The Wide Reach Of Ladies’ Code’s Fatal Traffic Accident [Opinion]
Ladies' Code's tragic accident shocked South Korea and the rest of the world.
On September 3, K-Pop girl group Ladies' Code was in a car accident that took the lives of two members. What started out as a national tragedy in Korea soon became an international tragedy, even garnering interest from media outlets that typically do not report on K-Pop.
As the coverage continued, Ladies' Code simultaneously gained international notoriety for the most unfortunate of reasons, while also drawing attention to their talents as singers and K-Pop's popularity across the world. Ultimately, however, the group's fatal accident also raised awareness of Korea's inadequate travel-related safety measures.
The international media's coverage has shown that K-Pop is recognized as a truly global genre. Not since Psy's "Gangnam Style" has global news media picked up on a K-Pop story to this extent. Throughout the US and other parts of the world, a plethora of media outlets covered the deaths of Ladies' Code members EunB and RiSe. Major news outlets like The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, NBC, ABC, and BBC all covered the story.
Celebrity scandals and deaths are always widely covered by the media; however this is the first time that a K-Pop-related incident has raised so much awareness. The horrific accident took the lives of two K-Pop idols, but also revealed that the loss of two K-Pop idols lives' was worthy of international recognition. K-Pop, while Korean music, is no longer of limited interest to just fans of the genre.
There are fans of K-Pop all over the world, and the global media's coverage of it every day grows a little bit more. But, with the case of Ladies' Code, the event was covered not as a Korean tragedy, but an international music tragedy, showing the power of Korean idols.
The coverage also ensured that Ladies' Code will not be forgotten. Ladies' Code was not, before the accident, an incredibly popular K-Pop group, but had gained recognition for their talent. With global acknowledgment and the scale of the tragedy, Ladies' Code's songs have since garnered a lot of attention online and the group is finally receiving overdue praise for their powerful vocals.
The incident that took the lives of Go EunB and Kwon RiSe has also drawn heightened awareness, both in South Korea and internationally, of the dangerous driving conditions in Korea. Driving accidents are commonplace in South Korea, despite well-designed and well-kept roads. The United States' Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) estimates that there is more than two times the amount of fatalities to the amount of registered cars in South Korea than there is in the US.
Billboard highlighted Korea's driving conditions and the hectic schedules of K-Pop idols, who are known to have packed schedules that result in little sleep for both the idols themselves and their managers.
Even as the Korean entertainment industry reels from the tragedy, and the surviving Ladies' Code members recover, the international awareness of K-Pop, its artists, and it's negative sides grow in light of the tragedy.
---
The views expressed above are those of the writer and do not reflect the opinions of KpopStarz