{"id":471635,"date":"2026-02-10T23:50:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/471635\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T23:50:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:50:18","slug":"buoyed-by-global-culture-juggernauts-the-australian-k-pop-community-has-exploded-in-popularity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/471635\/","title":{"rendered":"Buoyed by global culture juggernauts, the Australian K-pop community has ‘exploded’ in popularity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite the pressure of a looming deadline, the energy in the dance studio is fun and friendly.<\/p>\n

There’s laughter and clapping as the dancers try to synchronise to the fast-paced beat.<\/p>\n

Jessica Ly admits to some pre-show nerves.<\/p>\n

“Like, we’re stressed, but it’s a good stress, I guess. Excited!” she says.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Dancers Jessica (top left), Bree, Alice, and River rehearse for their K-pop showcase as part of the BrisAsia Festival. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

Ms Ly is one of about 200 performers who’ll be taking to the stage on Saturday as part of a K-pop showcase for the BrisAsia Festival.<\/p>\n

Producer Alice Chang says the local K-pop scene is soaring.<\/p>\n

“We have a huge and growing community,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I love it because it brings the community together, more so than just the music.”<\/p>\n

Already booming globally, interest in K-pop only escalated when the Netflix animated movie KPop Demon Hunters became a huge hit.<\/p>\n

It was Netflix’s most-watched title in 2025.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

KPop Demon Hunters was a global smash hit. (Supplied: Netflix)<\/p>\n

“Crazy”, is how Ms Chang describes its impact.<\/p>\n

“We had an on-stage K-pop workshop and \u2026 we had a bunch of kids that just want to learn K-pop because of it.”<\/p>\n

Suzi Coronado Veranes, who owns a dance studio in Brisbane’s Woolloongabba, has experienced a similar rush in demand.<\/p>\n

“We specialise in international street styles.<\/p>\n

“We’ve been doing K-pop for about two years now, but as soon as the Demon Hunters movie came out, the numbers just blew up,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Suzi Coronado Veranes says demand for K-pop classes has exploded. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

“Korean fashion, Korean skincare, Korean music is just a big phenomenon at the moment, and everyone around the world is catching on to it.<\/p>\n

“It’s a really cool culture to be in.”K-pop supergroup BTS reveal Australian tour dates<\/a><\/p>\n

The K-pop supergroup announce their first Australian tour dates since being discharged from the South Korean military.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2025, the movie’s hit anthem Golden spent 10 weeks at number one in the Aria charts and this year won a Golden Globe award.<\/p>\n

Australian fans of K-pop supergroup BTS have been sent into a frenzy with news of a world tour.<\/p>\n

Brisbane K-pop student Vivi Pham Dac raves about her musical idols.<\/p>\n

“I am absolutely in love with BTS and Stray Kids.<\/p>\n

“They work so hard. They write their own songs, and sing and dance; they’re so talented,” she says.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Vivi Phan Dac used to practice K-pop dancing at home before taking up formal lessons. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

The 13-year-old used to practice K-pop dance at home, copying moves from YouTube videos before formally taking up classes with her instructor Raina Joo, who first started teaching in Korea 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

“It was already popular, but now it’s booming!” Ms Joo says.<\/p>\n

And it’s more than just dance.<\/p>\n

“You need to dance, and then visually you have to do the facial expressions, and also fashion as well,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Raina Joo has been teaching K-pop for 20 years.\u00a0 (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

River Hart has been performing K-pop dance for 14 years.<\/p>\n

Every week, she drives from the Gold Coast \u2014 where she lives and works \u2014 to Brisbane to practice with her group, LI7.<\/p>\n

“I’m a travel agent during the day, and then at night, I’m a K-pop dancer,” she says.<\/p>\n

“li7 was one of the first groups around in Brisbane, and it’s just expanded so so so much.<\/p>\n

“It’s been really amazing to see it grow from a very small community to a massive community.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

River Hart says it’s been “really amazing” to see how the community has grown. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

Ms Hart says K-pop’s mass appeal lies in its variety.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s because there’s something for everybody,” she said.<\/p>\n

“There’s ballad music, there’s rock music, there’s pop music, there’s rap music, and it’s very visual as well.<\/p>\n

“It’s not just the music that people are into. The production that goes behind all of K-pop is incredible as well.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite the pressure of a looming deadline, the energy in the dance studio is fun and friendly. There’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,240673,405,8836,8841,134,9975,105455,943,9976,30888,5807],"class_list":["post-471635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brisasia","tag-bts","tag-dance","tag-dancing","tag-entertainment","tag-k-pop","tag-k-pop-demon-hunters","tag-korea","tag-kpop","tag-music-industry","tag-pop-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}