K-Pop Takes Over Madison Square Garden

The SMTown Live showcase brought Asia's pop stars to New York City.

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

Earlier this month, the 9-piece Korean pop supergroup Girls Generation made their United States debut with "The Boys." The video was released on October 18, and it already has over 11 million views. The group's music and success in America is part of a bigger movement called K-Pop, short for Korean pop, and thanks to Twitter, Facebook, and the global accessibility offered by the internet, it's spreading faster than ever.

SMTown Live is an annual showcase that brings K-Pop to venues world wide, and 2010 marked the first year they took their show to the United States. This year, the showcase hit Madison Square Garden and brought out Girls Generation, along with other artists like BoA, Kangta, Super Junior, f(x), SHINee, and TVXQ to a sold out audience in New York City.

The growing popularity and acceptance of Asian pop in the United States reflects globalization's inevitable effect on music. The appeal may not be completely mainstream yet, but the followers are fanatical, the movement is gaining momentum, and the artists are determined to attain success in the West.

One of the artists, known as Kangta, explained, "We would like to have this opportunity, if there was any a wall between the West and East, to take this opportunity to squash this wall. Hopefully we could be much more famous in the United States, as well as all the other Western countries."

See some pictures from the SMTown Live 2011 World Tour stop at Madison Square Garden above.

Latest in Music