Global Exotica

In 2012, the video to Gangnam Style by the rapper PSY was the first ever film to have been viewed over a billion times on YouTube. The latest stage of the Korean wave took the world by storm! The culture of this technologically advanced country spread like online wildfire far beyond Asia, and the phenomenon was even noted by the then Secretary-General of the UN Ban Ki-moon and the American president Barack Obama. Last year, the Seoul boy band BTS performed at the American Music Award gala. The K-pop phenomenon has also reached Poland: on 14 October, Cemetery Pub hosts the quartet Violet Tree presenting their own compositions alongside covers of tracks by their compatriots. (Bartosz Suchecki, “Karnet”)