“Mom, my boyfriend’s performing at a concert this weekend and I need to buy tickets!”

This is the usual reaction of K-pop fan girls.

K-pop is Korea’s mainstream music that is mostly known for vivacious outfits, boys with heavy eyeliner, and flamboyant choreographed dance moves. But, what we don’t realize is that K-pop is actually transforming Korea and the international community, as well.

Around a few years ago, K-pop was not as popular as it is now; K-pop is becoming one of South Korea’s biggest exports as companies such as YG Entertainment, SM Entertainment, and JYP export millions of dollars through promotional events and concerts. We also can’t forget about Psy’s “Gangnam Style” which went viral last year, for its unique horse dance. Festivals and concerts continue to spread the influence of K-pop and are so popular that they sell out within minutes. This is the case with KCON, an annual music festival held in Los Angeles, California organized by Korean companies such as Mnet Media and CJ E&M.

KCON is an event that brings the K-pop experience to American fans and allows them to connect with others as well as K-pop industry artists, through the bond of music. The musical festival started back in 2012 where popular artists such as B.A.P, G.NA, EXO, and VIXX attracted more than 10,000 people at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater.

Jeff Benjamin, a K-pop columnist for Billboard, described KCON as a convention that “truly proved its ability to pass language barriers and kick-start what may be an annual music tradition.”

It was stated that more than thirty percent of the audience at 2013’s KCON was non-Korean and this year will be no different. 2014’s KCON will be held on August 9th in the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Nowadays, it isn’t rare for Korean concerts to sell out, but in this case, KCON tickets were sold over 100% markup. Tickets were ranged from ＄50 through ＄250, but were being sold on Ebay for over ＄1,000, which shows that despite the spike in prices, fans were willing to pay the overwhelming fee to see their favorite K-pop artists.

It’s easy for people to ignore the fact that K-pop is in fact bigger than plastic faces and crazy fan girls. They might just be experiencing the future of Korea.