How to get familiar with Koreans- Best 2000s pop hits in South Korea
All about Korea
Do you want to ice break or find anything in common with your Korean neighbor/client? Do you want to build a consensus with your Korean spouse/partner? Or, are you just curious what was popular in Korea back in the day? Then this post is for you! 😁
Today, let me tell you about the best 2000s pop hits in Korea that you can talk to any Korean between 24 to 40 years old. So, shall we get back to the 2000s?
1. Toxic - Britney Spears
Oh yeah, you can not talk about the 2000s without this song, lol. I was a kid when this song came out. I was shocked when I watched this music video for the first time because it was so intense that I felt it was like porno. So I watched this several times before my mom found out.
This song became more popular because it was on a lot of comedy shows. Especially, X man, which was a big show in the 2000s in Korea, made this song popular. They had this ‘Welcoming dance ceremony' before they start the game that all the guests come out and dance. You can see some guests dancing to this song from 2:55.
I remember when I was in fourth grade, my friends and I played this song on the teacher's computer and had a dance battle in the classroom. It was so funny, lol.
2. My love - Westlife
I was surprised that my American boyfriend doesn’t know Westlife! Because they were so big at that time. I found an interesting fact though - https://www.contactmusic.com/westlife/news/westlife-.blacklisted.-in-america#:~:text=Irish%20pop%20heartthrobs%20Westlife%20will,blacklisted%20by%20US%20radio%20stations.&text=They%20didn%27t%20know%20it,is%20an%20absolutely%20huge%20hit
They came to Korea in 2000 and sang this song on the Korean Weekly music show, Ingigayo. And guess what? It is still called as “one of the biggest mysteries in the broadcasting industry” here since nobody imagined they would be on a Korean music show all of a sudden.
When I was in sixth grade, I went to an English village, like a field trip. Not every elementary school in Korea goes there, but some schools did(I'll post about this later). You stay there for a week and learn English full time. And every morning, they played this song to wake up kids. So I hated this song so much, lol🤣
3. Uptown girl - Westlife
Another big song of Westlife! It’s Uptown girl! Whenever I watch a scene of American teen romance films on the tv, I listened to this song. They normally insert this song when a pretty blondie girl appears and a guy had a crush on her.
It's surprising they are not from America as this song totally sounds like American teen songs to me, lol.
4. Upside down- A*teens
Here is another group that I thought might be from America. This song is also an American teen film vibe, but they are actually from Sweden.
This song was the background music of a big movie show, MBC movie trip. Whenever a comedian Kim Kyoung-sik narrates for the most popular corner, Movie vs. Movie, they played this song. So I think of him whenever I listen to this song.
This song always reminds me of a certain image - a curly-haired girl wearing a flat hat, just like her.
5. Sexyback- Justin Timberlake
Before we have Justin Bieber, we had another Justin - Justin Timberlake. He was well known as a handsome singer and Cameron Diaz’s boyfriend in Korea.
Man, you can also hear this song often in Korean shows in the 2000s. To be honest, I knew this song through this show, “Yeogirl Six”. As you can see in this video, a singer and actress Jeon Hye Bin danced to this song. It was impressive to me because she was wearing a suit.
6. Sk8er boi- Avril Lavigne
Here comes the legendary teen song, Sk8er boi! I don’t think I need any words to explain this song. You may know her even better than me, lol.
A lot of young Koreans in the 2000s used this song as a background song of their ‘mini hompi’. Mini hompi is like your webpage on a website “Cyworld”. It was the biggest social media in Korea at that time. (I heard founders of Facebook refer to this when they started their business)
7. Juliet-LMNT
Although its singer, LMNT was not that famous, this song was pretty big. I always think of fast food when I hear this song. That is because, whenever you go to fast-food chains like KFC, Burger King, or Dunkin doughnuts, you could hear this song.
So those were big songs in Korea in the 2000s! Most of them are typical American teen song styles, as it seems interesting to us. What do you think of these songs? And which songs were popular there back then? Tell me in the comments. :)
