Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South KoreaBy: Michael Burton

The Beverly Hills of South Korea

This place is EXPENSIVE

• The land value of Gangnam-gu, a district of Seoul, rivals that of the entire city of Busan, the second-largest city in South Korea

• Real estate in Seoul is already expensive in comparison to the rest of South Korea, but Gangnam-gu’s real estate rates are twice that of everywhere else in Seoul

• Gangnam-gu is a third of the Greater Gangnam Area of Seoul, which accounts for 10% of the country’s land value

• Drumming up the money necessary to move into an apartment in Gangnam-gu takes the average Korean family eighteen years of work

Gangnam-gu Likes Spending• Gangnam-gu has

several high-end fashion boutiques• Gucci• Dolce & Gabbana• Louis Vuitton• Armani• Corso Como

• Spending money on expensive coffee and spending time at coffee shops are common pastimes

Gangnam-gu is a Technological Powerhouse

• Houses headquarters of technological/gaming giants• Google• IBM• NCSoft (Guild Wars 1,

AION)• PandoraTV• Toyota

Gangnam-gu’s populace is well-educated

• Has a strong academic presence

• Purported to be the nation’s cream-of-the-crop• Is 1% of the country’s

population, but 5% of successful candidates joining Seoul National University are from Gangnam-gu• Seoul Nat’l Uni is the

nation’s top university

Gangnam-gu Fashion may be strange, but it changes often to compensate

• Who wears pink-and-black suits with those shoes?• [Spoiler: PSY does]

• Traditional Korean clothing that was worn in the past

• Still seen during cultural festivals

• The pictured clothing are priestly garments

Korean Pop [K-Pop], the new wave of music from Seoul

• Urban style of music that incorporates electronic music

• Generally upbeat musical style

• Sometimes exhibits sad musical styles

• “Boy Bands” are the norm/are popular in K-Pop

• Solo artists are gaining in popularity

BIGBANG [Yes, it really is typeset that way]• Performs music with an

urban/electro fusion with R&B/Hip-Hop, light rock and orchestral influences• Obviously a very unique sound

• Two rappers, one head vocalist and two support singers

• Left to right in image:• G-Dragon [Leader/rapper]• Seunguri [Supportive Vocalist]• Taeyang [Lead choreographer]• Daesung [Supportive Vocalist]• T.O.P. [Lead Rapper]

• All members have solo careers, and release their own albums every other year

G-DRAGON[Yep, typeset that way too]

• On top of being involved with every single aspect of BIGBANG’s work, he manages his own solo career and collaborates with bandmembers often, primarily T.O.P. and Taeyang

• Most famous songs are Crayon and Heartbreaker

• Employs dance, Hip-Hop and R&B in his music, and has set the K-Pop trend of using EDM [Electric Dance Music] as a musical style

SHINee[said as ‘shiny’]

• Started with using R&B as the musical style, but has started to use EDM in their music

• Started a fashion trend in South Korea, in which guys wear skinny jeans, high-tops and suit-jackets covering tee-shirts

• Is somewhat popular internationally• Translated most of their songs

into Japanese, and performed them in Japanese

• Earned a Japanese honor, in which they were in ‘the top three for three consecutive releases since their release in Japan’

Conclusion!

• Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea is a paragon of South Korean culture, and is known as the Beverly Hills of South Korea

• Gangnam-gu is open to expanding their culture and sharing their culture with others