How K-pop Turned Bohemian Rhapsody Into A Viral Phenomenon In Korea

By T.K. Park and Youngdae Kim


South Korea may seem like a unlikely answer for the question, "Which country’s people have been the most passionate viewers of Bohemian Rhapsody?" However Korea is a place that surprises: Recent industry intelligence reveals the film sold more than 9.4 million tickets with a total box office haul of $72 million, making nation the best non-U.S. Market for the Queen biopic that just won two Golden Globes. (Yes, that insinuates the movie about Queen was more popular in South Korea than it was in the United Kingdom, where the musical group is from.) The popularity is even more staggering once considered on a per capita basis: U.S. Income for Bohemian Rhapsody was slightly far less than three times that of South Korea’s, however the U.S. Has a population more than six times greater than Korea.


However the numbers alone never do justice to how popular the movie is in Korea. Multiplex theaters in Korea supply "sing along" screenings, in which the audience can sing, clap, and stomp their feet to the band's seminal hits "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions." Across the nation, it was not odd to be able to see year-end parties in which attendants dressed up (or down, actually) in Freddie Mercury’s iconic white sleeveless shirts, with the complete party singing "Bohemian Rhapsody." International fans of Korean pop culture became perplexed as their preference singers suddenly started covering Queen’s discography in music programs and variety shows.


How did a biopic about Queen come to be so popular in a East Asian nation? As it is the case with all viral hits, the purpose of the movie’s popularity in Korea isn't reducible to a solitary factor. It accommodates that, on a per capita basis, South Korea is the world’s highest-attending film territory, as well as a nation that runs 24 hours a day, where it is regular for filmgoers to return to the theater three, four, or five times to re-watch the movie they admired. (At Megabox COEX, a multiplex located in Seoul, the initial screening usually starts at 8 a.M., And the last screening starts at 2 a.M. The next day.) In other words, as a movie goes viral in South Korea, it really goes viral. Also, music-themed movies tend to punch above their weight in Korea, a nation with a highly-developed taste for pop music and karaoke. Further, it is needless to say a factor that Queen was quite popular in South Korea while in the band’s heyday — just as much as ABBA’s lingering popularity in South Korea propelled the 2008 Mamma Mia! movie into a viral hit, launching the trend for sing-along screenings.


Nevertheless these explanations all fall short of answering the core questions: Queen, and how Bohemian Rhapsody? For it isn't the case that every music-themed movie succeeds in Korea. The N.W.A. Biopic, Straight Outta Compton, is the second-most successful music biopic ever (trailing Bohemian Rhapsody), and earned far more important praise in the U.S., Depicting a crowd that is no much less iconic than Queen. Nevertheless it did merely fine in Korea, never reaching the same level of virality, despite being released just three years earlier than Bohemian Rhapsody. And while Queen was indeed popular in Korea in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it does not explain the movie’s appeal to the young Koreans who were also young or also not-yet-born to be able to see the musical group in action.


From left to right: Gwilym Lee (Brian May), Rami Malek (Freddie Mercury), and Joe Mazzello (John Deacon) star as Queen in Bohemian Rhapsody


Ultimately, response The answer is simple: the movie is popular in Korea because Queen’s music and efficiency resonate with the major themes in Korean pop music. For a comparable example, imagine PSY’s "Gangnam Fashion Yet PSY was a complete cipher to the U.S. Audience in 2012, "Gangnam Fashion took America by storm. Naturally, PSY’s humorous looks, his signature horsey dance, and absurdist music video are all a segment of the reasons why "Gangnam Fashion became a viral hit. However "Gangnam Fashion also presented something familiar: a EDM tune reminiscent of LMFAO, the mainstream U.S. Sound at the time. Residents of the
U.S. Admired "Gangnam Fashion because it was a twist on something familiar. The same is true with Koreans and the Queen biopic: Koreans like Bohemian Rhapsody because it presents something familiar, because there really is something about Queen that reminds them of Korean pop music.


And Queen presents something familiar to Koreans because a significant segment of Korean pop music was shaped right after Queen’s music and frontman Freddie Mercury’s stage presence.


the structure of today’s K-pop was laid in the late 1980s, which opened an era that came be referred to because the "golden age" of Korean pop music. In several ways, this era serves because the wellspring of inspiration for today’s K-pop idol groups as this era's tunes are the ones in which they grew up, and the ones their producers had been making. South Korea’s democratization in 1987, followed by the Seoul Olympics in 1988, opened the field for all types of pop music to flourish. A hugely diverse array of genres, ranging from pop, ballad (soft rock), hip-hop, trot, and adult contemporary, all had a meaningful presence in the mainstream. For the Korean pop musicians of the late 1980s and 90s who thought themselves rockers, the contemporary U.K. Progressive rock musicians like Pink Floyd and Queen were the gold regular to emulate. Deulgukhwa, as an example, is thought one of the most iconic rock bands in Korean pop music history, and it also is impossible to listen to their "Oh you're a Cute Woman" ["오 그대는 아름다운 여인"] without being reminded of Queen’s "Love of My Life."


Queen’s music noticed popularity in Korea as it collected an eclectic genre music and presented by way of the format of pop-rock. This methodology in back of Queen’s music is same because the one in back of modern K-pop’s inclination toward genre-bending music. Queen’s influence was particularly pronounced in Shin Hae-chul, one of the most crucial figures in Korean pop music history. Having debuted in 1988 as a member of a college musical group, Shin led an illustrious 26-year career as musician and producer, primarily in rock music. Shin’s emulation of Queen goes in back of his musical group N.EX.T's album jacket art or one of the albums being titled "Space Rock Opera." Shin’s innovative use of synthesizers is directly traceable to Queen, and in turn influenced the K-pop artists and producers who followed his path.


However arguably, Queen’s stage efficiency exerted an even greater influence on K-pop’s development. The glam rock trend led by David Bowie, in which music is presented not only through sound yet also through stage design, choreography, costume, hair, etc., Has significantly influenced Korean pop music, leading to the modern K-pop trend that focuses on the visual presentation much because the aural. Freddie Mercury’s charismatic stage presence — an apotheosis of the glam rock trend — left a deep impression on Korean pop musicians in the early 1990s, as they were starting to put on arena shows of their own. Shin constantly sought to emulate Queen’s stage for his own concerts. PSY has said Freddie Mercury was his inspiration.


This trend has traveled down in the development of Korean pop music, and can be seen today in modern K-pop as well. Unlike their counterparts in, mention, Japanese pop music, the idol groups in K-pop tend give attention to daring visual presentation. In particular, K-pop idol groups from SM Entertainment like EXO and SHINee have been the faithful followers of the glam rock tradition — with gender-bending makeup and costumes, all while emanating charisma during an enormous arena. The same is true with BTS, who also make efficient use of the baroque and mythical visuals that Mercury often favored. Case in point, these idol groups' lush visual presentation has been a major factor in modern K-pop’s international success.


Not frequently appreciated, nevertheless, is how the K-pop idols are finding success as heirs of Freddie Mercury.