Krucialize on X / "Lily Of The Valley" by Rangrarii on Ridi
SM Entertainment - a premier Korean entertainment company that brought us some of the biggest, legendary acts in K-Pop, is now venturing into the avenue of K-R&B. Is it just a road less traveled, or will it be the door to an even greater expansion of Hallyu? Let’s find out.
The first known usage of the word Hallyu was in 1999, so it has been around for longer than some of our 5th generation K-Pop idols today. It started from the craze around Korean dramas and Korean pop music, developed from a niche, entered the mainstream, and then once again birthed microcultures. Why is this important? Keep reading!
Why Is SM Starting a K-R&B Label?
To put it very simply, imagine TVXQ as one of the starting points of the popularity of K-Pop outside Asia (K-Pop is a niche at this point), Girls’ Generation and EXO growing that influence and approaching globality, BTS and BLACKPINK conquering the world and going mainstream, mainstream trends become homogenized, human tendency to seek out uniqueness or alternatives comes into play, demand for more versatile K-Content rises, attention falls to smaller artists and undiscovered gems, genres like K-R&B, K-HipHop, and K-Indie, which existed in the fringes of the mainstream, start to prosper, albeit still within niche fandoms.
However, studies suggest that in 2024, niche is the mainstream. The demand for niche personalization is greater than ever before with hyper-targeted algorithms, thus leading to the rise of sub-cultures on a larger scale. Naturally, this applies to Hallyu as well. Concerns over the saturation of the K-Pop market are d
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