The first time the West probably started noticing K-Pop must have been around 2012, when Psy’s song “Gangnam Style” suddenly went viral. People smiled at the hilarious music video, sang to the addictive chorus and soon everyone knew the choreography. With the song being featured in commercials, as ringtones or during sport transmission breaks, there was literally no escaping from it.
From then on, with the help of online channels like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, Korean culture steadily began to penetrate and gain popularity in the West, conquering our music channels, television, fashion and even the beauty industry. Groups like Big Bang, 2NE1 and Girls Generation regularly climb their ways up to the top American billboard charts, even surpassing global stars like Taylor Swift. And cosmetics giant Lancome just recently released their first Miracle Cushion Foundation inspired by the widely successful Korean BB Cushions. Even K-Pop dance classes are now being offered in cities all around the world now.
However, no one would have guessed or foreseen that K-Pop would also make its way into – wait for it – cartoons.
Yes, you read it right. The animated show “We Bare Bears“, about 3 bear siblings trying to integrate with the human world, just aired an episode on Cartoon Network where one of the siblings, Panda, is clearly doing a typical K-Pop choreography while a K-Pop song plays in the back. In the episode entitled “Panda’s Dream” Panda gets cut in line while queueing for a game shop and starts to imagine different scenarios about how he could stand up for himself, one of the options being a K-Pop dance competition. Sounds reasonable, right?
Check it out for yourself on the video below:
After Cartoon Network, we can now only imagine where we will see the influence of K-Pop next. Dare to take a guess?
