Seo Taiji and Boys
Prior to Seo Taiji and Boys, the Korean music industry was primarily influenced by American and Japanese folk music due to the colonial roots of South Korea. This music dominated the Korean music industry until the country lifted the travel ban which was in place until 1988. The lift of the ban allowed musical elements from foreign countries to become more accessible. Consequently, in the 1990s Seo Taiji and Boys used MIDI technology to begin incorporating Western music elements such as rap, rock, and techno into his music. Also, Seo Taiji and Boys began incorporating the English language into their music, a popular trend in South Korea, that resulted due to increased reliance on the United States for economic stability. By incorporating these musical elements with Korea's ballad music, Seo Taiji and Boys provided the basis for the hybridization of Korea's music with that of the West, resulting in the foundation of modern K-pop. This hybridization of music and foregrounding of dance movements was one of the fundamental reasons for the popularity of Korean popular music, especially among teenage and early 20s listeners, as it also promoted Korean popular music's ability to penetrate foreign markets in what has become known as the Korean Wave. Doobo Shim, a researcher of Asian culture, credits Seo Taiji and Boys with creating the "distinctively Korean pop style" which became commonplace. Moreover, the band was voted as the most crucial Korean cultural product in a survey conducted by the Samsung Economic Research Institute in 1997.