Free Republic

LONG BEFORE PSY made Korean music famous in the West, much of Asia had fallen under the sway of K-pop: tightly choreographed ditties performed by fresh-faced boy and girl bands, exquisitely manufactured from interchangeable parts. Even in North Korea the latest dance routines are eagerly imitated, according to Daily NK, a news hub led by defectors. Dance teachers can earn about 20 times the average worker’s salary, it reports.

British weekly magazine the Economist published an article highlighting K-pop girl band Crayon Pop in its latest issue, which hit newsstands on Saturday. As part of a 14-page special report on Korea, it wrote, "Crayon Pop are not a typical K-pop outfit. They look goofy rather than glamorous, like kid sisters not dream dates, and prefer plimsolls to stilettos." The success story of Crayon Pop's song "Bar Bar Bar" was viewed as being different from that of other Korean girl groups. It "spread like a virus on YouTube," the magazine wrote. "Whereas most songs peak early in the charts, then...

"They may look wacky and bizarre, but this rookie Korean girl group, Crayon Pop, is leading the KPop music charts. And it's this music video, "Bar Bar Bar" that is running red-hot on the internet." (Excerpt quote from video.)

…And a request for your moral support, and freeping the polls, on their behalf. Today, I feel compelled to make this vanity post, because I hope to see these girls continue to garner fans and “take over the world”…so to speak! ^_^ The girls I’m talking about are a Korean pop music (KPop) group called “Crayon Pop.”  They are a quintet of sweetly charming, cute girls, who debuted last year, and currently sweeping Korea (perhaps the world?) with an infectious tune called “Bar Bar Bar,” or “Bbabbabba” (which is the Romanized version of the Hangul text. The double"b" or "bb"...