Everybody Wants to Be a K-Pop Star : The Record : NPR
In December, Claudine Ebeid talked about the explosion in popularity of Korean pop groups in the United States. We can’t stop watching Girls’ Generation and 2NE1 videos on YouTube, and we’re not the only ones. Reporter Doualy Xaykaothao says that K-Pop is also spreading like wildfire in China. These groups are often huge — Girls’ Generation includes nine members, Nine Muses confusingly includes eight — and to stoke the flames, South Korea’s suddenly in-demand pop factories are looking to the country’s youth.
Inside a nondescript building on Seoul’s Rodeo Drive sit dozens of teenagers, some with their parents. They’re taking part in open auditions held by entertainment giant SM. “The Boys,” a giant hit by SM’s own Girls’ Generation — recent veterans of The Late Show with David Letterman — is playing over loudspeakers.
Girls’ Generation is idolized by the assembled hopefuls. “When I see Girls’ Generation, I think they are so pretty and so cool,” says Young-eun Park through a translator. “I am going to be just like them.”