Background History
> There are many important things that caused Kpop to grow as large as it is today. In Korea kpop idols come from a certain company. Some of the most popular and well known companies are SM Ent., Big Hit Ent., YG Ent., and JYP Ent. In 1989 Lee Soo Man created the largest company there is today, SM Ent. It is rated the most successful Kpop company. SM had also created Red Velvet, Super Junior, and many more. In 1992 one of the first Kpop group from SM. They became very popular with their catchy beat and heavy choreography. In 1997 JYP Ent. was created. From JYP came breakout idols Rain, 2PM, 2AM, and Miss A. In 1998 a former member of SM's first Kpop group founded a new company called YG Ent. From YG Ent. came the very popular PSY, Big Bang, and 2NE1 (which came out with a goodbye song this year).
>In 2001 Kpop had started to spread to Japan and China, becoming very popular. In 2011 "The Big Three" (SM, JYP, and YG) created an alliance with other companies as well and formed the United Asia Management. In 2012 kpop had found its way to the US and in France as well. The release of Gangnam Style caused people all around the world to have an interest in Kpop. Some of the oldest Kpop groups debuted in the 1990s to 2000s. Overall Korean Music isn't very old and had the help of Music Banks (shows were idols compare their songs to choose one for first place) and radios.
>Every idol has a special name for their fans. For BTS, the literal translation for their Korean name means Bulletproof Boy Scouts. This is why they call their fandom the A.R.M.Y. ARMY is also an abbreviation for Adorable Representative M.C of Youth. For EXO it is EXO-L, which means EXO-Loves. For a girl group called BlackPink the fans are called Blinks. Some fandom names come from an idol's song. One example of this is Seventeen's fandom name which is Carats. One of Seventeen's first songs was called Shining Diamonds, which formed the name Carats for their fans.
