Comedy Film. In 1997, she starred in "A Simple Wish" alongside Martin Short. Although Wilson was nominated for three awards, the film mostly received negative reviews by critics.


title: Mara Wilson

text: In 1997, Wilson went to a table reading for "What Dreams May Come" starring Robin Williams, but she did not get the part. A year later, she unsuccessfully auditioned for the 1998 remake of Disney's "The Parent Trap" but the role was given to Lindsay Lohan after she was deemed too young. In 1999, she portrayed Willow Johnson in the 1999 film for The Wonderful World of Disney titled "Balloon Farm", based on a fiction book.


title: Mara Wilson

text: In 2000, Wilson appeared in the fantasy film "Thomas and the Magic Railroad", which was her last film. She retired from film work shortly afterward. She received a script for the 2001 film "Donnie Darko", but declined to audition for the film. After retiring from film acting, she began stage acting. Her theater credits include "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Cinderella". She also starred in her own live shows "Weren't You That Girl?" and "What Are You Afraid Of?"


title: Mara Wilson

text: In 2012, Wilson appeared briefly in one episode of a web series called "Missed Connection" in the role of Bitty and made special appearances on internet review shows for "That Guy with the Glasses"—most notably a comedic turn playing an adult Matilda during a review of "Matilda" by The Nostalgia Chick, Lindsay Ellis. That year, she explained why she quit film acting: "Film acting is not very fun. Doing the same thing over and over again until, in the director's eyes, you 'get it right', does not allow for very much creative freedom. The best times I had on film sets were the times the director let me express myself, but those were rare."


title: Mara Wilson

text: In May 2013, Wilson wrote an article for Cracked.com, offering her opinion of the delinquency of some former child stars. As of 2013, she worked for Publicolor. Her play "Sheeple" was produced in 2013 for the New York International Fringe Festival. In an interview that December, Wilson stated that her film acting days are over, and that she is instead focusing on writing. Her book "Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame" was published on September 13, 2016.


title: Mara Wilson

text: Wilson has a recurring role on the podcast "Welcome to Night Vale" as "The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home", as well as her own storytelling show called "What Are You Afraid Of?" In 2016, she made a brief return to television in a "Mrs. Doubtfire"-inspired episode of "Broad City", in which she played a waitress where the comical Heimlich scene from the movie was re-enacted. That same year, she also voiced Jill Pill, a writer/director anthropomorphic spider, in season 3 of "BoJack Horseman". She voiced Liv Amara/Diane "Di" Amara in "".


title: Mara Wilson

text: In a 2017 NPR interview, "The Simpsons" voice actor Nancy Cartwright stated that a young Wilson was the inspiration for a character's voice on the episode "Bart Sells His Soul".


title: Mara Wilson

text: In 2015, Wilson collaborated with Project UROK, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to aid teens with mental illness.


title: Mara Wilson

text: As of 2013, Wilson resides in the Queens borough of New York City. She came out as bisexual during an interview with Medium in September 2017.


title: Mara Wilson

text: In 2015, Wilson appeared in a video by the mental health charity Project UROK in which she discussed the mental illnesses she has experienced, including anxiety, depression, and OCD. She also discussed her history of mental illness on Paul Gilmartin's podcast "The Mental Illness Happy Hour".


title: Mara Wilson

text: In a 2017 op-ed in "Elle" magazine, Wilson defended 13-year-old actress Millie Bobby Brown after commentators sexualized Brown's public image. In a 2021 "New York Times" op-ed, she commented on the documentary "Framing Britney Spears" and the parallels between their lives as child stars. She recalled an incident in which she was asked to comment on the burgeoning sexuality of an 18-year-old Spears when she herself was barely 13, and expressed relief at largely escaping oversexualization of her public image compared to Spears. She described her disappointment when a reporter called her a "spoiled brat" after she stated that she wanted the day off on her 13th birthday instead of granting interviews. She apologized for sounding like a "spoiled brat".


title: K-pop

text: K-pop (), short for Korean popular music, is a form of popular music originating in South Korea as part of South Korean culture. It includes styles and genres from around the world, such as pop, hip hop, R&B, experimental, rock, jazz, gospel, reggae, electronic dance, folk, country, disco, and classical on top of its traditional Korean music roots. The term "K-pop" became popular in the 2000s, especially in the international context. The Korean term for domestic pop music is gayo (), which is still widely used within South Korea. While "K-pop" can refer to all popular music or pop music from South Korea, it is colloquially often used in a "narrower" sense for any Korean music and artists associated with the entertainment and idol industry in the country, regardless of the genre.


title: K-pop

text: The more modern form of the genre, originally termed "rap dance", emerged with the formation of the hip hop boy band Seo Taiji and Boys, in 1992. Their experimentation with different styles and genres of music and integration of foreign musical elements helped reshape and modernize South Korea's contemporary music scene.


title: K-pop

text: Modern K-pop "idol" culture began in the 1990s, as K-pop idol music grew into a subculture that amassed enormous fandoms of teenagers and young adults. After a slump in early idol music, from 2003, TVXQ and BoA started a new generation of K-pop idols that broke the music genre into the neighboring Japanese market and continue to popularize K-pop internationally today. With the advent of online social networking services and South Korean TV shows, the current spread of K-pop and South Korean entertainment, known as the Korean Wave, is seen not only in East Asia and Southeast Asia, but also in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Latin America, North Africa, Southern Africa and East Africa, the Middle East and throughout the Western world, gaining an international audience.


title: K-pop

text: In 2018, K-pop experienced significant growth and became a "power player", marking a 17.9% increase in revenue growth. As of 2019, Korean popular music is ranked at number six among the top ten music markets worldwide according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's "Global Music Report 2019", with BTS and Blackpink cited as artists leading the market growth. In 2020, K-pop experienced a record-breaking year when it experienced a 44.8% growth and positioned itself as the fastest-growing major market of the year.


title: K-pop

text: The first known use of the term K-pop occurred on "Billboard" in the October 9, 1999 edition at the end of an article titled "S. Korea To Allow Some Japanese Live Acts" by Cho Hyun-jin, then a Korea correspondent for the magazine, which used it as a broad term for South Korean pop music. Cho himself, however, is not sure if he coined the term, since some articles stated that the word 'K-pop' was already being used by music industry insiders, even though he had never heard it personally.


title: K-pop

text: Although K-pop generally refers to South Korean popular music and the associated industry, some consider it to be an all-encompassing genre exhibiting a wide spectrum of musical and visual elements. The French Institut national de l'audiovisuel defines K-pop as a "fusion of synthesized music, sharp dance routines and fashionable, colorful outfits." Songs typically consist of one or a mixture of pop, rock, hip hop, R&B, and electronic music genres.


title: K-pop

text: South Korean management agencies offer binding contracts to potential artists, sometimes at a young age. Trainees live together in a regulated environment and spend many hours a day learning how to sing, dance, speak foreign languages, and gain other skills in preparation for their debut. This "robotic" system of training is often criticized by Western media outlets. In 2012, "The Wall Street Journal" reported that the cost of training one Korean idol under SM Entertainment averaged US$3 million.


title: K-pop

text: K-pop is a cultural product that features "values, identity and meanings that go beyond their strictly commercial value." It is characterized by a mixture of modern Western sounds and African-American influences (including sounds from Hip-hop, R&B, Jazz, black pop, soul, funk, techno, disco, house, and Afrobeats) with a Korean aspect of performance (including synchronized dance moves, formation changes and the so-called "point choreography" consisting of hooking and repetitive key movements). It has been remarked that there is a "vision of modernization" inherent in Korean pop culture. For some, the transnational values of K-pop are responsible for its success. A commentator at the University of California, San Diego has said that "contemporary Korean pop culture is built on ... transnational flows ... taking place across, beyond, and outside national and institutional boundaries." Some examples of the transnational values inherent in K-pop that may appeal to those from different ethnic, national, and religious backgrounds include a dedication to high-quality output and presentation of idols, as well as their work ethic and polite social demeanor, made possible by the training period.


title: K-pop

text: Modern K-pop is marked by its use of English phrases. Jin Dal Yong of "Popular Music and Society " wrote that the usage may be influenced by "Korean-Americans and/or Koreans who studied in the U.S. [who] take full advantage of their English fluency and cultural resources that are not found commonly among those who were raised and educated in Korea." Korean pop music from singers or groups who are Korean-American such as Fly to the Sky, g.o.d, Rich, Yoo Seung-jun, and Drunken Tiger has both American style and English lyrics. These Korean-American singers' music has a different style from common Korean music, which attracts the interest of young people. Increasingly, foreign songwriters and producers are employed to work on songs for K-pop idols, such as will.i.am and Sean Garrett. Foreign musicians, including rappers such as Akon, Kanye West, Ludacris, and Snoop Dogg, have also featured on K-pop songs.


title: K-pop

text: Entertainment companies help to expand K-pop to other parts of the world through a number of different methods. Singers need to use English since the companies want to occupy markets in the other parts of Asia, which enables them to open the Western market in the end. Most K-pop singers learn English because it is a common language in the world of music, but some singers also learn other foreign languages such as Japanese to approach the Japanese market. Similarly, increasing numbers of K-pop bands use English names rather than Korean ones. This allows songs and artists to be marketed to a wider audience around the world.


title: K-pop

text: However, the use of English has not guaranteed the popularity of K-pop in the North American market. For some commentators, the reason for this is because the genre can be seen as a distilled version of Western music, making it difficult for K-pop to find acceptance in these markets. Furthermore, Western audiences tend to place emphasis on authenticity and individual expression in music, which the idol system can be seen as suppressing.


title: K-pop

text: According to Elaine W. Chun's research, even though hybridity appears more and more often in K-pop, and sometimes may even make fans admire K-pop stars more because it is fresh, new and interesting, it is hard to change those who believe in a perfect ideal for pure linguistic. This means that the original form of language is still difficult to alter.


title: K-pop

text: Artist names, song titles, and lyrics have exhibited significant growth in the usage of English words. No singers in the top fifty charts in 1990 had English in their names: people who worked in the Korean music industry viewed using Korean names as standard. In 1995, most popular singers such as Kim Gun-mo, Park Mi-kyung, Park Jin-young, Lee Seung-chul, and Byun Jin-sub still used Korean names, but fourteen of the singers and groups in the top fifty used English names, including DJ DOC, 015B, Piano, and Solid. After the 1997 financial crisis, the government stopped censoring English lyrics and Korea started to have a boom in English. Since the late 1990s, English usage in singers' names, song titles, and lyrics has grown quickly. Seventeen singers in the top fifty charts used English names in 2000, and thirty-one did so in 2005. In 2010, forty-one singers used English names among the top fifty songs, but usually, three or four singers and groups had more than one or two songs on the chart simultaneously. Korean names (e.g. Baek Ji-young, Seo In-young, and Huh Gak) are seen less frequently, and many K-pop singers have English names (e.g. IU, Sistar, T-ara, GD & TOP, Beast, and After School). Notably, until the early 1990s, musicians with English names would transliterate them into hangul, but now singers would use English names written with the Roman alphabet. In 1995, the percentage of song titles using English in the top 50 charts was 8%. This fluctuated between 30% in 2000, 18% in 2005, and 44% in 2010. An example of a Korean song with a large proportion of English lyrics is Kara's "Jumping," which was released at the same time in both Korea and Japan to much success.


title: K-pop

text: There have been critical responses in South Korea regarding the identity of the genre since its ascendance. Some of the notable music critics in the region have criticized K-pop as "an industrial label mainly designed to promote the national brand in the global market from the beginning" and argued that it was "not formed spontaneously as a pop culture but created with the orchestrated plan led by the government with commercial considerations" although in fact "the genre has practically no ties with traditional Korean identity." There is also the perspective that the name of the genre was derived from J-pop.


title: K-pop

text: K-pop has at times faced criticisms from journalists who perceive the music to be formulaic and unoriginal. Some K-Pop groups have been accused of plagiarizing Western music acts as well as other musical acts. In addition, K-pop has been criticized for its reliance on English phrases, with critics dubbing the use of English in titles "meaningless."


title: K-pop

text: K-pop groups have been regularly accused of cultural appropriation of cultures such as African-American culture, especially due to the frequent use of cornrows and bandanas in idol groups' on-stage styling. K-Pop groups have also been accused of appropriating Native American and Indian cultures. However, debate exists about whether the borrowing of cultural elements from cultures outside of Korea indeed constitutes cultural appropriation, or if this cultural appropriation is negative at all. Scholar Crystal S. Anderson writes that "appropriating elements of a culture by taking them out of their original context and using them in a completely different way does not automatically constitute negative cultural appropriation."


title: K-pop

text: Many agencies have presented new idol groups to an audience through a "debut showcase" which consists of online marketing and television broadcast promotions as opposed to radio. Groups are given a name and a "concept" along with a marketing hook. These concepts are the type of visual and musical theme that idol groups utilize during their debut or comeback. Concepts can change between debuts and fans often distinguish between boy group concepts and girl group concepts. Concepts can also be divided between general concepts and theme concepts, such as cute or fantasy. New idol groups will often debut with a concept well known to the market to secure a successful debut. Sometimes sub-units or sub-groups are formed among existing members. Two example subgroups are Super Junior-K.R.Y., which consists of Super Junior members Kyuhyun, Ryeowook, and Yesung, and Super Junior-M, which became one of the best-selling K-pop subgroups in China.


title: K-pop

text: Online marketing includes music videos posted to YouTube in order to reach a worldwide audience. Prior to the actual video, the group releases teaser photos and trailers. Promotional cycles of subsequent singles are called comebacks even when the musician or group in question did not go on hiatus.


title: K-pop

text: Dance is an integral part of K-pop. When combining multiple singers, the singers often switch their positions while singing and dancing by making prompt movements in synchrony, a strategy called "formation changing" (). The K-pop choreography () often includes the so-called "point dance" (), referring to a dance made up of hooking and repetitive movements within the choreography that matches the characteristics of the lyrics of the song. Super Junior's "Sorry Sorry" and Brown Eyed Girls' "Abracadabra" are examples of songs with notable "point" choreography. To choreograph a dance for a song requires the writers to take the tempo into account. According to Ellen Kim, a Los Angeles dancer and choreographer, a fan's ability to do the same steps must also be considered. Consequently, K-pop choreographers have to simplify movements.


title: K-pop

text: The training and preparation necessary for K-pop idols to succeed in the industry and dance successfully are intense. Training centers like Seoul's Def Dance Skool develop the dance skills of youth in order to give them a shot at becoming an idol. Physical training is one of the largest focuses at the school, as much of a student's schedule is based around dance and exercise. The entertainment labels are highly selective, so few make it to fame. Students at the school must dedicate their lives to the mastery of dance in order to prepare for the vigorous routines performed by K-pop groups. This, of course, means that the training must continue if they are signed. Companies house much larger training centers for those who are chosen.


title: K-pop

text: An interview with K-pop choreographer Rino Nakasone lends insight into the process of creating routines. According to Nakasone, her focus is to make dance routines that are flattering for the dancers but also complementary to the music. Her ideas are submitted to the entertainment company as video recordings done by professional dancers. Nakasone mentions that the company and the K-pop artists themselves have input on a song's choreography. Choreographer May J. Lee gives another perspective, telling that her choreography often starts out as expressing the feeling or the meaning of the lyrics. What starts out as small movements turns into a full dance that is better able to portray the message of the song.


title: K-pop

text: The emergence of Seo Taiji and Boys in 1992 paved the way for the development of contemporary K-pop groups. The group revolutionized the Korean music scene by incorporating rap and American hip-hop conventions into their music. This adoption of Western style extended to the fashions worn by the boy band: the members adopted a hip-hop aesthetic. Seo and bandmates' outfits for the promotional cycle of "I Know" () included vibrant streetwear such as oversized T-shirts and sweatshirts, windbreakers, overalls worn with one strap, overalls worn with one pant leg rolled up, and American sports team jerseys. Accessories included baseball caps worn backwards, bucket hats, and do-rags.


title: K-pop

text: As K-pop "was born of post-Seo trends," many acts that followed Seo Taiji and Boys adopted the same fashion style. Deux and DJ DOC can also be seen wearing on-trend hip-hop fashions such as sagging baggy pants, sportswear, and bandanas in their performances. With Korean popular music transforming into youth-dominated media, manufactured teenage idol groups began debuting in the mid and late 1990s, wearing coordinated costumes that reflected the popular fashion trends among youth at the time. Hip-hop fashion, considered the most popular style in the late '90s, remained, with idol groups H.O.T. and Sechs Kies wearing the style for their debut songs. The use of accessories elevated the idol's style from everyday fashion to performance costume, like ski goggles (worn either around the head or neck), headphones worn around the neck, and oversized gloves worn to accentuate choreography moves were widely used. H.O.T.'s 1996 hit "Candy" exemplifies the level of coordination taken into account for idol's costumes, as each member wore a designated color and accessorized with face paint, fuzzy oversized mittens, visors, bucket hats, and earmuffs, and used stuffed animals, backpacks, and messenger bags as props.


title: K-pop

text: While male idol groups' costumes were constructed with similar color schemes, fabrics, and styles, the outfits worn by each member still maintained individuality. On the other hand, female idol groups of the '90s wore homogeneous costumes, often styled identically. The costumes for female idols during their early promotions often focused on portraying an innocent, youthful image. S.E.S.'s debut in 1997, "('Cause) I'm Your Girl", and Baby Vox's second album 1998 hit, "Ya Ya Ya," featured the girls dressed in white outfits, "To My Boyfriend" by Fin.K.L shows idols in pink schoolgirl costumes, and "One" and "End" of Chakra presented Hindu and African style costumes. To portray a natural and somewhat saccharine image, the accessories were limited to large bows, pompom hair ornaments and hair bands. With the maturation of female idol groups and the removal of bubblegum pop in the late 1990s, the sets of female idol groups focused on following the fashion trends of the time, many of which were revealing pieces. The latest promotions of the girl groups Baby Vox and Jewelry exemplify these trends of hot pants, micro-miniskirts, crop tops, peasant blouses, transparent garments and blouses on the upper part of the torso.


title: K-pop

text: As K-pop became a modern hybrid of Western and Asian cultures starting from the late 2000s, fashion trends within K-pop reflected diversity and distinction as well. Fashion trends from the late 2000s to early 2010s can largely be categorized under the following:


title: K-pop

text: K-pop has a significant influence on fashion in Asia, where trends started by idols are followed by young audiences. Some idols have established status as fashion icons, such as G-Dragon and CL, who has repeatedly worked with fashion designer Jeremy Scott, being labeled his "muse."


title: K-pop

text: According to professor Ingyu Oh, "K-pop emphasizes thin, tall, and feminine looks with adolescent or sometimes very cute facial expressions, regardless of whether they're male or female singers."


title: K-pop

text: The South Korean government has acknowledged benefits to the country's export sector as a result of the Korean Wave (it was estimated in 2011 that a US$100 increase in the export of cultural products resulted in a US$412 increase in exports of other consumer goods including food, clothes, cosmetics and IT products) and thus have subsidized certain endeavours. Government initiatives to expand the popularity of K-pop are mostly undertaken by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which is responsible for the worldwide establishment of Korean Cultural Centers. South Korean embassies and consulates have also organized K-pop concerts outside the country, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regularly invites overseas K-pop fans to attend the annual K-Pop World Festival in South Korea.


title: K-pop

text: In addition to reaping economic benefits from the popularity of K-pop, the South Korean government has been taking advantage of the influence of K-pop in diplomacy. In an age of mass communication, soft power (pursuing one's goals by persuading stakeholders using cultural and ideological power) is regarded as a more effective and pragmatic diplomatic tactic than the traditional diplomatic strategy hard power (obtaining what one wants from stakeholders through direct intimidation such as military threat and economic sanctions). Cultural diplomacy through K-pop is a form of soft power.


title: K-pop

text: An example of the South Korean government effort in diplomacy through K-pop is the Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA), a K-pop music award ceremony. Park Geun-hye (the Korean president at the time) delivered the opening statement at the 2014 MAMA, which was held in Hong Kong and sponsored by the Korean Small and Medium Business Administration (SMBA). This event was considered a deliberate endeavor by the Korean government to support Korean cultural industries in order to strengthen the nation's international reputation and political influence.


title: K-pop

text: Another example of cultural diplomacy is K-pop performances in North Korea. Prior to 2005, South Korean pop singers occasionally gave performances in North Korea. After an interval of more than a decade, approximately 190 South Korean performers, including well-known musicians Red Velvet, Lee Sun-hee, Cho Yong-pil, and Yoon Do-hyun, performed in Pyongyang, North Korea, on March 31 and April 3, 2018. Kim Jong-un was present in the audience.


title: K-pop

text: The history of Korean popular music can be traced back to 1885 when an American missionary, Henry Appenzeller, began teaching American and British folk songs at a school. These songs were called "changga" (), and they were typically based on a popular Western melody sung with Korean lyrics. For example, the song "Oh My Darling, Clementine" became known as "Simcheongga" (). During the Japanese rule (1910–1945), the popularity of "changga" songs rose as Koreans expressed their feelings against Japanese oppression through music. One of the most popular songs was "Huimangga" (). The Japanese confiscated the existing "changga" collections and published lyrics books of their own.


title: K-pop

text: K-pop was represented by H.O.T in the early days, and it was mostly fanatical, flashy, and showed the rebellious psychology of young people in the emotional aspects. Most of the songs are relatively fast-paced and have a strong sense of rhythm, which is suitable for dancing. They often sing and dance when they perform, and the choreography urbanance is a very important factor in popularity. The first known Korean pop album was "I Pungjin Sewol" (), by Park Chae-seon and Lee Ryu-saek in 1925, which contained popular songs translated from Japanese. The first pop song written by a Korean composer is thought to be "Nakhwayusu" () sung by Lee Jeong-suk in 1929. In the mid-1920s, Japanese composer Masao Koga mixed traditional Korean music with Gospel music that American Evangelists introduced in the 1870s. This type of music became known as Enka in Japan, and later in Korea developed into Trot ().


title: K-pop

text: After the Korean Peninsula was partitioned into North and South following its liberation in 1945 from Japanese occupation, Western culture was introduced into South Korea on a small scale, with a few Western-styled bars and clubs playing Western music. After the Korean War (1950–1953) U.S. troops remained in South Korea, causing American and world culture to spread in South Korea and Western music to gradually become more accepted. Prominent figures of American entertainment like Nat King Cole, Marilyn Monroe and Louis Armstrong held USO shows in South Korea for the U.S. Army. These visits prompted attention from the Korean public. In 1957, the American Forces Korea Network radio started its broadcast, spreading the popularity of Western music. American music started influencing Korean music, as pentatony was gradually replaced by heptachords and popular songs started to be modeled after American ones.


title: K-pop

text: In the 1960s, the development of LP records and improvements in recording technology led to the pursuit of diverse voice tones. Open auditions were also held to recruit musicians to perform at the U.S. army clubs. Since South Korea was impoverished after the Korean War, skilled Korean singers regarded performing for the U.S. troops as a good means to earn money. Many singers sang for the American troops, usually in dedicated clubs, the number of which rose to 264. They performed various genres like country music, blues, jazz and rock & roll. The South Korean economy started blooming and popular music followed the trend, spread by the first commercial radio stations. Korean cinema also began to develop and Korean musicians began performing to wider audiences.


title: K-pop

text: When Beatlemania reached the shores of Korea the first local rock bands appeared, the first of which is said to be Add4, a band founded in 1962. The first talent contest for rock bands in Seoul was organized in 1968.


title: K-pop

text: Some Korean singers gained international popularity. In 1959, the Kim Sisters went to Las Vegas and became the first Korean artist to release an album in the U.S. pop market. Their cover of "Charlie Brown" reached No.7 on the Billboard Single Chart. The Kim Sisters also appeared on TV programs and radio programs and held tours in the U.S. and Europe. They made 25 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show—more than American stars like Patti Page and Louis Armstrong (who appeared 18 times each). The Kim Sisters, Yoon Bok-hee and Patti Kim were the first singers to debut in such countries as Vietnam and the United States. The Kim Sisters became the first Korean group to release an album in the United States. They also performed in Las Vegas. 's 1961 song "The Boy in The Yellow Shirt" was covered by French singer Yvette Giraud and was also popular in Japan.


title: K-pop

text: In the 1960s, the Korean artists such as Shin Joong-hyun, and Patti Kim who previously performed for the U.S. army clubs reached out to the Korean public. In the mid-1960s, due to the influence of the legendary British group The Beatles, there was a rise of "group sound" in South Korea, for example, Add4 and the .  Add4, Korea's first rock group, was formed by Shin Joong-hyun in 1962 and produced Korea's first rock song, "The Woman in the Rain," which is a form of light rock reminiscent of the early Beatles. Shin Joong-hyun was so instrumental in the development of Korean rock music that he is regarded as the "godfather of Korean rock" in South Korea.


title: K-pop

text: During this period, with the rise of Western pop music and Korean rock music, trot was no longer predominant in South Korea. However, trot singers like Lee Mi-ja still managed to attract a certain level of popularity, with famous songs like "Camellia Lady" ().


title: K-pop

text: At the end of the 1960s Korean pop music underwent another transformation. More and more musicians were university students and graduates who were heavily influenced by American culture and lifestyle (including the hippie movement of the 1960s) and made lighthearted music unlike their predecessors, who were influenced by war and Japanese oppression. The younger generation opposed the Vietnam War as much as American hippies did, which resulted in the Korean government banning songs with more liberal lyrics. In spite of this, folk-influenced pop remained popular among the youth, and local television channel MBC organized a music contest for university students in 1977. This was the foundation of several modern music festivals. The younger generation born after the 1950s had grown up under the U.S. influence and preferred the U.S. lifestyle, giving rise to the "youth culture" which was expressed through long hair, jeans, acoustic guitars and folk music.  The folk music of that time is made up of melodies sung plainly, with the singing accompanied by a guitar or two. A majority of the folk music at that time was initiated by elite university students and those who graduated from prestigious schools. Like the activists of the U.S. student movement, they turned to folk music as the preferred music of politicized youth, who staged demonstrations against the authoritarian government.  In turn, the government banned folk music due to its association with the students' anti-government movements. In the 1970s, the Park Chung-hee government banned American pop music and Korean rock music for their association with sex and drugs. Shin Joong-hyun, the "godfather of Korean rock music," was imprisoned in 1975 due to a marijuana scandal. In order to bolster its anti-Japanese credentials, the government also banned trot songs because of its "Japanese style" () given the influence of Japanese enka songs on trot. However, President Park actually embraced trot.


title: K-pop

text: One of the leading figures of the era was Han Dae-soo, who was raised in the United States and influenced by Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and John Lennon. Han's song "Mul jom juso" () became iconic among young people in Korea. His daring performances and unique singing style often shocked the public and later he was banned from performing in Korea. Han moved to New York City and pursued his musical career there, only returning to his home country in the 1990s. Other notable singers of the period include Song Chang-sik, Cho Young-nam and Yang Hee-eun.


title: K-pop

text: The 1980s saw the rise of ballad singers after 's 1985 album "You’re Too Far Away to Get Close to" () sold more than 300,000 copies. Other popular ballad singers included Lee Moon-se (이문세) and Byun Jin-sub (변진섭), nicknamed the "Prince of Ballads". One of the most sought-after ballad composers of the era was Lee Young-hoon (이영훈), whose songs were compiled into a modern musical in 2011 titled "Gwanghwamun Yeonga" ().


title: K-pop

text: The Asia Music Forum was launched in 1980, with representatives from five different Asian countries competing in the event. Korean singer Cho Yong-pil won first place and went on to have a successful career, performing in Hong Kong and Japan. His first album "Chang bakkui yeoja" () was a hit and he became the first Korean singer to take to the stage at Carnegie Hall in New York. Cho's musical repertoire included rock, dance, trot and folk-pop. Despite his early association with rock music as an electric guitarist in a rock band, Cho Yong-pil's initial popularity came from his trot songs which were popular in both South Korea and Japan. For example, in 1976, his trot song, "Please Return to Pusan Port" () was a great hit. Despite the temporary setback due to his involvement in a marijuana incident in 1977, he managed to bounce back with the song "The Woman Outside the Window" which reached a record-breaking sales of 1 million in 1980. In 1988, he sang "Seoul Seoul Seoul" in three languages (Korean, English and Japanese) to celebrate the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.


title: K-pop

text: In the 1990s, Korean pop musicians incorporated partially Europop and mostly American popular music styles such as hip hop, rock, jazz, and electronic dance in their music. In 1992 the emergence of Seo Taiji & Boys marked a revolutionary moment in the history of K-pop. The trio debuted on MBC's talent show with their song "I Know" () and got the lowest rating from the jury; however, the song and album of the same name became so successful that it paved the way for other songs of the same format. The song's success was attributed to its new jack swing-inspired beats and memorable chorus, as well as innovative lyrics which dealt with the problems of Korean society. Their footsteps were followed by a wave of successful hip hop and R&B artists like Yoo Seung-jun, Jinusean, Solid, Deux, 1TYM and Drunken Tiger.


title: K-pop

text: In 1995, South Korean record producer Lee Soo-man, who was educated in the U.S. and was exposed to the trends in American music, founded the entertainment company SM Entertainment. Former Seo Taiji & Boys' member Yang Hyun-suk formed YG Entertainment in 1996, and Park Jin-young established JYP Entertainment in 1997.


title: K-pop

text: The huge popularity of Seo Taiji & Boys among teenagers shifted the focus of the Korean music industry to teen-centred pop music. Idol bands of young boys or girls were formed to cater to a growing teenage audience. H.O.T. was one of the first idol boybands, debuting in 1996 after rigorous training encompassing not only singing and dancing skills but also etiquette, attitude, language and the ability to deal with the media. The song "Candy" sung by H.O.T. presented a softer and gentler form of pop music with upbeat and cheerful melodies accompanied by energetic dance steps – a formula adopted by many subsequent idol groups. The group was a huge success and the fans copied the group's hairstyle and fashion. Merchandise affiliated with the group ranging from candy to perfume were sold as well. Their success was followed by that of young boys and girls idol groups like Sechs Kies, S.E.S., Fin.K.L, NRG, Baby Vox, Diva, Shinhwa and g.o.d, which also became popular among the younger generation.


title: K-pop

text: During the late 90s, talent agencies began to market K-pop stars by implementing an idol business model used in J-pop, where talents are selected and trained to appeal to a global audience through formal lessons or through residency programs. They are trained via an extensive and intensive process that includes physical and language training (a program sometimes called abusive), and they are selected for height as well, being much taller on average than their Japanese counterparts. As for looks, "K-pop emphasizes thin, tall, and feminine looks with


title: K-pop

text: adolescent or sometimes very cute facial expressions, regardless of whether they’re male or female singers," according to sociology professor Ingyu Oh. Over time, Korean-American artists have become successful due to their fluency. These efforts increase the marketability of K-pop while also increasing South Korean soft power, which has become an important part of official policy.


title: K-pop

text: The 1990s saw a reactionary movement against mainstream popular culture with the rise of illegal underground music clubs and punk rock bands such as Crying Nut. The 1997 Asian financial crisis prompted South Korean entertainers to look for new markets: H.O.T. released a Mandarin-language album and Diva released an English-language album in Taiwan.


title: K-pop

text: K-pop's increasing popularity forms part of "Hallyu", or the Korean Wave: the popularity of South Korean culture in other countries. K-pop is increasingly making appearances on Western charts such as "Billboard". The development of online social media has been a vital tool for the Korean music industry in reaching a wider audience. As part of the Korean Wave, K-pop has been embraced by the South Korean government as a tool for projecting South Korea's soft power abroad, particularly towards overseas youth. In August 2014, the prominent British news magazine "The Economist" dubbed Korean pop culture "Asia’s foremost trendsetter."


title: K-pop

text: By the beginning of the 21st century, the K-pop market had slumped and early K-pop idol groups that had seen success in the 90's were on the decline. H.O.T. disbanded in 2001, while other groups like Sechs Kies, S.E.S., Fin.K.L, Shinhwa, and g.o.d became inactive by 2005. Solo singers like BoA and Rain grew in success. However, the success of the boy band TVXQ after its debut in 2003 marked the resurgence of idol groups to Korean entertainment and the growth of K-pop as part of "Hallyu". The birth of second-generation K-pop was followed with the successful debuts of SS501 (2005), Super Junior (2005), Big Bang (2006), Wonder Girls (2007), Girls' Generation (2007), Kara (2007), Shinee (2008), 2NE1 (2009), 4Minute (2009), T-ara (2009), f(x) (2009), and After School (2009).


title: K-pop

text: During the beginning of the 21st century, K-pop idols began receiving success elsewhere in Asia: in 2002, Baby Vox's single "Coincidence" () became popular in many Asian countries after it was released and promoted during the World Cup in South Korea. BoA became the first K-pop singer to reach No. 1 on the Japanese Oricon music chart and shortly afterwards, Rain had a sold-out concert to an audience of 40,000 fans in Beijing. In 2003, Baby Vox topped the Chinese music charts with their Chinese single "I'm Still Loving You" from their third album "Devotion", the first idol group to do so, creating a huge fanbase in China. They also charted in various music charts in Thailand. TVXQ marked the rise of K-pop boy bands in Japan. In 2008, their single "Purple Line" made TVXQ the first foreign boy band and second Korean artist after BoA to top the Oricon music chart.


title: K-pop

text: Since the mid-2000s, a huge portion of the East Asian music market has been dominated by K-pop. In 2008, South Korea's cultural exports (including television dramas and computer games) rose to US$2 billion, maintaining an annual growth rate of over 10%. That year, Japan accounted for almost 68% of all K-pop export revenues, ahead of China (11.2%) and the United States (2.1%). The sale of concert tickets proved to be a lucrative business; TVXQ's Tohoshinki Live Tour in Japan sold over 850,000 tickets at an average cost of US$109 each, generating a total of US$92.6 million in revenues.


title: K-pop

text: Elsewhere in the world, the genre has rapidly grown in success, especially after Psy's "Gangnam Style" music video was the first YouTube video to reach one billion views, achieving widespread coverage in mainstream media. As of December 2020, the video has 3.9 billion views. Several failed attempts have been made by entertainment companies to break into the English-language market, including BoA, Wonder Girls, Girls' Generation, and CL. BTS won Top Social Artist at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards in 2017, making them the first K-pop group to win a BBMA. Their performance of the song "DNA" at the American Music Awards, the first AMA performance by a K-pop group, also led to the song peaking at number 67 on the Billboard Hot 100. The following year, BTS became the first K-pop group to reach number 1 on the Billboard 200 with "." The K-Pop industry is active in New York City, hosting numerous concerts in the city as well as being home to K-Pop musicians. The musical "KPOP" opened Off-Broadway in 2017 and moved to Broadway in 2022.


title: K-pop

text: K-pop has spawned an entire industry encompassing music production houses, event management companies, music distributors, and other merchandise and service providers. The three biggest companies in terms of sales and revenue are SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment, often referred to as the 'Big Three.' These record labels also function as representative agencies for their artists. They are responsible for recruiting, financing, training, and marketing new artists as well as managing their musical activities and public relations. Currently, the agency with the greatest market share is S.M. Entertainment. In 2011, together with Star J Entertainment, AM Entertainment, and Key East, the Big Three companies founded the joint management company United Asia Management.


title: K-pop

text: In 2011, 1,100 albums were released in South Korea. The hip-hop genre had the most representation, at two-thirds of the total albums. One-third of the albums were from a variety of other genres, including rock, modern folk, and crossover.


title: K-pop

text: In 2012, the average cost of obtaining a K-pop song in South Korea amounted to US$0.10 for a single download, or $0.002 when streamed online. In the first half of 2012, according to "Billboard", the Korean music industry grossed nearly US$3.4 billion—a 27.8% increase on the previous year—and was recognized by "Time" magazine as "South Korea's Greatest Export."


title: K-pop

text: Please refer to table below for a look at a 2.1 billion increase in sales for the Korean music industry, from 2014 to 2018.


title: K-pop

text: Korean record charts include the Gaon Digital Chart and the "Billboard" K-pop Hot 100. Some K-pop records have appeared on the Oricon Albums Chart of Japan and the "Billboard" Hot 100 of the United States.


title: K-pop

text: In 2009, singer Hwangbo entered the European music industry for a short period when she released the single R2song, reaching # 1 on the world's largest dance music site JunoDowload, being successful in the United Kingdom, Europe, as well as Korea; becoming the first Asian artist to achieve it.


title: K-pop

text: In May 2014, Exo became the third K-pop act to enter the "Billboard" 200 that year after 2NE1, Girls' Generation and Wonder Girls were the first K-Pop act to chart on Billboard 200.


title: K-pop

text: In October 2016, BTS's album "Wings" becomes the first Korean album to chart in the UK Album Charts, reaching #62, and the highest-charting and best selling K-pop album in the Billboard 200. In February 2017, BTS landed their fourth album "You Never Walk Alone" at #61 on the Billboard 200. In September 2017, BTS landed at #14 on the UK Album Charts with their new album, "". "" debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 135,000 album-equivalent units (including 100,000 pure album sales), becoming BTS' highest-charting and first number one album in the US, the first K-pop album to top the US albums chart, and the highest-charting album by an Asian act. "Fake Love" peaked at number ten on the "Billboard" Hot 100 that same week, becoming the band's highest reaching song on the chart as well as their first in the top ten. Overall, only twenty non-English songs have reached the top ten, with "Fake Love" being the first for a K-Pop group. The single also debuted at number seven on Billboard's Streaming Songs chart with 27.4 million streams earned in the week ending May 24, giving BTS its first top ten on the chart and making "Fake Love" the first K-pop song to land on top ten since Psy's "Hangover" feat. Snoop Dogg in 2014. In August 2020, their song "Dynamite" topped the "Billboard" Hot 100 in its opening week, becoming the group's first number-one single in the US and their fourth top-10 entry. BTS became the first K-pop act in Hot 100 history to debut at number one.


title: K-pop

text: In June 2018, YG Entertainment's girl group Blackpink became the first K-pop girl group to hit within the top 50 of Billboard 200 album chart; their first mini-album "SQUARE UP" debuted at No. 40. Their title song "Ddu Du Ddu Du" charted at No. 55 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making it the highest-charting song and the first full Korean-language song by a K-pop girl group. Since then, they have beaten their own record with Ice Cream peaking at #13 on the Billboard Hot 100.


title: K-pop

text: By convention in modern K-pop, trainees go through a rigorous training system for an undetermined amount of time before debut. This method was popularized by Lee Soo-man, founder of S.M. Entertainment, as part of a concept labelled "cultural technology." "The Verge" described this as an "extreme" system of artist management. According to the CEO of Universal Music's Southeast Asian branch, the Korean idol trainee system is unique in the world.


title: K-pop

text: Because of the training period, which can last for many years, and the significant amount of investment that agencies put towards their trainees, the industry is very serious about launching new artists. Trainees may enter an agency through auditions or be scouted, and once recruited are given accommodation and classes (commonly singing, dancing, rapping, and foreign languages such as Mandarin, English and Japanese) while they prepare for debut. Young trainees sometimes attend school at the same time. There is no age limit to become a trainee and no limit to the duration one can spend as a trainee.


title: K-pop

text: The Korean music industry has spawned numerous related reality TV shows, including talent shows such as "Superstar K" and "K-pop Star", specialist rap competition "Show Me the Money" and its female counterpart "Unpretty Rapstar," and many 'survival' shows, which commonly pit trainees against each other in order to form a new idol group. Examples of survival shows include Jellyfish Entertainment's "MyDOL", which formed boy group VIXX; YG Entertainment's "WIN: Who Is Next", which formed boy group Winner, and its follow-up "MIX&MATCH", which formed iKon; JYP Entertainment's "Sixteen", which formed girl group Twice; Starship Entertainment's "No.Mercy", which formed boy group Monsta X; Cube Entertainment's "Pentagon Maker", which formed boy group Pentagon; Mnet's "Produce 101", which formed girl groups I.O.I and Iz*One and boy groups Wanna One and X1; Duble Kick Entertainment's "Finding Momo Land", which formed girl group Momoland; Mnet's "Idol School," which formed girl group Fromis 9; Belift Lab's "I-Land", which formed boy group Enhypen; MBC's "My Teenage Girl", which formed girl group Classy; and Mnet’s "Girls Planet 999", which formed girl group Kep1er. The rise in these shows, which often involves larger agencies contracting smaller agencies' trainees into project groups and taking a larger portion of the revenues, has led to criticisms over the former monopolizing the industry.


title: K-pop

text: In 2002, "Time" magazine reported that Korean television producers such as Hwang Yong-woo and Kim Jong-jin had been arrested for "accepting under-the-table payments guaranteeing TV appearances to aspiring singers and musicians" in a bid to tackle "systemic corruption in South Korea's music business." Companies investigated included SidusHQ and S.M. Entertainment.


title: K-pop

text: K-pop management companies have also been criticized for exploitation of idols through overwork and restrictive contracts, described as "slave contracts" in a "BBC" report. According to "The Hollywood Reporter", "Korea's entertainment business is notoriously improvisational and unregulated. In-demand K-pop stars – many of whom are teenage 'idols' – have been known to rehearse and perform without sleep."


title: K-pop

text: In July 2009, S.M. Entertainment was taken to court by TVXQ and a Super Junior member, who alleged that their working conditions had led to adverse health effects. The court decision in the TVXQ lawsuit determined their contract with S.M. Entertainment void, and resultantly the Fair Trade Commission released contract templates to regulate industry conditions.


title: K-pop

text: In 2014, South Korea passed a law to regulate its music industry, protecting idols aged under 19 from unhealthy labor practices and overtly sexualized performances and guaranteeing them "the basic rights to learn, rest and sleep." Failure to comply with these regulations may lead to the equivalent of a US$10,000 fine.


title: K-pop

text: Industry professionals such as SM Entertainment's CEO Kim Young-min have defended the system, arguing that individuals trained within the system are "no different than typical middle or high school kids, who go to after-school programs to cram for college entrance exams." Kim has also argued that there is a need to consider the expenses incurred by the company during the trainee period, including "facilities, equipment, costumes, and virtually everything the trainees need."


title: K-pop

text: On March 7, 2017, the South Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) passed new regulations in order to protect trainee idols from unfair terms and working conditions. Prior to these regulations, trainee idols at eight idol agencies were not permitted to seek contracts at any other agency while at training. Moreover, agencies were able to terminate a trainee contract at any time for any reason. The Fair Trade Commission states that they believe these changes will "result in a more just contract culture within the entertainment industry between trainee and agency." The Ministry of Culture applied these regulations to all existing agencies throughout 2018.


title: K-pop

text: Some of the concerns raised by the idol agencies over these regulations include the risk of a trainee at one agency going undercover at another agency to receive training with the other agency. This introduces the further risk that the idol agencies must take in training new idols. Trainees train for 3 years on average and the agencies support these trainees with various training programs during this duration, resulting in each trainee being a very large investment for the agency.


title: K-pop

text: The industry has been criticized for the sexualization of both male and female idols, with the sexualization of minors in particular being of concern. Critics such as James Turnbull of the Korean Pop Culture blog The Grand Narrative have argued young female idols are especially susceptible to pressures to wear revealing clothing or dance provocatively. However, compared to western popular music, K-pop has little sex, drugs, or aggressive behavior and has a much more parent-friendly branding.


title: K-pop

text: Some K-pop artists have suggested that the uncertainty and pressures of their jobs as entertainers may be detrimental to their mental health. According to musician Park Kyung of Block B, "There are many people who debuted with no sense of self yet, and they come to realize later that every move and every word they say is being observed so they become cautious and lose their freedom." In an interview with Yonhap, Suga of BTS talked about his own mental health, and said, "Anxiety and loneliness seem to be with me for life…Emotions are so different in every situation and every moment, so I think to agonise every moment is what life is." The suicides of prominent K-pop musicians have drawn attention to industry pressures. In 1996, singer Charles Park, also known as , died by suicide at the age of 19, before the release of his second album. Kim Jonghyun, who had previously been open about his history of depression, also died by suicide in December 2017. In the spring of 2018, a number of prominent Korean musicians participated in a free concert series to raise awareness of suicide prevention. In 2019, the death of Sulli of an apparent suicide, followed by the death of Goo Hara, both who were subjected to cyberbullying, added to calls for reform.


title: K-pop

text: K-pop artists are frequently referred to as idols or idol groups. Groups usually have a leader, who is often the eldest or most experienced member and speaks for the group. The youngest group member is called the "maknae" (). The popular use of this term in Japan was influenced by boy group SS501 when they expanded their activities in the country in 2007. Its Japanese translation "man'ne" () was often used to name the group's youngest member Kim Hyung-jun in order to differentiate him from their leader with a similar name and spelling, Kim Hyun-joong.


title: K-pop

text: Not all K-pop fans are young women; in 2018 "Metro" magazine interviewed male adult K-pop fans of different nationalities, who talked about how following male pop groups and being part of their fandoms had helped them understand themselves and the concept of masculinity better.


title: K-pop

text: Many fans travel overseas to see their idols on tour, and tourists commonly visit Korea from Japan and China to see K-pop concerts. A K-pop tour group from Japan had more than 7,000 fans fly to Seoul to meet boy band JYJ in 2012, and during JYJ's concert in Barcelona in 2011, fans from many parts of the world camped overnight to gain entrance. A 2011 survey conducted by the Korean Culture and Information Service reported that there were over 3 million active members of "Hallyu" fan clubs.


title: K-pop

text: An article by "The Wall Street Journal" indicated that K-pop's future staying power will be shaped by fans, whose online activities have evolved into "micro-businesses." K-pop groups commonly have dedicated fan clubs with a collective name and sometimes an assigned colour, to which they will release merchandise. For example, TVXQ fans are known as 'Cassiopeia,' and their official colour is 'pearl red.' Some of the more popular groups have personalized light sticks for use at concerts; for example, Big Bang fans hold yellow crown-shaped light sticks.


title: K-pop

text: Fan clubs sometimes participate in charity events to support their idols, purchasing bags of 'fan rice' in order to show support. The rice bags are donated to those in need. According to "Time", for one of Big Bang's shows, 12.7 tons of rice were donated from 50 fan clubs around the world. There are businesses in Korea dedicated to shipping rice from farmers to the venues. Another way that fan clubs show their devotion is by sending lunch to idols during their schedules, and there are catering companies in South Korea specifically for this purpose.


title: K-pop

text: A unique feature of K-pop fandom is the "fan chant". When an idol group releases a new song, chants, usually consisting of group members' names, are performed by live concert audiences during non-singing parts of songs.


title: K-pop

text: Some idols and idol groups have faced problems from obsessive fans who indulge in stalking or invasive behavior. These fans are known as "sasaeng" fans (), from the Korean word for 'private life,' which alludes to their penchant for invading the privacy of idols and members of idol groups. There have been accounts of extreme behaviors from fans trying to gain idols' attention. Korean public officials recognize this as a unique but serious concern.


title: K-pop

text: Some idols have reacted angrily towards "sasaeng" fans, for which they received backlash; including members of JYJ, Super Junior member Kim Hee-chul, and Jang Keun-suk.


title: K-pop

text: In response to the issue, a new law introduced in February 2016 in Korea saw the penalty for stalking rise to around US$17,000 as well as a possible two-year jail sentence.


title: K-pop

text: Social media sites such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook allow K-pop artists to reach a global audience and to communicate readily with their fans. As global online music market revenue increased 19% from 2009 to 2014 with social media, music consumers around the world are more likely to be exposed to K-pop. K-pop idol groups benefit from video-based social media such as YouTube since visual components such as dance and fashion are essential factors in their performance. The number of searches of "K-pop" on YouTube increased by a factor of 33 from 2004 to 2014. Through social media advertisement, Korean entertainment companies narrowed the cultural gap so K-pop could enter the global market and gain recognition among overseas consumers. The export of K-pop dramatically increased from US$13.9 million to US$204 million between 2007 and 2011. Social media also changes the consumption patterns of K-pop music. Before the digital era, people would purchase and consume music products on an individual basis. Consumers now actively participate in sharing music products and advertising their favorite artists, which is advantageous for K-pop.


title: K-pop

text: Since K-pop started to spread its industry outside South Korea, K-pop artists have set notable records on YouTube. Of the 2.28 billion worldwide K-pop YouTube views in 2011, 240 million came from the United States, more than double the figure from 2010 (94 million). In December 2011, K-pop became the first country-specific genre of music to gain a homepage on YouTube. In December 2012, Psy's music video for "Gangnam Style" became the first YouTube video to receive 1 billion views. In 2016 the music video for the song "TT" by Twice became the first video by a female Korean act with over 400 million YouTube views. On January 21, 2019, girl group Blackpink's music video for "Ddu-Du-Ddu-Du" became the highest viewed K-pop group music video on YouTube. On April 12, 2019, BTS' music video for "Boy with Luv" set a record for the most viewed online music video in the first 24 hours, garnering over 74 million views.


title: K-pop

text: Twitter has also been a significant social media platform for K-pop stars to get connections and promotions. The viral song "Gangnam Style" gained popularity from mentions by prominent Twitter users. Bang Si Hyuk, the producer of BTS, partially attributed the fast growth of their fanbase to social media such as Twitter. On November 13, 2017, BTS became the first South Korean act to reach 10 million followers on Twitter. In 2017, BTS was the most tweeted-about artist both in the United States and globally. Other K-pop groups, such as Seventeen and Monsta X, also appeared in the global top ten. Exo, a South Korean boyband, was the most followed celebrity to have entered Twitter in 2017. At the 2017, 2018, and 2019 Billboard Music Awards, BTS won the award for Top Social Media Artist based on Twitter voting by their fans. According to Sin Chang Seob, the CEO of Twitter Korea, the usage of Twitter by K-pop artists has increased Twitter's popularity among South Koreans.