Winning national recognition in both music and movie industries, Korea’s cultural influence in recent years has reached the highest peak of all time.

The record-breaking BTS, also known as the Bangtan Boys, have become a global phenomenon. Their music can be easily seen in the US billboard charts. They were also listed as the top-selling artist on the album charts in the world's top five music markets including Britain, Germany, France, and Japan.

Bong Joon-ho’s ‘Parasite’ won big in the 2020 Oscars. They won four Academy Awards including Best Picture, Directing, International Feature Film, and Writing. It is the first non-English language film to win the Best Picture in the history of the Oscar’s.

However, Korean artists didn’t get recognition at all ceremonies; there were also conservative ones.

When BTS had been nominated for 30 awards throughout the world, they were not nominated for a single category at the Grammy Awards in the United States. Despite their popularity, BTS was unable to perform solo at the Grammy Awards and had to do nothing more than a minute-long joint performance.

The actors of ‘Parasite’ also failed to be nominated for individual awards including Best Actor and Actress Awards. From the 91 films that have won the Best Picture award so far, only 11 have not been nominated for the Best Actor Award. This phenomenon is especially rare in cast-oriented films such as ‘Parasite’.

Even though some award ceremonies are still considered conservative, it is a good thing that Korean culture is gradually becoming recognized by countries around the world, including the United States.

Barack Obama once said, “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America - there's the United States of America.”

If we can understand and accept each other's differences a little bit more in this multicultural world, there will come a day when non-mainstream cultures can become more recognized.

L.L.F reporter Suk-ho Jung