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The Korean wave or Korea fever (a.k.a. Koreanophile) refers to the significantly increased popularity of South Korean culture around the world. It is also referred to as Hallyu, from the Korean pronunciation. The term was coined in China in mid-1999 by Beijing journalists who are surprised by the fast growing popularity of South Koreans and South Korean goods in China.

Hallyu is overwhelmingly driven by Korean TV dramas. The export earnings of Korean TV dramas far surpass those of Korean music and film. Today, South Korea is among the world's top ten cultural exporters and the Korean wave began with the export of Korean TV dramas such as Autumn in My Heart, Winter Sonata, My Girl, and Princess Hours. The growing success of Korean dramas was soon matched by Korean movies, Korean pop music, food and language.

While popular throughout Asia, the Korean wave's influence is most visible in China, Japan and Southeast Asia, spreading to Middle East and Central Asia. The Korean wave is also expanding beyond Asia through the Internet and has a particularly growing presence in Central and South America. Currently, the Korean wave is starting to hit the United Kingdom particularly continental Europe and Australia.

The Korean wave has been a big hit in Malaysia, by the growing success of South Korean dramas, movies and pop songs. The Korean wave started with popular Korean drama Winter Sonata when TV3 bought the right to show it on Malaysian TV. "Winter Sonata" was the first of the Korean Waves to crash onto Malaysian shores. A tsunami of Korean TV series such as "Autumn In My Heart", "Joyful Girl," "My Love, Patsi," and "Boys Over Flower" followed its success. The next Korean Wave then swept Malaysian cinemas. It began with the blockbuster "Shiri," followed by the horror movie, "Phone." Thanks to the boom of the Korean Wave trend, exports of kimchi to Malaysia increased by 150 percent!

Until the 1990s, trot and ballads dominated Korean popular music (also referred to as GaYo  music). The popularity of K-pop is often considered a part of the rise of the Korean Wave. The emergence of the rap group Seo Taiji and Boys in 1992 marked a turning point for Korean popular music, also known as K-Pop, as the group incorporated elements of popular musical genres of rap, rock and techno into its music. Hip hop, dance and ballad oriented acts have become dominant in the K-pop music scene, though trot is still popular among older Koreans. Many K-Pop stars and groups are also well known abroad, especially in Asia.

The mid-'90s marked the emergence of teen idol groups, creating a different trend in the music scenes. Groups such as H.O.T., Shinhwa, and S.E.S. became extremely popular, having strong fanbases and high-selling albums. Currently, in the 2000s, pop groups are still very popular although there has been an emergence of South Korean R&B and Hip-Hop artists have proven successful.

K-pop is similar to the boy bands of America in the 2000s. However, unlike American pop music, which had most of its boy bands and girl groups either break up or informally disband, bubblegum pop is still very popular in South Korea. Groups like Super Junior, SHINee, TVXQ, ZE:A, FT Island, Big Bang, SS501 and 2NE1 continue to be top sellers in K-pop. The year 2007 was marked with the release of numerous girl and boy bands, though only a few managed to top the charts.

The K-Pop sensation proves their popularity in Malaysia with warmest welcome by Malaysian Kpop fans to Kpop artists who came to Malaysia. For instance, Super Junior, the biggest boy band group in the world had set a biggest successful in their concert, Super Junior the 2nd Asia Tour, Super Show 2 which happened on 20^th March 2010 at Putra Indoor Stadium, Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur. The stadium was full with their 15 000 fans, which is somewhat equal to the international stars concert. It is followed by other Kpop artist showcase or mini concert in Malaysia like Wondergirls, UKISS, Beast, JYJ and Ze:A, which also received full attention from the fans. 

.:Super Junior successful concert in Malaysia:.