Bridges and Triadic Closures Within American Music and KPOP
The American music industry has been gradually being influenced by KPOP and its artists. In the past, however, this has not always been the case because there has always been a difference in the culture/ type of music that Americans released compared to what Koreans released. The fan bases were different in which these two different circles of music never overlapped. Similarly, they are like two components of networks that did not have any connecting node between the two. However, the two clusters began to have a weak tie in between when KPOP artists slowly began to come out more on American talk shows like The Late Show of James Corden. These talk shows became the local bridge among American artists and Korean artists, lessening the distance between an American fan meeting a Korean fan. With the new bridge being formed, American music and Korean music began to intermix through the local bridge.
In fact, as the fans began to create ties among them, the two different components of music culture began to create ties as well. American artists began to collaborate with Korean artists where a weak tie was formed. For instance, BTS and BlackPink both have a strong tie between them because they are from the same industry. However, BTS began to collaborate with Halsey in which a tie will inevitably form between BlackPink and Halsey. These triadic closures have been constantly happening especially with the rise of BTS and other KPOP groups within America. Thus with the help of bridges American and Korean music have been closely networking.
https://www.dailycardinal.com/article/2022/04/the-rise-of-k-pop-in-the-united-states
https://www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/5-popular-k-pop-collabs-western-artists