For my last installment about my trip to South Korea I’d like to compare Korean music preferences to American music preferences. Music has been a long-time aesthetic of man. It transcends all cultures and languages.

Actually, music can be described as a language itself and I think it’s a way for America and Korea to communicate.

One of the most popular types of music in Korea is called K-pop (Korean pop), a term that was coined in the ’90s.

It lumps all popularized music from genres such as hip-hop, R&B, electronic and rock. One example of K-pop is the band Girls’ Generation.

They blend up-tempo beats with chanted lyrics like “Oppa oppa, I’ll be I’ll be, Down Down Down Down.”

They mix the Korean language with English and this can be said for many other artists that fall into the K-pop category like Taeyang and girl group 2NE1.

K-pop can be compared to the popular music that makes its way to American radio on stations like 94.9. Examples of artists that have the same K-pop music vibe are Ke$ha, Black Eyed Peas and 3OH3!.

Korean culture also embraces other types of music.

In my experience with their music, Korean musicians don’t create many other types of music – sticking mainly to the K-pop style.

However, it was evident while I was there that they enjoy many American alternative bands.

I attended the Jisan Valley Rock Festival (JVRF), an annual three-day rock-music festival at the Jisan Ski Resort in Gyeonggi (Kyonggi) Province of South Korea that could easily be compared to America’s Bonnaroo.

The setting was beautiful and the lineup was even better.

The bands that I saw were Muse, Vampire Weekend, Massive Attack, Corinne Bailey Rae, Mute Math, Pet Shop Boys and Third Eye Blind.

This lineup plus the 19 others were a mixture that you don’t see many places in the United States.

I see America as a label-dependent nation and what stems from that is the need to have venues or social events based on those musical categories.

Bonnaroo focuses mainly on alternative or, dare I say, ‘indie’ artists but lately seems to accommodate the average music listener.

The inclusiveness of Bonnaroo and JVRF is just something else Korea and the United States have in common musically.

Also, Koreans incorporate American music into their daily lives.

I felt like every building I walked into played at least two familiar America-based artists’ songs.

My experience with the types of accepted music in South Korea was interesting but I feel that they are heavily influenced by American music.

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